Barnabas and Reverend Trask...

[Doug]

I have to give credit where credit is due.

SPOILER ALERT:

Reverend Trask redeemed himself somewhat by going after the real witch Angelique/Cassandra and exorcised her once he got his revenge against Barnabas out of his system. Too bad though, that Nicholas Blair turned up to undo Trask's exorcism.

Remember after that when Trask appeared to Vicki inside the Drawing Room to warn her about Angelique/Cassandra
until Jeff Clark entered? At that time, I was hoping to see more of Trask.

[IluvBarnabas]

Greg wasn't "pure evil" since that's something that's true only of supernatural creatures.

My Pastor at my church would strongly disagree with you on this one. He always taught us that we were all born evil because we eventually give in to the temptation of sin. It's just that some of us are more capable of feeling remorse and are able to repent than others are.

As a minister, Gregory Trask had to have been aware of THE most important commandment....Thou Shall Not Kill. I agree with Garth on this one.....Gregory deliberately chose to ignore it for his own selfish purposes.

[MagnusTrask]

The world is FULL of people who rationalize bad actions, using arguments that make no sense, which they ignore the irrationality of, because they're not interested in right or wrong, but in getting what they want.   Never underestimate the capacity of human beings to lie to themselves.

"Evil"... it depends on the definition one uses.   Usually people don't bother to define the word before using it, making discussions about it meaningless.   The concept of "evil" seems to mean people doing "bad" for "bad"s sake, to be "bad".    That's Nicholas Blair helping Cassandra with her revenge on Barnabas, when no one but her gets anything out of it.  Bad for bad's sake.   That's what I say does not happen in the real world.

On "good" vs. "bad" in the general populace... if we divorce it from the idea of "evil" that simplifies it all... I say any scale has a zero point in the middle.    Most people hover around that zero point, neither good nor bad.    It's only when a challenge comes along and a person has to respond that the needle shifts in one direction or another.    That's how I'm coming to see it.

Anyway, on Trask One, the position of DS is clearly that he's a hypocrite out for his own glory... Barnabas treats him that way, and even Nicholas does in 1968.   

[Nancy]

My Pastor at my church would strongly disagree with you on this one. He always taught us that we were all born evil because we eventually give in to the temptation of sin. It's just that some of us are more capable of feeling remorse and are able to repent than others are.

There's a big difference between being imperfect and being evil.  We are born imperfect, not inherently evil. 

Nancy

[Brandon Collins]

Obviously all the Trasks were flawed in their own ways. They each thought they were doing something that was "Gods" work.

Rev. Trask was hunting witches, and it was his objective to find them guilty no matter what it took, because that is what "God" wanted him to do. There was no place for witches in the world, so they had to be found out and hanged.

Greg Trask was doing "Gods" work in educating the children of the village to love and respect their elders, as well as respecting "God". He could rationalize that his deeds were committed for the good of the children because people like Minerva, with her constant probing, were hindering him from doing his job of educating the village. And Greg's forcing Judith to marry him could be seen as his wish to get hold of the most powerful name in the town, so that he could open up his school once again, and continue preaching "Gods" word to everyone.

Lamar, however, was putting people to rest. No matter their sins throughout life, he would bury there honorably, just as "God" would have wanted. Lamar wanted to pin the witchcraft of the town on Quentin because he was influenced by Gerudah (Gerard/Judah), and he believed that ridding the town of the witchcraft would prevent his dead corpse's from rising as zombie's and killing him.

Okay, so the last one is a bit of the stretch, but I'm hazy on the details of what all Lamar did.

My basic point is that they all believed themselves to be good people, who could rationalize what they were doing as being the work of their "God", whoever that may or may not have been. It's quite possible that they were all very much insane, hearing "God's" voice in their head from time to time. I agree with Magnus Trask that the Trask's attempted to rationalize their actions in their mind, but do I think they were evil? Hmm, not necessarily. I think it was more that they were lead down the wrong path initially, and found it hard to deviate from that path because they so devoutly believed in what they were doing. Most, if not all, of the acts they committed were hateful and wrong, and yea, they were pretty bad, but I think that evil is a term that is heavily over used in the place of "bad". So defining them as one or the other (good v. evil) is a tough call.

[arashi]

I can't remember, but once Trask had married Judith, didn't he decide to close the school? I have some vague recollection of Charity being horrified at his decision. I could be mistaken, I honestly can't remember.

[IluvBarnabas]

I can't remember, but once Trask had married Judith, didn't he decide to close the school? I have some vague recollection of Charity being horrified at his decision. I could be mistaken, I honestly can't remember.

Yes, Trask did close down Worthington Hall once he married Judith, and yes Charity wasn't exactly thrilled over his decision but she went along with it.

[Garth Blackwood]

Yes, Trask did close down Worthington Hall once he married Judith, and yes Charity wasn't exactly thrilled over his decision but she went along with it.

I thought Worthington Hall burned down ... I could be wrong though-- it's been a little while since I'd seen those episodes

[RachelDrummand]

I thought Worthington Hall burned down ... I could be wrong though-- it's been a little while since I'd seen those episodes

It did burn down, but they rebuilt it I believe...or at least Judith allowed them the funds to rebuild.

[adamsgirl]

Judith did say she'd give Trask the money to rebuild, but it never happened. Once he got Minerva out of the way, it was easier for him to marry her (and her money) than keep running the school.

[RachelDrummand]

Judith did say she'd give Trask the money to rebuild, but it never happened. Once he got Minerva out of the way, it was easier for him to marry her (and her money) than keep running the school.

Aha...thanks for clarifying this. It's been awhile since I've watched those episodes.

[Doug]

I thought Worthington Hall burned down ... I could be wrong though-- it's been a little while since I'd seen those episodes

It did burn down, but they rebuilt it I believe...or at least Judith allowed them the funds to rebuild.

Burned down by Laura Collins.

[Pansity]

Barnabas could have bitten Trask and placed him under his contol, forcing him to confess either verbally or through a written confession.  He didn't necessarily have to kill him.  I think he just wanted to.  There's also the possibility that Barnabas was not yet aware of the full extent of his powers.

Makes me think of when Barnabas did the same thing with Carl Collins -- and as annoying as Carl was, he didn't cause anyone the tragedy and pain that Trask did.  And at that point Barnabas WOULD have known he had the mind control  as an option. Had already used it on Sandor when he first awakened, as a matter of fact.  Guess we have to factor in the fact that sometimes Barnabas kills just because he CAN....

Jeannie

[IluvBarnabas]

[spoiler]
I agree that Barnabas just wanted to kill Trask. Wrong as it was, I can't say I shed any tears over the good Reverend, remembering how unscrupulous this "man of God" was to get Vicki convicted by any means necessary.

Carl is a different story. Even though a few generations seperated them, Carl was still related to Barnabas. And as you say, Pansity, Carl never really did anything to hurt anyone. Sure he played a lot of pratical jokes that annoyed the heck out of Judith and Edward, but he was nowhere near the monster that Gregory was.

I suppose Barnabas just acted without thinking when he strangled Carl. I'm not saying this excuses Barnabas from killling him, but it wasn't the first time Barnabas did something rash without thinking about the consequences. Nor would it be the last. [/spoiler]

[MagnusTrask]

One thing I love about 1897 is that Barnabas is in a constant struggle between his human reformed self, and his vampire self, yet seems completely unaware of it.*   They don't spell it out for us the audience, either.   It unfolds as life does, without exposition.    The re-vampirizing throws Barnabas so thoroughly (who hadn't even come to grips yet with becoming human again in 1968-9, I think) that he sometimes employs vicious methods in pursuing the right, humane goals (usually), and doesn't notice the contradiction.  His perspective is just too thoroughly overwhelmed by vampirism.   I think he never really catches on, not during 1897, anyway.

*- This is the new bit, that just occurred to me now.   I've said similar things to this argument before, but that part's new.