Discuss - Ep #0716

[Watching Project]

Robservations #716

[Lydia]

Interesting voiceover.  "Barnabas Collins finds himself unexpectedly back in time in the year 1897." (The usual thanks to Robservations.)  The impression I got was, "Barnabas was in the neighborhood, so he thought he'd drop by and see 1897."

Nora calls her new governess by the governess's first name.  If Edward finds out, he will be shocked.  But maybe Rachel will be fired first.

Rachel's thoughts to herself indicate that she thought that Judith didn't believe her, not that she thought Judith was lying.  What a twit!  But I liked her attitude of "Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb".  Rachel is braver than I am, but would she still be brave if she weren't stupid?

Marie Wallace was great, of course.  Everything about her told us that this was no wrongfully imprisoned captive, but a lunatic.  I'm surprised that she didn't break the picture of Edward, but I daresay they didn't want to destroy the prop.

[MagnusTrask]

Some actors LOVE to play crazy people, I think... including Marie Wallace, Nancy Barrett, and Roger Davis.  I'd love to see them all in one locked room being crazy to each other, with no sane people around!    I love the scene where [spoiler]Charipansy and Edward the butler (name?) conversed through the locked door, all on their own, two alternate personalities talking to each other.   I wonder why I like that so much...[/spoiler]

[Midnite]

Rachel is braver than I am, but would she still be brave if she weren't stupid?

And if she weren't wearing the amulet?

Couldn't they find a rusty key?  Or at least paint the shiny one?

Was this the first mention of the Collinwood gatehouse?

What's up with putting Marie Wallace in black gowns?

Why is a Raggedy Ann doll in 1897?  Did it toss the Hexagram of Change too?

Since the tower room is standing in for Windcliff in this century, shouldn't its windows be locked shut?

Why is the door to Rachel's bedroom in a different place just since the last ep?

And finally, why would Judith close Nora's door when she knows it's going to mess with her head?

Questions, questions. 

[Midnite]

Go to your room, commands Judith, upset--tomorrow I'll decide how serious these infractions are--go straight to your room.

What Judith says here is hard to make out, but I think it's: "Tomorrow I'll decide how serious I think these defections from your duty are."  No big difference, but I like the description of Rachel's meddling as a defection from duty.

[alwaysdavid]

As curious as Rachel is, should she not have brought a candle or lamp as to see everything she could in a darkened room.  The whole thing could have been avoided had someone thought to black out the windows of the tower or to even house Jenny in a more secluded place in the great house.   The clues seem to be pointing towards the madwoman of Collinwood being Nora's mother.

[Pansity]

Just back from the theater and tourism, so I thought I'd start on catch up with the eps (yes I brought Set 13 with me.  How sad is that?  ).

One thing I didn't see mentioned yet was Dirk's attitude toward Judith in their first scene.  He keeps wanting to report to Mr. Edward -- but Judith's right, the servants would know darned well about the will (and I'll bet that story about her waking Edward up to tell him she changed rooms went through the servant's quarters like wildfire). One gets the feeling that Dirk doesn't approve of a woman running things, and is not happy about taking orders from a woman.  It feels right for the period, and is also a very good character moment.  It fits with him being so overbearing toward Beth. Its the Victorian male as all powerful father figure: men as know best, and women are the same as children and have to be told to do in the same way, since they aren't capable of knowing what's good for them. Just because we've moved beyond it doesn't mean we  don't have to take into account that that's what the Victorians believed and acted based upon.  (I hate historic revisionism.)

Nice planting of the red herring, intercutting the scenes with Nora and Judith with those of the mystery woman lurking.  Or were they still playing it by ear at this point, as to who the Madwoman of Collinwood really was?  Anyone ever see or hear anything that pinned it down one way or another? Even the initial scenes with Quentin and Beth could be interpreted as her being the ladies maid for Edward's wife.

LOL Midnight on Raggedy Ann's throwing the Hexagram of Change.  I guess we should be happy the doll Beth had looked period, they could have had that being a Raggedy Ann too. 

I agree, Lydia about Nora calling the governess by her first name.  Uh uh not hardly, not in those times. Back then it was last names always, unless it was a younger child of the family, mister or miss first name.  They mess that one up A LOT in this timeframe.

And Marie was WONDERFUL, start to end, playing Jenny. 

Jeannie

[EmeraldRose]

This episode marked the first appearances of Marie Wallace in her second (and, in my opinion, best) role, as Jenny - and Nora, who was the second DS character played by Denise Nickerson. What a coincidence that both of these fabulous actresses started playing their second DS characters on the same day!  

Was this the first mention of the Collinwood gatehouse?

I'm not sure about that, Midnite, but just in case, here's the milestone!

Although Nora seemed like a spoiled brat when Dirk caught her outside, I agree with ProfStokes that he was too rough on her when he carried her inside. (At least this time, when she was carried, you couldn't see her panties! It helped that her dress was long.) 

Ooh! The last scene, when Jenny started to attack Judith, was so exciting!  It's hard to believe that it was just the ending of a Monday show, and not a Friday cliffhanger.

I love how they kept the mystery going about who the mysterious woman was in the Tower Room. But the DS PTB screwed up when they listed Jenny's name in the credits. (Not the first or the last time that happened!) 

----- Sally -----
 

[IluvBarnabas]

If anyone got rough with my child the way Dirk was with Nora, they'd be in the unemployment line so fast it wouldn't be funny (not to them anyway).

Having Jenny's name in there was a bit of a killjoy. Why didn't they just put in, Jenny, [spoiler] wife of Quentin, not Edward, mother of Quentin's children and sister of Magda the gypsy [/spoiler]  in there too, while they were at it?

Rachel is still being too damn nosy for her own good. Oh well, since when does anybody really stop looking for trouble on this show anyway?