Discuss - Ep #0572

[Watching Project]

Robservations #572

[Lydia]

Naturally I thought of poor, suffering Midnite as we saw Julia's low-heeled shoes walking down the stairs.  It must be torture for Midnite to watch - though perhaps she has learned to avert her eyes.
 
When Julia got cold feet at Nicholas Blair's house and Barnabas told her to go wait in the car, suddenly I was positive that we would get a look at Julia in the car, fiddling with her gloves, tapping the steering wheel, smoking cigarette after cigarette, looking in the back seat for an old medical journal to read or at least doodle on.  Never mind that I know that not once in the whole series do we get to see Julia's car.  I just knew it was going to happen anyway.
 
Now that Joe's the vampire victim, Maggie's not giving Joe as much support as he gave her when she was a vampire victim.  I've been thinking about the possible reasons.  I've come up with:

a) Gender difference: Joe's supposed to be a macho man who doesn't need anybody's help.
b) Maggie's father was around at the time of her victimization, so that an atmosphere was created of Maggie being somebody to be protected.  If Joe's parents had been around now, would they have started taking action when Joe kept being AWOL at work?
c) Maggie has more of a sense of self - to use Nicholas's phrase - than Joe.
d) Joe's behavior as a victim appears to be slightly different from Maggie's.  When Maggie was a victim, it was obvious to all concerned that she was not well.  In the case of Joe, however, up until today's episode, I think all that Maggie knew was that Joe was not keeping his appointments.  The fact that it was completely unlike him didn't start her wondering if there was something wrong with him.

But I can't make it gel.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Maggie's an insensitive bitch who, at the first sign of real trouble, drops a relationship like a hot potato?   

Seriously, though, Joe's behavior towards Maggie wouldn't exactly inspire much support. Yes, he says he loves her - but then almost everything else he does contradicts that from Maggie's POV, and she gets no substantial explanations whatsoever as to why that is. We as the audience know why, but Maggie doesn't. And with Joe there's never any generally known indication that he's been attacked and is suffering from a loss of blood as was explicitly the case with Maggie. Joe doesn't have a Sam in his life who insists that he's going to see a doctor whether he wants to or not. But then, that angle or even Maggie forcing her support on him wouldn't have really worked in this plot because one of the points would certainly seem to be for Joe's life to completely fall apart and for his and Maggie's relationship to disintegrate, paving the way for Nicholas to swoop in. If Maggie had been as supportive of Joe as Joe had been with her, chances are none of that would have happened.

The disintegration of Maggie and Joe's relationship is perhaps one of the biggest tragedies on DS.

[michael c]

i so agree with mysterious' last statement.

in a show with few constants,and perhaps carolyn and elizabeth being the only other example of a solid,loving relationship,joe and maggie were one of the few true good things the viewer could rely on.

for reasons i'll never quite understand the writers in 1968 chose to focus on the monsters and turn the original characters into mincemeat.the gang over at the evans cottage certainly suffered more than most.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

But I don't see it as a tragedy in terms of storytelling because it's a great storyline, especially because it gives Joel Crothers so much meaty material to work with and the whole process is so engaging to watch. I see it as a tragedy in the same way I see, say, Josette's suicide as a tragedy - even though by this point Maggie and Joe had basically become one-note, and that's never good. (In later years Crothers actually lamented that Joe "had been made into too colorless a character.") And happy couples most often equal boring couples in the soap universe - but that doesn't necessarily make their disintegration any less tragic.

What is unfortunate is that the show eventually went so far with Joe that he had nowhere to go but off the canvas and Crothers went with him - but at the same time, what a great ride Crothers had getting to that point with Joe. Joe's involvement with Angelique and Chris contain perhaps his best moments ever on the show. And in terms of Crothers himself, it was his choice to audition for and to move on to Secret Storm. Perhaps he would have shown up again on DS as another character just as many other DS actors had. He'd certainly proved he was more than capable of playing, as he himself described Joe, "a simple boy." But apparently he'd decided to look for his acting challenges elsewhere...

[EmeraldRose]

It was great that Joel Crothers got to play Joe as a tortured soul before he left the show. Starting with Angelique's first bite until he left the show, he did get his best material! It was exciting to see!   But part of me, as has been mentioned before, does think it's a shame that Maggie and Joe had to be broken up, because they were such a happy couple. If Maggie had remembered what happened with Barnabas, she would have figured out that the same thing was happening with Joe.   I'm surprised that Barnabas, with his experience as a vampire, didn't figure it out, though. 

It was fortuitous that Julia heard from Maggie that Nicholas would come to visit her at 5:00 PM.  It would have been perfect, except of course, they didn't know that Angelique would have summoned Joe, so Joe would be there, too.

----- Sally -----

[michael c]

i agree that this made for a great dramatic arc but i still think it's sad.i wish things had worked out differently for maggie and joe.

as i suggested in a previous post in the d.s. universe vitue is not often rewarded.

[loril54]

I liked how Joel did the part. It did show range.

I do feel that Maggie was not that interested in finding out what was really happening. But then that is the writers again. They knew that Joel was leaving. Maggie with Joe, I think was the best pairing for KLS.

I wonder what the devil thought of what Nick was doing?

[Roland]

Superb acting from all concerned in this episode.   

My only quibble is that the script has Angelique summoning Joe before she's risen out of the coffin.  Is that the typical modus operandi for vampires? 

And, oh my, but that Julia sure knows how to peel off her gloves for dramatic effect!

[MagnusTrask]

I wonder what the devil thought of what Nick was doing?

Stay tuned....