Discuss - Ep #0460

[Lydia]

Robservations #460

[Lydia]

There are episodes where I have trouble coming up with anything to say, and then there are episodes, like this one, where there's too much to say.

1795 begins with bright colors and lots of people living happy, useful lives.  It ends with darkness and death, with very few people left to do the mourning.  It's beautiful, but I shan't be watching it again for a long time.  I don't like tragedies.

We haven't seen Natalie since she summoned Bathia Mapes and then went off to take care of Mad Millicent.  And when Naomi was dying, Barnabas walked freely around the drawing room and foyer of Collinwood, not worrying about who might see him.  We find out in future episodes that Natalie hadn't left Collinsport, so I have decided in my own mind that we had reached the forty-day mark for Josette's death, and Natalie was off at church doing the forty-day thing.  Anybody got a better answer?

I wish we could have seen Joshua telling Millicent that Nathan had gone, and Millicent saying, "Good riddance to bad suitors," but I suppose there just wasn't time.  We've seen enough of Millicent so that we can easily imagine it.

What a moving goodbye between Joshua and Barnabas.  And then Joshua couldn't bring himself to destroy Barnabas, but instead condemned him to an eternity of painful imprisonment.  I don't suppose Joshua really thought he was doing Barnabas a favor - but he just couldn't pull the trigger.  It was the wrong decision, but very understandable.

Huh.  Vicky didn't answer one of Peter's questions.  I suppose it's difficult to concentrate one's mind at such times - but surely she could have tried.  All he's going to have left of Vicky is memories, and she could have given him a little more.

[MagnusTrask]

We're at this point now, are we?    Am I wrong to have been disappointed that Barnabas went willingly to be destroyed?    The chained coffin in 1967 had always made a deafening, silent statement that Barnabas had become such a monster that he had to be dragged kicking and screaming to be chained up.    I know no one could have done that... he could just vanish...  but Barnabas's extreme bitterness and rage in 1967 seems inconsistent with his having quietly agreed to be destroyed in 1795.    I know all those years of confinement are a different thing than being shot, and it would change you, but.... it's a strange anticlimax.

I wonder if, after just having humanized Barnabas through the 1795 storyline, they didn't want to confuse the public by showing a gradually more and more "evil" Barnabas.    He never stops meaning well.   Anyway, it threw me, because the dark, beautiful, inevitably tragic story I thought I was watching all that time turned out to end differently, when I thought the ending was certain.    Things seemed to peter out rather than climax.

The Joshua/Barnabas moments are great, though.

[Lydia]

I hadn't really thought about that before, but I don't have any problem with the idea of Barnabas agreeing to be destroyed.  He was at a weak point, having just seen his mother kill herself because of him.  And he had knuckled under to his father nearly all his life.  His one major rebellion, the marriage to Angelique, had turned out to be a disaster beyond his wildest nightmares.  I can see his vampire nature saying, "No, I'm not going to be killed like a rabid dog," and his human nature overruling, saying, "Deal with it."  If he'd had a little more time to think about it, things might have been different, but his father told him he would destroy him that very day.

I'm just about to go watch episode 461.  One of the great pleasures of returning to the present from 1795/6 is that present-time Barnabas, for all the humanization he gets in 1795, is still the Bad Barnabas of 1967.  It doesn't last, I like the continuity.

Things seemed to peter out rather than climax.

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Oh, yes, one more thing that I forgot to mention - I didn't realize before this round of watching 1795 that the townspeople will always believe that Victoria Winters was indeed the witch, because the attacks in the town stopped when she was hanged.

[EmeraldRose]

I didn't realize before this round of watching 1795 that the townspeople will always believe that Victoria Winters was indeed the witch, because the attacks in the town stopped when she was hanged.

Don't forget, also, that Vicki turned into Phyllis Wick! Now if that didn't convince the unknowing people of 1795/96 Collinsport that Vicki was the witch, I don't know what would!

So many things happened in this episode! 1795/96 was wrapped up very quickly and neatly. I'm glad there were no unanswered questions. The end was so exciting! I probably would have been kicking and screaming to get away.

I can understand Barnabas' willingly going to the coffin to be killed. I also can understand Joshua not being able to kill Barnabas. Barnabas didn't know that he would be chained in the coffin when he went to "sleep". I hope Barnabas didn't have to wake up night after night all those years in the coffin. Suspended animation would be desirable. As for his being so evil at his release? Even if he was not awake, probably something happened in his brain when he was asleep all that time. Also, all those years without blood would make him ravenous for it and bring his animal instincts out.

I was glad to see Nathan get killed. Good riddance!  The Collins Family History would be accurate when it said that Millicent never got married because Joshua got an annulment for her, which was like Nathan and Millicent never being married at all. It's good that Joshua got another chance to be a father with Millicent and Daniel.

----- Sally -----

[MagnusTrask]

all those years without blood would make him ravenous for it and bring his animal instincts out.

Good point.    As for his being asleep, I say he was awake until he was in there long enough to start to go into a weird mental state a bit similar to what people in sensory deprivation tanks experience.  I know they get very real-seeming hallucinations.     A state between waking and sleeping is probably involved... I'm not sure a vampire is physically capable of sleep.

Barnabas agreeing to be destroyed isn't implausible, it's just how we get from there to 1967 that throws me.    Perhaps if they'd tried to do something to convey the unexpected horror of being trapped in the coffin, and not just a brief moment but an extended look at it.... that might have bridged things for me.   

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

This is the kind of answer that might get me to appreciate this moment of the DS story.    It's a start.

[Nelson Collins]

Somewhere, I got the impresstion that affixing the cross on the inside of the coffin would prevent him from escaping, whether that was because the presence of the cross weakened him or put him in some kind of stasis, I don't know.  Am I crazy, or was there some (likely obscure) reference to that, either refering to Barnabas or maybe Angelique? 

Had the cross not been present, would Barnabas have been able to escape?  Has he been shown to have superhuman strength.  Come to think of it.  He has the ability to transform into a bat.  Has he ever been shown to transform into mist or a wolf, a la Dracula?

[Joeytrom]

In the early episodes it was hinted that he was able to turn himself into a dog.

[IluvBarnabas]

Great episode.

I was totally moved by the farewell between Joshua and Barnabas. Despite Joshua's feeling he was incapable of loving anyone, I think the fact that he was unable to pull the trigger and kill Barnabas proved otherwise. It wasn't that he couldn't love anyone, it was just that he wasn't able to show it very much.

I loved the farewell between Vicki and Peter....sad and romantic at the same time.

Nathan totally deserved what he got, not only for what he did to Naomi, but to Vicki as well (though I do think Barnabas missed the mark here too....like Trask, he should have bit Nathan and made him go recant his testimony against Vicki).

SPOILER ALERT:


Well, at least Barnabas does do exactly that when he goes back there to save her from hanging a second time later on.

[Roland]

One also has to realize that Barnabas has no emotional connection with anyone when he is released in 1967 (even though everyone he meets apparently looks exactly like someone from his earlier life).  Hence, his more "evil" nature in that year is more understandable. 

[Sunny_Collins]

There are episodes where I have trouble coming up with anything to say, and then there are episodes, like this one, where there's too much to say. ...

A very well written post, and one that echoes my sentiments completely. 

Perhaps if they'd tried to do something to convey the unexpected horror of being trapped in the coffin, and not just a brief moment but an extended look at it.... that might have bridged things for me.

It would have been interesting to understand  over the space of two or three minutes barnabas's thoughts and feelings so we could at least get an idea of what he went through for those centuries trapped, immobilized and isolated in the coffin.

I always wondered what became of Ben after he was freed. We know he had descendants but where did he go? He most likely stayed in Collinsport since that's where his descendants lived, but who did he marry?

[Lydia]

Today's Quote is from this episode: the hangman saying to Vicky, "May God have mercy on your unrepentant soul."  I see that I didn't comment on it before, so I'm commenting now.  How does the hangman know that Vicky's soul is unrepentant?  Yes, I know, it's a silly question, because it's that whole mindset of "We know whether or not you're repentant" that leads to Vicky being tried as a witch in the first place - but it still bugs me.  He could have simply said, "May God have mercy on your soul," but he just had to be mean.  Oh, well, maybe it was a job requirement.

[MagnusTrask]

She hadn't confessed, I think that was it.

[IluvBarnabas]

Each time I watch the episode, and hear the hangman say that, I can't help but think "And may God have mercy on YOUR soul for hanging an innocent woman." I won't say unrepentant since he truly believes that Vicki is guilty but nevertheless they are hanging a wrongly convicted woman.