Discuss - Ep #1001

Robservations #1001

FAREWELL, DON BRISCOE!

Don Briscoe makes his final appearance on DS in this ep...

Sorry to see you go, Don.  I was surprised to see him back in this one.   I wish I could say "get well".

Instead of the usual VO about how Barnabas cannot view events in PT, as if that's the really upsetting thing about spending weeks in a coffin... why not say, Barnabas is getting some much-needed rest from the disturbing events and people of this strange Collinwood, and is able to ignore the dangers of parallel time?   It's all in how you look at it...

Ang/Alexis switch.   We zoom past what would have been a very awkward scene, Ang stripping self and Alexis, Ang inching the clothes onto Alexis bit by bit, cursing, then lifting and dumping her sister into the coffin, missing a time or two, maybe a limb is pinned under the body or flopping out strangely at first.  All the while Trask hears twenty minutes of grunts and curses and impacts on the ground, wondering whether to help, then deciding not to and never ever saying why... now that's comedy.

Ang's return to Collinwood is very well acted.   LP pulls the most out of every little moment, starting with her first her first encounter with someone she has to fool, Trask.  We have to see a world of emotion going on in her face, while absolutely no one else does.

Burning Alexis-- one of the worst things anybody's ever done to anybody on DS.   New music for Yaeger in the Drawing Room.

All the while Trask hears twenty minutes of grunts and curses and impacts on the ground, wondering whether to help, then deciding not to and never ever saying why... now that's comedy.

Trask also did not respond to Alexis's scream.  I decided he must have been sitting in the car listening to the radio and never heard it.

Burning Alexis-- one of the worst things anybody's ever done to anybody on DS.

I don't agree.  Alexis was already dead.  The manner of her death was horrible from start to finish - being psychically called from Italy to die painfully for her evil twin - but the burning would not have hurt her.  I was thinking today that it would have been interesting if Alexis had haunted Collinwood, but I guess she was too meek and mild.

Cyrus is in trouble now, unable to control when he will transform into John Yaeger. What did Horace Gladstone put in the chemical this time?

Burning Alexis-- one of the worst things anybody's ever done to anybody on DS.

I don't agree.  Alexis was already dead. 

for some reason, it's never occurred to me all these years that an intact Alexis couldn't have reclaimed her life the moment she was rescued and allowed to.   I've always seen her as being in exactly the same state Ang had been.   If Ang  stole her warmth in exactly the same way as [spoiler]she did later victims, [/spoiler] then I guess she's just dead (except maybe she wasn't quite dead yet...).   Somehow I saw this as a special process, an exact switch, where they take each others' places. 

I agree with what has been said. It would have been a great thing to hear.
Though I can't imagine Trask listening to Baseball or Basketball. And of course
back then I don't they had Art Bell.

I kept thinking that they did a great job with the fire. Were they not afraid that
the forest around the cemetery going up in smoke. I could see it, police officer I
know that we started a forest fire, but I had to burn my wife body.

Sheriff Peterson, he would have just went off shaking his head.

Sorry to see you go, Don.  I was surprised to see him back in this one.   I wish I could say "get well".

Oh, crap. I saw him and thought he was back.

I have to say too that Lara Parker was outstanding in this episode. She did a wonderful job playing duel roles, and wasn't it simply squishy when she came back as Angelique?

As for Cyrus... Cyrus, Cyrus, Cyrus.... If I had the opportunity to work at home, I would be wearing my pajamas., certainly not a three-piece suit and a doctor's lab coat over all.

So now it seems that Cyrus can't control his transformation. Uh, oh...

Ange to Alexis:  "You were always the innocent one, so content with life as it was."
Ange to Alexis' body:  "You always were the considerate one."
Yeah, yeah, we get it.  Angelique is evil, Alexis is good.  No need to hammer it home.

A to A again:  "You will take my place in the coffin. And I will take yours at Collinwood."
Fabulous stuff!!!

Cyrus to Chris:  "John Yaeger is an acquaintance of mine I met recently and he's going to help me in my new experiment."
Yaeger is an old friend, he's a new friend, he's just a test subject.  He can't seem to keep the story straight.

Quentin:  "We'll take the coffin outside and put a torch to it. ... Cyrus, we don't have any other choice. I can hardly go to the proper officials and say that my wife has been dead for over 6 months but the body has yet to be decomposed."
Um, couldn't they just seal the body back inside the tomb and tell no one?  I mean, how is it sneakier to burn a huge coffin in the open at nighttime?  And stop calling her your wife, Quentin; but then again, if Quentin put more thought into the things he says, his current wife probably wouldn't have left.
And how about what Nicholas told Megan during the Leviathans storyline?:  "Burning a corpse merely disposes of a body; the spirit of that body cannot be burned."  The same writer who gave us that line (Gordon Russell), btw, also wrote this episode.

Quentin, after taking one last look at the body:  "It's unbelievable. She was as beautiful as she was. Still is."
LOL

DarkShadowsOnline.com has this to say about Don Briscoe:

In his final episode, which aired in early 1970, he was clearly unwell.

Except for the fact that he only had 1 scene, I don't see signs of unwellness.  What am I supposed to be looking for?

Was Dameon really trying to warn Quentin here about Angelique?  Had his ghost not haunted the house at all, I can't imagine that Quentin would have wanted to open his wife's tomb, so it would seem that Dameon paved the way for Angelique's return.  No?

Ang/Alexis switch.   We zoom past what would have been a very awkward scene, Ang stripping self and Alexis, Ang inching the clothes onto Alexis bit by bit, cursing, then lifting and dumping her sister into the coffin, missing a time or two, maybe a limb is pinned under the body or flopping out strangely at first.  All the while Trask hears twenty minutes of grunts and curses and impacts on the ground, wondering whether to help, then deciding not to and never ever saying why... now that's comedy.

The manner of her death was horrible from start to finish - being psychically called from Italy to die painfully for her evil twin

Alexis didn't come to to Collinwood on her own??

then I guess she's just dead (except maybe she wasn't quite dead yet...).

I'm sure that Alexis is dead when we see her in the coffin.  I think the reason Angelique pushed to have it burned as soon as possible was that it would decompose normally, and that would definitely arouse the suspicions of Quentin and Cyrus.

The manner of her death was horrible from start to finish - being psychically called from Italy to die painfully for her evil twin

Alexis didn't come to to Collinwood on her own??

My impression is that Angelique did in some way call to Alexis, whether consciously or not.  We hear something about it when Alexis first arrives at Collinwood.  Episode 985, from the Robservations:

Angelique spoke of her twin sister quite often, says Hoffman--she was always very sorry there was so much distance separating them. It was more than distance, says Alexis, she and I were never as affectionate as sisters should be--and now it's too late, isn't it?--the news of her death came as a great shock to me. You never got my letter? asks Hoffman. What letter? asks Alexis. Just after it happened, I wrote to you in Tangiers, the last address Mrs. Collins had, says Hoffman--I assumed it's what brought you here.  I never got the letter, says Alexis, I was living in Florence. Why did you come, then? asks Quentin.  I just had a feeling this is where I was needed, says Alexis

Interesting.  It didn't occur to me that her feeling could be more than "twin telepathy."

Were they not afraid that the forest around the cemetery going up in smoke. I could see it, police officer I know that we started a forest fire, but I had to burn my wife body.

  

I have to say too that Lara Parker was outstanding in this episode. She did a wonderful job playing duel roles

Indeed.  

and wasn't it simply squishy when she came back as Angelique?

Squishy to the max! (Whatever that means.  )

As for Cyrus... Cyrus, Cyrus, Cyrus.... If I had the opportunity to work at home, I would be wearing my pajamas., certainly not a three-piece suit and a doctor's lab coat over all.

That just goes to show how far society has fallen. There was a time when adults wouldn't have ever dreamed of not getting dressed each and every day of their lives - no matter what their plans or lack thereof were. It was simply unthinkable. (And this is coming from someone who has happily spent many a lazy day not bothering to get dressed.  )

Cyrus to Chris:  "John Yaeger is an acquaintance of mine I met recently and he's going to help me in my new experiment."
Yaeger is an old friend, he's a new friend, he's just a test subject.  He can't seem to keep the story straight.

Which is no doubt why so many people soon began to question who Yaeger really was. Cyrus really should have made up a convincing backstory and stuck to it rather than coming up with a new story on the cuff every time he thought he needed to explain Yaeger's presence. Though I suppose that initially he never thought that anyone compare notes because Yaeger was simply an experiment and not a real person who was going to stay around for any real length of time. Little did he know...

And how about what Nicholas told Megan during the Leviathans storyline?:  "Burning a corpse merely disposes of a body; the spirit of that body cannot be burned."  The same writer who gave us that line (Gordon Russell), btw, also wrote this episode.

Though that was RT. The supernatural rules of PT *might* be different. (There have been many parallel universe stories in which the scientific rules in the parallel universes have been different.) We really have no way of knowing. But yeah, it would have been better had they not seemingly contradicted themselves.  

DarkShadowsOnline.com has this to say about Don Briscoe:

In his final episode, which aired in early 1970, he was clearly unwell.

Except for the fact that he only had 1 scene, I don't see signs of unwellness.  What am I supposed to be looking for?

I have no idea because I've never seen anything that indicated he was unwell. But then I often think that at times people can read into things/see things that for some reason they expect to be there rather than what's actually there...

Was Dameon really trying to warn Quentin here about Angelique?  Had his ghost not haunted the house at all, I can't imagine that Quentin would have wanted to open his wife's tomb, so it would seem that Dameon paved the way for Angelique's return.  No?

I believe that inadvertently Dameon did.

I think the reason Angelique pushed to have it burned as soon as possible was that it would decompose normally, and that would definitely arouse the suspicions of Quentin and Cyrus.

Exactly. The best way to cover up the switch was to destroy all evidence.

My impression is that Angelique did in some way call to Alexis, whether consciously or not.  We hear something about it when Alexis first arrives at Collinwood.  Episode 985

Interesting.  It didn't occur to me that her feeling could be more than "twin telepathy."

It had never occurred to me either. But one could certainly say that evidence could have been laid down for it. And at any rate it's definitely an interesting notion.

Squishy to the max! (Whatever that means.  )

MST3K aired a short subject on one of their shows that was from the early fifties. It had something to do with teenagers, I don't quite remember. What I do recall is that a teenage girl was on the phone with her friend talking about some boy and this chick said he made her squishy. You can take it anyway you want to, but I thought it was hilarious. So it is in my vocabulary meaning something really keen.

Well then, "Squishy to the max!" should definitely be the phase we all use whenever we think something is really, really keen!  

Re the Alexis/Angelique sequences: in this case, the snake really does have all the lines!