Discuss - Ep #0302

[Lydia]

Robservations - #302

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

Re: Discuss - Ep #0302

[Lydia]

Barnabas’s robe is lovely, but why is he wearing it?  Is it that he's fed up with 20th century clothes?

Ooh, it's like candy, that long scene between Julia and Barnabas, with Julia pursuing Barnabas until she gets the whole Sarah story out of him.

And yet I forgot this scene.  I remembered Julia's idea about why Sarah was hanging around, but I forgot the glorious rest of the scene.

Julia worries that her treatment of Barnabas will fail because of his emotional state.  This could be a pretext for bugging Barnabas about Sarah, but I think she's sincere.  The link between the physical and the emotional is closer in a vampire than it is an a human being, I think, and this may be something Julia didn't anticipate.

Barnabas paid a lovely compliment to Julia in the drawing room at Collinwood.  She knows it's fake, but in her shoes I'd have enjoyed it anyway. 

[IluvBarnabas]

Vicki finally accepts Burke's proposal. Actually I shouldn't say 'finally' it was only a couple of episodes he proposed, though to Burke that may have seemed an eternity. Burke keeps Vicki in the dark about his investigation of Barnabas....I wanted to believe that he wanted to wait until he had something on Barnabas before he told her or anyone else but [spoiler] a couple episodes later, Burke stupidly confronts Willie about his suspicions about Barnabas.[/spoiler]

Burke and Vicki happily announce their engagement. An embittered Barnabas mutters 'Jeremiah' just loud enough for Burke to hear. Barnabas doesn't even attempt to hide his disdain...even Vicki notices he's not too thrilled with the news. Not very smart. Barnabas himself suspected she was going to accept Burke's proposal so he really shouldn't have been too surprised to hear it, no matter how unhappy it made him.

Yes it's a rare thing when Barnabas is complimenting Julia and not throttling her!

[dom]

Julia really goes to town on Barnabas with her no-nonsense prying & goading, & her warnings & demands. And Barn gives as good as he gets. It was a joy to watch on so many levels, in & out of context. Julia is clearly a master manipulator. She repeatedly offers Barnabas a cookie, and when he grabs it she immediately slaps it out of his hand --

Barn: I merely wished he were dead, I didn’t say that I was actually going to kill him.
Jules: But you’d like to, wouldn’t you?
Barn: I’d relish the opportunity
Jules: Just don’t make the opportunity.

I’m still not sensing “love” or even “like” but there is “something” surfacing here between them.

Barn: Doctor, I’ll be a lot easier to get on with if you don’t start giving orders. I find it a most unattractive habit in a woman.
Julia: Oh? You seem rather sensitive today. What’s bothering you?
Barn: Nothing

Julia went from a doctor to a woman in one sentence. And Barn’s “Nothing” had an intimate quality to it that grabbed my attention.

Your rent is due: After Julia’s cat and mouse game with Barn, she becomes the fly to Liz’s spider. Liz finally gets around to questioning Julia about her work & credentials, and proves she is no pushover or scatterbrained host. Fortunately for Julia, Barn saves the day…uh, I mean, night. So much fun has been poked at Julia’s tenure at Collinwood over the decades that I could not watch this scene without laughing out loud. But despite the unintended comic relief, I very much enjoyed the scene for what it was. Julia’s paper plate is piled pretty high by episode’s end.

I guess 1795 must be right around the corner because we are hearing a lot about the family history & Sarah & the blatant Burke as Jeremiah set-up. I’m not really ready to like Barnabas but the writers sure are presenting us with a glimpse of the man behind the monster.

Vicki says yes! Good…for nobody. Vicki shows some common sense, telling Burke she doesn’t really know him, she just knows how she feels about him. But in no time (with the help of a mini tantrum & apology by Burke thrown in for good measure – a scene barely pulled off by AG) she decides to go with her heart and not her head. I’ll buy it.

Afterthoughts: This episode had me laughing out loud regularly but in a good way.

The opening scene’s color scheme was visually stunning and Barn’s blue smoking jacket/housecoat/ dress/whatever, is gorgeous. I’m watching VHS tapes and for whatever the reason the visual clarity of this ep is vastly improved from the usual quality.

Eyeliner & mascara - I so miss the sixties! Does anyone think it odd that Dr. Hoffman wears so much of it?

I was going to type that Barn is starting to lose his cool but it just occurred to me that he is becoming human from the injections so I guess that explains a lot of Barn’s emotions being uncontained in public – as in the scene with everyone in the drawing room congratulating Burke & Vicki.

ROBE! Thanx, Lydia! I was so taken by it that I couldn't even come up with the proper word for it. If it's a relic, I wonder where it came from?

[DarkLady]

Definitely one of the best Barn-Julia scenes ever! And only the first of many to come! 

I read somewhere that JF disliked the blue brocade dressing gown because it was difficult to walk around in, but it does look very handsome.

Barn tells Julia that he was looking at the portrait of Jeremiah, who bore a remarkable similarity to "Devlin"--even though on the night of the ill-fated costume party we all saw Barn rip out that very page and crumple it up.

Eventually Barnabas admits that he was thinking about Sarah. By dint of relentless questioning--just like a wife grilling her philandering husband!--Julia finally makes Barnabas admit that the reason he was in Maggie's room when he heard Sarah singing and tried to look for her.

Julia has a nice hypothesis about why Sarah has appeared now, but I still think she just doesn't know enough about Sarah yet.

Barn still hates having to take orders from a woman. But he tells Elizabeth that he's very pleased with the progress Julia is making with her "research," so he does realize which side of his bread has the butter.

Julia has another, friendlier duel with Elizabeth when E. questions her very closely about her work. Julia promises, I’ll let you have the first look at my book before it’s published. What other books have you written? Elizabeth asks. They were extremely scholarly, Julia replies. They would be of no interest to a layperson. Elizabeth tells her, I hadn’t left Collinwood for eighteen years and did a great deal of reading. Julia deftly compliments Elizabeth on how she has made a new life for herself now. Elizabeth comments dryly, If you are as nimble in print as you are in conversation, your books must make interesting reading.

Burke is late for his meeting with Vicki and tells her it was to do with "business in London." What he doesn't tell her is that he was having his minion Blair get information on the entirely fictitious Niall Bradford, whom Barnabas named as a relation there.

Although surely Barn was expecting the news, he looks utterly stricken when Vicki and Burke announce their engagement. He tells Vicki merely that he's in favor of anything that will make her happy and can't bring himself to speak to Burke or even shake his hand. But this is the only time he calls Burke MISTER Devlin. The news is enough to make him vow to cooperate fully with Julia--so that he can win Vicki for himself.

[alwaysdavid]

The VoiceOver mentions Alliance between the living and the dead of which there are now two making aliances.
Barnabas threatens death again towards Julia if she makes a mistake, but if she does would he not still be dead?  Julia is using her gruff business voice.
At the Great House, Elizabeth questions Julia who has lost her gruff tone. Elizabeth looks pretty in her velvety dress.  Julia is evasive as always and really why did she not just present herself as who she really is and say she is taking a leave to pursue her hobby. It would have been easier but of course less dramatic.
Now Vickie wants to know about Burke and he is evasive. Really Vickie should take pause that he. Is so unwilling to share and run the other way, but no she decides that although he could be a mafia boss for all she knows, she doesn't care
Barnabas adds to his list of adjectives for Burke calling him crass and vulgar.