Discuss - Ep #0408

[Watching Project]

Robservations #408

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

Re: Discuss - Ep #0408

[MagnusTrask]

My only notes say that I'm sick of their telling us every episode that time and space have been suspended (how do you suspend space?), and that I want them to cut it out already.  Somebody else say something.   Lydia was back for a minute.  Lydia should return, Janet too.   Whatever you two are doing instead of being here, stop doing it.  I do know Janet has computer problems though.

[Lydia]

Lydia should return, Janet too.

You could try the summoning incantation in episode 710.

[dom]

Vicki does it again. She pretty much seals her fate by trying to save Josette's life by telling her about the Collins family history book she left in her room at the Old House. What a pal. I don't know what I'd do if I were in any of their shoes.

[DarkLady]

The unnamed doctor preserves his life by making only this one house call and prescribing a sedative for Barnabas. But the bite marks convince him that Natalie is right and that Barn caught the plague from a passing rat in town. Please say nothing about this, and let him stay here, Natalie implores the doctor. We don’t want to set off a panic in the town. But we must tell the rest of the family, she adds, effectively steamrolling Angelique.

Barn is already starting to sense that he is changing.

Josette finds the Collins Family History. Opening it, she reads in astonishment that it was published in 1965 in Bangor, Maine. Natalie exclaims, But Bangor is in Massachusetts! Josette turns to the page that shows a photo of her portrait, but the photo doesn't faze her a bit.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

My only notes say that I'm sick of their telling us every episode that time and space have been suspended (how do you suspend space?), and that I want them to cut it out already.

Well, even more so than nowadays (because there were no such things as VCRs, DVRs, watching online, online recaps, or even magazine recaps) soaps were not designed to be watched every day. And telling a storyline set in the 18th century with the majority of the cast playing completely different roles was a hugely radical switch. Anyone not having watched the show in a few months would have had no idea what was going on - not to mention there were new people coming to the show during this period. So, it really made a good deal of sense to explain the switch every day for the benefit or potentially returning and new viewers, even though to those of us rewatching today it may seem unnecessarily repetitive.    And truthfully, one of the problems with DS in its later years is that it was no longer repetitive enough. People complained that often if you missed some eps the show just became too confusing to catch up on - and that's one of the reasons why it lost viewers.

[alwaysdavid]

Angelique blames Barnabas' illness on the plague. It seems the family will believe anything that is told to them.
Angelique and Josette spar over Barnabas and Vickie tries to warn Josette to leave Collinwood. Now considering that Josette believes she is the witch, Vickie should be smart enought to not reveal that she has a book with her supposedly printed in 1965. Now the binding on said book looks very similar to ones in my library that were printed around 1910, but I can give the benefit of the doubt that they wanted a faux old look to the book, but never did Elizabeth mention that it had just been printed and then why have Julia work on the family history two years later?