[A couple of hours later]

Oh, I found everything now when I re-logged in.  

I'm not sure what the cause of my confusion was.  I had the same experience when I had logged in a couple of days ago.  I think I was brought directly into the "Current Talk" page when I logged in, and therefore did not see the Main Page.

Or maybe I went directly into the "Current Talk" page both times without realizing it ...

Maybe I'm going crazy ...

I see no "Gateway" or any access otherwise to an "Archive."

I do not see a "new category diplaying below Why Register" described on the main page.  I do not see anything labeled "Why Register".  Nor do I understand what this means.  Is that a topic, a thread, or something I'm supposed to see at the bottom of the page?

I do not see "Testing 1 ... 2 ... 3" or anything other than the Current Talk board.

I am extremely confused.



Also, I was going to copy and paste information from the explanatory post, and find I am unable to copy from posts anymore!  What's going on?

?!?

Well, I've looked at the website, and I still can't make heads or tails of what this show was about.  I'd never heard of it before.  Was it something like "Dr. Who"?  ?!?

I'm finding all of this Tom Jennings vampire business very exciting!

I'm in an enviable position: I've never seen the current episodes. I haven't seen a single episode between now and the arrival of Amy at Collinwood.

That begins Quentin and the antique telephone, Beth, and that whole bit, of which I've seen approximately 30 episodes.  After that, I'll have a whole new slew of episodes that I've never seen, leading up to the first episode of 1897.

I'm going to try to savor every moment ...

Thanks for your comments.  

I used the term "mimicry" for lack of a better term in my post above. Perhaps "play-acting" would be more accurate.  I thought of this last night when I saw the episode where Joe Haskell drops by the House by the Sea and is greeted by the "emotionally distressed" Angelique (I'm a few days behind in my viewing).

Given the elaborate story she spun for Joe about being held prisoner by Nicholas, it appears that our mortal/witch/mortal/vampire gal gets a kick out of play-acting with a number of different scenarios -- religious enthusiast, Victoria's savior, damsel in distress ... I wonder what other roles she has up her sleeve!

I'm a bit late with this, but since I had referred to this as upcoming a week or two ago, I feel I ought to follow up on my own comments.

What am I talking about? The newly risen Angelique's "resurrection" appearance to Victoria Winters in the locked room of the House by the Sea. The scene appears to parody one of Christ's resurrection appearances in the gospel accounts of the Bible.

Consider that in the scene prior to this, Angelique and Nicholas discuss the biblical Adam and Eve. Interesting to observe that these two servants of Darkness have no quibbles with the Bible story of Adam being the first man, etc., as is told in the book of Genesis. I think it's significant that this biblical context is present in this episode, because it lends some credence to my conclusions regarding the following scene between Angelique and Vicki.

As background, in the Bible, after the crucifixion, Jesus suddenly appears in a locked room to his disciples. They say he must be a ghost. He says he is not a ghost and instructs them to touch him: he is flesh and blood, as they are. (In one of his appearances, I'm not sure if this is the same one, the risen Lord holds out his hands for the disciples to touch.)

In the scene in question, Angelique enters Victoria's locked room. Vicki says it's impossible, that Angelique is dead: You must be a ghost!  Angelique says she is not a ghost, holds out her hands, and tells Vicki to touch her: she is flesh and blood, she says, like Vicki.

The action and dialogue (which is very close to what I've included above, though I don't have a word-for-word transcription) takes only a few seconds, but the parallels with the Bible scene seem unmistakable. I'm still not sure whether I think this was a conscious attempt to briefly mimic a well-known event of the Bible (which anyone who grew up attending a church would be familiar with) or if the scene emerged from the writer's unconscious mind  -  though I'd opt for the former.

If the scene was a conscious parody of the Bible scene, it's no wonder certain conservative Christian groups thought the show was evil. Though of course the likelihood that any of them saw this particular episode is low, unless they watched the show regularly.  

Should Christians be offended?

I don't think so. After all, Angelique and Nicholas represent the powers of evil here.  Further, for Angelique to parody something in the Bible would be in keeping with her earlier pretense of "getting religion"  -  she's down on her knees and ecstatically proclaims, "I think it must be religion!" duping the Rev. Trask back in Martinique in 1795 when he's grilling her on her religious background. (That scene seems to parody a Pentacostal-type religious experience.)

Religious mimicry seems part of Angelique's demonic repertoire.

I thought I detected a Hawthorne influence on page 1, Chapter 1 (the description of Collinwood reminiscent of Hawthorne's personifications of the House of the Seven Gables) -- now I know it wasn't "just me"!

Now I think I'll have to re-read "Rappaccini's Daughter" --- just to get the images out of my mind from the godawful movie version "Tales of Terror" or whatever it was.

Wish I could provide more useful comments, but I've only finished Chapter 2.  Was thrilled to find out about Quentin's portrait though!

This serialization format is a very Dickensian experience!