Laura assiduously assures David that a mother, and only a mother, can understand everything about her child. Such hogwash. My impression is that David won't be around for long enough to learn that it's hogwash, however. I was surprised to learn that Dr. Guthrie was sure that this night with Laura wouldn't harm David. If Laura's the villainess, why shouldn't she act now rather than later? But Guthrie wants to have a séance, and at this stage of the series, apparently one doesn't conduct séances at the drop of a hat the way they will later on. So Guthrie persuades himself that David won't be hurt tonight because the engraved invitations for the séance haven't been sent out yet.
Josette's not so sure that David's OK, and comes to check up - whereupon Laura calls her by name, and seems quite familiar with her. What is going on in the the world of the supernatural that we don't see? Back when Laura was in the Old House drawing room alone with Josette's portrait, what silent communication took place? At the time, I didn't feel that any did, but now I'm not so sure. There's a tussle going on between Laura and Josette, and we're not allowed to see much of it. It may be a royal battle rather than a tussle, but I didn't get that impression from the interaction between Laura and Josette today. On the other hand, I may be conditioned by the sorts of things that went on later in the series. Maybe the spirit world was raging with strange forces flying around, while all we saw was Laura firmly telling Josette, "Go away," and Josette going away.
Incidentally, it didn't appear to be Kathryn Leigh Scott playing Josette today. It looked more like Clarice Blackburn to me. The Josette looked older, but also more like her portrait, I thought, and I remembered that in the original Josette story, several years elapsed between her marriage to Jeremiah and her death.
