Discuss - Ep #0535

Robservations #535

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.

Barnabas is so desperate to want to avoid being one of the living dead, plus he DID make Julia promise that she would follow his wishes, and he trusted her, so he had no reason to believe he wouldn't get staked THIS time.

Though, realistically he really should have thought about it a bit more.

[spoiler] He knew Julia was in love with him, that should have made him think about it a bit more, that promise or not, when the time came, she would not be able to bring herself to stake him because of how she felt about him, similar to why Joshua was unable to stake him. [/spoiler]

Loved the bitch-slap Julia gave Cassandra. Vicki should have struck her too! I know I would have.

this is one of my favorite shows. 

Barnabas was thinking of Vickie, when he said for Julia to Vickie. Maybe he was thinking
that he needed time to set up what he wanted to do with the seditive.  He must have
gone into Julia Bag.

[spoiler]But it will be good that Julia didn't stake him. [/spoiler]

l love this episode! Wonderfully acted by everybody.

It was so touching when Barnabas told Vicki that he loved her and wanted to prevent her torment. He called on Julia to comfort Vicki - I think it was so he could get a sedative out of Julia's bag. It's sad that Vicki didn't love Barnabas the way he loved her; but Julia did love Barnabas, and Barnabas didn't love her the way she loved him. Vicki just loved Barnabas as a friend, and Barnabas just loved Julia as a friend. Lots of unrequited love going around, which is the way of soap operas. 

Barnabas was very brave to take a sedative and get it over with quickly. Poor Julia, helpless, was only able to just sit there and watch Barnabas sleep while her heart was breaking. That would be horrible to watch the man you love go to his probable death. I probably would have been crying all over the place!

So finally, the Dream Curse is over, with Barnabas being the last recipient. After 11 people suffered before him (except for Prof. Stokes), the conclusion has come with Barnabas. I was relieved when Barnabas survived the dream. But I knew that it wasn't over. Barnabas shouldn't have told Julia to go away. (But I suspect it didn't matter, anyway, because Barnabas would still have opened the door,  even with Julia there.) 

That last scene, when the bat attacked Barnabas, was thrilling! I loved it when Barnabas said, "NO!" Angelique won after all. 

-----  Sally -----