Discuss - Ep #0414

[Watching Project]

Robservations #414

[Lydia]

Nathan is mighty quick to tell Millicent that he plans to quit the Navy.  He would do much better to keep it to himself until after the wedding, and then demonstrate to her how unpleasant the life of a naval officer's wife can be.  But maybe his superiors are looking for ways to drum him out of the Navy, and Nathan wants to quit before he gets a dishonorable discharge.

The closing of the door to the mausoleum was eerie, because it was the first manifestation of the "eveybody who loves you will die" part of Angelique's curse.  I still don't like Sarah, but I do feel sorry for her: the curse has chosen her as its first victim, and there's no fighting it.

I liked the Jack the Ripper atmosphere of Barnabas's encounter with Ruby Tate.

[arashi]

I know they have Barn walking around with blood stains all over his face for dramatic and horrifying effect, but how often do you walk around with food all over your face? It's a bit ridiculous that he wouldn't at least reach up and wipe his face on his sleeve. Maybe that's a symptom of being a vampire, you have to walk around with a bloody face all night.

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I still don't like Sarah, but I do feel sorry for her: the curse has chosen her as its first victim, and there's no fighting it.

Well, technically, Angelique was the first victim of her own curse, as Barnabas gleefully pointed out to her just before he strangled her.  Though, of course, being a witch, she didn't exactly stay dead - which leads in Ep #447 to one of the most absurd lines of dialogue ever - though one that makes absolutely perfect sense on a show like DS:

Only On A Show Like DS!

[MagnusTrask]

how often do you walk around with food all over your face?

arashi---Regarding Barnabas and the blood on his face, think of it this way:   I think that if a person had just unexpectedly been reduced to eating human flesh for sustenance, he/she might be thrown enough by the whole thing to forget to wipe with a napkin.    What we do in everyday, unchallenged life is not really a yardstick by which to judge what someone in shock would do.   I think the blood on him has a lot of impact.    I don't think it was there as a sort of scary horror-movie type device.    It says, oh my God, what's happening to me?

 

[Lydia]

Before my latest watching of this episode I agreed with you, arashi, but this time around I noticed that Barnabas was having a worse than usual night.  He muffed his attack on Ruby Tate, so, unless he fished her out of the water, he had to go find another victim.  On his way back to the mausoleum, he paused at Jeremiah's grave to express sympathy with the man he had killed.  He had other things than table manners on his mind.  He may not have wanted to acknowledge the presence of blood on his face, or maybe he even felt he should keep it there, as a badge of shame - a scarlet C for Cannibal.

I keep reading and hearing about the sexual aspect of vampires sucking the blood of their victims, but in the past few days I've been thinking a lot about the cannibalistic aspect.  It must be simply mind-boggling to start seeing your fellow human beings as food.

[EmeraldRose]

I wonder if Ruby Tate was an ancestor of Charles Delaware Tate.

It's too bad Barnabas wasn't in the habit of wiping off the blood from his face. Sarah wouldn't have been scared of him if he had. It's no wonder that Barnabas wanted to see Sarah in the "present" - I'm sure he blames himself for her death. If it weren't for him, Sarah wouldn't have run outside.

----- Sally -----

[arashi]

Good points Lydia and Magnus!

I guess I was thinking of later in the show when he keeps doing it, though when was the first time we saw blood on his face? Was it here when he first became a vampire? Because I don't remember seeing it back when he was going after Maggie. I guess here it would be even more striking as it's all the more apparent he's no longer human.

[Sunny_Collins]

I guess it's a good thing Ruby Tate didn't know how to swim, or Barnabas would be in a heap of trouble.

I wonder why Joshua didn't hire another governess for Sarah, or at least have one of the servants keep watch over her.

How do you explain to your little sister that you got turned in to a vampire? It's no wonder Sarah was afraid of barnabas, most adults would be as well.

I loved that scene with Barnabas kneeling at Jeremiah's grave. Excellent!

[MagnusTrask]

Thanks arashi...

I guess I was thinking of later in the show when he keeps doing it, though when was the first time we saw blood on his face?

This is the only time I know of when he had blood on his face, on the series anyway.

[arashi]

He also had it on his face after biting Sandor in 1897. Probably a visual confirmation that he was again a vampire but stilll, after all that time as one you'd think... but then again he might have been a bit in shock after being thrust back in time 70 odd years.

[Roland]

What ever happened to "discreet" prostitutes?  I love how Ruby keeps talking about what all her "girlfriends" will say when she tells them she was "with" the great Barnabas Collins.    Ruby Tate - the kiss-and-tell hooker.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And that propensity to kiss and tell is exactly what got her into trouble. If only she'd been more discreet... But, oh well. Though the scene wouldn't have been nearly half as exciting if she had. 

[MagnusTrask]

I assumed the girlfriends were doxies too.   No secrets amonst them, I'm guessing.

[Roland]

LOL yea, but I imagine the last thing a "John" wants to hear from a prostitute is that she's going to run and tell someone else who she's been with.