I really like how this dream sequence is written, good job Violet!  All together, "NO!"

LOL  I guess EmeraldRose and I are the only ones so far who like the trippy dream.  There's a sadistic streak to its dialogue that makes it even more chilling-- a gutsy move when the subject matter is a child's death.  (Quentin to David: "Your short, little life.")  It seems it's not only the modern-day family that gets a dream personality makeover-- in one of Rachel's dreams, Judith is seen uncharacteristically laughing her head off.  I always wondered, btw, why the birthday party took place at the Old House instead of Collinwood.  And with all those blue candles lighting the mansion throughout the centuries, they put pink candles in a 12 year old boy's birthday cake? ... The horror!  I also thought Amy (not Nora ) should have been at the party too.

What I don't like about this dream is Nancy Barrett's high-pitched puppet voice.  Even my dog reacted when the puppet started singing "Happy Birthday."

I see they forgot to restage Josette to Barnabas in the dream.

I don't understand?!

Loved Quentin’s unknowing hit about the feeling about there being two Barnabas – one there watching them like something under a microscope, and the other off living his life somewhere else.

Me too.  Would that make it two Barnabi?

Hmm, technically speaking isn’t this the first time the ghost spoke?

I think it's the *only* time the ghost spoke.  And it didn't happen until David was dead, which I think shows that Quentin was able to communicate normally with the boy once they were on the same plane.  Of course, a ghost will later speak to a living person, which will blow this explanation all to hell.

Any theories on where Jamison’s dream came from?  Who made sure he had the dream to pass on the clues?  Only realistic suspects I see are the ghosts (more likely Beth) and Angelique as the most likely suspect.  She’s there, knows what will happen, and apparently wants them to succeed for whatever reasons of her own.

My guess is that Barnabas' astral presence in that century while his body remained in 1969 maintained a connection between the two periods.  I don't think Angelique sent the dream since [spoiler]she later shows up to press Barnabas to forget about his mission and return with her to his time.  If she was that concerned about his becoming trapped in the past, sending a dream about David's death would not have helped her cause.[/spoiler] Like I said, I'm just guessing.

Poor Quentin, trapped the drawing room for yet another conversation about the creature and killing it – and having to cover and pretend and not let anyone catch on.   He holds it together pretty well, until they start talking about poor mangled bloody Dorcas, then he snaps.

Why must he always take it out on the glassware?

Interesting that Barnabas chooses to explain Jamison’s dream to Judith in terms of modern psychology; that David Collins was created by Jamison to act out what’s troubling him.  I’m wondering whether  people in 1897 would have taken that seriously, given the bad reputation psychiatrists had at the time.

Also interesting, I think, is that in Europe at that same time, Freud was writing about dreams as the windows to our unconscious conflicts.

The dream lasted 10 minutes, btw-- not quite half the ep but darn close to it.

(sorry. got carried away)

It's not a problem now that the setup was edited out due to:

ONLY RESPONSES WILL BE LIMITED TO 275 CHARACTERS.

OMG, the original is online!!

WTF Moment On Morning TV

Milestones: ...

1. The first time Quentin mentioned suicide.

I'm sure you meant to say his own suicide.  He told a story about someone else's suicide.

Laura "died by fire" (again). Since Angelique made her old, was she destroyed? If so, this might be the first time we saw a Phoenix being destroyed.

Oh, that wasn't her destruction.  Angelique only made the Phoenix look like her true age, but it had no effect on Laura's powers.  Besides, if she's destined to be David's mother, destroying her would have been a huge mistake.

In the opening voiceover, LE said, "Only Barnabas Collins is aware that the safety of Jamison and Nora is vital to the whole future of the Collins family." Actually, that statement is inaccurate, because Angelique knew this, too.

Good point.

I hope your special day was fantastic, coterie-mc!

Gail Strickland did the VO?  WOW! I thought it was Joan!  My tapes are very old though and the sound is horrid.  OH WELL...

I remember a discussion about this before and the consensus then among board cousins was that it was JB.  And after listening to it again, I'm convinced that it was Joan.

When I said "eaten" I didn't mean it literally!  Sorry for the confusion!  I guess that wasn't the right word.    I thought I saw her hand disembodied!??

If only DS had been that cool, but alas, the hand was still attached.  As for saying she was eaten, it's no problem; isn't that why werewolves have the big canine teeth?

Ok, her logic seems screwy.  Killing Quentin insures the kids escape the curse?  One would think it would move it right to them.  Even if the pentagram  is used exactly as she says and does protect the boy, the GIRL didn’t get a pentagram, so she would still pass it on , whether or not Quentin is alive – which is what we saw with Chris back in 1969.

I think you're absolutely right, Pansity.  Barnabas would know that Quentin's death wouldn't stop the curse because he witnessed future events, but maybe Magda was just not aware of this until he told her (B: "There's no escape for them now"). He ought to think about getting her a copy of Curses for Dummies.

Also curious why she didn’t come haunt him before.  If I remember right he killed her at the 1st transformation, and he transformed again the night after, which was the day she was buried. It took the ghost a whole month to find out who he was and come after him?

Maybe Dorcas' ghost didn't rise immediately, so she had to wait out a moon cycle for the werewolf to show up so she could learn its identity at dawn?  No?

Has anyone heard elsewhere about the 15th century Frenchman who was cured of his lycanthropy?

Barnabas to Magda:  "If his life is lost, so is yours."
It takes a very cocky man to threaten the life of the person responsible for guarding his coffin just before he climbs into it.  If I were Magda and the werewolf died on my watch, I'd do some staking to save myself.

B to M again:  "We'll think about it during the day and we'll discuss it later tonight."
Barnabas' mind is at work during the daytime?

One more B to M quote:  "If we take him to the Old House at once, if we keep him alive until dawn, then Quentin Collins will awake whole and well, but if this creature dies, if he dies, then Quentin Collins dies with him."
Doesn't that sound incredibly familiar?  Just replace "take him to the Old House" with do the experiment, turn "whole and well" into free and healthy, then substitute creation for any references to Quentin or the creature and change the last part to Barnabas will be as he was before and, well, you know.

OMG, the slide of Seaview Terrace isn't backwards.

In the Barnabasless 1897, did Magda shoot Quentin with a silver bullet?  If so, how did he survive the night without Barnabas there to insist that the werewolf be cared for at the Old House?

Do you think Magda went to Boston in the original timeline?

I'm throwing my reaction: bothered by Edward's hypocrisy.  Just a few minutes before, he had been expressing shock that Quentin had married a gypsy.  And now he's saying saying something like, "I understand you were related.  I'm sorry for your loss."  Compare that to Judith's blunt "If Jenny's a gypsy, it's no wonder she went mad."  (Please pardon the flagrantly inexact quotation.)  I'm all for polite social lies greasing the wheels of civilization - but Edward still bothered me.  And I think that Magda is the sort of person who would prefer the truth.

It was totally hypocritical, though Edward would probably believe that both reactions were logical.  On the one hand, we have Edward accepting that a gypsy would be pained by losing a family member.  But seeing them as equals in terms of their capacity to experience emotional pain is not the same as seeing them as equals, period.  He tolerated the gypsies only so long as they stayed in their place, and an interracial marriage within the family was therefore unacceptable.  As for Magda, she lets us know that she's no stranger to racist attitudes.