Is Julia the Ultimate Squator and Freeloader?

[Lydia]

MB, I read your post, and I thought, “Huh?  Julia?  When did I lose track?”  And checking back, I find that the post I was originally answering was:

I couldn't believe that when this happerned, the family didn't instantly say, "She was right!  We should have listened to her!  In fact, despite the examination, she must still be alive right now!   Let's not bury her!"   They just reacted as if no one had seen this coming.

The family didn't know that the cause of Elizabeth's problem was supernatural.

As for Julia, I agree she should have been suspicious, but what could she have done?  All the signs told her that Elizabeth was dead.  Should she have held a voodoo ceremony to bring Liz back to life?  I'm betting it wouldn't have worked, even if the family had given their consent to it.  What else was possible?

Suddenly I'm thinking about fugu fish.  Surely somebody on this forum knows more about that than I do.

[MagnusTrask]

I may be missing things.

The supernatural is always lurking around the corner as a possible explanation for very unusual events for us, no matter how skeptical we are.   We dismiss that possibility very quickly, most of us, but if we saw something white and shimmering for a moment in a dark old house when a cold wind is coming through the window and creaking noises are going on, first thought, ghost.   In fact I think they bend over backwards a little too far on supernatural shows to depict all (uninformed) characters as total skeptics.

In any group the size of the Collins family, someone will consider a story like Elizabeth's I think, at least if it appears to be coming true at least partly in front of their eyes, and even if no one mentioned the supernatural.   

I'm not sure what else they could do, myself.... I'd expect them to start considering that her fear might have been genuine, though.    I would have.

[Josette]

As for Julia, I agree she should have been suspicious, but what could she have done?  All the signs told her that Elizabeth was dead.  Should she have held a voodoo ceremony to bring Liz back to life?  I'm betting it wouldn't have worked, even if the family had given their consent to it.  What else was possible?

It just always seemed to me that with the previous incident when she revived, that Julia would have waited somewhat.  It probably wouldn't have mattered, given how long the spell lasted, but it would have made more sense for her to be cautious and not immediately state that she was dead.  I suppose for the purposes of the show they couldn't really extend it, but there could have been something to indicate a delay.

[alwaysdavid]

If I remember correctly, wanted air vents in the coffin and you would think that after some time the family would have noticed that the body had not decomposed.  The Collins family seemed to have many apparently unpaying guests over the centruries so perhaps Liz was just carrying on another family tradition with Julia.  I would think that Liz's sense of family pride would incline her to let Julia stay on to write a book without paying lodging. 

[Gothick]

My initial response to this topic is "Are you kidding?  Julia worked her ASS off at Collinwood!"  The favorite episode that comes to mind is the one towards the end of December of '68 when Carolyn is having an emotional meltdown over her mother's precipitous decline in health, Liz is on the brink of total catatonia and a deranged Joe Haskell is roaming the corridors plotting to kidnap Amy.

At one point, practically everyone in the house is whining for Julia, and the poor woman obviously doesn't know who to try to bitch-slap back to reality first! 

There's also the fact that she kept Barnabas on course everytime they were struggling to save the whole family from the latest supernatural menace and Barn kept going googly eyed over the latest faux-Josette ingenue... Julia really did have her work cut out for her!

G.

[Doug]

Well, Julia had the good and trusted Dr. Woodard to vouch for her, and he was apparently the only background check they needed to accept her. Foolish? Obviously - because he was lying. But that's one of the advantages to being seen as good and trusted - you can get away with almost anything when situations demand it for the greater good because people always assume you're being truthful.   

I was watching Ep. 302 where Elizabeth and Julia were sitting in the Drawing Room talking. Elizabeth did asked
Julia about her background and what books she has written.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Though considering that by that point Julia had supposedly been working on her book for almost a month, it comes across more as polite conversation and simple curiosity at how the book is progressing more than it does a probe into Julia's background (which would certainly be coming more than a bit late at that point ). And, of course, Liz doesn't exactly get much info. I love how Liz remarks that if Julia is as nimble with the written word as she is the spoken word, she must be an interesting writer because their conversation started out being about Julia but Julia abruptly turned the subject around to Liz. Classic Julia when she wants to avoid something. 

[Lydia]

I should watch that scene again.  My memory of it is that Liz came across as one-upping and slightly threatening to Julia in her summing up of the conversation, but perhaps she was amused as well, and figured at that point that Julia was worth keeping around for her entertainment value.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

but perhaps she was amused as well

Oh, Liz is definitely amused. And her remark is sort of a backhanded compliment - congratulating Julia's nimbleness while also calling her on the fact that she changed the subject. But it's not threatening.

[IluvBarnabas]

We all kid (myself included) about how Julia mootches off the Collins family, but truthfully, I think she was very helpful to them when the time called for it (other than mistakenly pronouncing the mistress of the house dead). And as others have said, I think a warm friendship developed between Elizabeth and Julia, and Julia grew close to the other members of the family there. So the family may have just have said "Oh the hell with she's not really writing a history of the Collins family! She's a great friend and doctor!" (Again forget her boo-boo with Elizabeth).

[MagnusTrask]

Still one line about how JH was now the family physician would have helped.

[Miss_Winthrop]

I wouldn't get too upset at Dr Hoffman pronouncing Elizabeth dead. Mistakes can happen under unusual circumstances.  I was recently watching an episode of Poldark when they pronounced Poldark's servant dead after a thrashing he received in the woods on the way home from a tavern.  It was hilarious when he turned up very much alive at the drunken 'send off party' held in his honor.

[GooberCollins]

Yes, but Poldark is set a couple centuries ago, right?

[Miss_Winthrop]

Poldark took place just after the American Revolutionary War.  The setting is in Wales.  An excellent series with a great cast of characters.

[GooberCollins]

I'm just saying that the medical field has been improved by leaps and bounds since the 1700s, so Julia would have had access to more modern medical techniques.