Poor Amy.  Her situation just breaks my heart and Denise is so earnest.  She seems to have such a wonderful chemistry with everyone so far, even Stokes who she only met for a minute.  She is a strange one, hearing and understanding the widows.  Perhaps whatever supernatural affinity she has (through her bloodline?) that allows her to talk to Quentin also lets her talk to the widows....

Didn't Vicki's nightgown once belong to Carolyn?

Betsy after her last appearance not annoying me, got a bit on my nerves here.  The only thing that got me through it was imagining Alexandra Moltke in her place.  And just how foolish was Stokes telling a grieving wife that the only way to join her husband was to die?!?!? 

Interesting during the closing credits... I don't recall the show changing cameras, yet today we start out on Vicki's bedroom, then abruptly change to a camera trained on the foyer...

My notes on episode 2 --

Michael T Weiss is HOT HOT HOT.  But I thought at first his sexy stubble was because he rarely shaved because he's a fisherman.  This episode it's now obvious that he manicures that 5 o'clock shadow as if he was Wham's number 1 fan! 

When Woodard came in I could almost see DC with the other writers ticking off a checklist of Vampire Movie Cliche's:

give a cross to the victim, check.
the ones who look after her fall asleep, check.
the victim rips off the cross and goes walkabout, check

I am again reminded of my comment last week.  Moving Daphne to the first floor is a BAD idea.  I agree with Lydia - the kissey face with Daphne had me rolling my eyes.  Later, with Joe, because of his and Daphne's relationship, it makes a kind of sense, but here, it just looks, ew.  And definitely gives the lie to Barnabas' later protestations that he hates his existence.

"Harker."  cute.

Okay, but damn is he a messy eater or what?  For someone who lives on blood, I find it odd that he would leave behind so much of it and sprayed around so liberally.  It kind of took me out of the narrative.

Rain during a funeral, check.

The minister - obviously he is in a hurry to get out of the rain because he is speeding through that ceremony like nobody's business.  And is Daphne's favorite Psalm really 23???    Now, I've been to funerals where the minister obviously didn't know the deceased from Adam's off ox, so I kind of got the feeling this was written that way, but the performance was more like "Hey, buddy, can you speed it up a little? We need to get this in the can and move on to scene 104." Three takes later, DC is having a fit.  "We're running out of water, the designer costumes are being ruined and the scene's STILL TOO LONG.  SPEED IT THE F**K UP!"   

Daphne - I seem to recall she was a pretty regular kind of girl, fairly straight hair, subtle make-up, sensible dresser.  I would have thought, when she was being prepared for burial, this would have been taken into account.  So, either the funeral parlor thought they were being funny by perming and teasing her hair (adding some length too), troweling on half a stick of harlot red lipstick, and dressing her in a low cut diaphanous gown they picked up half price at Tramps R Us ("It's gonna be closed casket anyway, no one will see") or Daphne upon waking up, did all this to herself before she ventured out to terrorize David.  Again, it pulled me out of the narrative, wondering "Did they really bury her dressed like that?"

An aside - it's rarely talked about in these kinds of stories because, well, it's like toilets, in that we know they are there, and that the characters must use them, but they are never ever mentioned or talked about.  Embalming.  Unless there is a specific religious restriction or the deceased is being cremated, I can imagine few other instances where the body would not be be embalmed in the modern way.  Given that the back story here is that that a cell in the victim's body needs blood to survive and so in some way as yet unexplained causes a mutagenic change the carrier of this "disease" making them rise to rise after death to seek the nourishment it craves, I would think that the process of embalming, would pretty much destroy this process.  Obviously, Barnabas is an exception, as 200 years ago, most people when they died were simply buried asap, before they started to stink up the place.  Anyway, that is just me, thinking too much.  Generally, I let it go because, that is just one of the things one has to ignore in stories of this kind.  And while Julia is convinced this is simply a biological problem that can be solved by science, we see an early example of her hubris, convinced despite both Woodard's and Barnabas' warnings that this is beyond the realm of science.  Anyway, end of aside.

*sigh* smoking at the dinner table, heck, smoking inside the house!  Those were the days.....

Like Lydia and mscbryk, I too found the introduction of the concept of vampires to be early, not to mentioned rushed.  Woodard came off looking like a complete fool.  I think a better actor (or some different direction) might have conveyed the concerns a bit more earnestly and upped the creep factor a bit, something that they were going for in the next scene when Joe goes to the Collins mausoleum, whick is covered in dust and years of cobwebs.  Despite this, all I could think was, "Why didn't they tidy it up a bit for it's newest tenant?"

Why is Joe not in a hospital?  For that matter, why isn't he restrained?  One thinks they would have learned their lesson with Daphne.

Misread the Tarot Death card as meaning literal death, check.

Cool old dilapidated greenhouse.  I thought at first that it was on the Collinwood estate, probably because I suppose I assumed that since Roger was picking up Maggie "to take her to the estate" that their scene was actually on the estate. (I think I remember thinking when I first watched the original broadcast, that it must Roger's studio, or am I remembering something from a future episode?)  But now I am confused, because it seems to be Maggie's place. She doesn't live there does she?  Anyway, his and Maggie conversation about the need to create never going away was interesting.  Despite her misreading of the cards, I liked that brief scene with her pop too.  She quickly became a character I liked.  She has a down to earthiness about her that makes her more real than many of the other characters right now. 

Right now I still am having a lot of trouble liking Barnabas.  His final scene with Julia was well played and meant to elicit sympathy for him, and I wanted to believe that he was telling truth and was disgusted by his curse and his behavior.  But his actions to date mitigate very heavily against his words.  He turns Daphne, and then makes no effort whatsoever to rescue her from his own cursed existence by getting to her first to destroy her.  He is nowhere to be found during the bulk of this episode when Daphne is on the rampage.  Obviously, the "trip to Boston" was a lie to cover for him not being around during the day, but how many days have passed since he killed her?  At least a couple to arrange the funeral (I am guessing that a new vampire doesn't rise immediately the next night), then the night she scares David, and bites Joe.  Is it only one more day, where Joe is treated and then that next night Daphne is cornered and destroyed? So at minimum, four or five days, that Barn hides out at the Old House? or did he really go to Boston for a few days with a spare coffin and take care of some necessary business dealings in the evenings to keep him solvent?

Patterson and Woodard missed a perfect opportunity - they had Daphne restrained and helpless.  Did no one think to ask her who did this to her?  She had a few seconds of human lucidity before she died, too, but that was all about Joe and her, not trying to solve three murders.

Anyway, along with the whole Daphne episode, to me he sounded incredibly insincere during his visit to Collinwood to apologize for not being around.  He does seem to have a modicum of gentlemenlyness, given that he didn't attack Julia the first chance he got, but that could also just be him "playing with his food."  I could tell he didn't really believe that Julia could affect any change in his nature through science.

Since at this point, we don't know anything about his origins, I'm having a hard time buying his line that he isn't inherently evil.

David of all people telling Amy they aren't allowed somewhere! LOL  And how strange and sad that Amy cuddles the phone the way she does after her scene with Chris.  She's already grown attached to the voice she's heard on the phone only twice. Spooky.

BD didn't annoy this episode.  I had a glimmer of hope that she might work out.  I like seeing her in a belted dress, instead of those frumpy A-lines.

Forgive me, is this the first time that Chris and Carolyn have mete (since the character showed back up in the show that is)?  They talk and act like there was some past mutual attraction.

Until her untimely demise, I am guessing from the Barmaid's outfit, she must moonlight (no pun intended) at the Blue Whale after her regular job at the Collinsport Inn Diner?   

The change is extremely basic, but for me, the worst part is that I can't get out of my mind the What's My Line segment with Alex Stevens in full Wolf make up!

Taeylor, I seem to have upset you and I apologize.  Please understand that my comment about Sam and Grayson was a light-hearted one, and it was never my intention to suggest the only reason she was on the show was because of Sam.

I certainly agree that DC was VERY loyal and enthusiastic toward his colleagues and therefore wanted them around.

Wait, that would have to have been Joshua...

Or Daniel.....

This is a great episode for new viewers to hop aboard.  Not too much story baggage to bog things down.  This is the storyline I have been waiting for to try to start watching regularly again and contribute to the Project.

[pointless aside]When I first saw DS in syndication, the local station showed from Barnabas' arrival to 1795 to Vicki's return and the introduction of Lang and Angelique's portrait.  Then the station took it off the air because of ratings!  Years later, I caught some of 1897 on Sci Fi (right around the time Count Petofi showed up) before my satellite service when kablooie.  Now I have the whole series on DVD and I still haven't got through a whole viewing of it.[/pointless aside]

The creature Liz describes is unseen and the scarier for it.  Amy is adorable, but a little strange at the same time - staring at Liz with those big soulful eyes.  I like that she and David strike up a rapport right away.  She isn't afraid of the dark and is intrigued by the idea of ghosts....

I like that the store room is dusty and cobwebbed, but when Amy finds the phone it looks like it's just been freshly dusted.  The lighting is great too especially on Amy's face when she talks on the phone the first time.

"hello, what's your name?"  All very innocent at first but I actually did get some shivers down my spine watching that scene tonight.

I have a little "aww!" moment whenever she says "Quen'in" 

Julia tells Elizabeth that the sedative she gave her will start to work quickly, but some time later, she is still wide awake enough to shoo David and Amy to bed.  I suspect either the sedative was not as strong as Julia thought, or with all the drugs she passes out, everyone is starting to build up a tolerance to them!

Unfortunately, like the the replacement Dr. Woodard, I am not nearly as invested in the character of Vicki now.  Sorry, Betsy, but Alex Moltke IS Victoria Winters.  I find myself wishing that Alex had stayed, Peter goes and she ends up pregnant (they did consummate the marriage! ) and they had gone through with a "Rosemary's Victoria's Baby" storyline.