Discuss - Ep #0475

[Watching Project]

Robservations #475

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

Re: Discuss - Ep #0475

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Again, the Stokes table scene - both classic and priceless!! 

[dom]

At the Old House Barn gets a note from Cass announcing her anticipated 10 PM arrival. Prof. Stokes arrives to give Barn a talisman (12th century Sicilian – the only kind to have!). Cass arrives and Barn doesn’t hold back, accusing her of being Ange, etc. – Cass feigns incredulity & shock and leaves in a fluster. Barn gives the talisman to a non-believing Lang (I understand why, but what a waste!). Cass visits Lang (Barn, still there, hides) and gives him a ‘warning’ heart attack but he grabs the talisman before Cass completes whatever her intended task is. Barn convinces Lang once and for all that Cass is Ange and that she is out to harm him/kill him because of his helping Barn and his plans to forever free Barn from her vampire curse. I’m guessing because of all that has just transpired, Lang decides to reveal his ‘plan’ to Barn, showing him his hidden laboratory and explaining that he will take Barn’s life force and transfer it to another body – he shows Barn a yet to be completed man-made body on a gurney. I imagine Barn's next question is how Jeff Clark fits into the picture.
 
Afterthoughts: Neither Parker nor David seem as comfortable in their roles as they immediately were in the 1795 characters. I love Frid’s Barnabas opposing Cassandra. And Thayer is a hoot as PStokes in this episode, and as the character himself noted, annoying. I know that I will come to appreciate and like Stokes in the future but as of this moment – I am on the fence. I am not sure if he is a good or bad guy. His association with Cass and interest in witchcraft make him a very 'iffy' character. We learn Cassandra’s maiden name is Blair. The third time’s the charm I guess, they finally got Cass’s wig right – it looks great.

[MagnusTrask]

Yes... I wonder if Elliot's banter, peppered with semi-insults, was meant to rattle Barnabas and throw him off balance, to get him to let slip what his real purpose was.    It's fun seeing Barnabas thrown and disoriented by a mere conversation...   I've just tried Googling "Oliver Bennett" the drunken cabinet maker, expecting to find he was a real person, but no results.

Elliot has... a "cat complex"?   Eh?   And why is taking everything in life personally the only sensible thing to do?   I get the impression that they wanted a witticism at that point in the dialogue, couldn't think of one, and settled for something that sounds like wit, but doesn't really mean anything. 

Sixth mention of the word "vampire" I think, by Barnabas to Lang.  Pardon me, Eric.  They're on a first name basis now.   They discuss Roger's attack on Lang, even though there were no witnesses to it, so they shouldn't know about it.   Cassandra introduces herself as "Miss Blair", first mention of that surname.   During the heart attack scene, why doesn't Barnabas come back into the room to out Cassandra and protect Lang?   Maybe he's too petrified to!   

Why doesn't Lang's creature require life-support or refrigeration or something?   How can it just lie there indefinitely without decomposing?

[Nicky]

Especially when one considers the abounding inconsistencies cropping up in later storylines, the fact that the writers remember and reuse the "Blair" surname two months after introducing it here in a throwaway moment impresses me muchly.

[DarkLady]

This episode contains one of my favorite Professor Stokes quotes: Needless to say, it's a dark and stormy night, prompting the professor to observe wryly, Whenever anyone sends for me, it rains.

Yes, the cabinet scene is hilarious and a classic. But the continuation of the scene is my favorite part: Stokes comments, I’m quite pleased to finally be in a place where my ancestor knew so many Collinses. Ben had quite a lot to say about them in the undamaged portions of his memoirs. His admiration for your namesake makes him appear positively boring. Even under the circumstances Barnabas has all he can do to hide a brief smile, but we can see that for once no mockery lies beneath it--only gratitude.

I seem to recall that one of Burke Devlin's many associates was also named Blair--!

After Cassandra--whom Barnabas always addresses as Angelique--storms out in a fury, Barnabas has a small moment of enjoyment, but he should have learned by now that never is too soon to gloat where Angelique is concerned.

Barnabas never intended to keep the medallion for himself. He immediately takes it and his troubles to Dr. Lang. [We don't know how he got there, since he apparently doesn't drive a car yet.] He has now unbent enough to address the doctor as Eric, but Lang had already started calling his patient Barnabas when Barnabas first visited him, I suppose from impatience to persuade him into the experiment.

If I remember rightly, Lang's laboratory isn't in the basement but rather somewhere upstairs. _Inside_ the laboratory is a short flight of steps down (usually just inside the front door of the Blue Whale and [spoiler]much later the famous Stairway through Time).[/spoiler]

Lang does his big reveal: He pulls a sheet off the draped form in the laboratory to reveal a very large shoulder [belonging to the obviously breathing Duane Morris] with VERY large stitch marks.....

[alwaysdavid]

"Never trust a scholarly magazine."  Just one of Stokes quotes.  He prefers sherry to port and makes no bones that he expects it. He eventually coughs up the tailsman, but only as a loan.
Cassandra arrives and Barnabas pointedly tells her the name has an unfortunate association attached to it.
Things go downhill from there.  What are you studying? Withcraft?
Later good buddy Eric tells Barnabas he has an anxiety complex.
Cassandra appears as Miss Blair and uses the old ankle trick on Eric and says Dr. you are going to die. He grabs the tailsman and fortunately it is Sicilian and works.
Barnabas learns that he will leave his body and escape Angelique and his life force will be drained to the unfinished work. A concept that seemed extremely spooky to the boy who used to be me.

[Gothick]

Another fabulous episode.  I just love it when Barn asks Cass if her college major is Witchcraft.  MEEEOWW. And the scene with Stokes is beyond priceless.

Just another reason why 1968 is my personal favorite of ALL the storylines.

G.