DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '25 I => Current Talk '09 I => Topic started by: Watching Project on May 04, 2009, 09:07:22 PM
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Robservations #771
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VO: Joan Bennett
Recap-Again! I have to comment on the vivacity of the “color” in 1897! LOVES IT!
I guess B can't sense other vampires or smell them? I guess that is not part of the DS lore.
Oh lawd!! Carl! Pansy Faye—YAY! Although, [spoiler]I cannot wait for her other incarnation![/spoiler] And she sings one of my favorite DS pieces! Although, [spoiler]I love the version best that David (of course) and Nancy sing![/spoiler]
Does anyone know what “CHAEZ” is as far as Germany, Scottish, etc!??
I love that couch that Carl and Judith are on. Does anyone know what kind of couch that is called?
I love, love, love Pansy’s dress! I love when Joan B deadpans, “I’m sure you do!” HEH!!
This episode is very quickly paced with a fantabulous ending!
I noticed on Robservations she poised the question "will Pansy become a vampire?" A vampire with mentalist powers. I know one--DRUSILLA!! LOVE HER!
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I guess I missed where Carl went off to Atlantic City, but he returns and now Barnabas is his trusted friend also and he trusts him well enough to shelter his girlfriend. Then he asks him to be his best man.
Pansy was great fun. Barnabas offers coffee, but she wnats booze and she really slugs it down. Apparently Carl has a habit of meeting unsuitable women and bringing them home even though he tells Barnabas he never thought he'd find someone. Joan was good when she talked about, "the tart you met in Albany last year."
When she announced that the murderer was in the room, it made me wonder, will anyone remember this when they find out that Dirk is on of the living dead? What a dramatic ending when Barnabas finds Pansy dead from Dirk in his drawing room at the Old House. I well remember Pansy from the original run of the show. I was surprised she only lasted one episode because I remember all the neighborhood girls fighting over who got to play her. [spoiler]I guess because she returns later in a slightly different form [/spoiler]
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Then he asks him to be his best man.
And Carl gives Barnabas SALT WATER TAFFY! (well, tries to anyway, if the Misses didn't have the sweet tooth..Or I wouldn't put it pass someone to sell poor Carl an empty box.) I mean, how nice is that? [spoiler]And then look what happens to him.. [/spoiler]
Barnabas offers coffee, but she wnats booze and she really slugs it down.
Pansy would have fit RIGHT IN with the Collinses..
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Why didn't Pansy Faye [spoiler]become a vampire? Or did she, but underground since Barnabas buries her? Is there some tradition that vampires are dispensed with and "dead" after burial?[/spoiler]
The last thing I was expecting (seeing this in 2002) in the middle of this deadly serious storyline where everything's falling apart and people are dying left and right was for Carl to walk in with salt water taffy and a music hall trollop! Great moment. Barnabas and Beth, vampire and vampire victim, looking at each other as if to say. "Do you see them too? I'm not imagining this?"
If I ever die and become a vampire then get better then go back in time and try to create a vampire to take the heat off of me for being a vampire then find he's already died and I and my victim have to go searching the grounds for him 'cause he died too early, the one thing that could put a crimp in all that is for a dweeb and his feather boa mentalist to turn up and invite me to their wedding.
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I think Barnabas has the power to make one a vampire or just let them die. Whatever he may choose! I think he said in the episode before that he drained too much blood from Dirk or something causing him to turn.
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Why didn't Pansy Faye [spoiler]become a vampire? Or did she, but underground since Barnabas buries her? Is there some tradition that vampires are dispensed with and "dead" after burial?[/spoiler]
In the next episode's recap of this one's ending, (I don't need spoiler tags around that, do I?) they add [spoiler]the all mighty rope around Pansy's neck, suggesting Dirk had enough sense &/or instinct to kill her before she died as a result of the blood loss & became a vampire.[/spoiler] (or as far as my understanding for the rules of Dark Shadows vampires goes)
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In the next episode's recap of this one's ending, (I don't need spoiler tags around that, do I?)
[ghost_grin] (Yes. [ghost_wink])
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Live & learn.. [ghost_blink] (thank you for editing!)
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Oopsie, Barnabas miscalculates again. Dirk went and died (but wait, I don’t rmember Barnabas evaporating when he died. Did I forget something?) [ghost_blink]
NOW Beth talks about all the places there are to hide on the estate. And she and Quentin didn’t think of ANY of these to lock wolfie up at the full moon. (Hey even a throwaway line would have worked. Now she and Quentin, two particularly bright people, look DUMB.)
And into all the angst and worry bounds CARL in his pseudo Sherlock Holmes greatcoat with a Gladstone bag (looks like the one Quentin tried torun away with earlier). Typical Carl, telling his story all inside out.
LMAO on Beth and Barnabas’ reactions to Carl’s little surprise. Love your comments on this, Magnus. And once they’re alone, Beth gets her proof that their first impressions were spot on. Nicely played, perfectly civil but very icy. Not quite “the cut direct” but close enough. Kind of wish they’d had a reaction shot of Beth when Pansy downed the wine like it was a shotglass of rotgut whiskey.
Oops JB slips and calls Carl Dirk, then corrects herself like it was the character’s slip. HA! Pansy isn’t the first one Carl brought home – there was a tart from Albany last winter. (I see alwaysdavid picked up on that little discrepancy of Carl's already.)
Interesting reactions Barnabas shows while Pansy is trying to locate Dirk. It’s like he senses something – maybe he can tell somehow that, all appearances to the contrary, she DOES have real psychic ability.
Nice fadeout—made me think of the climax of a Thin Man movie. “Dirk Wilkins is dead – and his murderer is in THIS ROOM!”
Curious thing I’m noticing about Pansy’s accent. Never seen Kay Frye in anything else, so I don’t know what her normal voice sounds like, but her accent is really odd. It’s MOSTLY Cockney – but like in the scene where she asks Barnabas what she did wrong, I’m hearing an undertone of Irish there too. I like the inference they seem to be making about Pansy. She says she prefers the singing over the mental act, so I’m thinking she has some real abilities there and the talent scares her. She’d rather it be a performance beginning to end, but implication is that this isn’t the first time she’s picked up on something real and it frightened her. [shockeyes]
Pansy in the woods – and you don’t need her abilities to know what happens next. Cheezy phony bat and overacting again. Ok, I didn’t recognize this place that Barn took Beth – anyone have an idea why Barn figured it out?
Nice fadeout. We knew this happened, but the way it was set up for Barn to find out is great.
Jeannie
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Dirk went and died (but wait, I don’t rmember Barnabas evaporating when he died. Did I forget something?) [ghost_blink]
Thanks, Jeannie. I don't think Dirk spontaneously disappeared after dying as part of that dying. I think that once he was a vampire, he needed to get the hell out of there and not be under anyone's control, by disappearing as vampires do, and needed to get hold of a lair and a coffin ASAP.
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That makes sense, Magnus Especially since in DS Vampire lore we don't see any vamps around to mentor the newbies on the what you can and can't do now you're a vamp.
Jeannie
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When Carl announced the world famous mentalist to the room, was anyone expecting Simon Baker? No?
I'm not sure I'd let Carl drive me anywhere. Even just to the big house and back.
I wish we could've seen more of Kay Frye. I wonder if Pansy Faye originally stuck around after Judith made it clear that she was cutting Carl off financially, putting a serious crimp in her retirement plans. While Carl seemed very taken with her, Pansy seemed a little too impressed with the idea of living in a "castle" to not be a gold digger. And she already got a taste here of life with Judith the Ice Queen.
I have to comment on the vivacity of the “color” in 1897! LOVES IT!
I guess B can't sense other vampires or smell them? I guess that is not part of the DS lore.
Not even when he's kissing her hand and staring into her blue eyes. [wink2] (I think you mean vividness, btw.)
Does anyone know what “CHAEZ” is as far as Germany, Scottish, etc!??
Spanish or Portugeses according to: http://genealogy.about.com/library/surnames/c/bl_name-CHAVEZ.htm
I love that couch that Carl and Judith are on. Does anyone know what kind of couch that is called?
[ghost_smiley] You can start reading here-- I'm curious as to what that crazy turn-of-the-century piece of furniture is called, the one where three people can sit facing different directions and still talk to each other. ...
If I ever die and become a vampire then get better then go back in time and try to create a vampire to take the heat off of me for being a vampire then find he's already died and I and my victim have to go searching the grounds for him 'cause he died too early, the one thing that could put a crimp in all that is for a dweeb and his feather boa mentalist to turn up and invite me to their wedding.
[lol2]
I think Barnabas has the power to make one a vampire or just let them die. Whatever he may choose!
Though that wasn't true for[spoiler]Roxanne in 1840.[/spoiler]
NOW Beth talks about all the places there are to hide on the estate. And she and Quentin didn’t think of ANY of these to lock wolfie up at the full moon.
But what place would HOLD him? This werewolf seems very adept at opening doors and getting through windows.
Ok, I didn’t recognize this place that Barn took Beth – anyone have an idea why Barn figured it out?
That was the old cemetery. I guess it fit the bill of "some secret dark womb that will keep [Dirk] safe," not to mention that it was Barn's secret sleeping place and was his choice recently (if you call 70+ years in the future recent) when he needed a place to keep Chris safe during the full moon and beyond.
I was VERY surprised to hear vampire Barnabas say, "Oh my God!"
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Pansity mentioned not seeing K. Frye in anything else, so in case anyone is interested, here's the bookstore scene from Shamus with Burt Reynolds and I'm certain this is our busty Pansy Faye.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7yjKSzGwcw
She doesn't even tell him what her name is before their offscreen booty call. LOL
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I was VERY surprised to hear vampire Barnabas say, "Oh my God!"
He does that a handful of times, and it always seems 'wrong' somehow, how I'm not sure... In DS theology, someone can be cursed, which seemingly includes being cursed in relation to God, being denied any favor from Him, being denied Heaven, yet the curse is made by an evil character with no input or approval from God. That just adds to the tragedy of course.
You could say it's very big of Barnabas to think of God still, even in an automatic figure of speech, when God is to Barnabas... what? Irrelevant? Since He's omipotent, can He be blamed for turning His back on a cursed being? One who's trying to make amends?
Sorry, I know this kind of thing stirs up hornet's nests, but it's a great big elephant in the living room, and I can only ignore those for so long.
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I have seen Buffy say "OH MY GOD" and The Charmed Ones say "Oh MY God" and the latter is Wicca. And on Buffy, the jury is still out of if there is a God according to her. And on Charmed there was no GOD above gods! So I think it's quiet normal and a natural reflex!! I am not trying to get on another topic just wanted to point out that I have seen other "somewhat" supernatural creatures say "God's" name. I think Spike and Angel have even used the line.
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Major Milestones: [milestone]
1. This was the first appearance of the original Pansy Faye! Ooh! I love the debut of Pansy Faye! [cheer]
2. This was the first time we heard "I'm Gonna Dance for you" - sung by Pansy Faye - and it certainly wouldn't be the last! [smile_groan]
3. Barnabas said, "Oh, my God!" That doesn't happen very often!
4. Carl told Judith he hadn't played a practical joke in over 48 hours.
5. We found out that, previously, Carl brought back another "tart" (Judith's word), from Albany. So it seems that Carl had a history of falling for such women. [ghost_wink]
6. Pansy correctly was able to determine that Dirk was dead, and the murderer (Barnabas) was in the room. Carl said it was the first time she passed out while using her mentalist powers. [faint2]
I love, love, love Pansy’s dress!
I love Pansy's dress, too!
Those scenes were really funny when Carl and Pansy showed up at Collinwood just when Barnabas and Beth were going to search for Dirk. The looks on Barnabas and Beth's faces when Pansy sang that song! Judith's reaction when she watched Pansy's mentalist performance was quite amusing, too. They certainly weren't a very good audience - Carl's exuberant applause more than made up for it, though. I just love that song! [ghost_grin]
I was amused to hear Beth say she worked in the "big house". Made it sound like Collinwood was a prison - something James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, and/or Edward G. Robinson would have said in those old gangster movies! Then Pansy said, "How big is it?" and Beth said, "Very big." Also, when Pansy told Beth she doesn't touch coffee and she gulped down that sherry like it was water! Hilarious! [stfl]
It always amazes me when I am reminded each time I watch this that the original Pansy Faye was only alive for one episode! It seems longer. [ghost_rolleyes] [spoiler]That's because Charity was possessed by Pansy later on, so Pansy was a very big part of the 1897 storyline.[/spoiler]
----- Sally -----
[snow_bigglass] [hippy2]
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As for "My God!", I'm sure you could not have gotten Nicholas to say that, ever. Even when he's pretending to be pure as snow, he won't say anything pro-God or pro-Christianity. At one point in explaining some piece of artwork or something he almost says "Christ" or "Savior" or "God", then catches himself and precedes it with "your"! He's rather risk giving himself away than say anything Satan wouldn't like...
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Very true! Good post! :)
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He does that a handful of times, and it always seems 'wrong' somehow, how I'm not sure... In DS theology, someone can be cursed, which seemingly includes being cursed in relation to God, being denied any favor from Him, being denied Heaven, yet the curse is made by an evil character with no input or approval from God. That just adds to the tragedy of course.
I could be very mistaken, but I think Barnabas had been cured during the times he said it before this. Because the curse had been drained from him by Adam, that seems to make a difference, and what you say here goes a long way in explaining it.
I think it's a big oversight on the writers' part that he says "Oh my God" again in 1897 not long after [spoiler]he committed murder.[/spoiler]
I guess it's debatable if his saying the name of God (or Lord; same thing) later in the series after [spoiler]he's been re-cursed[/spoiler]feels wrong or not since some fans feel he has done much to redeem himself by that point.
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Great thread within a thread about the cursed ones speaking the name of God.
My take on it is that there would be a difference between someone SEEKING out the supernatural powers and choosing to worship the Dark powers through their own free will, and someone who became a supernatural creature due to circumstances they didn't seek out.
For that reason, I don't see a problem with Barnabas referring to God. (Though there might be an issue of him not being ABLE to say it, in the same way that he can't face a cross.) We get some inferences to him playing with things supernatural, but we never see or hear that he was as involved in it as we see Quentin is. Now, I could see HIM having a problem, depending on whether he was deep enough into the Dark Arts to have been required to reject God.
With him, it's a different set of circumstances. He was involved heavily with the Dark arts; whether it ever approached the depth of having to renounce God and worship the Devil, we can't tell from what we're shown. I'm inclined to think not, from the way he refers to how he got involved with the supernatural (curiousity and boredom). He invokes other Gods from other cultures, which don't guarantee a renouncement of the Judeo-Christian God. Interesting thing with him though, is that once he becomes cursed, he invokes the name of God on a number of occasions. Even if you chalk it up to the change in attitudes, we have a cursed being who asks for God's intercession. Specific case I'm thinking of is [spoiler]when they thought that Jamison was dying, and he was sitting with him; going by memory I believe he was pleading with God to spare the boy.[/spoiler]
LOL on Big House, Sally. However, I've also seen it used a lot (can't think of any sources right now, and with my reading, it could be anything from biography, historical novel, history or even Gone With the Wind for all I know), for the main house on a large property with multiple buildings. That would certainly fit with Collinwood.
Must have missed the question and answer about Chavez earlier. Thanks, Midnite -- I'd never known it was Portuguese as well as Spanish. Still a bit of a puzzling choice, since it would seem the actress was cast before we had a name for the character mentioned on screen (one would assume until it was on film, it could change. Even being on screen didn't help them sometimes: note Oscar and Edward). A tall blonde, nordic looking actress, with a character name that goes back to countries where blondes are very rare -- you'd think they'd have given her a name that sounded Norwegian, German or Danish. Though Portuguese, with the immigrant connection with fishing, fits in with Collinsport being a fishing town.
Midnite: Another post I missed was yours about locking up the wolf that opens doors like a man. Where to lock him up? Well, what was in the back of my mind was the kind of outbuildings we have on the Colonial era plantations around here. Root cellar type places, icehouses -- they lock from the outside, and tend to be made of stone in the Northeast. Just an idea, but you'd think they'd have at least checked out that kind of building to see if it would work.
Jeannie
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Great thread within a thread about the cursed ones speaking the name of God.
My take on it is that there would be a difference between someone SEEKING out the supernatural powers and choosing to worship the Dark powers through their own free will, and someone who became a supernatural creature due to circumstances they didn't seek out.
Jeannie
My point was that that difference matters very little to the cursed being who has had the door between himself and God shut in his face, and that presumably includes any afterlife such as Heaven. Either Barnabas never gets there because he just never stops walking the earth as a vampire, or because he's "cursed" (and the acts he commits while cursed).... and the fact that it's none of God's doing would make Barnabas more bitter, not less.
A witch can come along, curse an innocent like Barnabas, and since God rebuffs cursed beings (by definition), for eternity I suppose unless the curse is lifted, this means someone like Ang can do this without any divine objections or interference. For someone like Barnabas, this would go well beyond just feeling rejected.
Of course since Barnabas hopes to go back to 1969 and be well again, he might not feel all that doomed or cursed in 1897.
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Pansy is a wonderful character, in both timing and execution. What a shame that she died before she saw the great big house - before she knew that she really had hit the jackpot with Carl. If they got rid of the Albany tart (and thank you all for clarifying "tart"; all I could hear was "torch"), then probably they could get rid of the New Jersey tart - but we don't know how much Grandmama had to do with Miss Albany's exit, so we can't be sure. I figure somewhere along the line Carl was bound to succeed in marrying one of his unsuitable lady friends, and maybe it would have been Pansy, and maybe not. Once Judith finds out that Dirk is responsible for Pansy's death, I hope she'll thank him, and maybe even concede that she was wrong to fire him.
I buy interesting tins - it's not something I mean to do, but I have trouble resisting them, and then they're the wrong size to be useful - so I covet the salt water taffy tin. Ah, the good old days, when things came in tins instead of cardboard boxes. I'm surprised, however, that Carl didn't notice that the tin was empty when he handed it to Barnabas. There should have been quite a difference in weight between an empty box and a full box - but maybe he was too excited about Pansy to notice. And Barnabas would have been too polite to say a word. I wish the box hadn't been empty. I was dying too see Barnabas chewing salt water taffy.
Early in the episode, Barnabas told Beth not to go back to Collinwood because of the danger from Dirk, but later on he was, I assume, so rattled by Pansy that he told Beth to go back, with no thought of the danger. Dirk didn't attack Beth - but wouldn't it have been interesting if he had! We would have seen Beth trying to obey two vampires - probably giving preference to the one that bit her most recently - while still trying to help Quentin. Probably she would have been doing a lot of crying, too.
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Dirk didn't attack Beth - but wouldn't it have been interesting if he had! We would have seen Beth trying to obey two vampires - probably giving preference to the one that bit her most recently - while still trying to help Quentin. Probably she would have been doing a lot of crying, too.
OOH what an idea for fanfiction. Anyone game? Course it would also work as a comedy.....
Jeannie