Discuss - Ep #0893

Robservations #893

I like Carolyn's unflustered, all-business reaction to Stoddard at first: "Daughter?"  Her friendship with Julia hasn't caused her to react to news with gasps and eyelid fluttering and putting of hands together and looking up at the ceiling, fortunately.   I wonder if a few pseudo-fathers have turned up over the years...

Megan displays yet another strange turtleneck permutation: purple and sleeveless.  Earlier it was orange and short-sleeved.   Next time I expect her just to have a dickie on.    Maybe green, just to round out the secondary colors.

David is unfamiliar with the concept of antiques.   This pot isn't new like the baby, it looks really old!  Wowee!

Look, Barn's soldiers, Angelique could come along and buy them anytime she likes.

Is everything this yellow on the DVDs?

Wow, Megan with extreme prejudice!!   Steal a book, go to hell!!   Go with it Evil Meg, you're more interesting this way!!   Evil Philip on the other hand is irritating.   His reading of the word "Kill!" indicates that he is a member of the "Dark Shadows is Camp" camp.    It's interesting how they both stop occasionally to do a half-hearted reality check, pondering on the fact that they never talked about killing people before.... then they shake off the doubts and get back to the important business of killing the whole world!

I like what we're seeing of David - bratty younger cousin when he catches with Carolyn with what looks like a boyfriend, and worried kid when he's torn the page of the book in the antique shop.  If this weren't Dark Shadows but rather a standard soap, both issues would develop in their usual soapy way, but instead we just get glimpses of who David is at the moment.
　
Oh, gosh, Paul Stoddard is such a wuss!  He ran and ran and ran when he thought Liz was going to kill him - and Jason McGuire knew he would run and run and run.

It's interesting how they both stop occasionally to do a half-hearted reality check, pondering on the fact that they never talked about killing people before.... then they shake off the doubts and get back to the important business of killing the whole world!

Yeah, that moment of self-awareness on Megan’s part was interesting.  My first thought was that the Thing Without A Soul had momentarily allowed its grip on her to loosen, but then I changed my mind.  As far as I can tell right now, what has happened to Barnabas, Philip, and Megan is not possession; they're still themselves, but they have been given a new purpose in their lives that cancels out all other purposes.  Sort of like falling in love.  They can remember that once upon a time they didn't feel the way they do now, but that was then and this is now.

I really think we have some special neurotransmitter(s) that handles this sort of thing.   I've noticed that when dreaming, there's an overwhelming sense of "rightness" or logic that very crazy events and actions and ideas become imbued with.  It stays for a minute or two after waking up sometimes, when you know you're awake now and thinking about the dream.   Then that sense of rightness fades, and you wonder what the hell you were thinking.   I attribute that to a certain sleep neurotransmitter not flowing anymore, as if I'd know... because absolutely anything can make sense in dreams.   No selectivity.

No brainwashing or thought control can be total I think.   The Todds are thinking these new thoughts and priorities with the same old minds they've always had, which up until a few days earlier, were thinking about love and spaghetti and who buys antique cradles anyway.   I think they're in a dream, where the old memories and feelings are floating around just out of reach.

Is it me or does there seem to be an unusual amount of "face acting" going on lately?  I understand that those under the Leviathon spell need to have that far-off look thing going, but even the non-Levs like Maggie and David seem to be doing all their emoting through their expressions in these episodes.

Wow, Megan with extreme prejudice!!   Steal a book, go to hell!!   Go with it Evil Meg, you're more interesting this way!!   Evil Philip on the other hand is irritating.   His reading of the word "Kill!" indicates that he is a member of the "Dark Shadows is Camp" camp.    It's interesting how they both stop occasionally to do a half-hearted reality check, pondering on the fact that they never talked about killing people before.... then they shake off the doubts and get back to the important business of killing the whole world!

<chuckle!>  Really good and enjoyable comments by everybody else, too.

The opener was redone minus Maggie.  Which is not necessarily a bad thing.  And geez, is there no one that Jason didn't play?

We haven't seen Mrs. Johnson in a couple hundred eps, yet we keep hearing about her.  I wish they'd just show her already.  The show also seems to be on a roll with mentions of Christmas.

When did David take the book?   Does it shrink to fit into pockets too?

When did David take the book?   Does it shrink to fit into pockets too?

I just hope he didn't smuggle it out of the shop in the same way that drugs are sometimes smuggled through airports...

lol

I always thought Carolyn warmed up to her father a little too quickly...they should have played it for at least a week before she started to take to him. But thinking about it now, I realize Carolyn never truly gave up the hope that her father would come home, even after learning what happened that night when he left 18 years ago.

Would she have been so forgiving if [spoiler]she had ever found out he unwittingly sold her to a monster race called the Leviathans?.[/spoiler] I suppose she would have once she realized he didn't realize at the time what it would have meant for her.

David has become a typical boy. He really relishes having something to hold over Carolyn. At the same time he's in a panic about the book. At this point he's just a normal, smart-alecky, kid. What a change from the governess-terrorizing, potential father killer he was at the beginning of the show.

I always thought Megan was a more optimistic Leviathan than Philip. Sure, at the moment Philip seems to go along with being a member of the clan, but it's Megan who is the more fiercely loyal one. Her vow to kill whoever to take the book proves that to me.

IluvBarnabas, it's good to see you posting again!