Hooray, Evil Tim Stokes!! Now the storyline is up and running! He's drinking from the first second we lay eyes on him, and he can't even put the drink down long enough to pick up the phone!
I myself liked Stokes's smoking. I don't think we've seen anybody smoke since before 1795. (I just know Midnite's going to correct me on this. Never mind. And I do remember dozens of Julia's cigarette butts during the dream curse, but we didn't actually see her smoking then - did we?) I think there must have been a very strong feeling on somebody's part - probably Thayer David's - that this had to be part of Tim Stokes's character.
I don't think the stepfather business is ever explored, and I don't remember hearing that Angelique Bouchard and Ben Stokes were married in parallel time, because I don't think anybody was interested enough to mention it. (I liked the way Tim Stokes thinks of the Barnabas who married Josette primarily as the fellow Will Loomis wrote about, not as one of the Collins ancestors.) I see no need for Angelique Stokes Collins to be the descendant (not the ancestor, but I think that was just a slip of your fingers, Magnus) of Ben Stokes. She doesn't even need to be the descendant of Angelique Bouchard. Maybe twins run in her family, and she's the descendant of a twin sister of Angelique Bouchard, or maybe the resemblance is purely coincidental.
If Tim Stokes is indeed Angelique's stepfather - i.e. if "stepfather" isn't a lazy way of saying foster father or adopted father or something of the sort - then Tim Stokes married a widow or a divorcée, or maybe even - gasp! - an unwed mother. I speculated several weeks ago that Tim Stokes had married the high school sweetheart that Professor Stokes had mentioned. If he did, however, it wasn't quite the simple relationship I was imagining at the time. And who was the birth father of Angelique and Alexis? And did Tim Stokes marry their mother because he liked what he saw of little Angelique? And if Angelique and Alexis aren't the full nieces of Hannah Stokes but only the step-nieces, does it matter?
I keep thinking about the possibilities of the parallel time folks being caught in our own time when they're standing around Angelique's room, and today when Angelique picked up the phone in that room, I had a strong feeling that she was going to find herself talking to somebody in our time band. But it was such a pleasure to see Tim Stokes and Thayer David that I wasn't disappointed.
Cyrus has apparently split his personality in two: if he starts thinking sinful thoughts, he automatically turns into John Yaeger. Somehow the potion altered the chemistry or wiring or something in his brain. But if, as John Yaeger, he starts thinking virtuous thoughts, will he automatically turn into Cyrus Longworth? I know, the idea is that John Yaeger never never ever thinks virtuous thoughts. But things have changed for Cyrus, so why shouldn't they change for Yaeger?
