My oh my, what a dirty look Julia gave Cassandra before slapping her. It must be nice to write for actors that you can trust. The writers (can't remember who wrote this episode) didn't burden Grayson Hall with words; they just let her do it all herself.
IluvBarnabas pointed out yesterday that, contrary to what I said, Barnabas did prepare for the return of his curse by requesting that Julia and Willie stake him, and it's a good point - but does he really think that will work? Twice so far he has been assured that he would be staked, and both times it has not happened. I am reminded of the scene in Groundhog Day in which Bill Murray's character, living the day for the second time around, revises downward the probability of his departure that day. "Chance of a staking - hmm...41%." Oh, well, never mind. Barnabas is worn down past the point of thought.
It's interesting that the actual return of the curse doesn't come until after the Dream is finished. It makes for a nice bit of extra meanness on the part of Angelique, which surely won the approval of Nicholas, but I wonder if it was an option that Angelique chose, or if it was a necessary part of how the Dream worked: the completion of the Dream was necessary in order for the bat to receive the call to action.
