Discuss - Ep #0837

Robservations #837

Julia goes into the past and with so many doors, I was hoping that she'd come out into some totally unexpected place.  That would have been a fun story.  The music is really eerie and the the screaming.  I had to laugh at Charity calling Julia's dress barely decent.  Julia is even more confused than Vickie. but Quentin, now heroic, is able to save Barnabas.

Julia goes into the past and with so many doors

I love this shot of her:

I am glad that Quentin found the letter and rescued Barnabas. However, I don't think Quentin should have taken the threat of his impending death so lightly. Even if he doesn't believe that Jamison would reject him, he doesn't know that some other unforeseen event could occur that would trigger his demise.

I half expected Charity/Pansy to accuse Julia of being a witch, ala Abigail did with Vicki in 1795. Charity/Pansy proclaims that Julia would be the one to kill Quentin, which proves that Pansy's psychic abilities aren't infallible.

I'm glad to see Edward astonished (not to mention disappointed) that Barnabas manage to get out of the cell despite his closing up the secret passages. I wonder if he'll put Barnabas' escape and Julia's disappearing act together.

Major Milestones:
1. Julia used the I-Ching wands to go back into 1897 to tell Barnabas how Quentin and Beth died.
2. There was a psychic connection between Barnabas and Julia - he heard her when she was calling out his name and when she screamed.
3. Quentin found Barnabas's "time traveling letter" in Julia's pocket and freed Barnabas from the cell.
4. Julia was in shock when she first arrived in 1897. The trip through time was too much for her.

It was neat that Julia opened four doors, and she saw them all close behind her.  It just dawned on me that Julia would have not seemed so strange if she had worn 1897 clothing when she used the I-Ching wands. 

I thought it was neat when Banabas could hear Julia as she traveled through time. Very romantic. That scream did not sound like Grayson Hall's scream.

Great episode!

----- Sally -----

When Barnabas and Julia could hear each other as she was having her I Ching experience, I thought of Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester.  I daresay the device is used in other Gothic literature, but it was still fun to find a third reference to Jane Eyre - the first being the governess in the spooky house, of course, and the second being the madwoman burning somebody in his bed.

Grayson Hall's performance in this episode is one of the highlights of the whole series for me.  Those big eyes, that blankness, and that vulnerability are so real, so moving.

Shouldn't Edward have immediately run to get an afghan to throw over Julia's scandalously bare legs?

Wonderful image, MB!

In #834, Barnabas gave some specific instructions to Magda:

if I don't return before midnight on the 10th, you must go to Quentin and tell him he's going to die on that day--he must not see Jamison; he's to leave Collinwood and not come back, and he is not to tell you where he's going--he is not to come back until after the 10th of September--is that clear?  Yes, she says

Well, that deadline has come and gone, and where is Magda?

I'm pretty sure, btw, that only the first door closed behind Julia.

And must Nancy Barrett always scream??!  Gawd!!!

Quentin (about Julia):  "I've never seen anyone like her in my life."
Edward:  "You've traveled more than I have. Have you ever seen anyone like this?"
Quentin:  "Not even remotely."
Call me easily entertained, but I just love those errors of redundancy, and this one amuses me as much as the infamous "Tell them you saw no one here" exchange between Barnabas and Dirk.

Once the letter is carried to the cell in the Old House by Quentin, completing it's travels from 1897 to 1969 and back again, are there now two letters in the same place and time?  I  mean, wouldn't the original still be hidden in the desk?  And if so, doesn't that violate some law of physics?

The rectory set looks to be recycled from Evan's house, which was recycled from Dr. Lang's house, and it will soon be recycled into another doctor's office.

The shot used for the closing credits underscores the puzzling presence of a gaslight in the Old House basement (that alwaysdavid pointed out in the previous WP topic).

Very definitely, the younger version of The Letter is stashed in the desk in the cell, even as its yellower cousin is being waved by Quentin in Barnabas's 1897 face.  Cool, huh?   I always regret that Barnabas doesn't get it out of the desk and wave Early Letter in Quentin's face, just to accentuate the temporal coolness.