Discuss - Ep #1114

[Watching Project]

Robservations #1114

[Lydia]

If Barnabas had met Roxanne shortly after Josette had died, would he have been as smitten as he is now?  I was sort of shocked by him today, while thinking at the same time that Roxanne is looking like the real thing for him.  After all, he's taken an interest in her in three different times.  Meanwhile, it was pleasing to see how concerned 1970 Barnabas was about Julia.  Not that it means anything.  She's just not his type.

We're getting deeper into 1840: Julia's troubles didn't take up much of our time today when we were in 1840.  Instead we focused on Roxanne.  Julia may have thought that 1840 Roxanne was different from 1970 Roxanne, but I thought they were quite similar.  Roxanne had just as much fun taunting Trask as she will have taunting Sebastian Shaw 130 years later.  The only difference is that Trask deserved it.  He thinks that being an undertaker is about being tasteful and reverent.  No mention of sympathy for the recently bereaved.

It's tough to figure 1840 Trask as 1795 Trask's son, given that 1795 Trask said something or other about not knowing physical love, and that there was no artificial insemination back in the 1790s.  I think I suggested somewhere that 1840 Trask was the son of 1795 Trask's identical twin brother, who died tragically in an accident, whereupon 1795 Trask, out of the goodness of his Almighty-fearing heart, adopted 1840 Trask.  But my impression of 1840 Trask is that we would have heard about it if he were adopted.  Another possibility is that 1795 Trask just lied, but that doesn't strike me as the sort of lie that 1795 Trask would tell.  1897 Trask would tell such a lie in a heartbeat, but not 1795 Trask.

Julia's gravestone was right next to Minerva Trask's - or rather, Mrs. Trask's was right next to Julia's, since Julia would have been buried first.  As Barnabas and Stokes looked down at Julia's gravestone, I thought about digging up her coffin and opening it.  Logic says Julia's remains should be there, but I can't help feeling that the coffin would be empty.  Maybe that's why Barnabas and Stokes didn't dig up Julia: the writers simply couldn't decide what they would find.

[MagnusTrask]

Lydia, I think that the first Trask's life and ideas were lies, though they may also have been lies he was telling to himself.  How many times was he called a "hypocrite"?  I have no problem thinking that he reproduced, perhaps pushing it out of his memory or flaggelating himself for it, or justifying it to himself as holy.   How his son could be "legitimate" though, that's a bit mystifying.   Maybe the doxie in question raised him to know who his father was, and he made his way into the world as a Trask, keeping his "illegitimacy" a secret.

Barnabas assumes that the 1970 and 1840 dates are parallel, but the I Ching in 1897 sent him to the day when Quentin came back to Collinwood so Barnabas could meet with him.   It didn't pick the date because it was the same day in 1969.

I noticed that Minerva was buried next door, too.   Julia's voice emanates from the grave, after he's walked away.... I imagined it as: Barnabas!  Barnabas!   I've been buried alive for 130 years!!  Hurry!!!

No way of knowing who will cause Roxanne's vampirism, Julia?   Are you kidding?!

Barnabas smirks at Roxanne's telling off of Lamar.   But Barnabas never smiles!   

Mr. Frid is involved, alive, and fully engaged as he hasn't seemed to have been since 1897.   He has no trouble remembering lines when a storyline excites him.   When the lines are simple, functional ones about finding out data as in 1970, no wonder the enthusiam and memory drop.

 

[Lydia]

Lydia, I think that the first Trask's life and ideas were lies, though they may also have been lies he was telling to himself.  How many times was he called a "hypocrite"?  I have no problem thinking that he reproduced, perhaps pushing it out of his memory or flaggelating himself for it, or justifying it to himself as holy.   How his son could be "legitimate" though, that's a bit mystifying.   Maybe the doxie in question raised him to know who his father was, and he made his way into the world as a Trask, keeping his "illegitimacy" a secret.

I didn't say that 1795 Trask wouldn't lie.  I said that I didn't think that was the sort of lie he would tell.  I like the idea of 1840 Trask hiding his bastardy, however.  I need to watch again the scene in which 1795 Trask says he's unacquainted with physical love, and see what I think of how he says it.

Barnabas assumes that the 1970 and 1840 dates are parallel, but the I Ching in 1897 sent him to the day when Quentin came back to Collinwood so Barnabas could meet with him.   It didn't pick the date because it was the same day in 1969.

But I think that it was indeed the same day in 1969.  Perhaps the I Ching wands could not reveal their existence to Barnabas until the precise anniversary of Quentin's return to Collinwood.

No way of knowing who will cause Roxanne's vampirism, Julia?   Are you kidding?!

But Roxanne apparently did not recognize Barnabas in 1970.  If she had recognized him when he opened her coffin, she would not have tried to bite him.  It seems clear that there was no other vampire in the Collinsport area in 1840; if there had been another, then Barnabas's attacks would have been assumed to be more of the same.  There must be some other answer as to how Roxanne originally became a vampire.