Discuss - Ep #0927

[Watching Project]

Robservations #927

[MagnusTrask]

Maggie beans Philip.  Guy runs in front of camera as Julia examines Philip.  Wasn't there any room behind the cameraman?

Philip comes closest he could to a confession, saying to Maggie that he could have been responsible for what happened to her... awkward pause as Maggie considers what he meant.   The Todds unleashed Michael on the world, that's what he's thinking I guess.

The business of Michael "dying" and the Todds' attitude toward it is interesting and possibly inspired.   M Maitland is good... Michael's really scared.  But of what?   It seems as if there must be some sense in which Michael really is dying.   Megan is genuinely distraught.   It's exactly like a son dying to her, even in private with Philip.   Yet when called on to be practical, she realizes it's necessary and not really death death...

I guess Michael is being put through the actual physical (and emotional) process of dying, the pain and deterioration, with the exception of the actual death part at the end.   (Alright, when I said that just now, it reminded me of why I love DS!)   Dying hurts...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I guess Michael is being put through the actual physical (and emotional) process of dying, the pain and deterioration, with the exception of the actual death part at the end.

You might want to rethink that theory after watching the next two eps. 

[MagnusTrask]

I guess Michael is being put through the actual physical (and emotional) process of dying, the pain and deterioration, with the exception of the actual death part at the end.

You might want to rethink that theory after watching the next two eps. 

I'd already watched the next two...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Then given what happens, how can you explain your theory?    I think many would be curious - especially when we've never discussed anything like it. So, perhaps you'd like to give it a try when we get to Ep #929 (because in this topic it would be a huge spoiler and an explanation is much more appropriate for that ep)...

[Lydia]

Philip comes closest he could to a confession, saying to Maggie that he could have been responsible for what happened to her... awkward pause as Maggie considers what he meant.   The Todds unleashed Michael on the world, that's what he's thinking I guess.

I didn't hear it that way.  I felt that Philip was saying to Maggie that it had been reasonable for her to assume that he was the bad guy.  It seemed like a nice moment.  Megan was upstairs being Oedipal with Michael (and then being thrilled when Michael displayed his commitment to Carolyn - weirder and weirder!), so it was pleasant to think that Philip might find comfort with Maggie, thus clearing the decks in Barnabas's life so that Barnabas could (when he returns to what pass for his senses) notice that Julia was, in the end, the only woman for him.  But then Philip stood by the Leviathans and backed up the "Michael's dying" story and Maggie became superfluous.

The voiceover said Maggie was lost in a maze beneath the house, which surprised me, because she started out on the second floor.  And then when she spoke to Julia she confirmed that she had been in the basement.
　
As Maggie was talking to Julia, I started thinking about Elizabeth, who also mistakenly believed she had killed a man, but for a much longer time.  Maggie was luckier than she knew.  I was also thinking about how she shouldn't have been so traumatized by this incident after all she's been through - but then I remembered that she remembers very few of the ghastly things that have happened to her.  Her memory of her kidnapping by Barnabas, her kidnapping by Willie, and her brief involvement in the second effort to create a mate for Adam are all gone.  She probably does remember Quentin's ghost - the one thing that she should not remember - but for the most part that happened to other people, not to her, so her recent experience could well have felt worse.  Which reminds me, how hard did the writers laugh every time they put "greater terror than he/she/they have ever known before" into the voiceover?

[Taeylor Collins]

I seem to have misplaced my reviews for the last few eps. However I will be up and running again with 929! And thankfully I have everything reviewed up until the next storyline kicks in. I would go back and watch but I have some things to watch and get back to netflix! Just wanted y'all to know I am not ducking out of the party.

[MagnusTrask]

Then given what happens, how can you explain your theory?    I think many would be curious - especially when we've never discussed anything like it. So, perhaps you'd like to give it a try when we get to Ep #929 (because in this topic it would be a huge spoiler and an explanation is much more appropriate for that ep)...

There must be some crossed signals here.... I don't really feel I have a new theory on anything, and I don't see any conflict with what happens later.   I've re-seen up through #931 now, and of course I've seen Leviathans all the way through several times over the years.

[Midnite]

I seem to have misplaced my reviews for the last few eps.

Our loss.   

[Midnite]

We get over-the-top performances thanks to Henry Kaplan, and some crisp Violet Welles dialogue.

How did Maggie find her way out of the "maze" when she couldn't before?  And how bizarre is it that there would be a storage room in there?  Anyway, I guess we got confirmation (?) that the secret corridor to the West Wing connects to the one that opens into Josette's/Maggie's room since Michael exited through the drawing room panel after siccing Maggie on Philip-THE-TRAITOR-Todd.  But I don't get why Megan went from hysterical (after hearing that Philip was dead) to party line mode (after learning he wasn't) in the blink of an eye.

Philip:  "In this house, you're just a little boy who I'm responsible for."
Michael:  "I'm not just a little boy everywhere in this house."
Philip:  "You're not going to get to that room until I'm finished!"
I think that was the first indication that the transformation to inhuman form can only occur in the upstairs room.  Though I'm not sure what the explanation is for the breathing that Maggie heard at Collinwood.

Michael ♥ Carolyn, scribbled on a mirror.  What a waste of lipstick!

I guess Michael is being put through the actual physical (and emotional) process of dying, the pain and deterioration, with the exception of the actual death part at the end.   (Alright, when I said that just now, it reminded me of why I love DS!)   Dying hurts...

Hmm, I'm not sure that we can compare Michael's finish to any human experience of death and dying since his was a [spoiler]supernatural[/spoiler] death.

Yet at this point, Julia had no reason to suspect that he wasn't human.  She checked him but couldn't find a pulse, so she quickly prepared an injection in an attempt to "shock him back to life."  The episode ends with her holding the needle over Michael's arm.  Let's think about this for a second.  The absence of a pulse pulse indicates that her patient's heart is not adequately circulating blood, and in the absence of CPR, any medication entering his bloodstream through his arm is just going to sit there.  <sigh>

[Taeylor Collins]

I was wondering why they had burning lights in the maze! LOL Do the servants (wherever they are) turn them on every morning??

Great post Midnite! I enjoyed!

[Midnite]

Thank you!  Maybe it's the same person who lights the candles in the secret room of the mausoleum?

[MagnusTrask]

Yet at this point, Julia had no reason to suspect that he wasn't human.  She checked him but couldn't find a pulse, so she quickly prepared an injection in an attempt to "shock him back to life."  The episode ends with her holding the needle over Michael's arm.  Let's think about this for a second.  The absence of a pulse indicates that her patient's heart is not adequately circulating blood, and in the absence of CPR, any medication entering his bloodstream through his arm is just going to sit there.  <sigh>

Now that's a good point!

As for Michael's death, I'm only saying that it must have been a nasty process for Michael, as hard as a dying process, since everyone treated it as if it was.   Julia needed to observe a deterioration that would lend credence to the death story they were concocting, and she's a doctor and wouldn't easily be fooled (never mind about Liz's "death").  This makes this part of the plot make sense, and I'm sick of watching Leviathans and enduring what seem to me to be nonsensical plot twists.  I'm starting to see some intelligence at work this time around, and man am I relieved.

[Taeylor Collins]

Maybe it's the same person who lights the candles in the secret room of the mausoleum?

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Michael ♥ Carolyn, scribbled on a mirror.  What a waste of lipstick!

 

The absence of a pulse indicates that her patient's heart is not adequately circulating blood, and in the absence of CPR, any medication entering his bloodstream through his arm is just going to sit there.  <sigh>

I guess that's another one of those things DC was sure his audience was too clueless to realize.  


As for lights in the maze, half-jokingly I once theorized:

Actually, revising a bit of what Brandon said and building upon it, maybe the passageways were where the rich family members that we saw secretly allowed their poor relations to live.    <snipped>  And if by chance anyone from the rich family and/or their servants happened upon the secret passageways and entered them, the poor family members would all have to hide to avoid being seen or risk being tossed out. And that's why the candles were always left burning - because none of the poor relations ever had the time to put them out because they might risk being caught. It would all be very Dickensesque.  

Mystery solved.