Discuss - Ep #0362

Robservations - #362

Spoiler:

When the ghost of Dr. Woodard called Julia on the phone, it brought to mind the beginning of Quentin's story line.

I can't stand the way Barnabas is behaving so sickeningly polite, as if he's oblivious to what torment he's inflicting on Julia!

When Julia tells him she'll do anything if he'll stop what he's doing to her, including returning to Windcliff, I thought, she could simply leave Collinwood that night and have done with the whole mess. But then again, it wouldn't have made for a very interesting show if she would have left. 

I really like tony's everyday casual attitude to life.

First I had very evil thoughts about Barnabas and what he was doing to Julia. 

I think it was during a time of weakness that Julia said that she would go. Barnabas better protect himself during the day.  Julia would know where Barnabas sleeps during the day.  Don't get that lady mad.  Barnabas is too sure of himself.

I do like the way the Julia pulled herself together by the end of the show.  She was now going to go out and catch Carolyn.  I do like the fact that she was caught in Tony's office.  She'll have to do a very good tap dancing act.

Another of my favorite shows is coming up.

Golly, Barnabas has turned into such a lazy vampire!  Once upon a time he broke into Dr. Woodard's office to steal Willie's blood sample.  Bent some iron bars or some such thing. If he wanted to, he could smash Tony Peterson's safe, surely - but no, he must not dirty his lily-white hands with physical work, so he makes Carolyn go get the notebook.

And he couldn't be bothered to keep up the pretense that he cared for Julia; he was having too much fun sneering at her, so he lost a lot of traction.  Julia knows he was lying about caring for her, so she knows he was lying about being himself haunted by Dave Woodard.

I started to think: "What would Joshua think of his lazy son?" and it turned into, "Thank heaven Joshua never became a vampire! Nobody would escape from his industrious clutches!"

Physical details...As mscbryk noted the other day in the discussion of episode 357, Tony's apartment is the oft-used Room 24.  One thing I love about Dark Shadows is that the places are interesting and individual.  The rooms at Collinwood are different from the rooms at the Old House, and the Evans cottage has the huge window and the never-changing paintings to show that an artist lives there.  Room 24 is the exception that proves the rule.  I think it is designed to be boring.  The walls are boring.  The doors are boring.  Or is it just a Pavlovian reaction on my part?  “Room 24 – yawn.”  Actually, there was a nice-looking sofa in Tony's apartment.  It looked new, or else newly-upholstered.  Some sort of flowered pattern.  Where did Tony get the money for it?

I started to think: "What would Joshua think of his lazy son?" and it turned into, "Thank heaven Joshua never became a vampire! Nobody would escape from his industrious clutches!"

No Joshua would have said use the servents to do the dirty work. I had a picture of Barnabas waking down the street with the safe. Someone stopping him, "Oh I'm just doing some shopping in town"

Room 24 is the exception that proves the rule.  I think it is designed to be boring.  The walls are boring.  The doors are boring.

At the risk of sounding ignorant, what and where is "room 24"?

Room 24 is an all-purpose "residing somewhere in Collinsport” room.    It can be identified in several ways:

1) The door has “24” on it – although the set designers could be sneaky – see the following:

2) The room is not a rectangle because it has a sort of a jog to allow space for what was the kitchenette when it was used as the “presidential suite” at Collinsport Inn, where Burke stayed.

3) There are 3 doors: one for the entrance (except check the previous quote for sneakiness), one to the room that was used as a kitchenette for Burke's suite, and a third door.  In Tony Peterson's the kitchenette door is covered up by some furniture (if I observed correctly), and the third door leads to Tony's ice-less kitchen.

Room 24 is also mentioned, with mentions later in the topic of which characters had stayed there, in the following:

"room twenty four" is boring...

when occupied by miss olivia correy the room was tricked-out with such feminine accoutrements as ferns and framed photographs of herself but otherwise it is bachelor lodgings.

the austere,almost bleak,space was i think supposed to be somewhat visually metaphoric of the person occupying it at the time.there was a coldness and a slight sense of desperation about it.

one did not end up in "room twenty four" for good reasons.things generally don't go well for those who choose to dwell there.

Now Barnabas can go retrieve the notebook! No, says Cousin B, Carolyn will get the notebook, using her womanly charms on Tony Peterson to get his keys and the notebook.(I don't understand why; is this a test? It would be so much easier for Barn to get it himself.)

Barnabas couldn't get the notebook because he was never invited to Tony's office, and was never there. Being a vampire, Barnabas can't just go anyplace until he's invited.

Golly, Barnabas has turned into such a lazy vampire!  Once upon a time he broke into Dr. Woodard's office to steal Willie's blood sample.  Bent some iron bars or some such thing.

In this case, Barnabas was in that office before, so he was able to break in.

I, too, loved how Julia was able to pull herself together to track Carolyn down with Tony. It's a good thing Tony took the notebook to his apartment! I also thougt it was great when Carolyn was caught by Tony!

I hated Barnabas pretending to be concerned for Julia!  He was being so mean! 

----- Sally -----

Barnabas couldn't get the notebook because he was never invited to Tony's office, and was never there. Being a vampire, Barnabas can't just go anyplace until he's invited.

It's a wonderfully neat explanation, but I'm not sure it holds water in the Dark Shadows world.  I don't think I've ever heard of a Dark Shadows vampire mentioning the invitation business.  Still, I like it, and the need for an invitation made for a wonderful scene in the book Dracula, so it's a pity they didn't use it (explicitly, I mean) on Dark Shadows.

Now Barnabas can go retrieve the notebook! No, says Cousin B, Carolyn will get the notebook, using her womanly charms on Tony Peterson to get his keys and the notebook.(I don't understand why; is this a test? It would be so much easier for Barn to get it himself.)

Barnabas couldn't get the notebook because he was never invited to Tony's office, and was never there. Being a vampire, Barnabas can't just go anyplace until he's invited.

Barnabas doesn't say he can't get the notebook; he says, "I won't get it."

And 3 nights earlier he was prepared to go there himself.  In #358, as Barnabas was preparing to leave, Carolyn asked where he was going and he replied, "To Peterson's office.  Do you think a little black box can stop me?"  But Carolyn pointed out that it was almost dawn, and Barnabas agreed that there wasn't enough time so he assigned the task to her, telling her to use her feminine wiles on Peterson (as he does again in the ep for this topic), and adding, "... It won't be hard for you to do what you must do.  I've thought of an alternative solution to Hoffman."

I wonder if he might have given the explanation here (#358), perhaps saying that while she works on getting the notebook, he can focus on carrying out his new plan to deal with Julia.  (It was the following night that he performed the ritual.)