Dear Dom:  I always assumed Cassandra enjoyed playing "mistress of the manor" to the hilt, now that she's actually married to a Collins for more than a week, and therefore finds time between tormenting her victims and scheming up new ways to push the Dream Curse forward (and to keep her hair at its tamest) to traipse down to Brewsters for some much needed retail therapy.

Ask Gothick about the butterfly peignoir. 

(Oh, Gothy -- my brother dropped a bunch of my old DS stuff from high school off last week, and somewhere in the pile was your old story, "Many Secrets"!  I can't wait to dive into it again!!!  Lunch at the Lavender Guppy ...)

Yeah, but there's always something kinda awesome about watching Grayson Hall chew the scenery -- she's such a smart actress that you KNOW it was an intentional choice.  She knew she could go big, and baby, that's just what she did!

I'm watching 1795 (on hyperdrive; having watched it through several times, I tend to fastforward quite a bit after Angelique makes her exit out of the courtroom), and I'm fascinated at the way Jonathan Frid transforms from naive young man waiting for his fiance to arrive to tormented and vengeful vampire.  The way he persecutes Trask, strangles Suki, and stalks Maude Browning demonstrates how savvy the writers were -- as well as stalwart directors like Lela Swift and performers like Frid himself -- while showing the audience how Barnabas became the cold-blooded (and yet, somehow still tragic) murderer we see in 1967 ... and then again when Vicki returns to the present.  Good stuff.

Oh, dear Dom!  I had a similar experience -- my best friend's mother showed me all her DS scrapbooks from the original run, comprised, for the most part, of 16 Magazine clippings, including -- and those of you who know me know how much I love this photo -- the very famous shot of Cassandra, Adam, Nicholas, and a fanged Barnabas all looming over Vicki.  When I think of DS, I think of that shot. 

One of the clippings contained in the scrapbook explained that Angelique the vampire was also known as Cassandra, and I became absolutely entranced with her dark hair and, I suppose, her versatility (modern, Mary Quant-wearing wife and vampire vixen at the same time?!?  What a wonderful idea!) 

Dom, Gothick, and I should all form a Cassandra-forever club.

This episode includes one of my all-time favorite DS scenes -- Angelique Classic, shedding her Cassandra persona (and probably several black hairs on the ugly green sofa in the drawing room), declares to Barnabas her intentions with the Dream Curse.  Lara is in fine form as her voice shivers into near furious hysteria as she cries, "And the dark and terrifying thing you find there will turn your buh-lood to ICE-UH!"

That's my girl.   

I have that story printed off somewhere ... I think it was called "Many Secrets" and much of it took place in the Lavender Guppy, a lovely answer to the Blue Whale.

I would wear the HELL out of the peignoir.

Cassandra looks fairly fabulous in that flowing peach-colored nightgown.

I was thinking today how well she's adjusted to modern life -- assuming she followed Vicki from 1795 to the present without visiting Barnabas' tomb every year on the anniversary of his vampirization (what?  not a word?), she's exceptionally comfortable with life in 1968 Maine.  Graduate school?  California?  Not bad for a naive little witch fresh off the plantation.