We've already seen how huffy Elizabeth can get when anyone even thinks of besmirching the Collins family name. But yes, I think Burke (1) doesn't have enough solid data yet to form a hypothesis;  (2) probably has begun to consider Elizabeth his future virtual mother-in-law; and (3) still wants to buy Seaview.

If Niall Bradford lived 130 years before 1968, he would have been alive during the 1830s--when Barnabas presumably was still trapped in his coffin an ocean away. I sort of wonder how Barnabas learned of his existence--but then there's that old reliable family album. He must have picked Niall because he was so conveniently dead and so conveniently English.

Lydia, thanks for the story about how the writers conceived of the Barnabas story--very interesting to know!

I also love all the scenes between Maggie and Joe. They are adorably down to earth, and KLS and JC play them so well.

We get a nice moment at the end when Vicki tells Burke about the spontaneously playing music box and its light, tinkling music--the same kind of music that Maggie just told him about….

It is funny that Willie is now the voice of reason after being made a slave.

I still say that Willie's new-found compassion has turned his life around. Plus he still has his street smarts, which always come in handy.

Surely that's because Maggie has returned, safe and sound and reasonably sane. And whoever did the paintings, I really do like them. The Evans cottage would really fit into an artists' colony.

Definitely one of the best Barn-Julia scenes ever! And only the first of many to come! 

I read somewhere that JF disliked the blue brocade dressing gown because it was difficult to walk around in, but it does look very handsome.

Barn tells Julia that he was looking at the portrait of Jeremiah, who bore a remarkable similarity to "Devlin"--even though on the night of the ill-fated costume party we all saw Barn rip out that very page and crumple it up.

Eventually Barnabas admits that he was thinking about Sarah. By dint of relentless questioning--just like a wife grilling her philandering husband!--Julia finally makes Barnabas admit that the reason he was in Maggie's room when he heard Sarah singing and tried to look for her.

Julia has a nice hypothesis about why Sarah has appeared now, but I still think she just doesn't know enough about Sarah yet.

Barn still hates having to take orders from a woman. But he tells Elizabeth that he's very pleased with the progress Julia is making with her "research," so he does realize which side of his bread has the butter.

Julia has another, friendlier duel with Elizabeth when E. questions her very closely about her work. Julia promises, I’ll let you have the first look at my book before it’s published. What other books have you written? Elizabeth asks. They were extremely scholarly, Julia replies. They would be of no interest to a layperson. Elizabeth tells her, I hadn’t left Collinwood for eighteen years and did a great deal of reading. Julia deftly compliments Elizabeth on how she has made a new life for herself now. Elizabeth comments dryly, If you are as nimble in print as you are in conversation, your books must make interesting reading.

Burke is late for his meeting with Vicki and tells her it was to do with "business in London." What he doesn't tell her is that he was having his minion Blair get information on the entirely fictitious Niall Bradford, whom Barnabas named as a relation there.

Although surely Barn was expecting the news, he looks utterly stricken when Vicki and Burke announce their engagement. He tells Vicki merely that he's in favor of anything that will make her happy and can't bring himself to speak to Burke or even shake his hand. But this is the only time he calls Burke MISTER Devlin. The news is enough to make him vow to cooperate fully with Julia--so that he can win Vicki for himself.

Well, tragicbat, I have to say that you've changed my mind! Actually, your hypothesis is close to what I thought the very first time I watched this story. Quentin seemed perfectly nice, right up to the moment he carried Maggie over the threshold of the Great House--and then all hell broke loose.

Having an abusive and flagrantly unfaithful spouse would traumatize anybody. Probably the only bright spot in Quentin's first marriage was young Daniel. I'm sure Q's heart was in the right place when he gave Roger and Elizabeth a home at Collinwood and let Will and Carolyn live in the Old House for probably a token rent. He even gave Elizabeth the role of hostess after Angelique's death. But it only made most of them resent his wealth and what they saw as his absolute power over their lives. It's no wonder his closest relationships were with people outside the immediate family--his lawyer-cousin Chris (gone too soon) and his doctor friend Cyrus Longworth.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that off in Europe, with Angelique (apparently) dead and away from all those negative stimuli, Quentin was free to be himself and woo and win Maggie. And I'm sure he thought that bringing her back to Collinwood would make everything better. Instead, things went from bad to worse, as Hoffman started her get-rid-of-Maggie campaign and especially with the return of Angelique. And it really did take Angelique's being really and truly dead, a corpse-littered stage and a burned-down mansion for Quentin and Maggie to find each other again. I always thought it was smart of them to go right back to Europe.

In my earlier post, I did forget to mention the all-too-brief appearance of Paula Laurence as Alexis and Angelique's aunt Hannah.

Thanks for the tips, Midnite. I went to that thread and found a wealth of possibilities!

This is Willie's first real chance to talk Barnabas out of killing someone, and he actually persuades Barnabas (who as we know almost never listens to anything Willie says) at least to postpone killing Burke. As usual, though, Willie's relief is short-lived because Barnabas then says that Willie will have to help him. Very nice work by JK here. He always does a great job of conveying Willie's chronic fear and also the street smarts that help him get through each night.

I love the tenderness of the scenes between Vicki and Elizabeth in this part of the story, especially knowing-- well, what we know. And yes, it's too bad that the writers forgot that Vicki's purpose in coming to Collinsport was to discover her real identity.

And I also like the big duel scene between Barnabas and Burke at the BW. Apparently it was JF's favorite in the whole series, perhaps because it shows Barnabas living his Big Lie to the utmost. Vicki’s name is never mentioned, of course--that would be the grossest insult to a lady, and each man knows that at least one of them is a gentleman.

We are currently working our way through the Midsomer Murders via Netflix streaming. The one we just watched, "The Straw Woman," takes place in Midsomer Parva, a rural English village where some of the townsfolk believe that one woman is a witch. It is a bit of a stretch, but it was first shown in 2004. So I guess Midsomer Parva has carved out a little corner of the DS universe for itself.