Discuss - Ep #0476

[Watching Project]

Robservations #476

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

Re: Discuss - Ep #0476

[MagnusTrask]

I suppose that even with an intact, decent useable head, the face of the "creature" would still have to be stitched together out of bits, to prevent him from being recognized by grieving loved ones in the area.  Unless it's
Jeff Clark of course.  Barnabas as Jeff could just claim to be him.  Except that even Vicki would be able to tell the difference just by talking to "Jeff".   What are Lang and Barnabas thinking?

Lang: "I think that thinking about [the possibility of] failure is a contempible weakness."   There's what's wrong with him, in one sentence.   Both Lang and Barnabas are too wise in certain areas to imagine that they might just be clueless in other areas of life.

Roger Davis is okay in this episode.   **  It's confusing whether Barnabas is actually aware that Lang's creature is made out of pieces of dead people.  When Barnabas asked where it came from, Lang said "I created it."  No explanation as to what that meant.   It's a lie of course.  Lang didn't make that skin, those nerves, those blood vessels.  He just dug up used parts out of the ground.   It's more of a salvage and repair operation, than creation.

A few lines later, Barnabas says Lang is making life from the dead, something like that, as if he knows.   Somehow though, I think Barnabas would be more taken aback if he really did know.   Yet Barnabas isn't stunned to hear from Lang that it wouldn't just look like Clark's face, it would BE his face.   Barnabas seems to get satisfaction out of that.

[DarkLady]

My notes from ep. 475 say that the stitch marks on the creation's arm are very large and conspicuous, but if Barnabas hasn't seen Frankenstein yet, he probably doesn't get it.

This exchange cracks me up: Life out of death? Barnabas asks incredulously. Do you think I’m altogether mad? Dr. Lang asks. 

Jeff and Lang spy on a gravedigger at some unknown cemetery. The man is working far too slowly to suit Lang, who gets especially impatient when the gravedigger pauses to light up. Lang threatens to expose Jeff's allegedly murderous past to Vicki, but Jeff stalks off, officially on strike.

This episode marks another first in Barnabas's life: Julia meets Barn at the gazebo. He explains, This was the only place I could think of where She wouldn't overhear us. It’s also why I insisted we leave the house separately. Julia comments, You did seem to be behaving strangely at the house. Getting right down to business, Barnabas tells Julia, I’m faced with the biggest decision of my life, and I want your advice as a doctor and as a friend. [This is the first time Barnabas uses this word of Julia! He’s on the way!!] Julia prepares to listen, focusing all her considerable intelligence and compassion on the man she loves. Barnabas continues, I want you to tell me what you know about Dr. Lang as a fellow professional. [Not so long ago he said he didn’t like her kind of woman!]

Unfortunately, Barnabas lingers too long and is forced to watch in jealous agony as Jeff and Vicki kiss passionately. Barnabas rushes back to Dr. Lang to tell him not only that he wants to go through with the experiment, but also that he has decided he wants his new face to resemble Jeff Clark's. Without missing a beat, Dr. Lang replies smoothly, I can do better than that: I can give you Jeff Clark's face!

And yes, unfortunately, Barn does seem pleased at this idea.

[alwaysdavid]

Lang: "I think that thinking about [the possibility of] failure is a contempible weakness."   There's what's wrong with him, in one sentence.

How true. 
With the right actors the graveyard scene could have been good, but the deadly duo just put it somewhere over the edge.
Barnabas decides to go ahead with the experiment which will take place in two or three days and he wants the face of Jeff Clark.  Will Vickie wonder about all the scars on Jeff's body once Barnabas has the face of Jeff Clark?

[MagnusTrask]

Will he even have a similar build to Jeff Clark?   

[dom]

Lang tries to sell Barn on his plan but Barn will not commit. He asks Julia’s advice regarding Lang as a trustworthy and competent MD, but when pressed refuses to reveal details of Lang’s plan. She asks and Barn admits that he could die (permanently, lol). This is all the info Julia needs to advise against cooperating with Lang. While he and Lang wait to dig up a freshly buried body at the cemetery, Jeff refuses to go thru with it, essentially terminating his association with Lang. We learn here that Lang’s hold over Jeff is that he was accused of murdering women – we also learn that this is according to Lang and that Jeff has no memory of it – or of his past for that matter as he latter explains to Vicki in the garden as a hiding Barnabas watches/listens. JC & VW close their conversation with a romantic kiss – pressuring Barn back to Lang’s to agree to take part in the experiment and requesting a face resembling Jeff’s. Lang says he can go one better and give him Jeff’s actual face. Barnabas smiles…fade to black.
 
Afterthoughts: Decent warm-blooded Barnabas – we hardly knew ye. Is Barn bad by nature? I hadn’t expected to dislike him again so soon. Again the lighting was horrible, the outdoor scenes were flattering to no one. Davis & Powell’s scene was ghastly written (IMO). And what’s with all the touching?  Swift & Russell are not new to the scene, correct? It seems more & more episodes lately have been lacking (acting, directing, writing, lighting) – starting during the final days of 1795. I wonder if this is a trend or if it is just my take? On the other hand I am, I marveled by the camera work. Go figure. The lifeless unfinished body can be seen breathing, especially in fast-forward.

[DarkLady]

I've always thought that Barnabas, as Vicki meets him in 1795--young, kind and gentle, generous and ardent, with his whole life ahead of him--is the real Barnabas. As the vampire story progresses, though, he falls very far indeed. And I don't think he ever stops being a user.

[Gothick]

Dark Lady, I think what you just wrote about Barnabas, especially that last line, is one of the most accurate and astute comments I've ever read about the Barnabas character.  It's a theme the writers keep playing with almost to the end of the series. 

There's a scene in the later part of the 1968 storyline, maybe around the time of Willie's return, when Julia comments to Barnabas something like, "I know you Barnabas.  And I know that you don't do ANYTHING out of simple kindness.  There's ALWAYS a motive."  (paraphrasing)

That scene always impresses me--even though she loves him, she sees right through his posturing and rhetoricizing.  Great stuff.

G.

[Nicky]

I'm watching 1795 (on hyperdrive; having watched it through several times, I tend to fastforward quite a bit after Angelique makes her exit out of the courtroom), and I'm fascinated at the way Jonathan Frid transforms from naive young man waiting for his fiance to arrive to tormented and vengeful vampire.  The way he persecutes Trask, strangles Suki, and stalks Maude Browning demonstrates how savvy the writers were -- as well as stalwart directors like Lela Swift and performers like Frid himself -- while showing the audience how Barnabas became the cold-blooded (and yet, somehow still tragic) murderer we see in 1967 ... and then again when Vicki returns to the present.  Good stuff.

[DarkLady]

Gosh, thank you so much, Gothick! *blush*

I also love how the 1795 story line takes Barnabas so very far away from his original, true self. Kudos to the writers and especially to JF himself. Angelique truly destroys what she loves, doesn't she.

As I said, the modern, cured Barnabas--well, as cured as he ever can get--never stops being a user. This aspecy of his character has an interesting parallel during the times when he's a vampire. He's cold-blooded, yes, but as Nicky says, somehow still tragic. He ends up being neither totally good nor totally evil.

[MagnusTrask]

Factor in that in later years when he uses people, it's for the sake of helping people out of horrible circumstances.   He works very hard at these plans to help others, without personally benefiting from it, often in circumstances that are painful for him, such as when he's a vampire with no apparent hope of undoing this.

[DarkLady]

Very true, MT. And very well said.