DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '26 I => Current Talk '15 II => Topic started by: Watching Project on August 31, 2015, 03:02:11 PM
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Robservations #966
And if you'd care to look back, the first WP discussion topic for this ep:Re: Discuss - Ep #0966
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Joan VO. Leviathans over! Big sigh of relief from whole of the DS staff, I think. Slaves released, and automatically, selectively brain-wiped, of all Leviathan content. Reminds me of when Dr Who #9 gave someone a computer disc to wipe all mentions of him throughout time from the Internet.
Jeb exists but "shouldn't", if we believe Nick. Jeb supposedly is willing himself alive. Nice thought. He's stubborn enough to carry that off. Some people's self-belief is limitless. He's only now starting to see what powerlessness feels like, though.
Back at the carriage house, Bruno kills some time with a zombie and an apple. Zombie becomes skeleton... nice creepy effect, except for someone used to autopsies shown unblinkingly on television every week. I don't watch those.
I have to wonder who this person was, since it's a skeleton we've seen before, with a sort of collapsed lower jaw, perhaps from great age. It's always been amazing to me that people who would be horrified at a corpse are perfectly fine seeing a real skeleton, even when used for entertainment purposes. None of these characters is ever going to bury any of these skeletons, by the way! Except Willie might... good old dependable doormat, Willie...
Carolyn hears Jeb insisting on fleeing Collinsport, objects, then gathers herself together, we can see it in her acting, and makes a decision to stick by him, explanations or no. I love it when we can see a character thinking, just in the face. I wonder if it all got considered then, the possibilities that he might be a criminal. His being her father's murderer is put out of her mind as utterly unacceptable. Some other crime though? Possible. His being an ordinary criminal might unconsciously appeal to her bad boy attraction. I'm sure that her father did pass through her mind, as an example of someone who needed her to run off with her out of town, as someone who couldn't explain or justify it to her, but was proven right.
Two weddings for the price of one, in this episode! Carolyn dreams about another evil wedding, unaware that she's already been through one that day! Only on DS... I now think Paul Stoddard is sending these dreams. The dream doesn't know about Jeb's rebellion. Nick and Jeb are still united. Despite another ghost appearing soon who is anxious to take credit for everything, Stoddard seems active too. Just that smile in the coffin tells me that.
We hear the same text that was read by Nick in that day's real ceremony.
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The end of the Leviathans, but not of Nick or Bruno. Bruno cuts up the apple very deftly.
Only on DS would characters get all dressed up for a wedding, and then it turns out to be a dream or it never happens. Carolyn's dream gown is lovely.
Now that Elizabeth has been restored to herself, she goes right into full Mistress of Collinwood mode when she realizes that Jeb let himself into the house. How dare you roam around the house at will! she exclaims. I think your behavior is shocking [a word she reserves for the ultimate in bad behavior]! Jeb looks at her in astonishment--without anger, but maybe with some relief. He observes with a smile, You have changed, just as he said you would. You remember who I am but nothing more. He asks politely, May I see Carolyn for just a few minutes. Carolyn pleads for him. Elizabeth okays a quick visit, but gives Jeb a piercing glance as she leaves. Urgently Jeb tells Carolyn, I don’t have much time--if I stay here, my life will end. He can’t conceal his fear as he tells Carolyn, I’ve got to go far away. I want you to come with me. Carolyn is understandably reluctant, but Jeb tells her, We’ll go to Collinsport, get married, then go away. Carolyn hesitates, obviously thinking about the life he would have her leave behind. Finally she says, If I can’t get you to stay, then I’ll go away with you. He holds her tight; she holds him back, but she doesn’t look happy.
I also think that Paul is sending Carolyn all those dreams. In this dream he has Barnabas appear, in perfectly ghoulish makeup, to tell Carolyn that Jeb killed her father.
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Olly Olly Oxen Free! Well, sort of. Breaking the Leviathan box apparently deprograms Elizabeth, Amy and David but not Bruno and Sky. Megan's vampire state apparently overrides the Leviathan programming and I guess that Philip is too far gone at this point.
What about the other characters? Barnabas, Julia, Quentin and Angelique have been through worse and just move on to facing the next Big Bad. Willie knows to keep his mouth shut. Eliot is extremely discreet. But Roger and Maggie are relative new recruits to the Scooby gang. If they retain their knowledge of the Leviathan nuttiness, is it going to impact their lives? Would Maggie feel safe around Amy again after she locked her in the tower room so Jeb could slime her to death? Would Roger ever feel comfortable having the bargain basement Chtulhu down the hall?
Subconsciously, Carolyn seems to realize that her fiance did kill her father. In real life or a more traditional soap, that would definitely be a relationship breaker. Or does Carolyn have some variation of Stockholm Syndrome?
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Overall the Leviathan plot for world domination seems a bit flawed since only a portion of the population is susceptible to their evil influence...
Maybe characters like Sky and Bruno are only loyal to the cause because of their good fortune, and not through some supernatural means?
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That's a good idea, Quentin. The Leviathans have made Sky rich and (I suppose) have given Bruno the opportunity to kill lots of people just as easily as cutting up that apple.
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The only thing I can think of is that the people who opened the box have a somewhat different deal than the other Leviathans who brokered a deal on their own. Paul Stoddard and Sky Rumson sold something to the mysterious Mr. Strack. Paul developed a conscience. Apparently, Sky never did. Maybe Bruno and Nell Gunston, the only other cult members we see, had similar arrangements.
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Subconsciously, Carolyn seems to realize that her fiance did kill her father. In real life or a more traditional soap, that would definitely be a relationship breaker. Or does Carolyn have some variation of Stockholm Syndrome?
I've said this many times before, but I hate what the Leviathans period did to Carolyn's character. The Carolyn that I've known and loved up to this point would have never discounted what her dreams were telling her and dismissed them. OK, maybe when it came to Jeb, her tingling crotch overrode her head, which is often the overriding situation with so many DS characters (I'm particularly looking at you, Barn!). But still, Carolyn, unlike some, was never one to dismiss the truth - especially when it was repeatedly staring her in the face! But you bring up a good point, Uncle Roger - maybe part of it was indeed some form of Stockholm Syndrome. I'd sure as hell like to think there's some sort of explanation for Carolyn's wildly out of character behavior...
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I think Stockholm Syndrome definitely played a part in Carolyn's relationship with Adam, especially since (to start with) he was a sympathetic character. With Jeb, I'm more inclined to think that her, um, heart overrode her head. Plus the writers really messed with her big time. But I think that in future story lines (say, 1970 our time), she's truer to her original self.
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Carolyn just wanted happiness so bad after the untimely death of her long lost father it seemed... The plate smashing scene in the antique shop a few weeks back seemed to be a turning point for her, but I understand completely what you're saying, something is truly lost with her after this.... The post PT dynamic with "Sebastian" just doesn't do much for me (or her), but at least we do get to see her a little while longer! [ghost_sad]
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Very true. I actually meant to say the post-1970PT interlude in 1995, in which Carolyn is greatly changed but still her real self. Sebastian Shaw didn't much for me either. What was Wardrobe thinking? Obviously they had never taken even a short walk in the Village. Sheesh.
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Sebastian Shaw struck me as someone's extremely misguided attempt at being hip and relevant. Sort of like when Frank Sinatra tried dressing in a Nehru jacket and coming onstage with a flowerpot.
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Ha ha ha, I missed that! But then again, it was all Beatles all the time for me. [ghost_grin]
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I'd cringe at how the counter culture was depicted on TV. That Star Trek hippie episode, how about that?! By the time any "hippies" reached an age where they could be influential in TV, most of that was over with.
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That Star Trek episode was one of the worst! So bad all I could do was laugh.
Quentin, maybe Carolyn had some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder, knowing that her father had been horribly murdered, though she never learns by whom. So maybe she clung to Jeb that much more because he also promised not to abandon her.
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Oh Charles Napier is my hero Magnus!!! He ranks up there with "Blue Boy" from Dragnet!!
Dark Lady, yay Beatles!!!
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Dark Lady, yay Beatles!!!
[ghost_grin] [ghost_grin] [ghost_grin]
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I'm more inclined to think that her, um, heart overrode her head.
You're much more kind than I am because I don't see one thing about Jeb that's lovable and thus could have pulled at her heart - I have no idea what she sees in him. Well, beyond a physical attraction - hence my pointing out that her decisions regarding Jeb were mostly made in an area of her body lower than both her head and her heart. [ghost_grin]
maybe she clung to Jeb that much more because he also promised not to abandon her.
Well, that's another interesting point. But still, the Carolyn we knew before Leviathans would have never ignored what her subconscious was repeatedly telling her and chosen to marry a murderer - and the murderer of her father, at that - regardless of how strong her fear of abandonment might have been.
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MB it is very strange they had all those multiple dream sequences of Jeb's obvious guilt, only to just have Carolyn just shrug them off down the road... It makes me think perhaps the writers changed their minds as to what the eventual outcome would be for Carolyn's relationship with Jeb. Or maybe she would get married and then have a big realization to end things differently.
The dreams in DS always contain the hidden truths that the characters seem to almost always take to heart, but not here, which is imminently frustrating! [ghost_mad]
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Maybe they had some idea of keeping the Leviathan story line going longer [8311], then changed their minds for some reason. The ratings might have been slipping yet again. But yeah, with all those dreams, normally Carolyn would have trusted her instincts.
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With the HODS shoot that would take most of the key players off the canvas for several weeks, it would have been very difficult to continue and refocus the storyline. Hence, parallel time which, after the first week, centers on Quentin, Angelique/Alexis, Cyrus and Bruno.
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I wonder what Pennock's fan mail was like - amount wise. And if it had anything to do with changing his intended tenure.
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Uncle Roger, I'll bet it was the movie all along! I guess the movie's shooting schedule forced them to wind up the Leviathan story pretty quickly, maybe faster than they had intended.