Discuss - Ep #0240

Robservations - #240

This episode has one of the absolute best Friday cliffhangers, and what happens on Monday is even better - but that's anticipating.

Roger, as usual, has the wrong end of the stick when it comes to David.  He's got a genius for misjudging a situation.  I was thinking, as he was scolding Vicky for emoting too much over Maggie's disappearance, that even though that's not what's going on with David, he did have a point - but later I started wondering: does he have any evidence at all that David cares a bit about Maggie?  Which leads to the possibility that Roger is more upset about Maggie's disappearance than he's letting on, and taking it out on Vicky - except I don't think that's true.  So Roger's just being Roger.  Nice to hear that he almost  feels sorry for Sam Evans.

Nice bit from Vicky in response to Roger's scolding.  As I said, I was thinking that Roger had a point - one shouldn't bother children too much with one's own worries - but Vicky's response was a reminder to me of how totally mysterious Maggie's disappearance was - something that is hard to remember when we know exactly where Maggie is.  I keep in mind the disappearance, a few years back, of a 16-year-old girl in western Massachusetts, when it seemed very unlikely that she would be found alive, but one couldn't help hoping that a miracle would happen.

I thought about trying to make my tenses consistent in this post, but gave up.

Roger's attitude was totally Roger but I don't blame Vicki for being mad at him for expecting her to be less emotional over Maggie's disappearance. If a friend or family member I loved disappeared, under mysterious circumstances and no clues to her whereabouts, I'd be very upset too.

Also Barnabas telling David to forget this Josette fantasy is a laugh.....um, how about taking your own advice there, Barnabas? I know she was special to him, but he is only hurting himself (not to mention Maggie) by making himself live in this fantasy world where he thinks he can recreate her in a look-alike.

Great episode.

Very  good show. You do see, DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO.  It was good Barnabas talking to David, telling him that Josette wasn't real. When he was talking to David he showed his Human side.  This is not good for Maggie, for sure!  Barnabas needs to live in the present, though it is hard for him. Josette is the one things that he thought about for a long time. A very long time. 

When he had David look at the portrait I wonder if he was doing something to drive Josette away. David was upset when Josette wasn't there. But you always wonder where Maggie went to when everyone was running around the Old House.

The old house seems to becoming the center of the story these days. It is almost like Grand Central Station. Everyone has to go there.

I do like the way Roger apologizes to Vickie.  Some employers wouldn't do that.

It was a very good ending, and the next show for Monday was even better!

You do see, DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO.

That's Barnabas' mantra during the entire portion of the series that he appears in - and it was also the leading tenet in his life. And given that there are often lapses of continuity on the show, it's good to see that it was established early on and kept consistent thoughout. 

David acted like his typical self in this episode. When told again not to go to the Old House, that's exactly where he goes! When he arrives, the door opens on it's own so Willie has yet to buy and install that deadbolt lock I told him to get. Why hasn't anything been done about that door?

Barnabas had to be concerned when he just entered Josette's room to find David there, and when David said he'd seen Maggie, he had to try to talk him out of it. He has no way of knowing how well David knows Maggie, I don't think he knows her well, I can't remember many previous scenes with Maggie and David together other than the one at the coffee shop when [spoiler]she makes him a sundae and lets him make one for himself while she was trying to distract him long enough for his father to come get him.[/spoiler] So her resemblence to Josette and the fact that she was wearing Josette's gown told him this was Josette, it may not even have occurred to him that Josette looked like Maggie.

Naturally Vicki and Roger ragged on David when he came back, but that kid will not listen. He's so stubborn! I felt that Vicki should have taken a firmer hand with him but it's possible that she can only go so far. The real responsibility is Roger's.

Barnabas was the total hypocrite in his conversation with Roger. He's responsible for Maggie's disappearance and acts so concerned. At this point I feel he simply has no conscience. He seems to like his new found family but he lies so smoothly!

When Roger said he almost felt sorry for Sam I wanted to get in his face and let him have it. I know he and Sam are not the best of friends, and he probably still has bad memories of the secret he and Sam shared, but he could show more sympathy for Sam than to only be "almost" sorry for him. What if it were his own kid which it could have been? Since David has been hanging at the Old House so much, what if Barn took him as well, especially if David were to learn that the person floating around the Old House was Maggie and not really Josette? Even if Sam were a person I hated I'd feel sorry for him having to go through this. I guess Roger can't help being Roger, maybe this is as compassionate as he gets!

After Vicki tells David for the umpteenth time not to go to the Old House, to go to the kitchen and eat, she goes upstairs and he sneaks out of the house to go where else? The Old House! That kid needs a good spanking and a grounding. Maybe Vicki should have taken David's hand and led him to the kitchen so he'd be sure to find it!

When he turns up missing, Vicki and Roger talk in the drawing room, and Roger tells her she's not strict enough. It's not her fault the kid doesn't listen. When he told her she should conceal her anxiety about Maggie I wanted to smack him. Why he should connect David's fantasies about Josette with Vicki's concern about her friend is beyond me. I don't see what one has to do with the other, since they don't know the Josette David is seeing is really Maggie. Vicki read Roger the riot act for coming down on her and Roger even apologized. I felt that well, at least he's coming along, he was almost but not quite sorry for Sam, and now he's sorry for what he said to Vicki. <edited by mod>

At the Old House, David saw Maggie/Josette who was floating around again. I wonder why Barnabas and Willie let her just wander all over the house with that door opening on it's own, no lock, the curtains open on the windows and people coming in all the time. She could easily be found.

Alondra

Be sure to check out these (hopefully  ) humorous topics related to this episode:

From "Caption This!":

From "Complete This Phrase / Fill In The Blank(s)":

I noticed that Barnabas didn't have his spikes!  His hair looked half way decent. 

We see Barnabas acting patience with David, explaining thinks the way he wanted the boy to see it... his way of course.  David just knows he's seen the ghost of Josette before and no one is going to persuade him any differently.  His cousin even went back to Collinwood to have Roger deal with the boy.  Barnabas shouldn't invite people over to his home with an open invitation and then get upset when they just wonder in.  Also the doors are never locked so he is more to blame than an curious 10 year old. I also don't understand why he or Willie let their "visitor/prisoner" roam the house unattended.  That IS strange.  I was just hoping she would walk outside and be found.

It seemed to me that Jonathan Frid was more relaxed in this episode.  He didn't have the nervous eye flutter and his voice seems smooth and controlled.  I almost felt like I was watching him in a later episode.

Very amusing comments about the unlocked door.  In the earlier ep in which Barnabas gets permission to stay at the Old House indefinitely, Liz provided him with a set of keys, mentioning that she didn't know which one was for the front door, or if it would even work.  She added, "You might want to lock up sometime."  Maybe, with having to keep an eye on Maggie during the daytime, Willie hasn't had time to bring in a locksmith? 

There's also a later ep, during the time Willie [spoiler]is hospitalized[/spoiler] that has David finding the front door locked so he just climbs in the window.  

I'm in agreement with Lydia that Roger had a point, even if his other statements showed him to be lacking in humanity.  In the 60s, parents tended to keep things from their children, thinking it was in their best interests.  I thought Vicki overreacted to his request to try to not let David see how worried she is, but I'll cut her some slack because Maggie is her first female friend in Collinsport.

But when she snapped, "I can't keep an eye on him every minute!" I was thinking, hey, isn't taking care of David your full-time job?!

It seems Roger doesn't want to take any responsibility for David, accept when it comes to scolding him, very irritating! Perhaps David wouldn't get in to so much trouble if Roger would spend a bit more time with him, and praise him for the good things he does instead of constantly pointing out all the wrong things he does.

When Roger said he almost felt sorry for Sam I wanted to get in his face and let him have it. I know he and Sam are not the best of friends, and he probably still has bad memories of the secret he and Sam shared, but he could show more sympathy for Sam than to only be "almost" sorry for him. What if it were his own kid which it could have been? Since David has been hanging at the Old House so much, what if Barn took him as well, especially if David were to learn that the person floating around the Old House was Maggie and not really Josette? Even if Sam were a person I hated I'd feel sorry for him having to go through this. I guess Roger can't help being Roger, maybe this is as compassionate as he gets!

My thoughts exactly! No matter how much you despise someone, would you really not feel sorry for them if their child went missing?

When he had David look at the portrait I wonder if he was doing something to drive Josette away. David was upset when Josette wasn't there. But you always wonder where Maggie went to when everyone was running around the Old House.

I wondered the same thing about the portrait. Why is it when David looks at Josette's portrait one minute, he can feel her presence, and the next he can't. Is it some sort of power Barnabas is exerting over the portrait?

Why did Roger have to go blabbing about the blood sample Dr. Woodard took from Maggie? That gives Barnabas an open invitation to steal it!

Here's something I forgot to mention before: this episode made me think about how it is that Mrs. Johnson seems to be in more episodes than she is actually in.  Vicky told David that Mrs. Johnson was holding his dinner for him, and I get a picture in my mind of her in the kitchen, complaining as usual about how much extra work the family makes for her, so I'll think of her as having been in an episode or two around now, when in fact she hasn't been seen in twenty or thirty episodes, has she?

Slightly related subject...I watched the 1897 episode recently in which Edward says even the servants knew about a certain bit of juicy gossip, and if the servants knew, then you can be sure everybody knew.  And, since Beth is not a Collinwood servant at this point, I thought to myself:  "Servants?  They have servants?  You could have fooled me!"  But there again, the servants are there but nobody sees them.  Very Victorian.  (I also thought to myself: "If Edward thinks the servants are last to know, then he's even dumber than I thought," but that's irrelevant.)

Except for MRS. Johnson and earlier Ben, most of the servents seamed to be envolved with the family somehow.  The family would have maid or an assistant that envolved romanticly with one of them.

Oh wait the man we love to hate, RD. He just falls into the Vampire victim category.

I remember when I used to watch DS as a kid, I would relate to David a lot because he was close to my age.  I thought it was exciting when he used to get in trouble by not minding what the adults wanted him to do.   Now, as an adult, I think he was a spoiled brat who just wouldn't listen!   

It's very convenient that Barnabas can go to Collinwood and find out from his family what's going on with Maggie.  But Barnabas and Willie ARE very careless to let Maggie roam around the Old House.  Very
inconsistent.
Cudos to Vicki for speaking up to Roger about holding back on how she feels about Maggie.  I agree that Roger was very hypocritical - HE doesn't hold back his feelings at all!  At least he apologized to her.

That WAS a very exciting ending for a Friday show!

----- Sally -----