Discuss - Ep #0514

[Watching Project]

Robservations #514

And if you'd care to look back, the first WP discussion topic for this ep:

Re: Discuss - Ep #0514

[MagnusTrask]

This one's good too.   

Dom asked why Trask and his trial was necessary.... I'll guess that 1795 was a huge ratings success, and that fans clamored for more.   This storyline now isn't really a storyline at all...  not like Roger vs. Burke, or Laura 1967, or Barnabas-Maggie-Sarah, or 1795.   Instead, it's a less-planned, open-ended, meandering sort of thing.   They're throwing every complication in that they can think of, and interweaving them all.  They can afford to throw in a ratings-grabbing bit of 1795 nostalgia without ruining the master plan, because there isn't one.  Or so it seems.    (They do seem to keep throwing bits of 1795 in, whether they make any sense at all or not, right up until 1897, and even return to 1795 right after.   Fans must have loved it.)

Another of those complications:  reviving the Barnabas-Maggie story, just when everyone in town was acting all doped-up and oblivious to the implications of having criminally-insane Willie back.   They'd glossed over all of that, making the rest of the storyline run much more smoothly, but now they're calling our attention to this bit of the past again.   The mood was done well.   When Maggie somnambulated to the Old House, was the music something specific to the old Barnabas-Maggie story?  Have we not heard it since then?

In an amazing coincidence, Liz's new death phobia leads her to guess someone was buried alive in the alcove!    Joe's almost a villain now.   I like Nathan more than this version of Joe.  At least he came out and said, finally, how insane it is to have supposed abductor Willie in town, much less at her front door.  Someone had to.   Willie's not as good with his dukes now, as when he came to town.

[dom]

Hanging out with Maggie after one failed attempt, Joe decides it's time to try again to go and bring home Sam from The Blue Whale. Alone, Maggie puts on Josette's earrings and enters a trance-like state, accessorizes to travel and out the door she goes (while Adam watches from just outside the studio window) and after the title break Maggie finds herself at the Old House where we see Willie sweeping the basement. The cellar set has changed, I don't know if today is the first time we see it or if this is the first time I've noticed. The alcove next to Barn's impromptu crypt is now a doorway. Willie hears Maggie upstairs and investigates. Of course he's thrilled to see her but is concerned that she is wearing Josette's earrings on the premises. Here, I'm reminded that Barnabas must have let their wearabouts concern him no further. Once Maggie removes the earrings from her ears she comes out of her trance and heads back home. Willie is very 'Bowery Boys' today. My favorite moment is when he musters up strength by spitting in his hands to push back a heavy trunk resting on a chair in the basement, lol. First Trask and now Maggie/Josette. All this rehashesqueness is a bit nauseating. Maybe this is where the Adam storyline starts getting its bad rap. This stuff coupled with Liz's death hex...well - Oh, forget it. Why kvetch in advance.

Liz converses with the law on the phone about Adam still being alive. This prompts her to visit the Old House to speak to Barnabas about her concerns and suspicions. Instead she finds Willie in the cellar. Once he mentions that Adam should be dead Liz goes into her death hex trance talk, much to the astonishment of Willie who tries to snap her out of it with reason but to no avail. I love Willie's sincerity towards Liz. Liz leaves hurriedly rambling her death hex trance talk. Liz is wearing a new dress, some kind of deep dark red I believe. Perhaps we've only seen it before in B&W. It's a nice outfit on her nonetheless. Karlen is still very 'streets of New York'.

Joe returns having failed at his second attempt to bring Sam home. Because Sam discussed it with Joe, Joe and Maggie discuss Sam & Adam and all of that situation's implications. Maggie pretty much shrugs off Joe's concerns about the odd paring in favor of Sam being a handicapped trusting nonjudgemental soul. And with that, Joe leaves to fetch Sam for a third time. Joe runs into Willie at the cottage walkway. The threats and accusations fly and Joe ends up putting Willie down for the count. Disgusted and emotionally wounded, Joe then confronts Maggie about her budding relationship with Willie. Joe becomes incredulous with the defense Maggie puts on. Scott and Crothers' are splendid here. I would give KLS an acting award for the two lines she gives stating Willie didn't try to kill her. Karlen is fantastic in this scene also - taunting Joe as Willie with a remark about Joe not liking having competition for Maggie's hand (as if). I also appreciate the fact that Willie isn't a total wimp here as we might tend to think of him. With a human as an adversary, he is just as present as the next guy. An angry and conflicted Joe gives Maggie a lover's 'quit or split' ultimatum and leaves. Enter the beat up Willie. Maggie begins to coddle him when she looks up to see Adam the maniac standing at the threshhold. "Willie bad!" grunts the monster. He pulls Maggie away from the bad Willie and she screams bloody murder X three. Cut! Print!

Oh, have I forgotten to mention Barnabas' intermittent rapping on the wall? That's because it's stupid. He couldn't possibly make that sound with his shoe (toe or heel) or knee. Who the hell else does Maggie think could have taken the package? Joe manhandles Maggie, eek, a big no-no. I wouldn't have thought anything of it in 1968, aged 10. And that's sad in itself I guess. Adam likes girls.

[dom]

Excellent post, Magnus. And timely for me. A lot is bugging me lately and even though it can be obvious as to why things are going on, you still have to wonder why particular choices are made. Especially when they are not the choices you think you would make if in the other's shoes.

My 'go to' is that Dan Curtis had no respect for the the show or the actors or the fans, we were just kids, we'll believe anything and accept anything. I'm not asking anyone to agree with me - it's just my personal reasoning within my own head.

[MagnusTrask]

Thanks dom.

[DarkLady]

Funny to see Willie telling us that he thinks Elizabeth needs to see a doctor!

Sam's painting of Betty Hanscomb, which he gave to Vicki, is now back on the wall of the Evans cottage.

Maggie is wearing a watch with one of those super-wide “mod”-style straps. Adam thoughtfully moves her out of the way before he deals with Willie.

[Gothick]

dom, I have the same "go to" regarding Dan Curtis that you do when it comes to some of the more senselessly way-out plot swings.

Being a DS writer back at this time was a hard row to hoe.  Violet Welles seems to have been the most adroit when it came to rolling with the punches.  She worked as a ghost writer for Gordon so it's hard to know when she started helping with the scripts.  Thayer did re-write some of the dialogue and Joel Crothers flat out wrote whole scripts--we have testimony about this from back in the day.

G.

[dom]

I didn't remember that Joel wrote whole scripts - how fascinating!

[MagnusTrask]

Thanks, Gothick.

[alwaysdavid]

While Maggie puts on the earrings and the music plays seeming to send her into a trance, Adam lurks outside the window in an unexpected collision of storylines.  And then the payoff in in the end after Maggie returns is Adam coming in and grabbing Maggie.
Elizabeth in the middle of alll this has forgotten her distain for Willie and talks of death with him in the drawing room.