Discuss - Ep #0800

[Watching Project]

Robservations #800

And remember:

Monday, June 15: No Episode, originally Monday, July 21, 1969 was the Apollo 11 Splashdown

[alwaysdavid]

Very exciting episode even though the way Victor was only using his left hand gave away that he was Count Petofi long before Magda figured it out.

[EmeraldRose]

Major Milestones:

1. Magda recognized the mark on Victor's cufflink was the same mark on Julianka's forehead. Quentin then pulled off Victor's "hand" and Magda uttered, "You... are.. Count Petofi!"
2. Tim, while threatening Evan with the Hand, forced Evan to tell him everything about the Hand, Magda, and the plan to kill Minerva.  

Magda, speaking about the Hand: "If only I knew what it would do for me... what it would take from me." I think that was a blooper.

Tim sure was getting diabolical. No more nice, sweet, moral Tim. It was great when Tim was taunting Evan with the Hand. He deserved it when Tim scared him. Evan was rather evil and diabolical with the things he did, especially forcing Tim to kill Minerva. It was interesting that the Hand was out of the box when Tim visited Evan. The Hand was doing Tim's bidding.  

how it is that even tho Magda the Gypsy and Angelique the Witch couldn't control that disembodied paw, Tim the Dim is able to make it behave? ?!?

That always bothers me, too.  The only thing that I can figure out is that they keep saying that the hand "has a mind of its own."  When Magda, who has some powers and Angelique with a lot of powers try to control it, apparently it won't "listen" and acts on its own.  Julianka supposedly knew how to control it.

I've always figured that since Tim now wants it for his own gain and revenge, those could be considered "bad" things, so perhaps the hand wants to cooperate.

I agree with you, Josette. That's a fascinating observation. The Hand was just cooperating with Tim; Tim didn't really know how to control it.

I love the end, when Quentin pulled off Count Petofi's glove and Magda realized who he was! They played my favorite background music again. Bum... Bum... Bummmmm! Ooh! Love it! So exciting! One of the best Friday cliffhangers on DS!

----- Sally -----

[Roland]

They needed a great cliffhanger that weekend. After all, it was competing with the 1st moon walk - which would happen three days later - for attention!

[Midnite]

I think Violet Welles did viewers a bit of disservice here.

For one thing, she changed the lines (spoken in Magda's voice) that played in Tim's head during the opener.  In the previous ep, they were lines he overheard while eavesdropping on a conversation that the audience was also privy to.  But in this ep they weren't from Magda's conversation.  This change was noticeable, silly and pointless.

Also, Quentin told Magda, "What Aristede did wasn't done to me personally. He had to do it because he needed the hand very badly. Now there's nothing wrong with that."  We get Quentin's desperation to find a cure; I imagine he'd make a deal with the devil at this point.  But he would NOT enter that deal blindly, nor is he prone to underestimating his enemies.  To have him write off Aristede's torture tactic as nothing personal-- that's just absurd.

the way Victor was only using his left hand gave away that he was Count Petofi long before Magda figured it out.

Yep, he did everything one-handed, including awkwardly pouring a drink and slapping Aristede.  Yet in his very first appearance, I'm sure he slapped Aristede with his right hand.  And there were other moments we're supposed to forget, like this one from #798 (captured by MB) of Victor using both hands:

Didn't his prosthetic right hand come out of left field?  

Magda uttered, "You... are.. Count Petofi!"

I wish I could remember something of my original reaction to that.  Namely, if I was the least bit surprised.  I would hope not.

[alwaysdavid]

The picture of Petofi gripping the phone, brings to mind that prosthetics were very primitive and expensive even in the 1960's as compared to today.  My uncle had real solid wooden leg that did not bend at the knee and after he died the family donated it to a veteran who needed one and could not afford to buy one.   I think that in 1897 it is unlikely that the hand would be more than a hook and it certainly would not be able to grip a phone.

[MagnusTrask]

I think a viewer then would just see the Hand as an old relic, and not expect someone missing a hand to turn up wanting it back.   If you've heard fans talk about Petofi being in the series, of course you're going to look for signs in Thayer David that he's Petofi, though.

[Lydia]

I don't remember clearly my reaction, when this episode originally aired, to the revelation that Victor Fenn-Gibbon was Count Petofi, but I know I did not expect it.

I'm confused by Evan's relationship with the hand.  When Quentin found it at Evan's house, just before Aristede appeared on the scene, I was surprised because I didn't remember the hand coming back to Evan after Magda used it so disastrously on Quentin, and I thought he was still at the stage of wanting nothing to do it.  But he had it.  Today Tim appears at the Evan's door with the hand, and Evan is frightened by it, despite the fact that - if I remember correctly - he admitted to Quentin - or least didn't deny - that he had used the hand to restore his face.  Oh, well, maybe his brain was still a little addled from the initial adverse contact with the hand.

As for Tim's relationship with the hand, I don't buy Josette's (I mean, our Josette's) idea that the hand was cooperating with Tim because Tim wanted bad things.  There's a certain amount of logic to the idea, but it's the wrong amount - either not enough or too much.  I do think that the hand cooperated, but I don't think it was Tim's nefarious motives that beguiled the hand.  I think - mind, I say I think - the cooperation might have had something to do with Tim's relative innocence in matters of the occult.  Maybe the hand was sort of amused and charmed by Tim.  Or maybe it was Tim's looks.  I commented yesterday - or anyway, in the topic for yesterday's episode - on what an attractive pair Tim and Aristede made.  Maybe Count Petofi thought the same way.