In the begining Josette is often refered to as an ancestor, I think David even calls her Great-Grandmother Josette, but I could be imagining that. From the pre-Barnabas episodes it's obviously intended that Josette had a son before she died and that the Collins family were implied to be her direct descendents. So when Vicki thinks she looks like Josette, it's another clue that she is a long-lost Collins. Since the original intention was that Liz was Vicki's mother, that's where the Vicki-Josette resemblance was going at the time.
But with 1795 we see that Josette died childless so that wasn't the case. With that retcon I dismiss it as Vicki's wishful thinking, her desperate need to discover her past connected with her fascination of Josette. If Vicki were more objective she'd wonder why Maggie looked like Josette. As she clearly did, obviously.
I also thought that Josette as a ghost was trying to make up for her past mistreatment of Vicki except ...that hadn't happened yet. Barnabas didn't remember Vicki being in 1795 until after she went back. Time travel on DS can be awful confusing. No reason why Josette couldn' thave just taken a liking to Vicki without a link to the past.
I did like how Josette and Sarah were opposed to Barnabas. I wish Josette's ghost had taken a stronger role in the present, but I guess that would have undercut Barnabas's angsty longing for her if she making more regular appearances.

DS had lots of sexy men, Quentin, Chris, Willie were all very attractive men, but my biggest crush was Joe, he was hella hot, and besides being physically beautiful he gave off a really sweet sincere personality, like he'd make a great husband. THe scene where Julia cuts his shirt open after Angelique left him for dead  is the hotest scene on all of DS for me. Woof woof!
Jeff is my second choice, also a very handsome man, and very devoted to Vicky. I've mentioned before how ethusiastic he was in his love scenes. You get the impression Jeff was one horny dude! He paws at Vicky ( and even Ned paws at his sister Sabrina ) like a junkyard dog in heat.

It is true, in DS love tens to push people into doing monstrous things. Love drives [spoiler]Angelique to destroy everyone around Barnabas, love drives Barnabas to try to embrace Josette, Maggie and Vicky as vampires, love drives Barnabas to kidnap Maggie and torment her, love drives Beth to try to kill Quentin.
Love also drives Julia to try to help Barnabas even as she covers up his crimes.[/spoiler]
There are examples of goodness in love, with the more pure loves of Joe/Maggie and Jeff/Vicky but there are many examples of how love destroys. DS certainly wasn't afraid to explore the dark side of human nature.
I hadn't though tabout it, but Barnabas really doesn't seek out redemption. He does change over time, but he never spends too much time trying to repent, he just moves forward. And even once Barnabas changes into the anti-hero figure, he still is presumably killing whores on the warf, we just don't see it or hear about it very much.

I really enjoyed both of the Maggie audiobooks. There will be spoilers here for the new audiobooks.

[spoiler]KLS is great of course as Maggie and Alec Newman does great supporting characters in each. KLS doing an early Julia in Clothes of Sand is great, a loving tribute to Grayson.
Clothes of Sand has Maggie recovering at Windcliff from being Brnabas's prisoner,and being tormented by a mysterious voice only she can hear. This story fills in the blanks as to Maggie's time at Windcliff and is a good story.
The second story has Maggie returning to Collinsport after her second release from Windcliff post 1971. The story does set the stage for where Maggie is in life at the new audio series. It's interesting that the story is set in Collinsport, not in Collinwood. The point of view is told from the little people, far away from the wealthy Collinses. Maggie steps up quite nicely as the heroine here, without Barnabas, Julia or Quentin to save the day. A mysterious stranger to town is offering people contact of sort with their lost loved ones, and shortly afterwards these people are dying gruesome deaths. Maggie sets out to save Collinsport even as her neighbors don't want her interference. I thought this one had a stronger story and gives Maggie a stronger role. It is nice how the two stories show Maggie at different points in her life, growth and change between the two stories are evident.[/spoiler]

I've really loved the Big Finish DS audios. I'm dying to find out more info about the next audiobooks, the narrarators, etc. I 've heard that the next season of full cast audios are going to have more ongoing storylines thru the seasons and the individual releases will tie more closely togather which suits the series imo. I've also read that more actors from the original series will be used. I hope that Nancy Barrett will join the cast as a full time cast member as Carolyn, I think her prescence would go a long way toward making the series feel more like DS should. The Collins family needs at least one "normal" non-supernatural family member.
I encourage every DS fan to check these audios out. New stories with the original cast revising their roles are a dream come true.

I 'd expect the frst movie will be Barnabas being beleased from his coffin , Viki 's arrival at Collinwood , and the Barnabas /Viki relationship . I bet Viki will be Josette 's reincarnation as in the 1991Revival . I hope we get a sequel to do the 1795 storyline . I would expect all the character from those storylines would be there , but probably no Quentin unless you get a 3rd movie .
I am 10 kinds of excited about this , Johnny Depp was my first pick for Barnabas and with him on board I think we'll see a big budget , big name actors , and high quality overall . I can't wait to hear more casting .

I am totally bitter that Vengeance never got released on audio . Maybe an adapted version of it could be released one day by Big Finish . It had a smaller cast than RtC , so it would be easier to get the cast togather.

Spoilers for Return to Collinwood ....


In the Return to Collinwood  cd play ( in 2004)  we learn that Joe and Maggie had been married and he had died over a decade ago .
So while it's sad that Joe died at least we know he left Wyndcliffe and did get to marry Maggie . I always had this romantic idea of Maggie and Joe falling in love again while they were both at Wyndcliffe . I also like to think they had children togather , although Return to Collinwood doesn't say anything about that one way or the other , leaving things open so that possibly Joe and Maggie's children could be created to play a role in a possible DS Next Generation .