Discuss - Ep #0815

[Watching Project]

Robservations #815

[alwaysdavid]

Interesting that Barnabas can't disappear.   The greatest mistake of his life?   How short is his memory?  I'd have to say Angelique in 1795.   Barnabas and Quentin teamed up to save the Collins family.  The brief glimpse into the present time made me miss it.  I remember our childhood group of watchers wondering how Julia became Magda so soon after with all that makeup.  Barnabas chained in the coffin by Petofi leaving Quentin to save the day?

[EmeraldRose]

Major Milestones:
1. When Barnabas told him that he was supposed to cure Quentin, Count Petofi told Barnabas that Quentin was already being taken care of.
2. Count Petofi touched Barnabas and made it so he couldn't disappear! This may have been the first time that Barnabas couldn't disappear at will.
3. This was the first time that Count Petofi showed anyone an image of the future inside the cupboard. We learned that Count Petofi could NOT see the image he was showing to someone else.
4. Count Petofi told Barnabas that his "condition" for curing Jamison was that he wanted to go to 1969 with him.
5. Magda saw that Count Petofi's hand was reattached.
6. Count Petofi made Magda take him to Barnabas's coffin in the West Wing at Collinwood, where Aristede placed a cross on Barnabas and chained the coffin.

The brief glimpse into the present time made me miss it.

Me, too.

I like this exchange of lines -  Barnabas: "Are you going to cure Quentin and Jamison?"  Count Petofi: "Quentin has already been taken care of."  Barnabas: "But he is the same."  Count Petofi: "Is he?"  It was rather amusing to hear.

Poor Barnabas, not being able to disappear! All he was able to do was cause a shadow of darkness around himself. I really like that effect!

So, Count Petofi's powers weren't perfect. He told Barnabas he would show him his death, but the vision showed David and Julia instead. Fascinating that Count Petofi wasn't able to see it. 

Barnabas asked Count Petofi if David was dying, but David was already dying when Barnabas first came to 1897!

I was amazed at how fast Grayson was able to change from Julia to Magda - it took less than 3 minutes! That was almost as fast as Thayer changed from Sandor to Count Petofi. Wait a minute... I just had a thought: I wonder if the vision was pretaped? Maybe that's how Grayson was able to change so fast. The vision looks like it's on TV to me.

This was an excellent episode. I like the way Barnabas and Count Petofi were speaking to each other. The Count proved that he was more powerful than Barnabas. I also liked how Quentin was holding vigil with Jamison. He really cared for him and it was sad to see Quentin be so helpless. The vision was neat, too.

----- Sally -----

[Roland]

It's interesting that David Hennessey is now playing TWO characters who are close to death simultaneously. 

[Midnite]

In the reshoot, we get a better display of Barnabas' superhuman strength when he physically subdues Aristede.  Hmm, how was Aristede able to fetch chilled champagne from deep inside an old abandoned mill?

A camera (?) casted a dark shadow (!) over Jamison.

alwaysdavid, they had the correct portrait over the Old House mantle during the flash-forward!  LOL, and then the cameras avoided showing that area back in 1897.  (And the red flowers in the urn that have mostly been in Evan's home in 1897 have shown up 1969.)

Barnabas (about being accompanied to the future):  "Count Petofi, do you think this is some sort of a carriage ride?"
That line is not nearly as good as Professor Stokes' "Mr. Collins, I am not a travel agent for time!"

Petofi to Barnabas:  "You will be no longer able to indulge in your favorite trick."
The Count made it pretty clear that he was referring to the power to disappear, but I wonder if he also took away Barn's ability to turn into a bat.  For one thing, after receiving Petofi's marks, Barnabas walked out the door of the lair instead of choosing to fly out.  And in a future episode, Barnabas (while still marked) will find himself in a predicament that he could escape from by turning into a bat and flying away, but he won't.

The greatest mistake of his life?   How short is his memory?  I'd have to say Angelique in 1795.

Well, I think at this point it might seem to Barnabas that trusting Petofi and Aristede was his greatest mistake.  Not only does he believe that Quentin is still on the path to ghosthood, but Jamison lay dying, which means that David isn't just doomed-- chances are, he won't even be born.  So it's not that Barnabas has forgotten about Angelique, but that he's putting the well-being of the future Collinses above his own personal problems.  Or something.

Count Petofi made Magda take him to Barnabas's coffin in the West Wing at Collinwood

You're a little bit ahead; we didn't learn yet which part of the house it was.  And this probably explains why it was referred to as "an unused wing of the family mansion" in this episode-- Sam Hall may have intended it to be in the East Wing, whereas Violet Welles will say it was the West Wing.

It's interesting that David Hennessey is now playing TWO characters who are close to death simultaneously.

Good point.

[Lydia]

Hmm, how was Aristede able to fetch chilled champagne from deep inside an old abandoned mill?

A mill should have a stream nearby, which could chill the champagne.

How interesting that Petofi, instead of showing Barnabas his own destruction, unwittingly showed him Julia and David!  I'm figuring that the command to the hand was to show Barnabas "the end" and Barnabas was so committed to saving David that for him "the end" meant David's death.  And that's backed up by Barnabas's saying that trusting Aristede and Petofi was the greatest mistake of his life.  If Barnabas now had to choose between a) having nothing to do with Angelique in 1795 and therefore living out a blissful life with Josette and b) becoming a vampire with all the attendant miseries but having the chance to save David's life and thus ensure the future of the Collins family - which would he choose?

I didn't realize until today how much I like Sam Evans's portrait of Barnabas.  Every other time I've looked at it, I've thought, "Big ears," but today it was just good to see it.

Petofi to Barnabas:  "You will be no longer able to indulge in your favorite trick."
The Count made it pretty clear that he was referring to the power to disappear, but I wonder if he also took away Barn's ability to turn into a bat.

Now my mind is boggled.  If Barnabas cannot disappear but he can turn into a bat, what happens to his body when he turns into a bat?  Do we see the metamorphosis from human shape to bat - body shrinking, bangs disappearing, big ears turning into bat ears?  That would be sort of cool.