Discuss - Ep #0410

[Watching Project]

Robservations #410

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

Re: Discuss - Ep #0410

[DarkLady]

Edmonds, David and Parker act up a storm in this fantastic, cliff-hanger episode!

Barnabas must weigh next to nothing, because only one man besides the faithful Riggs is needed to carry his coffin out of the Old House.

Angelique tells Joshua that she will employ Ben from now on. Do you feel safe with Ben in the house? Joshua asks. Remember, we were once servants together, Angelique reminds him. That, madam, I will never forget, he replies stiffly, and goes out without taking his leave of her.

Joshua offers Angelique $10,000 to leave Collinwood, but she reminds him that's what he offered her BEFORE she married Barnabas. She makes him up the offer to $20,000. To prove that he has that much, he shows her a passbook, payable to "the bearer," for a bank in Boston. But first she must sign a paper stating that he will let her have whatever there is when Barnabas's estate is settled--and that she must agree never to return to Collinwood for the rest of her life. I need time to think about it, Angelique says. You must decide here and now, Joshua insists. Leave the paper and passbook with me, Angelique says. When he refuses, she asks, Would you trust Josette in similar circumstances? Yes, he concedes. She retorts triumphantly, I always knew you would treat me like a lady one day. He hands the two items to her without looking at her, then leaves. Angelique glances at the paper, then signs it, apparently on impulse, and leaves the paper and the passbook on the desk (but the contract and its consequences are never mentioned again).

Angelique FINALLY explains her curse to Ben. You told Barnabas that I was the witch! she accuses him. No doubt appreciating the irony, he answers with the literal truth: I never said a word. The icing on the cake is that he realizes she's afraid of the approaching night.

Once they're at the mausoluem, Angelique orders Ben to open Barnabas's coffin, but he refuses, suspecting her of wanting to dishonor even his master's corpse. Even when she explains that she has to stake Barnabas so he won't wake up a vampire (a word new to Ben), he refuses to open the coffin. No! he exclaims and backs up the stairs. If he comes to life you won’t be safe, Angelique pleads. But he answers with grim relish, If he does come back, he'll settle you! Before Angelique can stop him, he locks her in and walks out of the mausoleum into the fog.

With a kind of grim determination, Angelique opens the coffin herself to reveal Barnabas lying within, wearing his black suit and red brocade vest. Fearfully she places the point of the stake above his heart and raises the hammer to strike….

[DarkLady]

For the first time, Ben shows respect for Joshua when he takes Angelique to the hidden room in the mausoleum. He explains, Mr. Joshua had this room built to store weapons in during the war. He showed me the room the first day I came to work at Collinwood. “Clean it up," he told me, "and make sure it’s always ready." I never figured him to be a Patriot, Ben allows grudgingly, but he must have been.

[MagnusTrask]

I think I do remember Josette promising to wait for Barnabas to return no matter what, but I missed it this time.   ***  It's 200 episodes since Barnabas first appeared.  ***  Ben gets into the Old House through the room behind the fireplace.   Welcome, Mausoleum.   The word "vampire" is first uttered on DS.   Good for Ben, leaving Barn to "settle" Angelique, but how does he know he can, and that Ang can't smite Ben from the crypt?

[dom]

Joshua & Ange -- You are right DarkLady, the acting is superb. I am watching as I type. (With all this drama, I still managed a giggle at Joshua's mini jacket, as it reminds me of something my niece wears and I tease her about.) The atmosphere or mood during the pre-title opening is marvelous. The lighting and audio are perfect as are the portrayals. Edmonds' Joshua is certainly holding back from lashing out at Ange for all her 'display of emotion' as the character put it. I can imagine the near rage he must be feeling toward her. That he is able to tolerate her at all is amazing under the circumstances. And we have to sit here and listen to her sick maligned grief. I was definitely relating to Joshua.

Josette & Natalie -- The writing so far is splendid. Grayson's voiceover while reading the Collins family history is quite well done. (BTW, Grayson looks great in this scene.) I love this scene. I like the calm demeanor KLS uses here. It reminds me of the scene with her and A. George outside the Old House doors where they plan their elopement. She uses that same calm approach here and I love it. I find it very appropriate for the scene - And I really dig how Josette states as a reply to her Aunt's ridicule that she would stay at the Old House forever, waiting for Barnabas to return, knowing that in the 20th century, Josette indeed still 'resided' there. I know that's not technically correct but I was still moved.

Bye bye Barn, bye bye happiness, hello loneliness, Josette is gonna cry. I'm still lovin' this episode. Josette's distress over the removal of Barnabas in his casket from the Old House is so right. I was going to bring up what I figured Joshua must be thinking about Josette at this difficult time. I was thinking he would feel resentment toward her but no sooner then I thought so, he apologizes to her stating he thought she had left the house, and he was sorry that she had to see Barn being carried out. Now, I am thinking that this must be a disposition brought on by Barnabas last words regarding Josette. I can't see Joshua having any other reason to be kind to her. I don't remember if he is aware of her being a victim of witchcraft, therefore being able to forgive her trespasses. He is certainly being gracious toward both Natalie & Josette.

Ben & Joshua -- Just when I thought Joshua was fully redeemed he accuses Ben of coming back to steal Barn's valuables. Oh well.

Ben & Ange -- A holly tree stake? Is that something exclusive the DS universe? (What a waste of a perfectly good tree, lol)

Joshua & Ange -- I wonder if it is at all possible that the money Joshua settles with Ange is part of what Barnabas uses in the 20th century.

Ben & Ange -- Ange is actually packing. I guess she did plan on leaving. At the Old House - edit - to the mausoleum. Nicely done. Love Ben here, "Do you have do what you said?" (OMGoodness, give this man an Emmy! I could have burst into tears.) On another note, I never expected the word befuddled to come out of his mouth, lol. If this were a movie I would expect the audience to clap and cheer at Ben's locking Ange in the secret room with Barn. Too bad she still has the stake and mallet.

Random notes: Loved the storm effects throughout the episode. Ben looks different, cleaned up somehow. It's either his hair or maybe that he has no five o'clock shadow, or maybe I just cleaned my glasses. Despite a slight blip here and there (I only remember one) all the actors turned in excellent performances. This was another superb episode. Geez, two in a row and both written by Sam Hall -- Amazing. Oh, it's not a mini jacket, it's all part of one whole jacket on Joshua.

[DarkLady]

Loved your comments, dom, especially about Joshua's jacket! Also interesting about the passbook Joshua left for Angelique--he did it with enough carelessness to infer that it's just pocket change to him. I think it would have been hard for Barn in 1967/68 to go to a bank (or send Willie) and present a passbook from 1795 for a bank that might or might not even still exist. But Barn seems to have sent Willie into town with Naomi's jewels instead.

I'm thinking about your description of Ben. He did ID Angelique as the witch, thanks to his own and Barn's cleverness, so maybe that somehow loosened the bonds of Angelique's spell on him, at least a little. I don't think he would have been able to lock Angelique in the secret room before.

Very sad and touching about Josette too.

[dom]

Regarding the money -- I mean to infer that with [spoiler]Angelique dead in the next episode, that maybe Barn takes the money from Joshua that would have gone to her. I don't remember what happens, and I would swear that this is not the end of Ange just yet, (doesn't she kill Sarah?) but if this is the last of Ange, if Barn wanted the family to think Ange had left, he would cash in the passbook, etc. From what I remember, she didn't sign the passbook, Just the 'Get out and don't ever again darken my doorstep' contract.[/spoiler] I am probably wrong but that was the thought behind it. For the record, I thought this in addition to Naomi's jewels.

[DarkLady]

Interesting idea, dom, and you're probably right that [spoiler]Barnabas took the passbook--maybe he gave it back to Joshua. As for Angelique, whether she's dead or alive, she did curse Barnabas "for all eternity."[/spoiler]

More than that I will not say.

[alwaysdavid]

A nice stormy episode. Angeligue cannot conjure up a spell to contol things now? It seemed she was all powerful a while back and yet isn't thinking to control things to her advantage now.  Dark Lady is right that Barnabas must be light because just an empty coffin is no easy thing to lift about. Angeligque signs the paper that says she will never return to Collinwood in her lifetime. Just what is the lifetime of a witch and who will hold her to it? Although she supposedly loved Barnabas, Angelique has already moved on with a life where she has freinds and travel and is presumably passing herself off as an elite member of society. Then men apparently transfered the body from the flat topped coffin into the one with the moudlings on top that looks well used due to the hammer dimples and scratches on it. Perhaps Joshua in his frugalness, has a nice coffin for show and then any old coffin will do once the person is in the crypt.

[dom]

LOL, regarding the coffins, AD!