Discuss - Ep #0781

[Watching Project]

Robservations #781

[Taeylor Collins]

Vo: Nancy Barrett

Nice shot of B over Collinwood and the Old House! Again, JF looks great in period clothing and it also looks as if he has gotten a fresh haircut.  I love his hair when it's really cut tight and short . He was a busy man and sometimes his hair just got TOO long!  I love when his hair is nice and neat with the spiky bangs and pointy burns.

That is one BIG OLE cross Gregory has. Perhaps a phallic symbol, don't shot me. Just sayin’!   :DUCK:

The chromakey is getting much better.  I really like the music playing while Gregory and Edward talk.
Yay!  A GH day! Poor Magda is once again being manhandled. This poor woman cannot catch a break! I need to make a list of how many times.  I have started a Julia list of sedatives! LOL  

True Christians don't smack people Gregory! Tell him Magda! You know there is a character in the final season of Buffy who acts a lot like the Trask “preachers!”  I love how Magda calls Trask on his shiz!  LOL Grayson cracks me up when she runs about! HEH! Looks like a camera came into view.  

Has the whole dirt concept ever come up before?  I don't remember!  I don't recall it being in DS lore. However, I do remember it being in other vampire lore! The floor in the basement always dirt free to me.  
Run out the passage way Charity, you twit!  UGH!

[alwaysdavid]

Barnabas hides his coffin in the secret room.  There must be other places to hide.  Has he no imagination.  Then they learn there are 4 secret rooms in the Old House and Edward seems to have forgotten that he showed the one behind the bookcase to Laura when they were first married. 
Now Barnabas needs earth from the cellar.   Would it not be more sensible to have stashed some in a safe place when you know that you are exposed.   I wonder if DC is using his original ending for Barnabas that was changed in 1967. 

[MagnusTrask]

1-

Edward seems to have forgotten that he showed the one behind the bookcase to Laura when they were first married.

2-

Now Barnabas needs earth from the cellar.   Would it not be more sensible to have stashed some in a safe place when you know that you are exposed.

1- Oops!

2- What grave with earth did Barnabas ever have?   If somehow there was earth that could be counted as grave earth in the mausoleum, did he bring it to the Old House basement and dump it on the floor?   Did we ever see dirt on that floor?   Jeez!!

[Taeylor Collins]

I just watched the show from the beginning a few months ago (including early Barney) and I am 99.9 % sure that the dirt lore was never used!

[dom]

I thought the dirt thing was only significant if the vamp left his homeland - Barn never did.

[Taeylor Collins]

Yep that is true, however shows can twist lore into their mythology and make it different. It just bugs me that it's a plot point utilized to catch Charity.  OH well...

[Pansity]

Nice  standoff, continued.   Good thing they started using the vampires can dematerialize, it’s very handy when that inconvenient rooster starts up. 

 JL does his usual wonderful job with Trask on one of his holier than thou I act for God  speeches. (LMAO Taeylor on that honking big cross being a possible phallic symbol. ) It’s not spoken of often, but he’s another SERIOUSLY underrated actor, terribly underused by the industry.  Those of us lucky enough to see Vengeance at Collinwood (and there’s still plenty of us who grump that that  performance was never made commercially available) know how he managed to overshadow every one of the other actors, without exception.   Given the skills and experience of his castmates, the fact that he was able to do that speaks volumes about HIS abilities.

The phone is back in the foyer, and Edward is calling the sheriff and asking him to bring the coroner. Anyone remember where Judith might be (though given its dawn, Edward may have taken it on himself to handle everything, and she might not know yet.  Anyone remember if we have any time frame for when the body was discovered?)

LOL Edward’s stuffiness has a point this time.   Trask was a witness, what was he doing wandering around when he was needed to talk to the authorities.  Quentin’s probably drunk himself into a coma by now, so he’d be useless as a witness.
The scene with the Trask revelation plays well,  handles most of the questions and logic and connections that would come up.  Except that Edward gives Barn more credit for brains than he apparently has, thinking Barn would never leave the coffin in the same place once it was known what the hiding place was.  As we know, Barnabas apparently didn’t think of that.  Like with the werewolf, NO one seems to have thought of exploring the use of any of the probably numerous outbuildings on the estate.  Not like they have a Dirk running around seeing to things anymore.  At least Dirk had the brains to find somewhere obscure and NOT connected to where he lived.

Point just occurred to me about the silver bullets.  Edward told Trask he was having them made up as a rush job by “old Braithwaite” as soon as he could get them done.  He had access to a silversmith, silver and apparently a jeweler who either had or could make bullet molds.  Where did Magda get her hands on silver bullets.  Apparently everyone in Collinwood has a better supply of the things than the Lone Ranger – and he had a silver mine.

Pity Barn had no time to warn Magda, she’s caught completely by surprise by the invasion of  Edward and  Trask.  Trask behaves like such a power drunk abuser, grabbing  and hitting when she sticks to her story.  That’s the real Trask we see there, I think, the one who bullies and abuses anyone he thinks has less power than he has.  Note the fact that he doesn’t even use her name (note that in that oh so formal time, NO ONE ever called her Mrs. Racogzy), just calls her gypsy. On the slap, it was MUCH better done than the Quentin  hits Beth one.  They had the cue spot on so it looked to me like  he did connect, and it’s anyone’s guess if JL would have gone for that much realism. (There’s more than one story about Vivien Leigh really slapping other actors during the making of GWTW, for example.)  Same overly loud sound effect though.
GOOD  SHOT  MAGDA: “I think you have made the mistake, mixed yourself up with the Almighty.”

Interesting that Edward lets Trask snoop through all the family papers and find the plans—I’d think that’s something a super secretive Collins would want to do himself.  And OI Barnabas WHAT WERE YOU THINKING using the same hidey hole they already know is there?  (I see just about everyone who posted picked up on that one, too.)

And beam me down, Scotty, Barn returns invisibly to the secret room and the coffin.  Oops, there’s a cross on the coffin.  Hmm, how are they splitting hairs on this one. The cross is metal (though to me it looks like white bandage tape) but the coffin is wood.  Are they intending that he can’t touch the coffin because the cross is attached, he can’t get in it because of the effect of the cross once he’s inside?  Bottom line is, he’s screwed.  Or rather, he’s setting Charity up so that if he’s found, she takes the fall.

As some have said, the earth in the basement thing makes NO sense.  His original grave was never in the basement of the Old House, and it was a mausoleum, so he never DID have “native earth”.  Again,  it’s already been discussed to some degree,but I remember in Dracula he only needed the native earth to cross water (and I believe I remember Chelsea Quinn Yarbro using the same mechanism for her Count Saint-Germaine).

Of course Charity the klutz makes noises and gets herself caught immediately.

Jeannie

[MagnusTrask]

I think that Barnabas can't even approach anything with a cross on it.

[EmeraldRose]

Major Milestones:

1. Trask told Edward that Barnabas was a vampire.
2. Edward had "old Braithwaite" make 6 silver bullets.
3. Trask and Edward had Barnabas's coffin chained and put a cross on it! Barnabas had to find another coffin!
4. Was this the first time we heard that there were 4 secret rooms or passageways in the Old House?
5. Barnabas got Charity to get some "earth" from the Old House basement, and she was caught by Edward.

Barnabas's cloak was on the coat tree near the door when he left. When Edward and Trask entered later, the cloak was gone.

I love Magda's Gypsy saying to Trask: "Walk fast, and misfortune will overtake you. Walk slow, and misfortune will catch you. You'd better not walk slow, because I will never be far behind." Magda really knew how to defend herself with words! She hated Trask more than Barnabas, so she wanted to help Barnabas.

While Edward was waiting for Barnabas to get to his coffin, he felt secure with the gun. But he made a mistake by not leaving the bookcase door open. He wasn't able to see Barnabas coming back to his coffin. Dumb!  

I think that Barnabas had some of that earth from the Old House basement inside the coffin he used. Since his usual coffin was now unavailable to him, he had to get some earth to place inside a different coffin. That's my theory.

----- Sally -----

[Midnite]

Barnabas to Trask (before vanishing):  "I will deal with you then as I dealt with your ancestor before you."
Yes, while on the defensive, the best tact is always to give your enemy yet another reason to want to come at you with everything he's got.

If Gregory were so smart, he'd have someone keeping an eye on Charity.  But then again, you'd think he would have checked his daughter's neck after Dirk was destroyed to see if the bite marks disappeared.

Nancy Barrett's face and neck look puffy to me in this ep.  The hair and foofy collar don't help, but the nurse in my sees a dramatic change.  Sorry, sorry.

the whole dirt concept ... I do remember it being in other vampire lore!

Yes, they must sleep on it each night.  Any soil in the area should've sufficed for Barnabas, but as you say later, they tweaked the lore as a plot device to set Charity up.  I think they did mean that Barnabas at some point carried soil from the mausoleum, but if they meant to establish that Barnabas required soil from his grave, what did he use [spoiler]in PT, where that Barnabas had never died??![/spoiler]

Run out the passage way Charity, you twit!  UGH!

I know!!!!!  LOL

Edward seems to have forgotten that he showed the one behind the bookcase to Laura when they were first married.

Heh heh!  The bookcase room gets as much traffic as the mausoleum room and Dirk's root cellar.

Would it not be more sensible to have stashed some in a safe place when you know that you are exposed.

He had some in the Old House basement and some in the mausoleum, but could he have anticipated that Carl told Meester Trask (of all people!), who moved quickly enough to not allow him any time at all to make other plans, thus catching Barn with his proverbial pants down?  Given just one more night, if he didn't move his coffin again, I think he would have prepared a second one or at least stashed some dirt somewhere away from the Old House and the not-so-secret room at Eagle Hill.

the Old House basement ... Did we ever see dirt on that floor?   Jeez!!

Nope.  I second your jeez!

I just watched the show from the beginning a few months ago (including early Barney) and I am 99.9 % sure that the dirt lore was never used!

And it won't come up again.  (Or were you already saying that?)

I thought the dirt thing was only significant if the vamp left his homeland - Barn never did.

You might be thinking of Dracula bringing something like 50 boxes of his native soil when he traveled to the Black Sea, which was memorable because [spoiler]it later led to his destruction.[/spoiler] But he slept on it while in his homeland too.

Good thing they started using the vampires can dematerialize, it’s very handy when that inconvenient rooster starts up.

When Barnabas used it for [spoiler]freaking out Forbes at the Eagle,[/spoiler] it was done off camera-- all we saw was Nathan's reaction.  Now it's like they can't stop using the SFX!

Anyone remember where Judith might be (though given its dawn, Edward may have taken it on himself to handle everything, and she might not know yet.  Anyone remember if we have any time frame for when the body was discovered?)

It was mentioned the day before (at separate times) that both Judith and Edward were in town (separately?).  Edward apparently returned very late, but we don't know what came of Judith.  Carl's body was discovered at around 6 a.m.

Except that Edward gives Barn more credit for brains than he apparently has, thinking Barn would never leave the coffin in the same place once it was known what the hiding place was.  As we know, Barnabas apparently didn’t think of that.

I can't believe I'm defending Barnabas ( ), but could he have guessed that Carl would tell Trask, the one person who could obtain irrefutable proof of his vampirism before dawn, get past Magda, and find his hiding spot within a day?

Like with the werewolf, NO one seems to have thought of exploring the use of any of the probably numerous outbuildings on the estate.

I suspect Barnabas feels too dependent on being somewhere where he can be guarded, thus his backup plan of using the school/house by the sea.

Where did Magda get her hands on silver bullets.

The same place where Beth obtained a second pentagram?  The Braithwaites may be the best silversmiths, but they may not be the only ones.

NO ONE ever called her Mrs. Racogzy

That's an interesting spelling.  May I ask where it's from?  We see her signature on the show, btw, and it's spelled Rakosi.

I remember in Dracula he only needed the native earth to cross water (and I believe I remember Chelsea Quinn Yarbro using the same mechanism for her Count Saint-Germaine).

Ah.  I've never read CQY, but Stoker's Van Helsing said he must always return to it to rest or he'd perish.

Was this the first time we heard that there were 4 secret rooms or passageways in the Old House?

There has to be someone else willing to answer the "was this the first time" questions in the Watching Project.  Anyone?

[Pansity]

NO ONE ever called her Mrs. Racogzy

That's an interesting spelling.  May I ask where it's from?  We see her signature on the show, btw, and it's spelled Rakosi.

Sorry for the delay in getting back on this.  I had a REALLY bad attack of REAL LIFE, the high points of which are my job being eliminated, not being hired for one of the two internal positions I interviewed for (not for profit is required to interview from outside with no preference for internal applicants).  The interviews haven't even been scheduled for the 2nd position yet.  On top of that I just found out that I need major surgery which should be done ASAP and the Cobra paperwork's  still wending its way through the system. So, bottom line is between all the job hunting, bureaucracy and other things, the Forum and watching project kind of fell to the wayside.

FYI I may very much regret this later, but I WILL be at the Fest, since it's local and the bulk of expenses was paid already.

Anyway, back to the Racogzy/Rakosi spelling.  I didn't remember how they spelled it on the show, but I realzed when you asked where I got it:  The Saint Germain novels of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.  Her Saint Germain is at some points a Hungarian, and that's her spelling of the name.  In trying to dredge the brain I also ran into a wikipedia on the name itself, its history and alternate spellings.  Here's a link for the curious:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A1k%C3%B3czi

Jeannie

[Lydia]

Pansity, I'm so sorry to hear about your troubles!  And I'm glad that at least you were able to make it to the Fest.

That is one BIG OLE cross Gregory has. Perhaps a phallic symbol, don't shot me.

That sounds very uncomfortable.

We all talk about how moronic Rachel was, but I'm starting to think that Charity was no smarter.  Why didn't she get dressed before she headed out to the Old House on her errand for Barnabas?

I would love to have seen Abe Vigoda again as the 1897 version of Old Braithwaite.

My mind always trips up on the big difference, for Barnabas, between 1967 and 1897: in 1967, the Collins family didn't discover his secret, and 1897 it did.  I can't come to any profound conclusion about it.  There's no moral to be derived from it: Barnabas took greater risks in 1967 than he did in 1897.  I don't think there's any point at which Barnabas thinks, "Boy, did I ever get lucky in 1967!"  So I'm left up in the air, puzzling.

[MagnusTrask]

Good luck with everything, Pansity.  I was wondering where you were and missed you.

[Pansity]

Thanks for the good wishes Magnus and Lydia; it's good to be missed.   I was of two minds about the Fest, due to timing, but if I was ever in doubt, the side trip afterward, and a whole day roaming the INSIDE of Collinwood made me know I made the right decision.  THAT was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Got to get back in the swing now that the fest and side trip are over.  But UGH, my time is being eaten up by my cobra insurance limbo (had to reschedule my presurgical consult tomorrow due to cobra having cancelled the insurance as of my last day of work, delayed sending the bill, and now theres a 2 week plus waiting period after they get the money before your insurance is valid).

On the bright side, once the surgery IS done and I'm back home, I'll have six weeks or so when, aside from sleeping, I'll have nothing to do but sleep, read, watch eps and make everyone here sick of having me underfoot.

Jeannie