Discuss - Ep #0929

[Watching Project]

Robservations #929

[Taeylor Collins]

1-15-70

It's so cool to see Barney’s original personality come through. However, I would have liked to have saw all the drama rama last a bit longer.  We know now, however, that the audience didn't care for their precious “hero” being a Meany!  I really am happy that B is going to help Paul out.  It's a sharp contrast to the scene in the Blue Whale when they first encountered!
The biggest thing I enjoy about this storyline is the fact that the Collins family isn't the only people in jeporady---the whole world stands to be overrun with Leviathan Snake People!   Ugh….I hate snakes.

As I have mentioned before I think that Joan really relishes playing the possessed Liz and she is very good @ it!
I love Megan’s go go boots!

Poor Paul seeing

[Lydia]

Barnabas has taken his first step against the Leviathans, and it's a big one.  I don't think there's any way he can explain it away if Michael - or, anyway, the entity currently known as Michael - finds out.  I'm sure Michael won't care about Paul because he figures Carolyn is his whether or not Paul personally bestows her on him, but the disloyalty is another matter.
　
How amusing to see a meeting of the Leviathan gang!  They're all so hopeful, poor things, with their pathetic belief that the true Leviathans care about him.
 
I always find it hard to believe that when Dennis Patrick played Paul Stoddard, he was less than three years older than he was when he played Jason McGuire.  He seems decades older!  And Paul is so much less amusing than Jason was.  I like how Paul Stoddard is written, but I don't like the character.  And now he's been and gone and let out the breathing monster when it's angry.  What a loser.

[MagnusTrask]

I agree about D Patrick and his age, Lydia, I keep noticing that.  I think Marie's got a slight hair bump, from sleeping on it wrong?

I didn't know my feeling that Michael was going through a process that's somewhat death-like and painful was such a fringe idea, but I'm still going to speak as if it's true....   Phillip yells, "Get back to your room!" and I imagined his following that with more stern warnings, like... And stay dead, young man!  ... and... Don't make me come up there and kill you!

Isn't the hard part of dying already over with?   As long as M has done it, why not stick with the process?   I guess he's back as the snake now that the funeral's over.... but what was it like lying there all that time being "dead", before that?

Good one Barnabas, just stand there staring through the Drawing Room doors at Paul Stoddard as he's trying to sneak out unnoticed...

Paul sees the creature... [spoiler]and it's all downhill for him from here.[/spoiler]

Thanks for the visual Taeylor!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

To say that Michael's actual "death" is fringe would probably be an understatement (though his supposed death proves very important down the line). For someone who was supposedly dead, Michael looks surprisingly none the worse for wear and amazingly spry in Eps #928 and #929.    And, of course, the whole deal with his death begs the question yet again: is NO ONE ever embalmed in Collinsport?!

[Taeylor Collins]

Even if he was embalmed I think the Leviathans power trumps being embalmed! JMO!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I think it would too, Taeylor. But I'm just saying...

Actually, what with bodies being secretly buried in the woods - and even when someone is officially buried some of the more expensive accouterments of the burial process seemingly always being skipped - it's a wonder that any undertakers can eke out any sort of a living in Collinsport! 

[Taeylor Collins]

I agree! Maybe everyone in Collinsport wants a green burial??? LOL  I doubt it though in the 60's and 70's!

[MagnusTrask]

For someone who was supposedly dead, Michael looks surprisingly none the worse for wear and amazingly spry in Eps #928 and #929.

I think...

He had to go through a dying process or something similar, so that Dr. Hoffman could observe this objectively in examinations, but of course never actually died.   He was terrified beforehand, almost as if it were real death, so it probably wasn't pleasant.   He was persuaded to go through with it, because he was told it was necessary, but I think Michael was capable of willing himself out of it, though, and rejuvenating any time he chose.    He can change form, we do know that much.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

That is an interesting and unique take. And like I said, something no one has ever theorized before - at least not that I've ever read. Though thinking outside the box is often your forte.  

I do think, though, that a different and valid theory is that, except for Michael's terror, the deathlike symptoms, the supposed death, and the whole aftermath was all pretense - especially for Julia's sake - and as soon as Julia was gone, Michael immediately went back to his normal self, or at least as normal as Michael ever gets.    And Michael's reaction could easily be explained as intense fear in taking the next step in his evolution, particularly when he was having such a fine time (if one can call being so dastardly "fine" ) in his present stage. Adolescence is an emotional time - and adolescents often experience anxiety about the uncertainty of growing up and facing the next stage in their lives. In Michael's case, that anxiety was taken to an intense level. But then, when adolescence lasts for mere weeks rather than years, it's even more understandable why Michael could fear moving on to the next stage.

And as a side note: if I knew or even suspected that in my next stage of life I was going to transform into a cheap, insufferable pig, I'd be intensely fearful of the process too!  

[Lydia]

The mention of the snake in this topic made me think that perhaps the death perceived by Julia was in fact a very deep hibernation, and that maybe the way Michael gets to his next physical stage is by shedding his skin.  If that's the case, does Megan get to watch?

[Taeylor Collins]

She probably would the sick pervert!

[Midnite]

The opening scene was identical to the last scene of #928 (same director, too), so I don't know why they bothered to reshoot it, although I thought the 2nd time turned out better because the performances were toned down.

What will Julia think when she finds out that the Todds accepted Carolyn's dinner invitation even though Philip was very clear in his instructions to her the day before that Carolyn and the others at Collinwood were NOT to phone or contact them in any way?

Philip to Megan:  "We're gonna need a bigger bolt."
Okay, he never said that because I made it up.  What he really said was, "I'll put a heavy bolt on the door," but I like mine better.

Paul to Carolyn:  "You know that doctor they got for me?-- he's a clever one. He's been putting the medicine in my food."
Paranoid much?

In the previous ep, Megan realized that Professor Stokes might be dangerous because she could "almost sense those things about the Others."  In this one, she picked up that Barnabas was somehow different, asking if he was feeling well but looking dissatisfied with his answer.  Megan has a super power!

It seemed pointless to have Paul find the gun that had been stashed in the drawing room when they could just as well have had him arm himself when he searched the desk in the antique shop.  But the writers probably forgot that Megan kept a loaded gun in there, and I only managed to remember it because I'm scary that way.  Just don't ask me what I ate for breakfast because I probably forgot.

the whole world stands to be overrun with Leviathan Snake People!   Ugh….I hate snakes.

Oh me too.  But while I would call the Leviathans a snake cult, I don't think of them taking on the form of snakes.  For me, their worship of snakes is part religion, part symbolism, the latter explained by Adlar a while back when he said that the Leviathans were forced to wait "silent as the serpent, swift as the snake" for their chance to come into power, and also because the snake, as Lydia alluded to, is a symbol that represents rebirth (much like the Death card in a Tarot deck).  As to what forms they do take, Adlar's description that they were demons, fiends and creatures of the night is not pleasant to contemplate.

Phillip yells, "Get back to your room!" and I imagined his following that with more stern warnings, like... And stay dead, young man!  ... and... Don't make me come up there and kill you!

Good one Barnabas, just stand there staring through the Drawing Room doors at Paul Stoddard as he's trying to sneak out unnoticed...

<snicker!>
Liz:  "Barnabas, who is in the foyer?"
Barnabas:  "No one. I was just looking at the time."
Yes, the time on the foyer clock, bounced off an orbiting satellite and into his view.

Magnus said that Michael's terror was due to having to experience something resembling a real death, and MB suggested that Michael was showing his fear of taking the next step in his evolution, and I have yet a third interpretation (it's all good!) of Michael's intense reaction when he learned that he had to stop being Michael-- that he panicked at the thought of not being able to spend the time leading up to his next transformation in human form-- interacting with people, seeing Carolyn, being bratty and throwing his weight around-- and of having to endure the loneliness of the boarded-up room.

[MagnusTrask]

Okay, but in that case, why is Megan devastated even in private when no act is necessary?   She'd be sad about Michael not being a child any longer, but not grief-stricken.   Also, if you effect a change on your body that gives the appearance of impending death, doesn't that hurt you?    A lot?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Good one Barnabas, just stand there staring through the Drawing Room doors at Paul Stoddard as he's trying to sneak out unnoticed...

<snicker!>
Liz:  "Barnabas, who is in the foyer?"
Barnabas:  "No one. I was just looking at the time."
Yes, the time on the foyer clock, bounced off an orbiting satellite and into his view.

I've been shocked that no one had mentioned this (but hoped that you would ) because Barn's excuse about looking at the time has to be the most ridiculous excuse ever on DS! What the hell was Gordon Russell thinking for writing it, Henry Kaplan for letting Frid deliver it, and Frid himself for actually saying it?! Did no one grasp the concept that it's impossible to see the time on a clock whose back is up against the same wall as the drawing room's doors?! Obviously not!    The only excuses that I can come up with is that it was either DC's idea in the first place, and he insisted it be used while probably reminding the writers once again that either they write the show his way or be replaced - or when questioned later, like on the day of shooting, DC insisted they play it that way because, as we all know in DC's estimation, as an audience we're just too clueless to realize how ridiculous an excuse it is.