I just love the way stuff from over a year ago is dredged up. Grayson Hall hasn't worn that wig for nearly six months. I wonder if it smelled of mothballs. I noticed that the dates on Josette's gravestone were changed. Last time we saw the scene of Dr. Hoffman taking patient Maggie on a field trip to the cemetery, the dates on the gravestone were 1800-1822, and now they're 1794-1795.
Every time I watch this episode I want to go back to the episode in which this scene was previously shown - around about #285, I figure - to see if it's the same. On this watching, however, I don't feel that it's necessary for the scene to be the same. That's a good thing, because I know there are other differences besides the gravestone. What we're seeing today is the scene as Maggie remembers it. If I remember correctly, she became hysterical in the original. Today she just sank down onto Naomi's coffin. So she doesn't remember her own action of screaming; she just remembers her feeling of fear.
The sound and music were messed up several times today. In particular, we got the sound effect of the mausoleum door creaking before we saw the door opening. But there again, we're seeing Maggie's memory, so who knows what was going on in her mind?
I love all the scenes between Willie and Maggie in the secret room of the mausoleum during this subplot. There's a grittiness about Kathryn Leigh Scott in them that you don't usually see in her on Dark Shadows. My attention kept being caught by her L's today. I guess - though I haven't nailed it down yet - that when they're blended with a p or a b - as in "please" - she says the L at the front of her mouth - i.e. a soft L - and at other times she says it at the back - i.e. a hard L. Maybe what caught my attention was the contrast between her soft L's and the grittiness she was showing.
We got a very interesting conversation between Barnabas and Julia today, when Julia proposed herself for the life force. It wasn't like when Julia offered herself as a victim to Barnabas. She had no emotional stake in this; she was offering to do what was necessary, and she wasn't hurt when her offer was refused. And Barnabas was unemotional about vetoing the idea not because he cared about her, but because she was needed to fill another function. All very cut and dried. Interesting.
