Discuss - Ep #0126

[Watching Project]

Robservations #126

[MagnusTrask]

Farewell, Matthew Morgan.   Unless his ghost pops up, but I don't think it ever does...  I'm sure the widow/governesses are thrilled that he's joining them, now.

Farewell, Bill Malloy?

Vicki: "There are no such things as widows!!  They don't exist!!"   Liz is a phantom!   

Matthew still claims to want to save Vicki from unecessary pain when killing her, then goes to get an axe, one of the messiest and I'm sure one of the most painful murder weapons there ever were.   It's a small one, but still... 

I don't think we ever find out who the widows and/or governesses, the ghosts, are or were.   We really ought to have seen some alive by the end of DS.

I've had the end of Matthew circulating around my head for a few days.   This is a few weeks after I finished listening to "Crime and Punishment", a story revolving around an axe murder...   The images of Matthew ready to use the axe, fully intending to go ahead, him sharpening it on the wheel...

[Midnite]

Farewell, Bill Malloy?

Sadly, yes.

I don't think we ever find out who the widows and/or governesses, the ghosts, are or were.   We really ought to have seen some alive by the end of DS.

We learn the names and brief backgrounds of 3 widows later on during a particularly troubling time in Liz's life; one actress seen as a ghost taking Matthew's life is even brought back for those eps.  I agree that it would've been nice to see the governess that Roger told us had jumped to her death, or maybe the 4th ghost was [spoiler]Harriet Collins?  [/spoiler]

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Farewells to Matthew are premature because he appears in Ep #127 - well, at least his body does.  .

[alwaysdavid]

Matthew gets a small hatchet from the toolshed and I recall my grandmother choping the heads of chickens and geese with a large axe and all the blood and multiple shops to get the head off. 
Vickie cries for help and Josette steps out of her painting and tells Vickie not to cry or be afraid.
David finally reveals that Vickie is at the Old House.  Burke and Roger arm themselves with guns,
Matthew comes in with the little hatchet and Vickie probably realizing that it will take a long time to hack her head off tries to disuade him with talk of seeing Josette and that the ghosts like her and will haunt him.
Voices call to Matthew and Bill Malloy is singing.  The widows appear and want his life.  Matthew screams and Vickie yells.  Burke bursts in with Roger. They get Vickie.  Roger touches Matthew who is in a chair and he falls over dead on the floor.  I see that KLS got a credit as Maggie Evans. I remember reading that they got paid most for the first performance of a week and each later performance was paid at a lesser rate. Some pay and credit is better than none particularly in the KLS world.

[DarkLady]

I liked the bit where Burke touches Matthew, whose lifeless body falls to the floor. [spoiler]Not the last time we'll see that particular effect, though.[/spoiler]

I also liked the Josette in this episode. [spoiler]This, however, is the only time she speaks with a French accent.[/spoiler]

[DarkLady]

Oops, I meant Roger touches Matthew, who then collapses to the floor.

And this is the most ghost-ridden episode of them all!

[tragic bat]

"There are no widows!" Perhaps Viki just thinks they (those with dead spouses) are just deluded people feeling sorry for themselves.  But it was facinating to see the widows that everyone is always hearing, as well as that first appearance of Josette walking out of the portrait that I remember reading KLS describing.  The atmosphere in the deserted old house was just amazing in this episode.  There is an intense lightning storm going on outside, but Roger and Burke have no problems running outside with rifles pointed up towards the sky? 

[Lydia]

A very, very interesting episode, but somehow, it wasn't touched with magic the way some episodes are.

The images of Matthew ready to use the axe, fully intending to go ahead, him sharpening it on the wheel...

Yes, it was chilling to see Matthew sharpening the axe (though he'd probably explain that a sharper axe makes for a more painless death) but didn't he have the blade the wrong way on the grindstone?  alwaysdavid, that sounds like the sort of thing you would know.

Ghosts apparently saved Vicky's life.  It may be that Matthew was headed for a heart attack or stroke or something anyway, but we are given to believe that it was the ghosts who made it happen.  So there we have it: the supernatural resolving a Dark Shadows storyline for the first time, in episode 126.

When Vicky was telling Matthew that Josette has talked to her, it occurred to me that Josette's words weren't necessarily as encouraging as Vicky took them to be.  "Don't be afraid."  Maybe Josette merely meant, "Death isn't so bad."  And then when Bill and the girls (what a ladykiller Bill Malloy's ghost must be!) were hounding Matthew to death, Josette apparently wasn't one of their number.  But maybe it's just that she was too much of a lady to get take part in a lynch mob.

I also liked the Josette in this episode. [spoiler]This, however, is the only time she speaks with a French accent.[/spoiler]

Hmm...I hope there were two other times that the thing mentioned in your spoiler happened: episodes 170 and 370.

[DarkLady]

I think that by appearing to Vicki and speaking to her, Josette had already done what she could. Her talents seem to lie more in the poltergeist vein--she opens books to the proper pages and sends a strong breeze to blow doors open, and so on. Of course David says they talk together, but that could just be inside his head.

[Lydia]

Josette as a poltergeist...hmm.

Something I forgot to mention before: Roger is appallingly cruel and counterproductive in the foyer as Burke is extracting from David the information as to Vicky's whereabouts.  But then he voluntarily goes with Burke into a situation that may be life-threatening, and when they find Vicky, he freely admits that he was wrong.  Admirable.

[DarkLady]

Yeah, even Roger has his moments.