What an enjoyable, interesting episode! Also a sad one, as we see what has become of Daniel, whom we last saw as a young boy who wanted to go home to New York. He was kept at Collinwood, and clearly it didn't agree with him. Fans have railed about the cruelty of the fate that was thrown at Vicky during the Leviathan storyline, but that has never bothered me much, whereas Daniel's fate does seem to me to be unnecessarily cruel. Poor Ben had to deal with Barnabas in 1795, and now he has to deal with mad Daniel. Very likely when Joshua grew old and even more crotchety than before, Ben was the one who had to deal with him. I'm betting that was Ben's perennial lot in life: getting stuck dealing with difficult Collinses. I hope his wife was nice, but clearly he didn't get the wife he needed, one who would drag him to someplace far, far away from Collinsport.
Daniel is terribly interesting, however, just as Jenny was interesting as well as pathetic. This whole confusion about who's alive and who's dead, and who's alive who should be dead, and who's dead who should be alive, and who needs multiple killings to stay dead - what a world! Of course we learned a few things in the process of listening to his madness, like why Gabriel's in a wheelchair.
It's always a pleasure to see Flora. And what are we to make of Gerard's power to heal her migraine? I have trouble believing in it, so I'm thinking that Flora - dear Flora - had a minor headache and exaggerated it into something awful. It is, as I write this, the Monday after Thanksgiving. I saw a lot of relatives over the weekend, and I'll be seeing them at Christmas time. Flora reminds me of some old aunts and almost-aunts from my childhood. How I miss them!
When Gerard, holding Julia's earring, had his vision of her, he said she was tall. I checked the credits, and sure enough, Sam Hall wrote this episode.
