We pick up with Charity the klutz in the cellar, of course getting herself caught even by the not so perceptive Edward.  (This now confirms -- as if we needed it confirmed -- that the native earth thing was merely a plot devise to get her caught so Edward, Trask and Co can get  info on Barnabas.)

Good girl Charity – there’s a brain in there.  She is doing this whole thing about being afraid of Barnabas and horrified by it all, JUST to fool Edward.  Quite a skillful act, makes you wonder whether she’d done the same – and had it work – when dealing with one or both of her parents.

Odd effect when Barn is in Charity’s room.  The BG music just STOPS.  For a moment I thought the DVD froze on me, but there was movement , so it was just a music blooper.

Oh, Charity is GOOD.  She managed to play her father so well, feeding right into his ego.  She’s doing well at fooling him too – until Edward uses his head and makes a very sensible suggestion that Barnabas will have to contact Charity, so to find Barnabas they stay with Charity.

Someone REALLY needs to give Barnabas a watch!  Once again he’s trapped far from safety way too close to beddy bye time.  Unfortunately she overplays her hand – thanks to Barn’s carelessness.  Lovely, time is of the essence and Barn stops to gloat over the earth he takes from the purse, rather than beating a hasty retreat.

Oh here we go again, he’s calling to her, and it is SOO much chapter and verse from Dracula.  Locking her up, the garlic, the crosses on the window that the victim removes because of the siren song of the vampire’s call.   That doesn't even touch on her vampire lady nightdress, or the out of period loose flowing hair. Taeylor, I think you're absolutely right, Trask would have burned the thing if he'd found it.   Anyone know what copyright law was in 1968 regarding a novel written in 1897?

Jeannie

Since according to Barnabas, Dirk had to "do what I ask you to do," I sure wish the vampire had asked him to stop overacting.  Sheesh.

 

Beth:  "He's going to die.  ... Oh no."
Was she really grieving for Dirk, as Barnabas said?  Or was she troubled that his death would mess up Barnabas' plan?  Because I would swear that in the last ep, she said she was okay with Barnabas doing whatever he needed to do to stop Dirk from talking.

Here's a thought on that.  She was ok with it in the abstract perhaps, but actually seeing someone she knows -- and was at least friendly with, whether you perceive them as being involved pre-Quentin or not -- dying could be a completely different thing.  Her track record is that she does care about people, whether they deserve it or not.

Interesting that a servant would refer to the Collinwood drawing room as the "living room."

I wondered about that too.  Unknowable question is whether it was in the script or whether it was a case of blanking on the words and saying what came to mind.

Barnabas:  "I don't know what to say, Jamison."
Well, for starters you could call him Edward, cuz that's who's in the room with you.

 

Quote from: Pansity on May 17, 2009, 04:33:46 PM

Seems that chomping on the kid for some reason never crosses Barn’s mind.  Odd, since he was all gung ho to kill David before the 1795 time travel intervened.

Noooo.  Jamison is key to the future of the Collins family.  And, prior to Vicki's trip into the past, Barnabas was not the self-appointed family protector.

I should have been more specific.  Chomped to make him forget, not chomped for a midnight snack.  Or hypnotized, or any of those other esoteric powers they tend to give him when the script needs these things.   

Jeannie

Seriously, I think many things like that can be chalked up to a phenomenon someone needs to make a really good term for, where the gradual, ongoing rewriting of history changes the way later events in 1897 "originally" happened.   For instance, [spoiler]Beth the ghost's story to Julia which cannot possibly be the original story.[/spoiler]

Closest thing I can think of is the subgenre of Science Fiction known as Alternate History.  An event happens that causes time travel for one or a group of people, and their actions gradually change the timeline.  Googling Connie Willis, Dr. Harry Turtledove and Eric Flint will get you a TON of information on how various authors have written in this framework.  

Then of course there's Classic Trek's "City on the Edge of Forever" where a random action by a character who accidentally time travels destroys an entire future because someone who was supposed to have died doesn't.

Like the various explanations of the ripped shirt -- esp. Midnite's.    Course the real explanation is soaps and their gratuituously shirtless hunks.  I remember my best friend was hooked on a soap back in the early 80s -- and how we joked about there being a clause in the actors' contracts requiring one shirtless scene a week for no externally logical reason (we checked the frequency, kenneth.)  Put me in the schitzoid Gemini camp of trying to make plot sense of it, while having no objection whatsoever to enjoying the scenery.

I knew the wording on the curse sounded familiar.  <bops self on head>  As if we didn't hear that tape recording enough times for me to remember it was ripped off their explanation about Adam.

Thanks about my questioning Magda's logic on killing Quentin, and LOL on the Curses for Dummies.  Maybe we need a second copy for Angie and her "whoever loves you willl die".

Jeannie

Great point you guys are raising about why they chose to KILL Carl rather than send him off somewhere.  Of course it's anyone's guess why they decided to kill him, but once they did, they made excellent use of it.  One theory to think about is, when finding out Karlen was leaving, they decided to kill Carl -- and in THAT way -- to use it for character development for Quentin.

Think about it:  The death of Jenny and the curse are already starting to change him -- or let us see more of what's behind the mask he shows the world -- pick one. He's been doing things that horrified him, and he is learning empathy and compassion for others.  He's learning things about himself that he'd rather never have known.  Now he learns he's capable of knowingly leaving his brother to be killed -- then is later complicit when he IS killed. This isn't something he can listen to Beth and rationalize away because it was the creature did it, not him.  HE did this, and made a decision to do this -- and it wasn't the same kind of life and death panic that he faced with Jenny and the knife. KNOWING that he is capable of doing this, and has to keep living the charade, has GOT to have an effect on him.

Another interesting point -- I don't believe we ever find out what, if anything, he's tells Beth about this.   Given how things go with them later, I'm thinking maybe he thinks not even she could accept him if she knew what he'd done. On some levels that could even explain Amanda Harris, someone who only knows of him what he wants her to know, rather than both the good and bad of the person he really is.  Speaking of her also makes me think of his [spoiler]violently self loathing speech to Julia, expecting her to run in fear and disgust once he remembers who he is.[/spoiler]

As to Barnabas being an anti hero: Virtually all of the main characters of DS could be described that way. Only the degrees of good and bad in each of them varies.

Jeannie

Thanks so much Jeannie.  Great to read DS thoughts on President Obama!

T'wern't I -- T'was Ms.C. (Helpful hint:  If it's a news announcement, it's safe to assume it's her post.   )

It was a lovely write up.  Something I really like about his writing is his ability to draw word pictures so you see through his eyes  -- and the little insertions of humor that keep it all down to earth.

Jeannie

We pick up with a new scene in which we find out that Barn is moving his digs back to the mausoleum.  He is so very confident that everything is going exactly the way he wants, and NO ONE could possibly find him in the mausoleum.  Every time I see that self satisfied smirk, I just KNOW that whatever he’s so confident about will come back and bite him. 

At least Magda has more sense, the way she bits her lip and shakes her head no.  And of course to confirm that Magda is waay smarter than Barnabas, here comes Carl, slinking terrified into the mausoleum because Pansy told him that’s where the vampire is.

Barn at Rachel’s graveside.  Reasonable looking gravestone for  a governess, and we find out that Rachel was born in 1876 and died at 21.

The more Angie keeps trying to warn Barn of what will go wrong, the more I think we’re dealing with both of them being time travelers.  He is bumbling around trying to piece it together and fix things, but she seems to KNOW exactly what will go wrong and keeps trying to give him warnings – which, being Barnabas, he promptly discounts/ignores.
I really like this scene between them.  You can really see Angie’s pov – and why she’s so upset, even hurt.  Apparently she’s been trying to be helpful, but every time it gets thrown in her face.  He’s not even willing to TRY and trust her, not once – even the times when he has nothing to lose by doing so.  So, she's hit the point of the heck with him, I give up, make a mess without my help  then try and get OUT of it without my help.

Barn is just NOT the most observant guy around.  He goes to the mausoleum as himself as opposed to a bat or a puff of smoke, and apparently doesn’t have a CLUE someone is outside watching him.  Carl is right there, not too many places to hide in the graveyard, not a lot of man sized gravestones that we’ve seen out there.   So much for his preternaturally heightened senses. AND he’s probably pissed off Angie, who might have tried to warn him.

Now we see the recently missing Quentin and Magda – but of all the stupid places for a conversation that desperately needs to stay private, the  Drawing Room would be on the top of my list.  Not to mention that the miraculously wandering gramophone has to be there too. LMAO Quentin has the conversation in such a public place, tells her to speak softly because the walls have ears (and what’s wrong with going up to his room?  Even using the never used or referred to since the spook killed Braithwaite secret passage from the Drawing room to the west wing, perhaps?)  Then to top it all off, instead of keeping the gramophone running to muffle voices, he shuts it OFF.  Even drunk he’s usually smarter than that.
But he does show some brains later, when he keeps wondering about why Magda is suddenly so willing to help him.  She almost blows it, and seems to come very close to telling him the real reason.  Good thing he was drunk, that story she substituted is about as thin as one of Barnabas’ alibi’s .

Now in bursts Carl, scared to death of Magda, and dealing with Quentin’s wisecracks.   This is an absolutely wonderful scene.  Carl all panicky and trying to convince the drunk Quentin to take him seriously.  Quentin is humoring Carl, but then picks up on the sense of what he’s saying.  “Our Cousin who never appears in the day.  Our Cousin who always appears at dusk”.  Once the pieces slip together, Quentin sobers up real quick, and his brain kicks into action.  OK something just hit me.  If he knows enough of the basic Vampire lore that he repeats in this scene, HOW did he NOT recognize the bite marks on Beth’s neck?

Selby shows Quentin’s conflict very nicely.  The script only has him indecisive about what to do.  The little bits of business show the deeper conflict, of where does it leave him if he destroys Barnabas, and perhaps the deeper question of how does he judge the victim of another curse when he’s done such terrible things under the influence of his own.

And here we come, up to one of the two scenes which permanently hooked me on the show back in 2002.  I’d caught the last ep by a pure fluke, and decided to start time shifting the next day so I could see the show from the beginning, as I’d not done on the original run. I think Scifi did this around the summer of  2001.  So, here I was happily time shifting watching and recording over the eps, enjoying the show but not enough to keep anything.  Then came 1897 – I recognized why I went so ga ga for Quentin when I was a kid, but still wasn’t saving anything.

Then we come to this episode, and this incident. A desperate Quentin, who by his own admission, doesn’t know WHAT he’s feeling, opens the secret room with Carl, takes the gun – and locks his brother in with the vampire to be killed.

That’s right folks, its all Karlen and Selby’s fault I got hooked.  That’s my story and Im sticking to it.  The scene and its conflicts are absolutely marvelous, and Quentin’s action isn’t really predictable in any way, it just COMES on the spur of the moment.  “I only ever do what I must. The last seat in the lifeboat desperation of the scene and the playing to perfection by two excellent actors , may remind the  Blake’s 7 fans of the climax of an episode called Orbit.

Karlen’s playing of Carl's rising panic and horror, Quentin’s question about whether Carl knows how to get out (is he giving him an out, trying to relieve his conscience or just playing with Carl is very wide open).  Carl apparently believes implicity that Quentin WILL shoot him, else he would have made a break for it.   Now that could be an interesting alternative – them in a fistfight as the door is closing. Quentin doesn’t seem to know what he wants to do, except keep Barnabas from being found out so he can still get help. Carl’s screams as the door closes, and the look of horror  and guilt on Quentin’s face as the door closes. Yet he stays and listens to Carl’s screams, even as guilt stricken as he is, rather than following his usual pattern of running like hell and drowning the horror in booze. There’s so many levels of character development there for both characters, with both actors having the skill and ability to make the most of their character’s reactions.

Our next scene is Quentin cornering Magda in the Old House.  NOW he knows enough to recognize vampire marks – or a lack thereof.  Magda ends up playing a wild card and asking Angelique for help.  Amusing thing is she asks Ang to do what Barn himself should have been able to do – make Carl forget what he saw.  But Ang has has enough of hauling Barn’s bacon out of the fire and says no.  He has to learn that he DOES need her. (And she’s got an excellent point – a lot of Barn’s troubles come from ignoring her and he’s only escaped unscathed cause she saved him).

Carl in the mausoleum marking time, and panicking.   LOL love the part where he bangs on the coffin in frustratin, then is terrified he woke the vamp.  Then a little voice tells him to think logically and try to reason out how the door works, like one of his Chinese puzzles.  And he finds the latch (If I remember he’s the only one discovered on his own how to do that).  He escapes and flips out in hysterics and darn near pulls over the Styrofoam gravestone in the process.

Jeannie

We open with Judith being consoled by Trask about her victimization, and find out that she is blessedly ignorant of the fact that Dirk forced her to murder Rachel.  She is just trusting as all getout and totally relying on the smarm Gregory.  Hm, makes me wonder if there’s some connection with smart women being bitten by vamps, and they’re going completely unperceptive and downright stupid afterward.  Any takers?

Tim is an idiot, bursting into Collinwood that way, even if he thinks he has the upper hand.  There’s serious irony in Trask’s line “it’s easy to accuse, Timothy but harder to prove.”  Isn’t that just the kind of circumstantial evidence he has against Tim? Nothing but HIS word that it’s not a natural death.  I doubt the Collinsport coroner (probably the local GP to boot) has anything even resembling what would be the period equivalent of a tox screen.

Poor Judith,  she still has enough brains and fairness to completely analyze Tim’s story and compare it to her memories of coming back to the house.   She knows, and can’t pretend she doesn’t know, that Tim is telling the truth about the period she doesn’t remember.   JB did a great job with this scene.  And there’s Gregory lurking like a spider to pick up the pieces.   Ohh we see just how evil Trask is in this scene, as the audience knows what Judith does not – that Trask put Tim under the same kind of spell to kill his wife.  What a lovely look at hypocrisy at its finest.  Its not Judith’s fault because she was under a spell, yet Tim is fully to blame though he was under a similar spell.   I think Trask overplayed his hand going after Tim so gung ho, apparently for no reason other than revenge. If it had been brushed off as natural causes in a woman of a certain age, it all would have gone away very quietly – and ironically, would have kept a lot of future events from happening (probably including Tim’s  introducing to Collinsport one Amanda  Harris.)

You do see in these scenes the beginnings of the calculating, on the make Tim Shaw that we see later.  Nice job by Don Briscoe. Yet, in retrospect, you wonder how much of the operator was there under the surface, such as the way he fit in with the Trasks to the point where he was going to marry Charity.

Hmm where have I heard Trask’s argument before?  YOU didn’t kill her, Dirk did.  Sounds like a replay of Beth and Quentin about the werewolf.  Notice that neither Judith nor Quentin bought it – both KNEW (even the self absorbed irresponsible Quentin) that in the long run they were the ones responsible.  Very skilled manipulator there, he turns her fear of the gallows into hurting HIM if she died. Wait, did he say Sheriff DRUMMOND?  Anyone know if that was really the guy’s name or a blooper?

And into this mess comes Carl, babbling about how Edward should have stopped in mid staking to ask Dirk about Pansy.  Self absorption  runs rampant in this family, doesn’t it.   He does show he has brains about some things, and an inconvenient curiosity  on the same level as Quentin’s.  Judith wants Rachel buried right away, Carl thinks this sounds weird and won’t let it go.  Once again, as with at Quentin’s coffin, we see under the jolly joker mask that Carl can be quite a determined and ruthless character. (I'm reminded of Clau-clau-claudius again).

And, with a musical cue, we see Tim meet the shade of Pansy Faye.  But it seems he’s not the droid she’s looking for.
Ugh is it not creepy to watch Trask doing the service for Rachel?  Surely the last person on earth SHE’D want to have done it. Pretty sparcely attended too, wonder if that was deliberate staging or the 5 castmembers rule again?  No Edward, Charity, teachers from the school, or house servants from Collinwood (Q missing too, but he’d probably have ducked it anyway).  Not even pallbearers or gravediggers, it seems to be implied that Carl and Tim did all that themselves.

Ok, now Pansy's music is starting to bug me.  NO one questions music from a gramophone in either the Old House or the cemetery.  Is it supposed to be a clue they’re ignoring that it’s a spook?  Or  did the production people just not think to have her sing the music a capella?

And we have a fadeout as Carl finally realizes that music in the graveyard means a dead Pansy.

Jeannie

Sorry to have missed your birthday. (Life, the universe, and everything.  I noticed to my embarrassment I haven't been on here to post in close to a week!)

  Hope it was a great one!

 

Jeannie