On the subject of servants there seem to be very few instances that we see them.  I saw a maid in 1795 today, which I had forgotten about and almost fell out of my bed! LOL I know a lot of times is 1795 Joshua would scream at them and say something like “CONFOUNDED SERVANTS WHERE ARE THEY?”  They are nowhere JOSHUA as DC is too cheap to pay them!   

 

But what gets me is you could use throwaway lines (like they did when Q told Jamison to wake up the servants) to imply there were servants we didn't see.  Wouldn't have been QUITE so obvious then that they were missing.

Jeannie

If it's weird you've got lots of company.  Loads of old cemetaries around here; most do at least some type of  tours.  Close to where I live is a particularly large, historic and famous one, Woodlawn.  They  have all kinds of tours and even concerts and such.  Anyone interested should be able to check it out by Googling Woodlawn Cemetary and NYC. Non mortuary trivia about it includes one gate being where the ransom for the Lindburgh baby was left.

Jeannie

Thanks, Taeylor.  Glad you enjoy them.  How much I shoot my mouth off on a particular episode depends on what strikes me when I watch the ep, and what you guys have already said since I usually come in late. 

That's not going to end any time soon, either.  Work has still been insane, but given all the funding cuts child welfare not for profits like the one I work for are getting whammed with, at least an insane work load means job security as long as this keeps up. (The main  reason for my work life being nuts lately is funders are now constantly auditing and examining programs, looking for any excuse to cut funding or eliminate grants, fundings, or entire programs.  All these case record pre audits led me to a  scary discovery -- at least I thought it was scary. It seems that even at the Master's level Social Workers have really poor writing skills!)  <rant over>

Jeannie

It was 1897 at it's best, that's for sure!  It just hangs together so well, and has so many level, layers and multidimensional characters.  LIke a Dickens novel at its best.

Ok, here's my take on this episode:  Selby voiceover. 

We pick up right after the fadeout of the last episode, with Barnabas and Edward coming to the rescue as the children are trapped in the burning room.  Kind of convenient isn’t it, that Edward listened to Barnabas and went for the axe, rather than ask  Barn why HE didn’t go do it?  Or maybe  we’re meant to think it works because Edward would know right where the tools are? In any case, it leaves  Barn free toi use his powers without any inconvenient witnesses.  Nicely done for the time blue screen effect showing us Barn  going invisible.

In this scene we see that Edward ,behind the Victorian stiff upper lip and no emotion  shown to the world,  really does care for the children and is terrified until he sees they’re all right.

We cut to The House by the Sea (cute in joke that Evan lives in what will be Nicky's house in the future), and Evan opening his own door to the once again drunk as the proverbial skunk Quentin.  Hmm funny that he should comment on how late it is, when you get the impression that he and Quentin are well accustomed to raising hell (perhaps even literally) together till all hours.

Mr. Entltlement really doesn’t get it yet.  Just because you NEED help doesn’t mean you can or will get it, expecially if you demand and make a pain of yourself in trying to get it.  On the other hand, he is making progress judging by the way he refers to “the guilt that comes after”.  This death seems to trouble him far more than Jenny’s did – at least before Magda added the curse.   One wonders whether his statement that “I’d rather die” than go through the transformation again (think this is the first time we hear him consider suicide) is drunken wallowing and histrionics or something he’s seriously thought out and only verbalized because he’s drunk.

Great scene with Barnabas and Edward after the Dr. has seen the kids and they’ve been put to bed.  We see that Edward sees a lot more than we’d expect, even in a panic situation.  He puts Barnabas on quite a spot there, wanting to know how he got in the room, and gives the impression that he’s  not going to be easy to fool.  Edged along a window ledge the length of the corridor, huh?  Wonder if Willie ever filled him in on Harry Houdini….  In any case, he did a neat job of turning things around so that Edward trusted him again.  But of course the next time something supernatural and spooky happens, it’ll be back to good old stolid Edward the unbeliever.

Hey didn’t Quentin sober up kind of quick?  He could barely walk and talk before, and how he’s back to normal.  And he seemed genuinely concerned about Jamison’s welfare when he stopped the boy from tellingl him how his mother died in flames.  Maybe empathy, since he himself saw two people die that way, and  we saw how horrified he was the last time it happened.  On the other hand, he could have been the one who would have been creeped out by hearing the details.

So now we’re going for the big guns, and going to try and summon the Devil and risk his price.  Interesting that Quentin is now willing to risk everything and pay any price, when he was so scared of angering the ancient angry gods with the earlier ceremony.

Poor Edward, you feel for him in this scene with Nora.  He’s worried about her, and wants to do something to help, but  seems out of his depth.  The way he explains the mother’s death makes me wonder how old he and Judith were when the parents died,  and whether they ended up having to help explain it to the little boys when still pretty young themselves.

Nice foreshadowing  with the scene on the phone with Trask.

I realy like the Quentin and Edward scene.  When told it’s a family matter, Quentin goes for the flip reply about not being  treated like a member of the family.   Instead of taking the bait, Edward is trying to be nice.  Of course Quentin’s immediate reaction is to wonder whether he feels all right.  Got to give Edward points for effort and continuing to try.  He wants to try and get things on a more even keel; but his unfortunate choice of the word “unnatural” makes  Quentin  “it’s all about MEEEEE” (as Midnite so aptly described him  in an earlier post) wonder what Edward knows about his little problem.  Poor Edward is very confused by Quentin’s reaction.

Hmm this time the ceremony isn’t at the cottage but at Hanley’s house.  Wonder where the “extravagant wife” is – or does Evan simply not care what she knows or guesses about his little hobby.

Quentin is scared to death, and as usual, is drowning it in as much alcohol as he can,  and hiding  behind sarcastic snarky remarks.  Does it strike anyone else as a bit odd that Q is still wearing his coat when they’ve been in the house a while from what Evan says.  HA always is wonderful at doing these rituals.  (And these invocations actually have internal logic!)

Quentin is getting more and more scared looking  as the ritual goes on, then passes out cold  when he sees the shape in the French doors  (I guess it beats brown trousers…..)

Jeannie

I agree that there were similarities between Quentin and Trask. But I think a young and handsome fun-loving man can get away with a lot more than a middle-aged hypocritical and lecherous man.

I think that's it in a nutshell, ER.  Quentin was what the Victorians called a "good time Charlie".  Seduction and sex was a fun game to him, and he liked willing playmates.  With Trask I think it was more control and his need to frighten and dominate.  His insistance that Rachel was "evil" and "bad" was pure early church, where it was always a woman's fault that men wanted them. 

I agree that Barnabas was changing history right and left. He had no way of knowing how 1897 was originally. He certainly wasn't playing the "innocent bystander". 

I shudder to think what would happen if that man ever got his hands on a TARDIS.

Jeannie

Agree totally with both you guys about Trask showing up, that was just SO Great.    And Quentin fainting out of terror. (Pay no attention to the cowardly drunk behind the curtain!)

HAA was just wonderful as Nicky in these scenes -- he and Jerry Lacy were having waay too much fun with their respective hypocrites.

And now for my two cents on this episode (probably magnified for inflation since you guys KNOW better by now to expect short posts from ME. 


Slightly different  take on yesterday’s  finale.  Guess  someone noticed the coat, Quentin's is gone this time, though Evan has what may be a ceremonial robe. Quentin is also drinking standing up rather than slumped in the chair.  He also sounds a bit more sober, and we see a shot of him sighing deeply as Evan begins.  Couple more shots of him chug a lugging from the bottle, which this time is NOT in his hand as he faints at the sight of TRASK.

LOL you do get the feeling Trask saw and heard enough to have a real good idea what they were doing. “Perhaps the person you SHOULD summon is a DOCTOR”.  Evan is tripping over himself trying to explain his way out of this so he doesn’t get ratted out to Judith and risk losing what is probably his best (if not his ONLY ) client.

Apparently terror sobered Q up pretty quick—he seemed pretty lucid and coordinated when he argued with Evan. Didn’t fall on his face when he lunged at him either.  Maybe the instant adrenalin of terror killed his buzz. But here he is in the next scene, downing the brandy again for all he’s worth.  And just to make tonight complete, now he has to deal with Mrs. Trask.  Once again someone with no rights in the house waltzes in and parks themselves like they own the place.

Interesting foreshadowing here when Minerva is so very concerned about whether Judith and Gregory have met up.  Looks to me like they were laying the groundwork  for a revelation in the later part of the storyline quite early down the road.  Quentin, being Quentin, is miserable and wants to share the wealth by  planting ideas in Minerva’s head – just because he can.  Don’t know that he was sober enough to have calculated it as the fastest way to get rid of her.

LOL the Trasks in their native habitat and marital bliss.  Oh, from the litany Minerva  recites, our Right Reverend Trask is quite a player.  Trask is quite good at the ‘big lie”, trying to convince Minerva that she’s hysterical and imagining things.  He’s also playing quite the fencing match with Evan.  Evan seems quite disappointed  when Trask doesn’t rise to the bait about women.  He knows he needs a way out, because Trask will have a very high price.

Cut to the school and the spiteful and suspicious Minerva second guessing Tim Shaw on the papers he’s grading.  Once the Reverend gets her to leave, we know something’s up.  He’s being NICE and he’s never nice without there being something in it for him.  Poor trusting Tim should have known that by now, but for some bizarre reason he’s taking Trask at face value, and goes over all unsuspecting to Evan’s house to be their pet patsy. 

Nifty looking effect on the potion Evan is brewing up  (but does the  vessel with the pestle have the brew that is true?).


Jeannie

Think you guys are probably right about when it was filmed, but I'd be curious about whether anyone knows for certain.  A great interview.  It really comes through that he enjoyed his time on the show, and enjoyed sharing his stories with fans.

Of the cast members that I've been fortunate enough to meet, I'd be hard put to think of anyone who isn't there because they genuinely  enjoy meeting and talking to the fans (except the rude or overly possessive fans, and an actor would have to be eligible for sainthood to enjoy being subjected to that kind of nasty behavior). 

Jeannie