Discuss - Ep #0220

[Raineypark]

I am forever reading a gay subtext into Jason-and-Willie and Willie-and-Barnabas but almost never mention this here because I figure fans here really don't want to hear about it.

Of COURSE there was a sexual subtext......I was 12 at the time and while it would be years before I knew it had a name.....I knew it when I saw it.......

[Sunny_Collins]

Poor Liz, she thinks she's rid of Willie, but Jason tells her he's sick, and the next thing she knows, is that he's perfectly fine at night., and even though she doubts his illness, she can't toss him out because of Jason's hold over her.

I love how Jason can be so suspicious of Willie as well, and you can tell he's truly bewildered by Willie's miraculous recovery when night comes, and that he really wants to help his friend. I always feel sad for Willie during these episodes, he's losing his identity, shabby though it was, and it's heartbreaking to see him so defeated.

Barnabas is so cold, it's difficult to remember how much he changes in later episodes, when here we see how callous he can be. One moment the ever-polite gentlemanly cousin, the next, a terrible fierce menace.

I began watching DS during the1795 story line, when Barnabas hadn't yet been cursed. When I returned to these first episodes, I remember thinking that I jus wanted to get through these parts where Barnabas is so cruel. It's really chilling to see him like this.

[Alondra]

I began watching DS during the1795 story line, when Barnabas hadn't yet been cursed. When I returned to these first episodes, I remember thinking that I jus wanted to get through these parts where Barnabas is so cruel. It's really chilling to see him like this.

I began to watch DS as a kid toward the end of the 1795 storyline. Then when they return to the present Barnabas and Julia become friends and remain so throughout the rest of the series. I never saw the early Barnabas storyline until I started to watch it on the scifi channel and then I was horrified to discover what a creep he had been at the first. It was mostly his relationship to Julia that amazed me, I was thinking this was a different person! I was taking notes on the shows in a form of shorthand at the time and when he would threaten to kill people or be mean to Julia and Willie, I wrote down who is this? I hate this Barnabas!

Alondra

[loril54]

I think at that point it was getting to intense, they really had to tone it down. After 1795 I think that people like Barn.
[spoiler]Julia does the show all by herself in her room, I can see Barnabas just making trouble outside. I don't think that people would let Barn be bad, as a result the Leviathan's they had to change the story.[/spoiler]
Shows great but really intense  [/color]

[Alondra]

After 1795 I think that people like Barn.  

Watching 1795 made me quite sympathetic to Barn. In the early storyline I nearly hate him. No matter how much people say "Oh he was a vampire, he was under a curse, he couldn't help doing those rotten things!" I think he could help it at least partially. He showed kindness to his family, so much that they never suspected what he was. Only Julia and Willie knew what he was. So he was able to control some of his vampiric urges, and his inhumane behavior.

Then we see the 1795 storyline and see how it all began. [spoiler]Barnabas was a young man whose only thought in life was to marry his fiancee and have children, live at the Old House and grow old together. Due to one evil woman's machinations everything is taken from him, all of those he loved and he was left with a horrible curse. I think 1795 had more tragedy than any other storyline. It certainly left me sympathetic to Barnabas and his plight.[/spoiler]

Alondra

[Barnabas'sBride]

I've felt for Barnabas since the beginning, even during this storyline. It's probably a combination of the writing and Frid's acting, but the little glimpses we have, even here when he's at his darkest, was enough for me to feel for him. Like the way he says "sunrise" while talking to David, and [spoiler]later, when he's speaking to Dr. Woodard about the 'maniac', he says "the truth is, I loathe him. I loathe him very deeply." And when he talks to Willie about Sarah after Jason's death, or when he's recounting the death of Josette to Victoria and Carolyn and he sounds so anguished near the end.[/spoiler]

I love him in these episodes as much as I love him later on.

[IluvBarnabas]

Preach on, Barnabas' Bride!

Even during this period, when Barnabas was at his most cruelest, his most evilest, you also see these little glimpes of the man he had been before he became what he was. The scenes you just described showed that even as an unscrupulous bloodsucker, Barnabas still had some human feelings within him.

[Jackie]

In these earlier episodes, Barnabas did what he had to do to get what he wanted most, the image of his beloved Josette in his possession.  I think he loathed the method but not the result.  His humanity has taken a 172 year snooze until his sister Sarah wakes him up later.  When I saw these episodes the first time, I couldn't believe it was the same man whom I rooted for later.  He certainly changes more than any character I can think of.  Quentin comes in second.

[loril54]

In these earlier episodes, Barnabas did what he had to do to get what he wanted most, the image of his beloved Josette in his possession.  I think he loathed the method but not the result.  His humanity has taken a 172 year snooze until his sister Sarah wakes him up later.  When I saw these episodes the first time, I couldn't believe it was the same man whom I rooted for later.  He certainly changes more than any character I can think of.  Quentin comes in second.

I think this was why Jonathan was so good. His character was more than one dimensional. As Jonathan said he played the character with a hang up.