Discuss - Ep #0273

[Watching Project]

Robservations - #273

And if you'd care to look back, the first WP discussion topic for this ep:

Re: Discuss - Ep #0273

[DarkLady]

What an absolutely mind-boggling episode this was! Even just reading my summary (and the Robservation) brings it all back!

I'm sure everyone would stand in line for the chance to whack Burke over the head with the fireplace poker. That is, everyone but Elizabeth, who only wants him gone.

After Elizabeth explains to Roger why she kept the secret of the locked room for those 18 long years, Roger tries to comfort her: No court would convict you--you have an unimpeachable defense. Paul Stoddard was trying to rob you. Elizabeth answers yet again, I didn’t want to escape the law. I was terrified of what it would do to Carolyn. [By now she must be wondering if ANYBODY understands her motives!]

The sherrif is very nice to Elizabeth and treats her with real kindness.

I love Jason's farewell: As he turns to go, he looks back, holding up a flower from his derailed wedding in a mock salute. Elizabeth, thank you--for everything, he concludes sourly.

Toward dusk, Jason lurks near the Old House, still wearing his wedding suit under his old trench coat and his Greek fisherman's cap.

[IluvBarnabas]

If I had been Elizabeth I would have been blazing mad that this creep had been bleeding me out of money, making the most ugliest of threats and unreasonable demands, over something he KNEW was a total hoax. I would have been the first in line to take a whack out of Jason's hide, then send him on his way with him looking black and blue.

I wondered if it ever occured to Elizabeth just once that Jason may have been lying to her about Paul's 'death', but simply didn't want to take the chance of finding out otherwise. I know she said she FELT that Paul was dead, but feelings as we all know sometimes don't amount to a hill of beans as in this case.

So Jason is allowed to leave, no going to jail, not even having to repay one cent he squeezed out of Elizabeth. No wonder Roger was pissed...it does appear that Jason has beaten the rap...and now he is practically gloating about it as he leaves.

Is Jason going to the Old House to bid his fond farewells...I doubt it.

[Lydia]

I'm sure everyone would stand in line for the chance to whack Burke over the head with the fireplace poker.

DarkLady, I think you meant Jason, not Burke, and I find your mistake very interesting, because at this point I myself would be delighted to bop Burke with a poker, but not Jason.

I looked for my copy of Joan Bennett's autobiography, but it wasn't where I thought it was, which was a pity, because I love her description of this storyline.  (I know that the autobiography had a ghost-writer, but I hope this part was authentic Bennett.)  I remember there being some contempt for Elizabeth because she bungled a perfectly simple murder.  This is one of the many Dark Shadows episodes when I wish I could have been present at the creation, from read-through to taping.  How did they keep a straight face when Liz reacted to seeing the empty trunk?

The last time I watched this, I wondered how the belief that she was a murderess would have affected Elizabeth's personality over the years, but this time I'm less inclined to worry about it, because it looks as though she never quite accepted the idea that she was a murderess - not, of course, because she had any suspicion that she wasn't one, but because she just never could wrap her head around it.

[DarkLady]

Dopey me--of course I meant Jason! Just chalk it up to enthusiasm! But I personally would also like to get Burke while I was at it.

I agree that Elizabeth probably didn't want to take the chance of finding out that Jason was right and that Paul really was buried beneath the locked room. Besides, she wasn't physically capable of digging up the floor, so she would have had to recruit Matthew. And I'm sure she would have been reluctant to trust anyone with such a huge and terrible secret--it took her 18 years before she could tell Vicki.

Lydia, I also like your idea about the idea of being a murderess never really quite sank into Elizabeth's head. I hope you can lay hands on JB's autobiography and let us in on what she said about this story line.

[Lydia]

DarkLady, you inspired me to look a little further, and I found Joan Bennett's autobiography on top of the bookshelf right next to the bookshelf upon which I thought I had put it.  And here's what she says:

"Anything can happen and does, with harrowing frequency.  First of all, I murdered my husband and buried him in the basement.  Then, a very sinister character moved into the house and tried to blackmail me into marrying him.  I looked on his proposal as a fate worse than death, rushed to the nearest cliff to hurl myself into the surf below, changed my mind and, like an utter fool, confessed to the murder.  But when the police investigated and came to search the basement, my husband's body had disappeared.  Apparently, I hadn't killed him after all, I'd made an untidy job of it, and he's still lurking around somewhere out there in the world.  As Elizabeth Collins, mistress of the mansion, I seldom leave it unless I need a vacation and then the writers conveniently arrange for me to have a splendid nervous breakdown or they keep me in a deathlike trance, until it's time to go back to work again."

[DarkLady]

Thanks so much, Lydia! What a wonderful description--it makes me like JB even more!

[alwaysdavid]

Elizabeth's desk is now back in the place where all the action occurred. Paul Stoddard was alive ten years ago, but now it doesn't matter because he is divorced.