I'd be interested in knowing if there are any photos of the interior, or any blueprints/floor plans.

I have drawn a tentative diagram myself (of the Old House).  And believe me, it was pretty difficult trying to cram 12 bedrooms upstairs they would have had to have with all family and guests living there (Joshua/Naomi, Abagail, Barnabas, Jeremiah, Sarah, Vicki, Josette, Andre, Natalie, Angelique, Millicent, Daniel)!!! 

[spoiler]Personally I'm outraged at the 1897 storyline for never showing the origin and significance of Mr. Juggins.   And they say 1840 had a lot of loose ends...![/spoiler]

See the DS Redux thread.....

[spoiler]Oscar Juggins?  [/spoiler]

LOL, I know you weren't actually suggesting this, Lydia, but when you said that Michael Maitland could have been David's friend and been the one possessed by Quentin, I had this bizarre image flash in my head of Miichale dressed in the 1897 suit and David in tn the dress, saying the line "And you can call me 'Beth'" !!!! 

If I haven't mentioned this before, I LOVE the model of Collinwood.  I just wish it better fit with the actual location.

Also, while on the opening credits, I don’t like the theme all that much.  There is something … tinny and insubstantial to it and the florish at the end is rather cheesy IMO.

Technical nitpick:  I’ve had blood drawn before.  The position of the needle in relation to the arm and even the vein were totally wrong.

Barnabas certainly has a romantic way with words the way he describes his every physical sensation throughout the stages of the experiment.  Then we discover, that he wrote poetry to Josette.  How sweet.

Willie cleans up pretty good.  If only something could done about those billy bob teeth…  I liked how he described himself to his Aunt as Barnabas’ amanuensis.  Willie seems to feel very close to Barnabas.  I would guess with his power’s fading as his blood turns more normal, that his supernatural hold over Willie would fade, but Willie has seemingly become quite fond of Barnabas, with all his talk of going fishing and water rafting and teaching him to drive…

And at last a hint.  Mrs. Johnson’s comment to Willie about his father “God rest his soul” Mrs. Johnson's brother? Brother-in-law?

David’s nightmare was cool.  And I have to comment again.  He’s gone from hellion to angel in 2-3 eps.  I accept that Victoria is a phenomenal teacher, but it still jars that David has affected such a change and formed such a rapport with Vicky without the viewers having seen so much as a single scene between them to communicate this change.  It all happens off screen and we are told about it.  The writer in me keeps screaming that his is wrong.   

Carolyn is much more tolerable when she doesn’t act as if she is going eat every other character alive.  It was nice seeing her show some genuine tenderness toward Joe and finally, a hint of some back story that isn’t just told us as a fait accompli.

Ten weeks?  Wow, and Julia is still around and Joe too apparently (since that is the excuse she is using to Michael to still be hanging around).  If this story was being told today, the HMO's would be screaming bloody murder that Dr. Hoffman is still treating a simple case of blood loss after ten weeks! 

The blood exploding into dust reminds me of a certain other supernatural show that would have quite a cult following in a few years    though after the first sample exploding like that, why could Julia not have contained subsequent samples so she doesn’t have to clean up broken glass and powdered blood every time?

Julia is quite beautiful, in her own way more so than Vicki or Carolyn.

Ah, our first glimpse of the new Josette painting.  Much better, IMO and much easier to see the resemblance between Josette and Vicki.

As far as the locals knowing and believing there is a genuine vampire around, at least they are smart enough to make the logical connection between the murders and the only new face in town….the confrontation at the old house with Sheriff Patterson and Woodard was tense. Even I was on the edge of my seat…

I’m curious. The Sheriff and Julia remark that all either Barn or Willie need to do if they need anything is to call makes no sense.  Call using what?  There is no phone and no electricity.

Dang, but Woodard is a sloppy snoop.  And despite actually believing there is a vampire loose and learning that his trusted friend and colleague is shielding this creature of the night, he seems to go from cool as a cucumber to dotty scary old man.  Did he not think that the first thing Julia would do when she saw the mess he’d left behind was warn Barnabas?  Why did he not go immediately to the sheriff’s office and wait?  I certainly wouldn’t want to be alone after having learned what I had and not have stakes and crosses and holy water nearby, if not on my person at all times….tsk.tsk. 

The vampire love story moves on a pace and is okay as far as it goes.  The show continues to grow on me, with some real suspense in the several Barnabas scenes during his treatment.  Some of the peripheral characters get some more fleshing out but there is still frustrating lack of character development for most of the cast that aren’t directly part of the vampire story.  Barnabas, Julia and Willie are still the center of the story and are written best.  Victoria, only insofar as she is suspected to be the reincarnated soul of Josette,  is still on the periphery.  So far there is no evidence pointing toward that other than her resemblance.  Apart from that, she had no character and is just a cipher ingénue. 

I wonder how Roger, that old skeptic of anything supernatural, was able to rationalize the mysterious writing of his father's name on the mirror then seeing it fade away? Probably just another case of 'mass-halluciniating' in his mind, knowing him.

I'm a big fan of the "JAMISON" scene too, and this period of the show seems to mark a turning point, where Scully like  skeptics such as  Roger keep having their skepticism chipped away at [spoiler]until the memorable scene when Roger is at the door of Collinwood (Quentin having completely possessed the children and driving them out of the house) shouts his defiance that he will get his son back.[/spoiler]

I wonder if it was Quentin taunting them with writing the name or if it was Magda trying to give them some clues (like the book and the letter last ep) to try to avert what is to come.....

As much as I like JF, it's kind of nice to focus on some of the other characters for a change.  This is nothing against Barnabas at all, but I find that I am not missing him during these episodes. 

Is this the first time we see the secret panel in the drawing room that leads to the West Wing?  I loved the chair being moved back into place (by Quentin?) after David and Amy go through the panel.

Looking back, it really seems the writers had their ducks in a row setting this story up.  It's creepy and well structured.  In many ways, much more subtle and layered than Adam/Dream Curse.  It's like after 1795, there was a knee jerk reaction and everyone was like "MONSTER MASH!!!!" but after awhile, deliberately pulled themselves back to build up some genuine creeps.

I like the chemistry between Chris and Carolyn, too. [spoiler]Too bad they're distant cousins, although the werewolf thing was worse.

[spoiler]Pretty distantly related cousins by this time though, yes?  Had things gone a different way, I don't see any reason why they would have been denied a marriage license.  It's not like they were brother and sister or first cousins. [/spoiler]