Discuss - Ep #0437

[Watching Project]

Robservations #437

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

Re: Discuss - Ep #0437

[dom]

The trial continues. Nathan lies, Peter screams, Vicki tells the truth, Trask persecutes, I mean, prosecutes (and quite well) and the judges find her guilty as charged of witchcraft. Two great performances - Moltke & Lacey.

I'm glad it's over, now the vengance/fun begins.

[DarkLady]

Vicki confides to Peter that she has been having nightmares. The thought of them causes her to panic. She has an attack of hysterics at her prospects. Peter slaps her (the classic remedy) and she finally calms down, though she is still terrified.

Nathan actually a few pangs of conscience, but Trask is unmoved.

The verdict is read, Vicki screams and faints, Trask grins broadly in triumph.

[alwaysdavid]

Didn't talking about the truth before this lead Vickie to this predicament?  Trask of course uses this against her and she is found guilty.

[dom]

Nathan actually a few pangs of conscience, but Trask is unmoved.

As short as it was, this was a good scene. I have to wonder what the point is though? What difference does it make?

[DarkLady]

Well, before all this happened, Nathan and Barnabas were friends. I guess the point was to show us that whereas Nathan is merely weak and cowardly and selfish, Trask is a villain of the deepest dye. It is a nice scene!

[dom]

It's not that I disagree, DarkLady, but we already know that and that's what I meant by it being seemingly pointless. I should have elaborated.

I sometimes wonder if fans write in and express their displeasure and TPTB try to appease them in some small way. If fans were upset and wrote in about Nathan going to the dark side (good guy Joe Haskel gone bad) and causing innocent Victoria Winters' death by hanging, was it decided to make Nathan a little more sympathetic - or something along those lines.

[MagnusTrask]

That's "hanged" Peter, not "hung".  Vicki got it right.  ***   That scene where Vicki struggles to wake herself up is really well done, and gets across the breaking point anyone might reach, at this moment.   Do good guys still slap hysterical women on TV?  I doubt it.   Of course, he remains the good guy, because he's supposed to be.   

And now for the endless, unbelieveable delay in her getting [spoiler]hanged.   There's still a lot of story left, while Vicki's put on hold.[/spoiler]

[Mysterious Benefactor]

In this particular instance it wouldn't have been possible that any letter writing might have had an influence on including a scene in which Nathan experienced pangs of conscience at having testified against Vicki because this ep was taped on the same day that the ep in which Nathan testified aired. 

I suspect it was included more to show that while Nathan is turning to the dark side, he isn't all bad - at least not yet. But at the same time, when push comes to shove, Nathan is indeed willing to ignore his conscience and will do just about anything so long as it's going to benefit himself. And we actually get the same sorts of scenes with Quentin later down the line. They're designed to illustrate the fact that while characters like these are capable of doing terrible things, their characters aren't black-hearted - there's still enough white in them to make them gray.


And, yes, good guys (and gals) do indeed still slap hysterical women on TV. In fact, there was an example of it not that long ago on Revenge.

[dom]

OT - Wasn't it cool that there was a character on Revenge named Trask? You have to think that there was a DS fan involved with that name choice - or at least, that's what I think.