Discuss - Ep #0271

Robservations - #271

So the truth about what happened between Elizabeth and Paul Stoddard, Elizabeth and Jason 18 years ago finally comes to light. Hurray!

We see how cruel a man Paul Stoddard was, and we see that Elizabeth's version about the kind of man Paul  was back then was indeed the correct one (did anyone here actually believe Jason's crap about Paul being a "loving devoted father" to Carolyn?). It's clear he didn't care at all for his young daughter, ready to steal her own inheritance. Not something a loving, devoted father would do to their child. Paul was ready to steal from his own daughter which proves he didn't love her at all during this period.

[spoiler]And moreso the fact later on we learn he unwittingly sold Carolyn to the Leviathans. He hadn't known it at the time, but considering what kind of man he was back then, I think he would have sold Carolyn to the Nazi's if it had made him a billionaire. Though somewhere along the way Paul changed his way of thinking and came to realize how much Carolyn meant to him. Would have liked to have seen some flashbacks to when that happened.[/spoiler]

Great episode and once again, Joan steals the show.

It occurred to me, as I watched today's episode, that it would have been fun to have John Karlen play Paul Stoddard in the flashback.  True, they hadn't yet gotten into the habit of having one actor play multiple characters, and the audience might have been confused, but who cares?  Slap a moustache on Karlen, slick down his hair, throw some incredibly 40s clothes on him - and the inescapable conclusion is that Jason always goes after the same type of guy.

Reading IluvBarnabas's post, I started wondering - contrary person that I am - how much truth there was in the story that Elizabeth told.  I'm sure Liz was telling the story as she remembered it - but she's spent 20 years torturing herself for murdering Paul Stoddard, so perhaps she has inflated Paul's bad points, and made additions to the confrontation without realizing it.  Maybe Carolyn's name was never even mentioned.

And then Jason disposed of the evidence, and went off, and waited 20 years to re-appear and blackmail Liz.  Interesting.  I guess he always had the idea of blackmail in his mind, and that was why he made sure Liz saw the dirty basement floor that proved that he buried Paul.  Wandering off the subject: I believe there is a Beatles song in which, if you play it backwards, you can hear John or George or Ringo saying, "Paul is dead.  I buried him."  Which song was it?  Anyway, 20 years ago Jason saw this as a nice nest egg waiting for him when he felt like cashing in on it.  I wonder what other eggs he had buried around the world.

I took another look at Liz's wedding dress today.  Very weird - those huge spots.  I figure it had to be shapeless so that it would be easy to slip off for the flashback.  But spots?

And I was wondering how interesting it would have been to have Alexandra Moltke play the young Liz.

Liz runs really, really, really slow, no?

I found Joan's performance uneven. I keep wondering if Joan or the director is to blame when her performances fall flat. The other day when she was dispondant and just kept repeating everything that was said to her as if in a daze drove me up the wall. I thought it was a poor choice of acting style or technique. I do wonder though if anyone on the set dared tell Joan how to approach a scene.

Carolyn drops the gun on the floor and no one noticed?

Still miss MR's Burke. AG isn't butch enough for the role. Everything he does is anti-climatic. His trying to verbally control Jason during Liz's confession was laughable. I'd much rather have had Mrs J there instead of Burke - silently and ulitmately happy to not have to play (on the piano) and sing Oh Promise Me after the nuptials. Just think of the comic relief Mrs J's practicing would have provided.

The basement is a weird space. Anyone notice the basement floor has fallen about 8 inches since the 40s? Maybe that was my imagination. It also cleaned itself up pretty good seeing how Jason left it a mess. I won't mention the flexible flagstones, oh, I just did. And my pet peeve - Weird enough having a large window in the basement, but to be able to see the lightning flash through it is a bit too much.

Don't you think the judge had an obligation to phone the authorities? Nice to have friends in high places I guess. Another poor acting job but who cares.

I was happy with Roger & Vicki in this episode. Roger's offering to privatize Liz's confession and admonishing Vicki for not spilling the beans on Liz to him - well, they could have just had him stand there in shocked silence. Carolyn seemed kind of a wasted character but I get it - it was all about Liz in this episode. The next ep will probably focus more on Carolyn and her murderous intentions - along with how she is going to deal with the confession.

Liz implicated Jason beautifully. Made it sound as though he were in on the plot ("my accomplice"), that is until she tells the story of what happened that night. Would have been cool if they'd had Jason insist that the wedding date be the anniversary of Pauls death - just to make it all that much more repugnant.

The camera work in this episode was pretty damn good. The drawing room looked huge compared to usual. And I think it was during Carolyn's little speech that all the characters lined up beautifully in the shot.

Too bad Barn was not in attendance - I can picture him holding up his cane horizontally to stop Jason from leaving the room when Jason announced he was leaving, not saying a word but having that 'look' on his face.

I gotta give this ep a low rating. It should have been a very powerful ep but it was bungled by lackluster acting and writing.

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Still miss MR's Burke. AG isn't butch enough for the role.

I find myself substituting MR for AG in my mind.  Everything works much better that way.

At last I have figured out the reason AG was hired to replace MR: both them have first names for their last names.  Mitchell Ryan, Ryan Mitchell, Anthony George, George Anthony.  Next time I see Burke, I'll be imagining Thayer David playing him.

I have one question.  Why wasn't Liz more forcefull seemed very out of charactor.  I know she was in shock, but a real wimp.  Why didn't she see Jason bring the body out of the drawing room if she was standing in the foyer.

Or did Paul fake being dead when Jason carried him and then went out the back door?

Where did all the money go??  How did Jason know about the room in the basement??

Lydia..

Anthony George was replaced as Jeremiah Collins by another actor with two first names...Timothy Gordon.  Interesting pattern that was.

I believe there is a Beatles song in which, if you play it backwards, you can hear John or George or Ringo saying, "Paul is dead.  I buried him."  Which song was it?

That song was "Strawberry Fields", and you don't have to play it backwards to hear it.  It was revealed in The Beatles Anthology 2 that John was really saying cranberry sauce!  I thought he said I buried Paul - I was fooled, too!    [spoiler]It's funny how Paul McCartney's and Paul Stoddard's deaths were both hoaxes! [/spoiler]

Liz runs really, really, really slow, no?

My sentiments exactly!  If that's running, I'd hate to see what walking is! 

So today, we got to see and hear Elizabeth's side of the story.  She sure did turn into a wimp, didn't she?  But after commiting such a crime, I could hardly blame her.  I would have been beside myself had that happened to me.

It was interesting how we never saw Paul's face in the flashback.  I wonder if they knew Paul would come back 2 years later?  

Excellent acting, as usual, for JB.  Jason (and Carolyn) were lucky today that Elizabeth's "confession" prevented Carolyn from killing him. [spoiler]But Barnabas ended up killing him a few days later, anyway. [/spoiler]

----- Sally -----