Discuss - Ep #0632

[Watching Project]

Robservations #632

[Lydia]

By my calculation, this episode is chock full of milestones, but it's up to EmeraldRose to make the determination.

Denise Nickerson gave an outstanding performance in her first Dark Shadows episode.  She was slightly hampered by the speed of Amy's turnaround, but I understand that the writers couldn't let her stay hostile to Chris for too long, or he might have flown the coop, and we would have lost out on a nifty plot line.  Anyway, Amy got to me with her "Nobody came."

Imagine Conrad Bain's feelings when he got the phone call from his agent.  After two years, he's wanted back on Dark Shadows!  He thought they had forgotten all about him, and now he's going to be a regular character on a very popular soap opera!  And then the agent gives him the bad news.

Ooh, beautiful set when Nicholas is performing the ritual with Maggie.  All those candles!  Owl's blood, raven's blood, and bat's blood.  Is that a standard combo that the writers got out of a book?  By the way, I admired how gracefully Maggie fell into Nicholas's arms before the ritual.  I could never do that.  If I tried to faint into somebody's arms, I would end up falling like a ton of bricks onto the floor.

[Joy Collins]

Poor Mr. Wells! I loved his scenes in the early days. He was such a nice guy. We hadn't seen him, if I'm not mistaken, since long before Barnabas arrived. And then they bring him back, out of the blue, for one whole episode so he can get ripped to shreds by Chris. So not fair!

This seems to be one long episode of great scenes. It's pretty funny to see Nicholas worried, having everything fall down around him because it's totally different than the Nicholas we're used to - so together, so cool and collected and in control of everything.

Chris visiting Amy at Wyndcliff scene is wonderful. Denise Nickerson was especially great. It's hard to decide who to sympathize with more: Amy, because her parents and one of her brothers died while the other brother is very, erm... distant (what else can she do but think that he just doesn't care?) and now she's stuck in Julia's hospital, or Chris, because he clearly feels so guilty and there's no way he can explain to her why he can't take care of her.

The ritual in this episode is one of my favorite scenes from the entire series! My feelings on Nicholas/Maggie situation aside, that whole scene was perfectly done. The set was amazing, the dialog was great, and the whole thing was brilliantly delivered by Humbert Allen Astredo, who is in my opinion one of the best actors on the show.

"Let the legions of the damned... salute you!"

[EmeraldRose]

This is the milestone post. Here they are!

The first appearance of Denise Nickerson as Amy Jennings. The first time Chris visited Amy since Tom died. The first time Mr. Wells was seen on DS since the pre-Barnabas days. I believe this was the first time we saw a fish tank on DS. The first time we saw a room at the Collinsport Inn besides Burke Devlin's suite. This next milestone refers to "present-day" children. So far, David had been the only child on the show. In this episode, Amy became the second child, and the first girl, on the show. Of course, Sarah was on DS in 1967, but she was a ghost who lived in the past.    

[spoiler]The first time we heard Chris turn into a werewolf - and the first werewolf victim we saw on DS. [/spoiler]

Whew! That's all the milestones I can think of. Lots of them this time, eh? Did I forget any?   

----- Sally -----

[EmeraldRose]

OK, now that I have the milestones out of the way, I'm going to talk about the episode. There were so many milestones, I had to make two posts. 

This was a real standout episode! One of the best! I agree that the ritual scene was perfectly done. So spooky! Also, poor Mr. Wells being killed, and Chris' visit to Amy were all great, too. Yes, indeed, the makeup on Mr. Wells was fake-looking! (Blue blood? Was somebody colorblind?) 

It was very touching to watch Chris visiting Amy. Amy was so hurt and angry. It did pull at the heartstrings! I love that fish tank, too, especially how it distorted their faces.

Don Briscoe was one handsome dude! He played two very different characters, but I like Chris Jennings better. He was sexy and cute, and really cared about Amy. I'm sure Tom, before he was a vampire, probably was a handsome and great guy, too, but we didn't get to see that. Sure, Vampire Tom was sexy, too, but in a different way than Chris.

So, Nicholas had to depend upon his powers to get Maggie to agree to marry him. I'm sure he would have preferred to wait for her, but his time was running out! It was fun to watch Nicholas get a little unhinged when he was talking to Barnabas. 

----- Sally -----

[MagnusTrask]

"Let the legions of the damned... salute you!"

One really needs to hear that from the cliffhanger-- in the the recap from the next episode, HAA delivers the line pretty anemically.

I noticed the red and blue blood on Bain.  You don't just put blue blood on someone as a mistake, do you?   We've all cut ourselves at least once.   I thought that someone was trying to be clever, who'd heard that unoxygenated blood was blue (look at a vein) but didn't quite get how fast that blue blood turns red when it hits atmosphere.   I think it's so sudden that no blue can be seen.

I didn't know he was playing the same part from two years earlier.   

[Joy Collins]

"Let the legions of the damned... salute you!"

One really needs to hear that from the cliffhanger-- in the the recap from the next episode, HAA delivers the line pretty anemically.   

You're quite right, Magnus. I usually just skip over the recaps anyway. I never understood why, for long stretches, they seemed to recap everything. I could see recapping something really major...
[spoiler]Example: Willie opening Barn's coffin
... or, say, Barnabas going into the I Ching trance. If they had just picked up where the previous episode ended - Barnabas heading toward the coffin and into 1897 - anyone who had missed that episode wouldn't have a clue what was going on. (Well, the voiceovers for the next several episodes explain it, but still...)[/spoiler]
But sometimes they just end up ruining perfectly good scenes by redoing them, especially when the original scene was done so well. Often the recaps feel very rushed, like the actors are thinking "Geez, we've done this already. Let's hurry up and get it over with."

[Midnite]

I noticed the red and blue blood on Bain.  You don't just put blue blood on someone as a mistake, do you?   We've all cut ourselves at least once.   I thought that someone was trying to be clever, who'd heard that unoxygenated blood was blue (look at a vein) but didn't quite get how fast that blue blood turns red when it hits atmosphere.   I think it's so sudden that no blue can be seen.

Actually, unoxygenated blood is dark red (as opposed to bright red arterial blood).  Veins only appear blue-- it has to do with how light is reflected off the skin.  So it's a myth that venous blood turns red when it's exposed to air.  The DS people really blue it. 

[Nelson Collins]

Cynical ole me thinks that the occasional extral long recaps are due to the writer's not being able to come up with enough material for those episodes in question! 

[Gothick]

The fish tank had appeared before in a certain devious medico's office...

I really think the killing of Mr. Wells rates as one of the most horrific sequences on the entire show.  I think it may have been this episode that got DS banned by one of the ABC affiliates--maybe in New Hampshire?

G.

[MagnusTrask]

Actually I've often noticed the recaps being better.  I think it's because they know that part better the second time around, so it's smoother.

Thanks Midnite.  I suppose "red corpuscles" are always red...  Only some of the vessels look blue though, I think, and light would reflect similarly off of all of them, I'd think.  Plus there are all those charts showing arteries as red and veins blue, though that could just be for clarity.  I always thought it was far-fetched for the blue never to show up even for a split second after a cut.

[Taeylor Collins]

Thankfully I can return now to participating in this Watching Project. I am gonna start here and then head over to DS '91. Thankfully I am feeling better today.  I want to first say WOW.  A lot of people have already posted about today's ep.  It is great to see so many people participating in this WP.  I think when I started there wasn't  as many participating.  As always I miss you guys when I have to be away.  MAGNUS~~I am really glad you started the WP with us!

FIRST OFF when Robert Rodan says "NO!" he sounds so very childish as it is very annoying from a grown man.  I guess this is par for the course with Adam though.  He is indeed such a tragic character!  Our first look @ Denise Nickerson and what a wonderful actress she is.  I actually showed a friend this episode who knows nothing about DS and he commented on what a wonderful and convincing actress Denise was.  Conrad Bain back as the Innkeeper. All I can ever think about when I watch this sequence is him talking at the convention about the DS secretary calling him and asking if he had been eaten by the werewolf.  It's on the DS 30 Anniversary Reunion VHS and Conrad is hilarious.  I loved his return though because it brought a bit of continuity from early DS to the DS of this era.  With Alexandra gone it was a nice nod to the past even though it didn't last long! Maggie is pretty gungho about all this but at the same time seems to be very worried. It was suprising to me that she rushed into this so quickly!!

In my notes I wrote "THIS IS A VERY DARK DS MOMENT: The werewolf tearing Mr. Wells to shreds and the sacrifice of Maggie.  GREAT EPISODE ALL AROUND!  A+ 

I also have to agree with everyone else.  HUMBERT is truly on of the most gifted actors to grace the Dark Shadows canvas!  And he like Lara can really sell those lengthy incantations! 

"Let the legions of the damned salute you"  Pretty racy stuff for daytime in 1968 in your really think about it.  I burned Bloodlines that was HBO to hype True Blood and they talked about how DS really broke ground like no other show had before. I was glad they included Dark Shadows.  It would have been a slap in the face to not.   I mean a vampire as the leading man on a daytime show? IT really goes to show you why we are here talking about an episode that was produced 40 years ago!!  I think sometimes we take it forgranted but it's amazing that this stuff was on in the air back then.

[loril54]

Wasn't the green fireplace in Vickie's room in 1795?

I guess now that Julia is at Collinwood her fish tank has been moved to another room.

I wonder where Mr. Wells body is buried?

[MagnusTrask]

  MAGNUS~~I am really glad you started the WP with us!

Well, thanks much, I happened to stick 1968 into the VCR device at a random point lately.  Now I'm at the point in 1897 where my tapes run out for awhile.  [spoiler]Reanimated[/spoiler] Q is trying to pay a social call at the Old House, the eerily twisting doorknob, that sort of thing....

[alwaysdavid]

The recaps were part of all the soaps in the days before you could record episodes at home.  Chris was one of my favorite characters.  His relationship with Amy seemed very real.