"Awkward and blunt": True, but subtlety never has been Angelique's strong suit.

Did Josette really die not knowing that Angelique had betrayed her? I wonder about that. Angelique shows Josette her ultimate fate as a vampire, but Angelique wouldn't know about it unless she was responsible. Although, in any case, by now Josette was not thinking clearly, if at all, so she probably didn't connect the dots.

Barn, his humanity rapidly eroding, threatens Ben for a second time. Nice observation about Ben being our stand-in and conscience, dom.

Here's a link to a National Institute of Health link to an article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Apparently smelling salts have a long and interesting history.

I found this interesting site on beauty patches. Apparently the color and placement were full of significance for those in the know:

Beauty patches

Thanks for your kind words, dom. And yes, I agree with MT's answer to your question. Everything that's alive does its utmost to stay that way, and I suppose it also must be true of the undead.

In telling the countess about how he found Barn's coffin empty, Joshua actually unbends enough to admit, It wasn’t Ben Stokes, because he cared for Barnabas so much.

I agree: Long, drawn-out prelude to a clumsy strangling. But maybe Barnabas just hasn't had enough practice yet.

Joshua is wearing a very nice gray velvet coat when he comes downstairs and finds Natalie staring at Barnabas's portrait--particularly the onyx ring. Joshua quietly tells her that the portrait is only a few months old. Then Josette comes downstairs and faints. Joshua is stunned when he sees the ring on Josette's finger.  Natalie asks him about the ring. His voice trembling, Joshua tells her, I placed it on Barnabas's hand when he was buried.

The admirable Riggs stands guard outside Josette's door and even has a few lines of the "yes, ma'am," "no, ma'am" variety. Josette is so frantic to get out that at first she doesn't notice when the secret panel opens and Barnabas steps into the room, arrayed for the first time in all his dark splendor. They leave through the secret panel.

Poor Joshua must go to Eagle Hill, where both his children are buried and as he thinks, in eternal slumber. After pausing to look at Sarah’s grave marker, he reaches up and pulls the ring that opens the secret panel. Joshua looks around for a moment. Barnabas has apparently been entombed for some days, but Joshua--perhaps distracted by grief and fear--fails to notice the lit candles in the secret room. I saw the ring on Barnabas' hand before I closed the coffin, he recalls. Who would dare defile the dead? Standing by his son's coffin, he murmurs sorrowfully, I never gave you love, but I wanted to give you peace. He adds fiercely, I swear revenge on whoever has desecrated my son's resting place. After pausing one final moment to gather his courage, Joshua steels himself to open the coffin--and is horrified to find it empty.

In the reshoot, Josette is wearing a much prettier white nightgown with matching robe. And my notes say that Barn bites the other side of her neck.

At the jail, Vicki tells the countess that on the last day of Josette's life, she will lose a black onyx ring. (Why Vicki didn't recognize the ring on Barn's hand as identical to the one "her" Barn wears we will never know.) The countess storms out in a rage.

Peter persuades Vicki to see things as his contemporaries do. At long last, she realizes the enormity of her own error--and how much danger she is in. Seeing her realization--and her dawning terror--Peter asks softly, Would you mind staying in my time? She allows him to take her in his arms and returns his embrace. As they kiss, he murmurs, You're just a girl. I'll make you forget the rest of it.

Once more, Barnabas comes to Josette's room. He is concerned that she is angry and that in order for them to be together, he'll have to do things that she might not like (!). As long as we can be together, she vows, nothing else matters. Fervently Barnabas declares, You could not be more my wife than you are now. She is thrilled beyond words when he takes off his onyx ring. Placing it on her finger, he says, This will be a pledge of our eternal love.

The next morning, Josette is even more disoriented than the night before. The countess is horrified to see that she is wearing Barnabas's onyx ring….

True, but doesn't Elizabeth look fabulous in that fur coat!