DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '26 I => Current Talk '12 I => Topic started by: Watching Project on March 01, 2012, 07:47:39 PM
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Robservastions #158
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Here's Liz's real problem: she's surrounded in her room by those totems of the supernatural, the Petofi Box (on the dresser?) and the brown afghan on the chair for bedside visitors. Is that the same gossipy MD from early episodes?
There's that TV cliche again, the declaration by a doctor that since his once over with a stethoscope revealed nothing, that means nothing physically is wrong... which he then contradicts in the same breath, by reccommending tests at a hospital.
I like the foreshadowing of Liz jerking upright to look at the still-empty visitor's chair, when we still don't know yet why she's doing it. Then later... Yes! Laura pops in!! These are my favorite moments with Laura. No sound, no evil cackle, no fanfare, she's already seated casually, as if it's all perfectly normal. When I backed up the disc, though, I did hear a small bit of scuffling as Millay got into position, and saw a shadow from her on the bed. Fortunately, you don't hear if you're not listening for it.
They apparently wanted the chair in a logical position for visitors, close to Liz, and Roger may have sat in it earlier. The chair may have already moved out of shot, though, by the time Liz jerks up and looks toward it. By the time Vicki leaves, though, the chair's been moved nearer to the foot of the bed, so that Millay can sneak in off-camera, while Moltke leaves.
The afghan (on the chair this time) may spontaneously generate supernatural foes.
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Yes, that's the same Dr. Reeves who treated Roger after his car accident.
I liked how Carolyn is slowly coming around to caring for-- David! Roger wants Elizabeth to be taken to Boston for treatment. Carolyn takes Roger to task for wanting to get a divorce and get rid of David while her mother is gone.
When Laura appears (in the normal manner) in the drawing room, Roger tells her, As long as Liz can speak, she can still give orders. That may not be a problem, Laura replies calmly. The next thing we know, poor Elizabeth is lying in bed, her eyes glazed over, and she can't speak. Way to go, Roger!
Although I'm sure Laura had some help from that afghan....
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Laura wants her son, and in order to accomplish that, she is taking Carolyn's mother away from me. This is very clear to me, but I don't get any sense that the writers are aware of the parallel - but perhaps they are. Perhaps we're meant to see how human Elizabeth is and how inhuman Laura is.
I liked how Carolyn is slowly coming around to caring for-- David!
Yes, and we are seeing Roger at his best these days. The world of Collinwood has gone topsy-turvy.
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There's a point later on when it starts to make sense for Carolyn to come to love David, and for Roger to soften toward him, but it's too early for all that to be believable yet, I think. One thing that makes sense is that Roger is just barely beginning to be a bit protective of David, if only because Laura's as-yet-undefined improprieties offend his upper class pretentions (growing with each day spent in luxury under Liz's roof, I'm sure)-- and because Liz still has the real long-term power, and she'd get him later, if he were to give David away now when she was adamantly against it. And Laura could be about to involve his son and him in an unknown scandal, depending on how things in Pheonix go.
Maybe going through the motions of protectiveness doesn't contribute to real empathy later on... but it's also my only explanation for Carolyn now. She sees a plot to undermine and destroy the family, by separating David (the family's future head) and handing him over to family enemies. So she's circling the wagons around her family, and maybe that protectiveness makes her start to have a soft spot for David.
Still, too early. Later experiences change their feelings more believably.
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Saw the box but missed the Afghan. Shouldn't do homework and watch DS at the same time. Elizabeth is Lucid, but weak and then it's downhill. So the closest good hospital is in Boston.
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So the closest good hospital is in Boston.
Yes, the accessible outside world is usually Boston or Bangor, Bangor or Boston. I think that a couple of years from now we'll get a mention of Portland or Portsmouth - I think it was Portland - but mostly the two Port cities don't seem to exist on Dark Shadows. And I don't think Collinsport Hospital is even a gleam in Dan Curtis's eye yet.
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I think Boston is probably supposed to be where the real first-class hospitals are (there and a very few other, farther cities), and it may be that since they have the money, and this is apparently an unheard-of condition, they don't want to waste time, and go straight to the best of the best.