Author Topic: Discuss - Ep #0773  (Read 663 times)

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Discuss - Ep #0773
« on: August 21, 2014, 03:04:02 PM »
Robservations #773

And if you'd care to look back, the first WP discussion topic for this ep:
Re: Discuss - Ep #0773

Offline MagnusTrask

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Re: Discuss - Ep #0773
« Reply #1 on: August 21, 2014, 05:39:55 PM »
Wow, you just can't shut Charity up, about her lust for the good life!  She blabs a whole list of riches to Rachel that she's convinced she can get simply by picking a Collins brother, and marrying him.  I guess she sees herself as God's gift...

The murder is done.  So why does Evan show up immediately on the crime scene, involving and possibly implicating himself?  As far as the world knows, there were two men there in the room at the time, no other witnesses.  What if Tim had risen to the occasion, and blustered around like Evan, accusing and calling the police himself?

More great plot thread interweavings-- Tim finds Dirk's coffin.  End.
"One can never go wrong with weapons and drinks as fashion accessories."-- the eminent and clearly quotable Dark Shadows fan and board mod known as Mysterious Benefactor

Offline DarkLady

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Re: Discuss - Ep #0773
« Reply #2 on: August 21, 2014, 07:10:54 PM »
Kudos to CB in a great death scene! Although it must be said that CB blinks ever so slightly when Charity gazes down at her.

Charity veers wildly between her obsession with the students' grades and her obsession with fancy clothes and jewels.

Great stuff from DB and HAA too. A possible answer to your question, MT, is that now that the murder is done, Evan has to hypnotize Tim into forgetting so that he (T.) doesn't implicate Evan and/or Gregory.

Charity has dumped Tim, but she's still jealous of Rachel's beauty and takes advantage of the situation to implicate Rachel--even though she and Rachel were arguing even as Minerva lay dying.

At first, Rachel doesn't believe that Tim isn't guilty but she tells him to wait for her at the Peabody farm and she'll try to bring him some money.

The next scene makes me wonder exactly what Evan was thinking when he menaced Rachel: Miss Shaw! Evan calls out, then fixes the error by continuing, If Shaw is in there, you can be charged as an accomplice to murder! Tim opens the window, and Rachel lets him out. I was getting ready for bed! she calls out to Evan, shuts the window and lets Evan in. Evan charges in, gun drawn. I don’t know what you’re doing here! Rachel exclaims. Yes you do, he retorts as he searches her closet without so much as a by-you-leave. What happened? she asks. Tell me, he practically shouts at her, where is Tim Shaw? Did he go through the window, running through the woods? Why would Tim be going anywhere? Rachel asks. Evan throws the gun on the bed and twists her arm painfully. Don’t you lie to me! he snarls. You’re hurting me! Rachel protests. He keeps his hold on her as he repeats, Where is Tim? I don’t know--you’re hurting me! she protests again. You have the perfect face for it, Evan sneers, those great, innocent eyes. Tell me where he is! I know you’re lying! You’re glad Mrs. Trask is dead! Rachel is still genuinely shocked, but Evan only sneers, You do _that_ very well, too. Where is he? Did you and Shaw plan it together? Tim didn’t plan anything, Rachel insists loyally, and if Mrs. Trask is dead, Tim had nothing to do with it. What are you doing here? she asks him suddenly. You’re not a friend of anyone here. What are you implying? Evan asks. I don't know, she replies. It's just strange you're here. But Evan has his alibi prepared: I came for the translation I commissioned Tim to do. Where is he? he asks again. He takes her by the arms and orders her, Look into my eyes! I don’t want to! Rachel wails. Let me go! I don’t know where Tim is! You do! he insists. He shakes her roughly, then grabs her by the throat, but all the while Rachel continues to insist that she doesn’t know where Tim is or what’s happened. Let me alone! she wails. Evan leans close to her and says, You’re lying to me. Shall I get rough with you? I can, you know. Or would you prefer to wait until after you’ve lied to the police? he asks savagely. Would you prefer the Reverend Trask and I to question you _then_? [His menacing is very well done and made me wonder if Evan was an S&M freak in addition to being an amateur satanist!] He releases her, then takes the key to her room. Don’t worry, he assures her sarcastically as he locks her in (completely forgetting the gun on the bed). You won’t be alone for long. Rachel (also completely forgetting the gun on the bed) sinks down on the bed in despair, murmuring Tim’s name helplessly.

Tim arrives at the Peabody Farm and finds a cellar door that seems to open directly into the earth. [The house in which Tim takes refuge appeared in the present time as Vicki's beloved "Seaview," which Elizabeth wanted to sell to Burke.] He opens the cellar door; terrified, he descends into total darkness. He feels his way along the wall until he finds a stump of red candle and some matches on a box. He lights the candle and surveys the dark, dank room. To his amazement (but not ours), he discovers a coffin in the middle of the room. He puts the candle down, moves the box closer and lifts the coffin lid....

Offline MagnusTrask

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Re: Discuss - Ep #0773
« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2014, 08:10:00 PM »
DL-- Really, is that farm the place Vicki wanted to live in?  That's great, actually, that they remembered.  I thought they never got back to that.  It was abandoned even then... maybe it was built abandoned to save time!

I forgot to mention Clarice's great acting in the death scene.  Do we see her die four times?  It seems to happen that she'll do a really good, unsettling job at dying, but there'll be a blink anyway.  In another great death scene, they actually made a sort of tape loop, rather than just keeping the camera on Clarice's face in real time, because I guess the one part she can't carry off is not blinking.

Thanks for the explanation of Evan showing up, DL.  I'd have thought he could have built into the trance an event or action that would have snapped him out of it, like picking up the queen of spades and ripping it up, when everything's done.  Did he order Tim on the spot to forget all about Evan and their rehearsals?  It occurs to me that you might not be able to load as many instructions as you like into the subject's memory, and be sure they'll all be remembered and carried out.  That last one was important.  Maybe he had to see it had worked.  Still, it's almost as dangerous just for him to turn up and be there, as it would be for him to be outed by Tim.

Yes, another bad idea might have been for Evan to get rough with Rachel.  That makes him the one person known for a fact to have been hostile and violent in that house on that night.  I suppose this comes under the heading of a leopard not being able to change his spots, or the scorpion saying "It's my nature."  It would have been wiser to keep his cool, and even act friendly and concerned, but when Evan's in trouble, people had better watch out...

There always seems to be something a bit silly about a woman on TV saying "You're hurting me".  Usually, it's so obvious that the villain's intent IS to hurt that the proper reply would be, "Oh, then I must be doing it right."  It's just naive. 

Good point from Rachel, that Evan sticks out like a sore thumb in that situation-- he has a sensible excuse for being there, unfortunately.  As for his being an S&M enthusiast... I think so.  If your hobby is contacting evil spirits, with aspirations of meeting the Horned One himself, ... or whatever he likes to be called when meeting new people... it would be embarrassing to have to admit you don't really get up to any depraved activity the rest of the time!
"One can never go wrong with weapons and drinks as fashion accessories."-- the eminent and clearly quotable Dark Shadows fan and board mod known as Mysterious Benefactor

Offline Joeytrom

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Re: Discuss - Ep #0773
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2014, 10:00:04 PM »
CB dies three times (1795, 1897, 1995).

Offline DarkLady

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Re: Discuss - Ep #0773
« Reply #5 on: August 21, 2014, 11:55:12 PM »
Thanks, Joey. I keep forgetting 1995 because CB's first death (as Barn's aunt Abigail) is so memorable.

Knowing that Seaview is a Collins property, I wouldn't be surprised if they built it and abandoned it right away, although I suspect the original plan was to have some old tragedy connected with it.

I guess that when it comes to hypnotizing people, Evan is no Julia Hoffman.  [ghost_cheesy]

MT, your last two paragraphs had me laughing out loud! I guess had to do something like S&M in order to have some street cred when trying to contact the Evil One. His wife (who we never see) is said to have expensive tastes, so I suppose he has to do some lawyering some of the time, but maybe his ultimate ambition was to sell his soul to get lots more money.

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Re: Discuss - Ep #0773
« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2014, 02:58:10 AM »
Thanks, Joey... The big memorable death for me is 1995.  It was especially creepy, and heartbreaking.  And she really, really looked dead...

Thanks, DL, for the applause.  That does me a world of good these days.
"One can never go wrong with weapons and drinks as fashion accessories."-- the eminent and clearly quotable Dark Shadows fan and board mod known as Mysterious Benefactor

Offline DarkLady

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Re: Discuss - Ep #0773
« Reply #7 on: August 22, 2014, 03:07:39 PM »
Thanks, MT. *more applause*

I guess Mrs. J's death in 1995 (how long ago that is now!) is the saddest of CB's deaths on the show. I remember that just before it happens, CB has a beautifully delivered monologue.