I like what you say about Carolyn, MT, and I entirely agree. She has left the frugging, spoiled willful teenager whom Joe watched in dismay at the BW far, far behind her. Her actions in the future will show how true this is. What a shame no one--not even her mother--thinks of her as the future Mistress of Collinwood. One has to wonder why David was the designated heir.

I think we're supposed to be persuaded that Vicki has seen beneath David's exterior and knows there's a scared little kid way, deep down.

My bet would be that Elizabeth signed the papers putting Carolyn in charge some time ago. She was probably all too aware of Roger's unsuitability. Sure, she probably hoped that Joe would provide a steadying hand, but she was probably also aware of Carolyn's deep loyalty to the family--which we are now beginning to see but which I suspect was always latent. And Carolyn was loyal to her personally, probably far more than Roger was, since he spent so much time away from home--first at school when he was a boy, and until a short time ago in Augusta.

MT, I can see why you're cross about the writers' mixing ESP and the supernatural, but maybe ESP is part of Laura's bag of tricks.

Frank first mentions Peter Guthrie of Dartmouth College in far-off New Hampshire, our first outside expert.

I've always thought that the Collins universe is dotted with small private cemeteries, one for each of the great families. Maybe the crypt keepers got together to swap yarns and records books.

Gee, a boy isn't allowed to like a music box without having his sexuality questioned? 

I know, I know. But I was thinking in the context of 1967, when there were girls' toys and boys' toys--and never the twain did meet. And I know too that technically the music box wasn't a toy per se but something that belonged to Laura, and that's why David was so eager to have it.

Yes, he did. That's even weirder.

I've always thought this must be a private cemetery. I love the way the caretaker goes on and on about the "might name of Stockbridge" and the relish with which he describes the gruesome deaths of various family members.

When Vicki and Frank return to Collinwood, Vicki invites him in for a nightcap. Totally oblivious of any DWI laws that might have been on the books, Frank says to make it a double!

Haughtily, Laura tells Vicki, I'm descended from one of the oldest and finest families in the area. Roger tells Frank that the Phoenix police have determined beyond a doubt that the woman who died in the fire was Laura Murdoch Collins. I think that's very amusing! he chortles. Vicki says softly to herself, "Laura Murdoch Collins ... died by fire...." Frank looks at Laura, who seems uncomfortably beneath her stony exterior.

If, in this iteration of the story, the family knows that Barnabas is a vampire, that would explain why nobody seems shocked at those awful talons Depp is sporting. Otherwise, ignoring those would have strained even the Collinses' credulity.