Me too, MT!

I remember the opening scene as being very realistic, given the topic of conversation. Julia tells Barnabas, You know what will happen when Joe hears the vampire’s call. Yes, I know only too well, replies Barnabas in an understatement of ambiguity.

I like the cross-cutting (I think that's the term) in this episode between Barnabas and Julia, Barnabas, Julia, Harry, and Angelique. It could have been really complicated, but the writing and editing are really very good.

Angelique meets Barnabas in the woods after amusing herself for a moment by watching him call to her. She is angry that he didn’t kill Joe as she had commanded. He pleads that he couldn’t bring himself to do it, but to no avail. Angelique takes great pleasure in ordering him to kill Joe tonight. She explains, I want you to be responsible for it and have the guilt on your conscience for all eternity. (If she knew how Joe’s death would fit right in with Nicholas’s plans, she probably would not be so insistent.) Barnabas refuses to obey her.

Harry finds Barnabas in the woods and brings him back to Collinwood. For once you've done something right, Mrs. Johnson snaps to her offspring. But Barnabas refuses all help and goes back to the Old House.

Julia is relieved to see Barnabas when he returns to the Old House, but she is already so exhausted and anxious that she doesn’t really notice that he keeps his overcoat on with the collar turned up. She is in for a terrible shock.

"Bad hat" is an oldie but goodie. I don't know where it comes from, though.

Nicholas has underestimated Adam, who accuses him (N.) of acting as if he (N.) owned Adam and Eve.

Eve boasts about killing Philippe Cordier out of love for Peter Bradford. But Peter/Jeff wants nothing to do with her, and she goes back home to sulk.

Nicholas visits Maggie and asks her to marry him. The painting Nicholas purchased from Maggie and took away is now back in the Evans Cottage. Only we viewers know the depth of his dismay and disappointment when she gently refuses him. Assuming there’s nothing more to be said, he makes to go, but Maggie says, You have a right to an explanation. I am grateful for the kindness you’ve shown me in recent months. But even though Joe and I are through, I’ll always be concerned for him. I don’t feel I can make any plans until he has recovered. Nicholas asks what she means and is astounded to hear that Barnabas found him in the woods, badly injured after his suicide attempt. Nicholas expresses his crocodile sympathy and asks if she saw him at the hospital. No, she tells him, at the Old House. She also tells Nicholas that Joe admitted there was “another girl,” but (to Nicholas’s relief) Joe didn’t say her name. Nicholas can always come up with the means, but now he has a motive; all he’s missing is an opportunity. He leaves as quickly as he can without seeming rude.

Nicholas returns home and tells Adam that their departure will be delayed, making Adam very angry. Just then Harry arrives, and Nicholas orders Adam out. Nicholas gives Harry a vial of poison and tells him to go to the Old House once it gets very late, find out which room Joe is in, and pour it into his medicine. Harry raises faint objections--he may be a bad hat but he’s no murderer. Nicholas simply asks, Do you need to be disciplined again? The mere mention of “discipline” is enough to send Harry packing, however reluctantly. Nicholas tells us, By tomorrow morning, Joe Haskell will be dead....

Thanks and happy new year, MB! This will be my first sight of the 2004 pilot, so I really do appreciate your hard work!

I watched all the episodes but haven't gone back to it since. It certainly was glum, wasn't it. I hated what they did with Willie but at least the Peter Bradford guy didn't resemble Roger Davis in the least. Barn really was a bit dull, plus what he and Vicki danced to was no minuet!

That being said, I did like Jean Simmons as Elizabeth and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as David. The most fun was provided by Roy Thinnes as a truly evil Trask. He was a hoot!

As if presenting Eve with the greatest gift possible, Adam tells her that she's going to meet his friend Carolyn. Eve simply bursts out laughing.

At Collinwood, Adam and Eve fall to quarreling. Carolyn’s eyes fill with tears of sadness and shame for her friend. Obviously Eve is no mate for Adam.

Oh, dear. Eve recognizes Peter Bradford.

Of course Adam's pajamas are green, just like the blanket on the bed.