Fashion notes first . . .
Vicki has inexplicably changed into yet another outfit. Now she's wearing a sleeveless shift. This one is pastel plaid, has a jewel neckline, and hits her at the knee. It's a matronly cut and it makes her look dumpy.
Ramse apparently found an iron because Roger's trench is significantly less wrinkled. It still looks cheap as does the Wal*Mart shirt, but at least he looks pressed.
I know Joe is supposed to be a blue collar worker, but I had no idea it got that casual at the office back in those days. He has a white t-shirt with an unbuttoned long sleeved shirt over it. He also looks very, very attractive.
Carolyn has chosen a short-sleeved knee-length knit dress for her date in Bangor. It's got a slightly rolled collar. Despite the figure-hugging nature of the fabric, I'm not sure this is the best look for her. It's a definite improvement on that thing with the smocking though.
These episodes mark the entrance of a new writer, Francis Swann. I know that Art Wallace didn't depart on the best of terms, but I would love to know if Swann just started cold or if he'd been writing any of the show uncredited. He had an interesting career. He started out with a hit Broadway comedy, did some screenplays, and then gradually his theatre and film career fizzled. In the early 1960s, he'd penned a couple of soft gothic novels (I have two of them). Anyhow, it sort of makes sense that these are his first two episodes. The dialogue sounds like it's from someone trying to clean up a predecessor's material and at the same time it has a fresh feeling for some of the characters.
They're getting good mileage out of that supposed charcoal sketch Sam did of Burke. At least until he tears it into shreds. Sam is conscious again and not looking too good. Roger's on the phone and Sam confesses that he doesn't remember what he told Bill. I have to say it, Sam isn't too bright, is he? Roger's on his case as it is and now he needs to share that he may have gone and spilled all? Tsk tsk. Also, can I just say? that I really love it when Roger preaches against the evils of drink.
It's the middle of the day and Roger is not at work. At least Elizabeth takes him to task for it. Roger is in fine Roger-like form and that makes me happy. Not nearly as happy as spotting Frank Schofield would, but pretty darn close. Roger, under Art Wallace, is definitely a nasty piece of work, but there's not a lot there to like. He's basically a vicious alcoholic abusive wastrel. Now he's still a vicious alcoholic wastrel, but the abuse is lightened slightly. And he's funnier. I read somewhere that originally his character was slated to be written off but the fan mail saved him. I wonder if Swann had something to do with that. But I digress. So Elizabeth and Roger get into the perennially interesting question of Roger's inheritance (at least I find it so). There's also some relatively clear indications that all is not well with the finances of the house of Collins. She was cash-strapped when she bought him out ten years ago, and she's still cash-strapped now. We also get a couple of mentions of Paul and some more about Ned, a person I might add that Roger is not that enthused about.
Maggie shows up at home unexpectedly. She's all cheerful and Chatty Kathy despite her father's insistence that she's trying to spy on him and that it's her fault for stopping him from leaving town. She keeps up the smile and the gosh, gee whiz lilt in her voice and you just know she read an article in Reader's Digest about how to handle someone who drinks too much. He's not appreciative. Maggie has got it into her head that surely if Pop could just confide in her about Burke and Roger it will all be well. Yeah, bet it said something about keeping emotions bottled in that article you read, toots. She also unwisely comments about the level in the whiskey bottle. Sam hikes off to another room and she gets the brilliant notion to call Roger at Collinwood. Vicki picks up and we see her hand the receiver to Roger who gives her a snide look and then hangs up.
As I said above, Roger is in fine form and shreds Vicki in pieces and then starts in on Elizabeth, who is looking for her daughter. When both Vicki and Roger separately suggest that Burke's involved, she steps up the search and calls Joe.
At Casa Evans, Sam is up and at the bottle again. Maggie tries to josh him out of it. Any effect that might have had vanishes when he finds out that she called Roger. And I have to agree with him here: on what planet would that be a good idea? She knows the man. He's not a nice man, by any stretch of the imagination. She knows he's been hounding her father. What on earth could she possibly get out of him and what could she say to him to make him stop bothering Sam? She finally leaves and he latches the door after her. Hehe. Probably a wise move because his next visitor turns out to be Roger. Sam undoes his good work and lets Roger in.
God, I'm mean. Sam soulfully informs Roger that he nearly hit Maggie. Roger's response: "I think it might have been an excellent idea if you did." Oh my. I openly laughed at that one. I really am a nice person. I swear.
Elizabeth is still trying to get a hold of Ned Calder. Vicki asks permission to head into town. You know, it's been a hard morning and all with her hour and a half of actual work. Still, I'm not going to complain too much. It seems like they're being less careful with real time so I sense that the days are going to speed up pronto, and that's a good thing.
There's a lot of leave taking and greeting in this episode. I think they were trying to open up some of the scenes: hence the audience gets to see the character's on both ends of the phone during calls and the action shifts a lot less laboriously than it did before. It makes it harder to write about though. How the hell does Robin do it? I hate all this plot synopsis stuff. She even includes dialogue. Lots of dialogue. Oy.
All right, so Sam shows up at Collinwood. He's curiously diffident despite having enjoyed the better part of a bottle of whiskey. Elizabeth isn't exactly thrilled by the thought of enjoying a visit with him. You definitely get the sense that she's made up her mind as to why he's there and since that would interfere with her need for denial, he's most unwelcome. However, he's being ultra elliptical and she invites him in.
He admires the art work. I've always thought they weren't exactly stellar examples of portraiture, but hey, what do I know? Good lord. Paul Stoddard had looked into having Sam paint his portrait. Elizabeth is totally nonplussed. When Sam offers to give her the sketches he did, she looks utterly horrified. Yeah, that was some marriage all right. He mentions Burke and she pumps him for information. Sam gets yet another drink.
Ah, the bright lights of Bangor, ME. We're in what appears to be a fairly upscale, if fading hotel restaurant. There's a maitre d' in a proper uniform so we know it's a nice place. There is also some heinous wallpaper. But I suspect it was the kind of wallpaper that middle Americans thought was the height of fashion in 1966 so we'll go with that. Poor nebbishy Bronson is nowhere in sight. I can't recall exactly, but I do believe he is no more. I wasn't a big Bronson fan anyhow. I rather like his replacement, James Blair, who's got that distinguished-banker-trust-me-you're-money-will-be-safe-with-me snake like look to him. He certainly doesn't scare like Bronson. He knows Burke is up to no good, but it doesn't bother him at all. Carolyn shows up and is seated although neither man spots her.
Burke is busy planning his takeover of the Collins' family. For those of you who keep pace with these things and write fanfic, there's nothing all that healthy about the family's holdings. The only property without a mortgage on it (and that presumably includes the business and all rental units) is Collinwood. The house is a liability of a place--a white elephant of a place. Also, Liz petitioned the court to have the property taxes reduced. I don't know a lot about finance and I know that's not a good sign.
There are a lot of fanfic writers who like to make the family impossibly wealthy. I can see the attraction. There's something to be said for the glamour of wealth. But. I think it's a much more interesting dramatic choice to have them hurting. I'm reminded of that great line in Citizen Kane, "One of those old families with a father that's worth ten million and then one day he shoots himself and it turns out there's nothing but debts."
Sam finally gets up the nerve to stop talking about the art and get to the crux of the matter. Unfortunately for him his hostess assumes he's trying to blackmail her about Roger and won't let him talk. Joe shows up and grimly theorizes that Carolyn followed Burke to Bangor. I think the word I'm looking for is resigned. Elizabeth doesn't like the sound of that at all. She's also looking for Bill, who's gone walkabout.
Carolyn attempts to play it sophisticated, but comes across like a giggly girl instead. Burke doesn't seem too surprised, but he's not exactly thrilled either. He introduces her to James Blair, and cheerfully introduces him as the swindler he hired to take ever nickel her mother has. Carolyn thinks that's terribly funny. Poor Blair. He gets kicked out and is reduced to getting a meal elsewhere.
I'm sad to report that Francis Swann is no more of a food writer than Art Wallace. Burke and Carolyn's bill of fare: salad, baked potato, and steak. At least this appears to be a better restaurant than the Collinsport Inn. Carolyn loses whatever soignee flair she had by substituting French fries for the baked potato. There's some lame flirting and Burke gives Carolyn a sterling silver filigreed fountain pen.
Yes, that's right, boys and girls. The sterling silver filigreed fountain pen. A lot of people are going to be made miserable by this thing's existence. It will achieve an importance hitherto solely rivaled by the bleeder valve from Roger Collins' master brake cylinder. It's enough to wish that Burke had opted for a stale box of candy and some wilting roses. Do we blame Art or do we blame Francis?
Unaware that this excuse of a Montblanc is going to be wreaking havoc in multiple lives very shortly, Elizabeth wants to get her hands on Bill and Carolyn. Not necessarily in that order. Sam is basically babbling, particularly with Joe there. Finally he takes off leaving a startled Joe and Elizabeth behind him.
