Discuss - Ep #0742

[Watching Project]

Robservations #742

[Pansity]

Whoops, I got here first again!   

Watching the teaser from #741, Selby almost tripped over his words, but managed to get the sentence back on track. 

Quentin is desperate to get her away from the kids, and he's apparently truly afraid for them. We don't see enough in what we're shown to know why this is, but is this fear because he knows she's dead?  Has he reasoned out that she wants them for some other reason? Magda points out in the previous episode that she never had much interest in her children before, now they're the be all and end all.  Is that what's setting off his alarm bells, or something else we never find out.

Loved that line about getting money to pay her off so she would leave.  "I'll steal it -- but I'll get it."

Laura's power over Dirk reminds me a lot of Barnabas and Charity.  Singleminded, obsessed with the love object.  And as we see as things progress, it gets even more and more so.

And, speaking of the devil  , the next scene is Charity and Dirk, and Charity slipping off to meet HER love object.

Barnabas sure thinks he's invulnerable. Even after his snack he wants Charity to stay around. 

Love the scene with Quentin and Beth.  Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is the first time we've seen them together since what I call the I want you" scene. Implication I see here is it's after they've done the deed and are going back to the outside world.

From the conversation, he has genuine feelings for Beth, and it doesn't come off like he's playing her.  This is a less defensive, more trusting Quentin. The bit where they are discussing Jenny and what they can do is pure Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester.   It's also apparent time has passed since that first time, as  they've apparently discussed the impossible position they're in regarding Jenny many times, and Beth has stood her ground on how she feels.  This scene goes back to something I said elsewhere about that "I want you" scene.  He apparently likes and respects Beth, so once that scene goes forward, he essentially gets caught in his own trap.  She's not a one time fling, he likes her and wants her to think well of him., and is apparently at least starting to fall in love with her.

And nosy Barnabas snooping through the window.  Good thing he hadn't been there earlier,  he might have seen something sent his eyeballs crawling down his back.

Good scene too with Beth and Barnabas.  Silly chance he took snooping like that.  Not clear though, why she went back to Quentin's room.  I would think though she'd be worried Barnbas would snitch to Judith  that she was there, but then again maybe not, since Quentin himself isn't there.   She seems real pleased to have caught him there, which makes you wonder how much Quentin is telling her of his suspicions about Barnabas.   She's also quick, which often gets forgotten (he didn't develop a taste for stupid women till later)  . She realizes they should have seen Barnabas when they left, but didn't . He brushes right past that in his worry over what Barnabas took.

Dirk has a Quentin obsession -- and LAURA has a new dress! 

Always keep meaning to snoop through The Book of the Dead and see if there's an incantation ANYTHING like that in it.     Have a copy kicking around the house somewhere from writing Indy fanfiction.

And Charity freaks out just as Quentin bumbles in and messes it all up.

Somethign tells me Barnabas got some 'splainin' to do.

Jeannie

[Midnite]

This ep seemed to fly by.  Could it be because everybody in it is having sex, or at least the vampiric equivalent of it?

But if there's a theme running through it, it might be that the paid workers were all being used by the upper class.  It does seem that Quentin is developing genuine feelings, but Beth is is clearly uncomfortable with the situation such as it is while he's making excuses so he can keep getting what he wants.  Charity didn't want to even be with Barnabas at first, and after setting her straight he began to terrify her with his talk about disturbing a burial site, evil spirits, and books of the dead, sigh.  Punishing this naive girl for her great great great grandfather's sins seems cruel, even for Barnabas.  And as for Dirk, please, like Laura would want him if he wasn't a vessel for her master.

Laura got 3 dresses this time.  But she'll only need one hanger because her 18th c. dress was spectral and the blue one can now stand in the corner on its own. 

And what exactly was Charity's purpose in being present for the ritual?  To warm the settee? 

Quentin is desperate to get her away from the kids, and he's apparently truly afraid for them.  We don't see enough in what we're shown to know why this is, but is this fear because he knows she's dead?  Has he reasoned out that she wants them for some other reason?... Is that what's setting off his alarm bells, or something else we never find out.

Yes, he knows she's dead and up to something scary that involves the supernatural.  In the first scene he says to Laura, "I know what will happen to them if you take them," and when she says he can't have Jamison, he answers, "But at least he'll be alive."  (Doesn't anybody care about Nora?)

[dom]

Tell me, anyone please, do we know if this Laura [spoiler]is a Phoenix [/spoiler]before Egypt or does she become one because of what happens in Egypt? I know I should know this but I don't remember.

[Joeytrom]

I believe she became a Phoenix after her death by fire in Egypt just as she became a Phoenix in 1966 after her death in her Phoenix apartment by fire.

[arashi]

I agree, I think she became a phoenix after she died in Egypt, or else she wouldn't have run off on her precious, precious children.

Speaking of the kids, the writers aren't giving them enough credit. Living in the house they would have been aware of the tension between Edward, Laura and Quentin. Given that Quentin was kicked out one night a year ago and their mother disappeared the same night and that their Father now refuses to discuss her.... they really would have known something was up. Kids are smarter than people give them credit for.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

her 18th c. dress was spectral and the blue one can now stand in the corner on its own. 

  

And what exactly was Charity's purpose in being present for the ritual?  To warm the settee?

[spoiler]I've always found that scene oddly reminiscent of the scene in '67 where Barnabas performs his Barbados ritual in front of Carolyn. In each scene NB's character's presence seems superfluous, except as a witness - and each is a victim of Barnabas.[/spoiler]

[Midnite]

Quentin and Laura carried on their affair at the cottage, and after he left, she remained at Collinwood long enough to receive letters secretly sent from him before running off to join him.  So maybe her kids didn't know anything about them?  They managed to completely miss that Jenny was in the tower room, which totally boggles the mind.

[spoiler]I've always found that scene oddly reminiscent of the scene in '67 where Barnabas performs his Barbados ritual in front of Carolyn. In each scene NB's character's presence seems superfluous, except as a witness - and each is a victim of Barnabas.[/spoiler]

Wow, deja vu!

[Gothick]

William Mann (who subsequently became a well-known author of old-time celebrity biographies and gay-themed novels) wrote up a speculative biography of "the Lauras" that was published in Dale Clark's old zine Inside the Old House.  He came up with a scenario for how Laura first came to be, that I think involved her sea-captain father in the early 18th century making a devil's bargain with the god Ra.  Anyhow, his theory was also that each Laura carried within herself the seed of the eternal Phoenix spirit, and that this spirit was awakened with Laura's first "death by fire."

G.

[Pansity]

Given that Quentin was kicked out one night a year ago and their mother disappeared the same night and that their Father now refuses to discuss her.... they really would have known something was up. Kids are smarter than people give them credit for.

I'm thinkiing it depends on the cover story they were given at the time, and just how long it was before Laura followed Quentin.  There was enough time in between for them to have exchanged a series of letters.  As to the cover story, given the Collins' pathological secrecy AND the complete blackout the Victorians would have put on anything regarding sex, I think it's possible that the kids may not have connected the two disappearances.

Gothick, that Inside the Old House article sounds wonderful.  Is there even a remote chance that you might recall what issue it is?  I'm wondering if by some miracle I have it in one of the back issues I have.  (To quote Taeylor: I MISS ZINES!!!!!!!!  Especially NEW zines, ones I haven't read yet!)

Jeannie

[Joeytrom]

I have that issue of Inside the Old House (in a box somewhere in the closet- so the paper doesn't yellow as fast). 

Would it be OK to post it here?

[michael c]

do all the different lauras remember what the previous lauras did or is she in effect "fresh" every time she shows up?

in other words did 1966 laura remember her 1797 and 1897 incarnations?

[Taeylor Collins]

Good question...because at  the moment  I am drawing a blank!

[Gothick]

Hi MSC,  I think you said that you've never seen 1897--is that correct?  Anyhow, the 1897 Laura did carry within her the 18th century Laura's memories.  Barnabas in a ceremony that came from the Book of the Dead was able to summon up the ghost of the 18th century Laura (btw, in a typical DS continuity lurch, they revised the dates so that I think the 18th century Laura had died in the 1780s instead of the 1760s), which made the then "current" incarnation disappear for a few moments.  Clearly, the two on some plane both were--and were not--identical.

The 1897 Laura was much more explicitly linked to ancient Egyptian religion, specifically the cult of Ra.  I don't recall that figuring at all in the 1966 story, apart from vague references to the homeland of the Phoenix in Laura's dreamy, rather scary "soliloquies."

G.

[Midnite]

Not to discourage the use of spoiler warnings in topics, but the one surrounding the description of the Book of the Dead ceremony wasn't necessary since it takes place in this ep of the Watching Project (#742).