Discuss - Ep #0846

Robservations #846

Charity's make up is ever more garish as time goes on.  Tim seems to be the owner of the Blue Whale now.   It is interesting to see the two of them  as they are  as compared to where they started out.  Tim want's money from Edward. I  guess he can never have enough.   
Kitty pretty's herself, as if a spider waiting for her prey, and her he comes.   Her husband is dead of suicide.  She was once a governess coming to a big house and now a widow coming to a big house with the same plan in mind to ensnare the master in her web, but really it's Judith's house and fortune.  Edward recoils from kissing her, but then places his hand on her later.  Barnabas would have been ready to elope by now.  Later Kitty is worried that Charity will know something about her.  What has she to hide?  Charity only seems to know that Josette's music box will cause her death.  There the music box appears.   The credits roll on Katherine Lee Scott.   I wonder why there have been so many errors lately?

What a tour de force performance from Nancy in this episode...the scenery-chewing is just great and the dialogue they've given her to recite is genuinely clever and witty.  I particularly love her initial response to meeting the esteemed "Lady" Hampshire - " well, la di dah" - priceless.  Pansy Fay just don't put up with pretentious airs of no kind.

And speaking of Lady Hampshire, I love Katherine Lee Scott and appreciate the fact that she finally got a long-overdue chance to play a villainous role...but, really, enough with the pinched expressions designed to let us in on her diabolical secrets.  Do schemers and plotters really behave that way when the people they plan to screw's backs are turned?

I think I would!

Tim want's money from Edward. I  guess he can never have enough.   

It struck me that Tim was prepared to blackmail Edward over Barnabas' vampirism and destruction but didn't after Charity turned down any offer of reward. Why didn't Tim go ahead and do it anyway? He didn't need Charity's cooperation, though he seemed desperate to get it at the Blue Whale which is something I don't understand. Maybe he planned to at some point in the future and realized now wasn't the time. Even that I don't buy, considering how greedy Tim has become lately, his anxious desire to get rich and richer by any means necessary (and the sooner the better).

I know many see Kitty as a golddigger, but I honestly thought she did care for Edward. She was lonely and was seeking companionship with an old friend and that's why she came to Collinwood. Maybe I'm just being too much of a romantic...I just can't see the love for money in Kitty that I do in Trask and Tim.

How did the music box get in Kitty's room BTW?

I've been thinking about the music box also.  Is it the ghost of Barnabas,  Angelique,  or the ghost of Josette?  If Kitty is the reincarnation of Josette then that would rule out the latter, but if she is, then she could have put it there herself. 

There was a weird shadow on the left half of Charity's face as she talked about staking the vampire - as if the light were shining through a trellis or something.  It was if she were a harlequin.

I don't remember Tim knowing that Barnabas was a vampire.  He knew about Dirk, but did anybody tell him about Barnabas?  I think he knew that blackmailing Edward wasn't an option, but he was certainly ready to ingratiate himself wherever it might profit him in the future.  Incidentally, the visit to the cave was a perfect murder setup, if only there had been a reason for Tim to murder Edward.  I think it's admirable of Tim to need a reason before he'll murder somebody.

I have no doubt that Kitty was a golddigger.  She came to Hampshire House as a governess, and married the Earl.  Alas, Petofi ruined the Earl - no details as to exactly how - and I assume that the Earl's children, who were not her children, saw through her and made life uncomfortable for her.  So she has come to Collinwood to marry Edward.  It's a bit of a comedown from an English Earl to a house, however big, in the wilds of Maine, but she'll be comfortable, and she'll be as good a wife to Edward as she was to Gerald, I'm sure, especially if he invites her to accompany him on lots of business trips to Boston.  But will she ever let Edward meet her mother?  I suppose that depends on whether Mama is genteelly impoverished or the Stella Dallas type.

As Kitty and Edward talked in her room, I wondered about the Earl's servant Edward.  I'm sure he existed.  Did he devotedly follow his master to the grave?

I think it's admirable of Tim to need a reason before he'll murder somebody.

Hey, who's capable of that kind of restraint?!

As Kitty and Edward talked in her room, I wondered about the Earl's servant Edward.  I'm sure he existed.  Did he devotedly follow his master to the grave?

And was it Edward the butler inhabiting Edward Collins' body?  I never thought so, but I'm not sure why.

I think there must have been a real butler involved, though not necessarily named Edward.  Edward Collins had memories of his service with the Earl of Hampshire, for example helping the Earl out when the Earl forgot details.  If the Earl of Hampshire's butler is dead, then the situations of Edward Collins and of Charity Trask after the Kiss of Truth are similar.

I think there must have been a real butler involved, though not necessarily named Edward.  Edward Collins had memories of his service with the Earl of Hampshire, for example helping the Earl out when the Earl forgot details.  If the Earl of Hampshire's butler is dead, then the situations of Edward Collins and of Charity Trask after the Kiss of Truth are similar.

A good example of how Dark Shadows keeps us thinking, wondering, by leaving so many things unexplained. Some people attribute this attribute of DS to sloppy writing.

But so often, things are left ambiguous that could very, very easily have been "explained." I really think that this tendency not to explain everything was deliberate, and I find it a very interesting choice for a TV show to make.

The DS viewer was not "spoon fed" all the answers, and everything wasn't wrapped up in a neat little bow.

That's one of the things that makes me appreciate the show.

I see things that way more and more, as the years go on.

I think sloppy writing is responsible for the vast majority of the unexplained things.  In this particular case, I believe that if the writers had had more time, they would have made all the people who received Petofi’s Kiss have congruent experiences, whereas what we got was Charity definitely linking up to a real person who was dead, Edward possibly linking up to a real person who may or may not have been dead, and Beth, Magda, and Evan definitely not linking up to any other real person.

Major Milestones:
1. Kitty told Edward that her husband, Gerald, committed suicide, and she was the governess to Gerald's children when they met.
2. After finding out from Charity that she killed Barnabas, Edward said he would have the coffin chained and the cave sealed.
3. Charity told a disbelieving Kitty about her vision to beware of Josette's music box, and then it appeared in Kitty's room at the end of the episode.
4. Kitty wrote a letter to her mother in PA about her plans, and that she was broke.

Kitty's letter was written on green paper! Did they have green paper in 1897? I think Kitty was definitely a gold digger. 

I really loved NB's portrayal of Charity in this episode, and she looked very pretty! 

Sloppy writing may be responsible, Lydia, but it just so happens that this sloppy writing was what made things so unexplainable sometimes, and made us, the audience, think. 

The DS viewer was not "spoon fed" all the answers, and everything wasn't wrapped up in a neat little bow.

That's one of the things that makes me appreciate the show.

I agree, Philippe! 

----- Sally -----

Sloppy writing may be responsible, Lydia, but it just so happens that this sloppy writing was what made things so unexplainable sometimes, and made us, the audience, think.

Oh, I agree!  In fact I think it's probably the sloppy writing that most makes me cleave unto Dark Shadows, forsaking all those shows where the writers have everything figured out down to the last detail - shows that are (with thanks to Tennyson) "Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null, Dead perfection, no more."

I was headeing toward deciding that the lack of explanations was to a great extent intentional.