Discuss - Ep #0291

[Watching Project]

Robservations - #291

And if you'd care to look back, the first WP discussion topic for this ep:

Re: Discuss - Ep #0291

[DarkLady]

What an absolutely electrifying episode! The other all-time best one!

Despite the risk she's taking, Julia disdains to protect herself; as she steps out of the shadows, we can see that not a single cross or crucifix is in evidence, now or anytime in the entire scene. But when she tells Barnabas she knows what he is, she gets his complete and undivided attention. As Barnabas moves to box her in against a bedpost, she doesn't waste a word but talks fast and to the purpose. Her hypothesis about why he needs to keep replenishing his blood supply isn't a bad one. Barnabas can't help being intrigued.

At the Old House, Barnabas (a gentleman even now) takes Julia’s coat. There are too many things I don’t understand, he explains. Your room was not the place to discuss them. [I wonder what he did while she was getting dressed!] He asks menacingly if anyone else knows the truth about her He isn’t satisfied until he chokes Dave Woodard's name out of her, but she insists (rubbing her throat again) that he doesn't know anything specific. [As a professional woman, she is so far outside his frame of reference that it apparently never occurs to him to use his vampiric powers on her.]

Barnabas summons Willie, who now has yet another person to worry over. Why not give her a chance? urges Willie. Because that chance may be my last mistake, Barnabas answers. I can’t risk everything. My existence may not be what it should be [LOL!]. But at least I have permanence. No--I cannot trust Dr. Hoffman, I can’t take that chance. I will do away with her--now. [During this fraught scene, a persistent fly is determined to play a starring role and keeps landing on Jonathan’s forehead, even remaining there for almost a minute before he brushes it away, but he gamely continues.]

As Julia prepares to leave, Barnabas blocks her way, telling her, It’s not possible for me to trust anyone. You’re wrong, Julia answers. I’m the one person you _can_ trust. I cannot permit your existence to continue, Barnabas says, coming closer. Barnabas, Julia answers, you’ll have to learn to trust me--I represent your entire future. [From the first, she always calls him by his first name, just as Willie does.] As long as I’m alive, you have a chance at life. Dead, I will be your downfall. How? asks the vampire. You will be named, Julia answers, and everything you have done will be told. Everyone will know what you are. Who? Barnabas asks, going for her throat again. To kill me is to find out, Julia answers. As he starts to choke her, she can’t hold out. Maggie Evans is alive! she cries out. Barnabas lets her go out of sheer surprise, but Julia (rubbing her abused throat yet again) adds, I assure you she is well hidden. Right now she’s suffering from traumatic amnesia, but eventually she will recover and will tell everything. I can see to it that her amnesia is permanent. Looking Barnabas in the eye, she repeats, My life guarantees your security. Destroy me and you destroy yourself.

And so the parameters of the most enduring relationships in DS history are set....

[IluvBarnabas]

Julia seemed pretty darn confident that Barnabas wouldn't kill her. A really foolhardy risk not to have a crucifix with you no matter how much you think you are safe. Even intriguing him with her theory about his blood and how she can cure him wasn't enough to get him to stop thinking about getting rid of her. If Julia thought she could win his trust by simply saying she can cure him, she does not know who she is dealing with, though she believes she does. Barnabas is not a very trusting person at this point.

Only mentioning Maggie's name and the fact that she's alive stops him from finishing her off at the Old House.
Julia points out that if Barnabas kills her, he too will be destroyed, since there will be no one to keep Maggie from remembering what Barnabas is and what he did to her eventually, and expose him.

I thought it would only be a matter of time before Joe and Sam would confront Dr. Woodard after having gotten wind Julia is at Collinwood rather than treating Maggie at Windcliff. They want to know what the heck is going on, and it's impossible to blame them. This is the same woman who allowed them to see Maggie in her childlike state, knowing what would happen, and very coldly suggested that they go away and stay away until she can help Maggie get back to normal....and now here she is in Collinsport doing who knows what.

[Lydia]

Julia's fabulous.  She says she has never, never, never come across another vampire before, and yet she knows exactly how to unvampirize Barnabas.  Better yet, it won't hurt him.  He won't feel a thing!  Well, that part I can believe, knowing Julia.

Julia's explanation of the physical basis of being a vampire always intrigues me, and I'm always disappointed that we don't get any more information, but this is a soap opera, not a medical journal, so I shouldn't complain.  But as she talked about Barnabas’s blood cells self-destructing - or whatever she said - I started wondering how Barnabas survived 130 years in his coffin without feeding, which led to the possibility that the coffin has protective qualities for a vampire (which might be why he spoke to Willie of the longing a vampire feels for his or her coffin), and how would Julia explain that?

[As a professional woman, she is so far outside his frame of reference that it apparently never occurs to him to use his vampiric powers on her.]

It may be that using his vampiric powers would be a little more personal than Barnabas wants to get with Dr. Hoffman.

Julia seemed pretty darn confident that Barnabas wouldn't kill her. A really foolhardy risk not to have a crucifix with you no matter how much you think you are safe.

Julia may not be sure that crucifixes are effective, and she'd look an awful fool if they weren't.  But she's too supremely self-confident for that consideration to have mattered to her.  I figure she wants Barnabas’s trust, and the only way for her to get it is to show that she, for her part, trusts him.  It doesn't work; in the end she has to threaten him with Maggie, but it was worth a shot.

[DarkLady]

I started wondering how Barnabas survived 130 years in his coffin without feeding, which led to the possibility that the coffin has protective qualities for a vampire (which might be why he spoke to Willie of the longing a vampire feels for his or her coffin), and how would Julia explain that?

According to Bram Stoker, Count Dracula needs the coffin--along with a sprinkling of his native earth--to protect him during the day. [spoiler]A long time from now, Barnabas will also make use of the "native earth" thing.[/spoiler]

Stoker also tells us that crucifixes and garlic are the first line of defense against vampires, in both personal accessories and decor.

Anyway, I've never met a doctor who didn't say something along the lines of This won't hurt a bit. 

[alwaysdavid]

Julia seems to assume Barnabas wants help. Her whole plan falls apart if he refuses. The fact that Joe and Sam  are having a hard time keeping Maggie's secret makes them seem idiotic. Thy are supposedly concerned with her staying alive. The fly make one wonder if Barnabas ever cleans the grime off his person. He must smell somewhat musty from the coffin and the house.

[DarkLady]

Barnabas seems to be fastidious to a fault. Even his bite marks are relatively tidy, [spoiler]unlike the bite marks of other vampires we will meet eventually.[/spoiler]