Discuss - Ep #0520

Robservations #520

So many things to think about today.  Here's the list, as I wrote it immediately after the episode finished, so as not to forget any of it: "buttons, handwriting, singing, basement, coat, spell not connected to Cassandra, fights".

Buttons.  That's about Julia coming in from her walk (for which I envy her - beautiful morning, fresh air, beach, gulls mewing - who here has read and loved One Morning In Maine by Robert McCloskey?).  Her suit jacket was all buttoned up, and she unbuttoned it, except for the top button.  I imagine Grayson Hall buttoning it up before this scene so she could do the unbuttoning and thereby give a strong feeling of having been outside, rather than simply in another part of the studio.  They do say, however, that the dressing rooms were cold.

Handwriting.  Naomi's or Elizabeth's?  Barnabas noted that the writing on the envelope was "her" handwriting - Elizabeth's?  As she looked down at it, I don't suppose she would have noticed any difference, just as she didn't notice the very odd clothes that Joshua and the Countess were wearing.  And by the way, who has seen the J in Joshua written that way before?

Singing.  That's Joan Bennett, in the scene with Roger and Julia.  Standing there with her hands clasped at waist height, and then the hands and hands flying apart at a couple of dramatic moments.  It seemed like an aria, with the hand gestures specified as well as the words and notes.  I felt I was watching a work of art.

Basement.  That's Barnabas, of course.  Still in the Old House basement when Julia came back to tell him about Elizabeth.  Staring at the skeleton and wondering.  For how many hours?  Writing "basement" down, I think of that Stephen King story that Jonathan Frid reads - "Here Be Tigers"? - in which "basement" is used as a euphemism for "bathroom", but I don't think that's why Barnabas was down there.

Coat.  Julia's.  We saw it as Barnabas and Julia were talking about it just inside the front door of Collinwood, and I thought: "Who's going out?" because there are never any extra coats there.  Maybe Mrs. Johnson checks David's crystal ball every morning to see which coats will be needed when.  Anyway, sure enough, Julia grabbed her coat when she and Barnabas went out.  Odd, when she hadn't worn it for her lovely morning walk.

Spell not connected to Cassandra.  I don't know why it should be - but it keeps surprising me that Elizabeth's troubles continue after Cassandra is gone.  Reminds me of an old, old heresy in the Catholic Church, whose name I can't remember, which said that if the priest is no good, then the sacraments performed by him don't hold water.  Not quite the same idea, though.

Fights.  Roger and Cassandra, of course.  Now that Cassandra's gone, Roger has forgotten them.  Or shoved them under the rug.  There was something in the beginning voiceover about Roger being an innocent husband.  I have some trouble with that characterization.  Granted, Roger is Cassandra's victim, but he's not a snowy white lambkin.

There.  Too, long, of course, so which subjects do I delete?

I've never understood why Cassandra's spell on Elizabeth was still working after Trask had exorcised Cassandra either.

I think maybe it was Trask NEARLY destroyed Cassandra but not quite. Even this doesn't quite seem to fit seeing as since Trask was determined to get rid of the witch, he'd make sure he'd finish the job.

Now Roger knows how Elizabeth must have felt a few weeks back...this time she is the one who thinks she's someone else from the past, Naomi, and she believes he's her husband, Joshua, not her brother Roger. Roger was very upset at this, understandably, just as Elizabeth was. Talk about the shoe switching to the other foot.

I'm glad Barnabas and Julia got to Elizabeth in time.

So many things to think about today.  Here's the list, as I wrote it immediately after the episode finished, so as not to forget any of it: "buttons, handwriting, singing, basement, coat, spell not connected to Cassandra, fights".

I'm a list maker too, but for me it's an over 50 thing.  Hmm, I'd like "handwriting" and "spell not connected to Cassandra" (for 800, Alex).

And by the way, who has seen the J in Joshua written that way before?

I have-- In my autographed Joan Bennett photo.  Heheh.

I don't know why it should be - but it keeps surprising me that Elizabeth's troubles continue after Cassandra is gone.

The spell wasn't broken because Cassandra is not completely gone, since:

[spoiler]her portrait, though faded, continues to exist.  In creating the portrait, Angelique established a connection that keeps her tethered to this time, and this link was occasionally demonstrated on the show.  For example, as Cassandra aged to an old woman, in #547 the portrait aged with her, so she sought it out in an attempt to save herself, which of course didn't work since she had been made human and was therefore both mortal and powerless.  It wasn't until Cassangelique was dead (as if) that the portrait went completely blank, freeing both Barnabas and Liz of her.  (Of course, Ang wasn't done with either of them, but I'm getting way ahead.)

It's a pity that Trask's ghost didn't know about the connection because he could have seen to it that the portrait was destroyed (much like Harry Potter [spoiler for book 6:][spoiler]had to destroy all of Voldemort's horcruxes to end the dark wizard's immortality,[/spoiler] though of course Trask is no Harry Potter).  Had he taken that extra step, he may have prevented Nicholas from undoing the exorcism.  Then again, if Trask had been that on the ball we woudn't have had a warlock brother, vampire Angelique, Tom Jennings, etc.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]It's a pity that Trask's ghost didn't know about the connection because he could have seen to it that the portrait was destroyed Had he taken that extra step, he may have prevented Nicholas from undoing the exorcism.  Then again, if Trask had been that on the ball we wouldn't have had a warlock brother, vampire Angelique, Tom Jennings, etc.[/spoiler]

I agree, Midnite.

I agree with Robin - Those scenes when Elizabeth was calling Roger Joshua, and talking about their "marriage" was oddly funny! 

How sad for Barnabas to be reliving Naomi's death. That was particularly cruel of Angelique to cause this to happen.

----- Sally -----

So, even in death Trask couldn't get an exorcism right.

Midnite, are you saying that Angelique is not the same entity as Cassandra, and that Cassandra is a subset of Angelique?  I don't feel it's necessary to put this into a spoiler because there is clearly a commonly held belief that Angelique and Cassandra are one and the same, interchangeable.  And for all I know, I'm misstating your intent.

I've just been reading about Monophysites versus Dyophysites in early Christianity: does Christ have one nature (monophysite) or two (dyophysite)?  The Dyophysites won out.  I'm not sure I'm ready for a similar controversy on Dark Shadows.

Oh, and by the way, the heresy that I mentioned in my first post was the Donatist heresy.

Midnite, are you saying that Angelique is not the same entity as Cassandra, and that Cassandra is a subset of Angelique?  I don't feel it's necessary to put this into a spoiler because there is clearly a commonly held belief that Angelique and Cassandra are one and the same, interchangeable.  And for all I know, I'm misstating your intent.

I wasn't saying they're not the same.  That's why I eventually settled on calling her Cassangelique.

Drat.

there is clearly a commonly held belief that Angelique and Cassandra are one and the same, interchangeable.

Though it's not simply a belief as the storyline specifically establishes that Cassandra and Angelique are one and the same on at least three occasions. One such instance actually takes place at the end of Cassandra's second episode: Ep #474  And the other two that I'm thinking about take place in upcoming episodes (so far as the Watching Project is concerned): Eps #546 and #547.

What are the reasons some people have for some believing they're two people, in some sense?    Cassandra knows about the 20th century, that's the only idea I've come up with.

Bother.  I considered talking further about the one-person/two-person thing in my previous post.  Decided that:

A) I'm the only one who thinks that there was a difference between Cassandra and Angelique (beyond hair color) and I didn't feel like fighting the world,

B) I might be splitting hairs a little finer than anybody else was interested in, and

C) I wasn't sure exactly what I thought, and I didn't care enough about Angelique to figure it out.

So I went for the one-word post.  Alas, the issue followed me home.

I'm not saying that that Cassandra and Angelique are altogether separate.  It's more like putting one circle on top of another but not quite on top of each other, so a little bit of each circle is separate from the other circle.  This seems pretty obvious to me, and is what gets me to item B in the list above - I keep wondering if I'm making a mountain out of what everybody else considers to be a particularly insignificant molehill.  And since I'm not really sure, and since item C is still a problem...I'll shut up for now.

It's never a bad thing to initially come up with new and even radical theories about the DS storylines - especially if/where/when DS leaves the door gaping open for such theories. In fact, if it stimulates discussion/debate, it's a great thing because it probably gets people thinking outside the box, and that can be quite stimulating, and one of the many things Midnite and I love is to read/take part in stimulating discussion/debate. Though in this instance, with such a preponderance of story specifically establishing and reestablishing that Cassandra and Angelique are exactly the same person except for hair color (I actually thought of three more instances where their one true identity is revisited: once during 1897 and twice during Leviathans), that particular subject doesn't lend itself easily to new and radical theories like some other aspects of the storylines might.    But we should all keep reexamining DS because every so often a great new theory comes about that makes people stand back and say "Whoa!" 

OK.  Here's what I see:

In the Dream, Angelique told Stokes that she didn't know who Cassandra was, and she assumed that he was Ben Stokes.  As MB pointed out elsewhere, Angelique is a good liar - but this didn't strike me as the sort of lie that Angelique tells.  There was no point to it, and she didn't elaborate.  So, if she was lying, why was she lying, and if she was not lying, what did it mean?

Why was it apparently necessary to introduce the portrait into Collinwood before Cassandra's arrival?  Why couldn't she just hang onto it herself, and keep it hidden somewhere without anybody knowing about it?

[spoiler]After Nicholas ages Cassandra to death, we get Angelique the vampire.  Blond hair, nightgown, no portrait.  Why is the portrait no longer necessary to keep her in the 20th century?[/spoiler]

This may be a red herring, but I can't be sure: Why did Cassandra keep insisting to Barnabas that she was not Angelique?  I don't think she was telling the truth.  But I don't know why she felt it necessary to keep telling this lie, and therefore I don't know if it's relevant.  Did we ever hear the reason later?  I might well have not paid attention to it, because it wasn't until this round of watching that I started wondering about this whole question.

There may be more that I'm not remembering at the moment.  Again, I'm not saying that Cassandra and Angelique were completely different.  But in some way Cassandra was a projection of Angelique, and that is not the same thing as being Angelique.  I keep thinking to myself: Forget it, you're surely wrong.  But then I keep thinking there's stuff here that I do not understand.

Understanding Dark Shadows...silly idea.  If I get satisfactory answers to all the questions, I'll be bored with it.

I always believed Cassandra and Angelique WERE one and the same. I haven't seen anything to make me believe otherwise.

[spoiler] When Nicholas made Cassandra human, as he pointed out, the portrait could no longer help her or save her from death. I always figured that once Cassandra died, the connection between her and the portrait was broken.

Cassandra kept insisting that she wasn't Angelique to Barnabas because she didn't want him to know who she really is. Rather weak reasoning on her part, because she didn't fool him one bit...still she had nothing to lose by denying her true identity. [/spoiler]