Discuss - Ep #0842

Robservations #842

Julia survives. Back in the day we thought that Grayson Hall had to be leaving the show.   At least for once, there is a plausible explanation as to why Julia survives.   Angelique is right. Barnabas has changed history so much that it will never be finished; and anyway, he can't possibly agree with anything that Julia might put forth.  I keep thinking how out of place Julia looks in 1897 even with her costume.  I guess it's her look with the hair and the earrings from my grandmother's jewelry  box.  Amanda suddenly comes to realization that she is unnatural and sheds some tears.  I wish she's quit reciting her lines like she is playing to the last row in the theatre.  I find the whole Tate thing incredibly boring.  It has to be his worst character or a toss up with Ned.  At least with Jeff/Peter, one had Alexandra, so it didn't seem so awful.

I think there was pressure from directors to shout and over-enunciate.   We get that from Aristede and Beth too.

I wonder...if Julia's body was indestructible, were the clothes she arrived in indestructibe as well?

That last scene is really kind of creepy.

One wonders how Aristede knew that Julia had not been killed. Was he waiting in the bushes when Barnabas and Julia came out - both alive? 

This reluctant truce/alliance of Julia and Angelique may be one of the best scenes they had together. They weren't really arguing, merely sniping over Barnabas. I still remember wondering what this clever plan is of Julia and Barnabas, and the manner in which Angelique affirms her support and assistance was no help to me then (I was very young).

The whole Tate/Amanda thing dragged on too long. Things could have been a lot smoother if Tate had just kept his sketches and portraits to himself. I disagree that Charles Delaware Tate was the worst chacracter that RD played - Ned has to top that list. Besides, I rather like the part when his character
[spoiler]is the dummy/old man in present time, living under the name Harrison Monroe.[/spoiler]
And, really - so he creates a man, why does Amanda really have to scream? It wasn't like he was assembled piece by piece, he merely appeared.    Enough of this storyline about Amanda the troubled ingenue that everyone and his dog loves - back to the call girl that wants to destroy Trask!

I disagree that Charles Delaware Tate was the worst character that RD played - Ned has to top that list. Besides, I rather like the part when his character
[spoiler]is the dummy/old man in present time, living under the name Harrison Monroe.[/spoiler]

Me too.

Major Milestones:
1. Julia survived! The bullet went right through her without harming her. Barnabas and Julia discussed how only Julia's "essence" went back to 1897.
2. Barnabas suggested to Julia that they get Angelique to help them. Angelique accepted. This was the first time that Barnabas, Julia, and Angelique were ALL in cahoots with each other.
3. Tate told Petofi about his witnessing a woman's bad experience with the I-Ching wands.
4. Tate sketched a man out of his own imagination to show Amanda that he could create what he drew. The man he drew then appeared in the studio!

When the bullet went right through Julia without harming her, it made me think of the Star Trek episode "Spectre of the Gun". Spock performed his mind meld on all the others so when they were "shot" at the OK Corral, the bullets went right through them, and they were unharmed. That was really cool - both on Star Trek and on Dark Shadows!

Another Star Trek reference: Julia saying that she could not be harmed in 1897 reminded me of the halograms that were in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space 9, and Star Trek: Voyager. Of course they could not be harmed, either!

I was amused when Petofi was amused that Angelique seemed to be in love with Quentin. I love Petofi's laugh!

There was another line blooper by Jonathan Frid when he said that Angelique "put in an appearance about a week ago...  a week after I arrived from the present." Good save!

I like Julia's line that Angelique was the "perennial bad penny..." Great line! It was neat to see Angelique's reaction when she saw Julia. Another great line that Julia said to Angelique: "Your eyes are not deceiving you, I am who you think I am."

This was an excellent episode! One of the best!

----- Sally -----

Julia survived! First time I saw it, I was so relieved...I was so sure she had died in the previous episode. Her theory on just being an essence and thusly, unable to die, makes sense. It would be impossible to kill someone who doesn't really exist in that time, except in spirit.

It makes sense that Aristede would run off and hide after the gunshot...evil creep that he is, he is also a coward. I don't think that Aristede knew that Julia had NOT been killed at this point...he just didn't want to hang around for Barnabas to kill him.

I loved the conversation between Julia and Angelique. Barnabas once said that enemies become allies quicker than friends, and we've seen this theory come true, first between Barnabas and Quentin, and now these two gals.

I agree that Ned Stuart is RD's worst character, but I'm not as keen on Tate as other are. I honestly wished the writers [spoiler]  had Quentin kicking Tate's butt a lot worse than he did when he realizes that Tate stole his portrait out of his childlish jealously over Amanda. [/spoiler]

The Amanda story might well have been interesting if Donna McKechnie had acted it better.  When she sees the man appear from out of nowhere, it's telling her that she herself appeared out of nowhere.  So what is she?  She doesn't know.

Still, you can go only so far with lack of a past, whereas Julia and Angelique got some good mileage out their shared past (which is in the future) today.  Julia was hard as cement when she said, in response to Angelique's statement that Barnabas was cold and unresponsive, "Who made him that way?"

I wonder...if Julia's body was indestructible, were the clothes she arrived in indestructibe as well?

That last scene is really kind of creepy.

What I think is creepy is indestructible clothes.  Does anybody really want indestructible underwear?

The voiceover confirmed that Julia was unable (as opposed to unwilling-- I did wonder) to give Petofi all the information he needed.  So I guess we're to assume that she doesn't remember anything about the I-Ching configuration that she availed herself of and saw again during her vision.  Yet, that she didn't reveal that Barnabas knows which hexagram it was, and held back about his body remaining in the basement for a time, do seem to be important gaps in her information-sharing.

The ep contains some series highlights and lowlights, all captured wonderfully by MB's screen grabs.  On the plus side were the brillant faceoff between Angelique and Petofi (tee hee, did you see her reaction while they were face to face and he said "power" a bit too strongly?) and her reunion with Julia.  On the very low side was the dreadful scene with Amanda and Tate.

I'm pretty sure that the door to the mill's back room used to open from the left side, but with all the different doors we've seen lately-- doors with medallions and other embellishments and "metal" doors and the paneled I-Ching doors, it's probably not surprising that they put the mill set back together with its doorknobs on the opposite side.

B:  "Julia, can you hear me?"
J:  "Barnabas."
B:  "Can you talk?"
<snicker>

Angelique (responding to Julia's explanation that there's a good chance the injections she's giving to Barnabas will succeed):  "I'm convinced he really IS a fool. If he can be cured, he'll have what he's wanted for almost 200 years. He'll be able to go back to the future and live a normal, happy life."
Um, is she talking about the same future where Lang's experiment has already cured him?

Amanda suddenly comes to realization that she is unnatural and sheds some tears.  I wish she's quit reciting her lines like she is playing to the last row in the theatre.

Her voice drives me up a wall!!  She's supposed to be Tate's ideal woman in appearance but what a pity that his strokes on canvas could not do something with her voice.  And what's up with facing the camera to spot Tate's creation and scream when the creation was clearly standing to her right?  (He was played by Alexander Cort, btw.)

When the bullet went right through Julia without harming her, it made me think of the Star Trek episode "Spectre of the Gun". Spock performed his mind meld on all the others so when they were "shot" at the OK Corral, the bullets went right through them, and they were unharmed.

Interesting.  Since that ST aired during the previous year, I wonder if it provided the inspiration?  

60s shows "inspired" each other week after week after week...!