but is part of the reason that people find barnabas' actions so despicable here being that carl was played by john karlen?

what if a new,unknown actor had been hired to play carl for his 11 episodes?would people still be so shocked?

conversely what if carl had been played with hair-touching finesse by roger davis?would some even find this mildly entertaining?

in other words is part of the outrage over this crime a transference of affection for john karlen/willie loomis?

true,they could have had barnabas place carl under his control(like beth and charity)but if karlen wanted to leave anyway what would have been the point of this?they got the most bang for their buck as this played out.

(breathing a hearty sigh of relief)

thank you mysterious for posting this outside of the spoiler box.

for years this one particular plot development seems to get "spoilered" more than any other and i think it's obvious most of us know all about it.

i just started the book yesterday so i'll reserve judgement until i'm finished however...

there are few glaring implausabilities right off the bat.

[spoiler]barnabas as persian rug salesman and "poor relation"?i think not.

and elizabeth would never,ever open up collinwood to tourist groups.ever.[/spoiler]

as someone else pointed out i'm not sure how familiar lara parker really is today with these characters.

i didn't "log in" yesterday so i missed the floating jar of mayo.phoey!

indeed the mayonnaise encounter was a priceless scene.

i recall reassurences on maggie's part that the mayo was as "fresh as a daisy" and that she had just opened the jar herself that morning.

but mrs.j was having none of it!

i have tried to stay out of this conversation because i didn't know craig personally.

but the lack of mention of one's life partner in an obituary is a signifigant slight to say the least.when a heterosexual person dies you can bet his or her spouse and children will get words of condolence.

connie,
i'm sorry to hear that you find the subject under discusion here to be "disturbing" and "in poor taste".

i tried not to let the plot development under discusion here upset me too much because in truth i had already "mourned" the loss of vicki when alexandra left the show a year earlier.

but since the reappearance of peter bradford here is roger davis' final appearance(i believe)on the show i wonder if this was just a way to work out the end of his contract and they weren't really thinking about the implications of it all.

also since the fans were experiencing something of a "disconnect" during this part of the show i wonder if they thought that maybe by re-introducing characters the fans felt connected to was a way to involve the audience again?

at any rate this was probably the strangest and most annoying plot twist ever on the show.

i've been re-watching the early part of the laura collins story.

one of the things that is standing out for me most is the character of maggie evans.

in these early episodes she is the absolute most ridiculous,gossipy,busybody ever!

i had forgotten about this nature of the character.in a few episodes maggie actually leaves her station behind the counter,pours herself a cup of coffee,and sits down with her customer and blabs and blabs and blabs...she just spills the beans on everyone.

in one scene poor burke suffered the indignity of having to go behind the counter to fix himself a cup...and he topped off maggie to boot!

i've been seeing the character in the post-josette,ingenue mode for so long i kind of forgot about this nature of maggie.it reminded me of what i first loved about her.she's a blabbermouth but still apple-cheeked and sweet.it's a nice duality.

for those unfamiliar with this part of the show it's quite something to see.