Discuss - Ep #0496

[Watching Project]

Robservation #496

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

Re: Discuss - Ep #0496

[dom]

As Julia & Cass return from a visit with Stokes they meet Roger on the phone in the foyer reporting the Adam incident to the police. A concerned Julia leaves for the Old House and Cassandra feigns concern, sympathy & guilt. Roger relates the Adam/Barnabas connection piquing her ‘sincere’ interest. Julia meets Barn on the Old House porch and convinces him that Adam is probably in the Old House. They find him in his cell. Once they’ve earned his confidence, Julia is able to tend his wound and Barn heads to the Great House to size up the situation as it now stands. Roger haughtily grills Barn about his apparent connection to Adam. Barn weakly defends his false total lack of knowledge and splits. Julia finishes up with Adam and he grabs her hand (as Barn taught him) in gratitude but overdoes it and hurts Julia. He senses this and lets go leaving Julia to contemplate her risky exit. Adam asks for music and a relieved Julia plays Lang’s tape for him and exits the basement leaving Adam to his soothed senses.

Afterthoughts: Does it astound anyone that Julia persists in developing a friendship with Cassandra – it dumbfounds & confounds me. I can see the ‘keep your enemies close’ thang but I am not picking up that vibe. During the drawing room scene with Rog, Cass & Barn, every time I looked at Barn all I could see was the cover of the Dark Shadows game – obviously, the one with his true image on it. Or maybe it’s the View Master envelope I’m thinking of. For some odd reason the drawing room doors seem as if they open to a frontal view of the fireplace and sofa. This seems ‘new’ to me. I always remember the doors being very much to the right of (facing) the fireplace. The fireplace wall also looks shorter in width than I want to remember it. Perhaps it’s just the camera angle.

I feel as though I haven’t seen Roger pour a drink in ages and there was something comforting about it. I felt it was very effective to have Cass pretty much just stand there while Rog was questioning Barn. I kept expecting her to open her mouth in support of Roger’s suspicions (to annoy Barn) and then at one point to defend Barn against Roger’s grilling. Her silence added intensity to the scene. So far, Rodan is superb as Adam. I wonder how much of Adam belongs to Rodan and how much to the director. His closing scene was marvelously executed. And the scene between Adam and Julia as she readied to leave the cell was breathtakingly suspenseful – I almost passed out waiting to exhale - very gripping & quite intense – everything from rape to neck snapping crossed my mind. Had I not joined the WP I would have went to my grave giving the ’68 storyline no value whatsoever. So far, it has merit. Today’s ending credits are flash and roll.

[DarkLady]

Roger remarks to Cassandra that if the large, grotesque stranger hadn't been moving around and making grunting noises, he (R.) would have imagined he was dead. A walking dead man? Cassandra asks innocently--although we know she already has met (and married) at least one walking dead man.

Maybe Julia is trying to scope Cassandra out under the guise of forming a friendship with her. This is her chance to get to know the woman who so nearly destroyed the man she (J.) loves.

Barnabas and Julia do a 180-degree turn in their attitude toward parenting. Barnabas has given up the search and returned to the Old House, where he and Julia meet up. The logical Julia concludes, Adam has probably gone home--just as a small child would do if he were hurt. (They took long enough to make up their minds that I wondered why they didn't just go downstairs!) Barnabas is skeptical but when they go downstairs, sure enough Adam is there. He's hostile at first, till Barnabas gently reassures him that they want to help. Then he lets Julia (who has suddenly gotten sympathetic) treat his wound--it's just a scratch. Barnabas wants to go to Collinwood to somehow talk Roger out of having the police search the Old House, but Adam gets upset when he makes to leave. Julia has to explain some of the finer points of parenting, and Barnabas promises Adam he'll return soon. He's still very pleased with Adam's progress. I think you'll learn very quickly, he tells Adam encouragingly--and even proudly.

dom, you are absolutely right about Robert Rodan. He is amazingly good, and his final scene--where he learns his second word--is just beautiful.

[MagnusTrask]

It was nice that Adam regretted hurting Jluia's hand.

[DarkLady]

He's a very nice guy, very similar to Victor Frankenstein's creation in Mary Shelley's novel. One pivotal scene coming up soon is almost literally straight from the book.

[alwaysdavid]

Jullia and Angelique are way to chummy. They come back from an occult visit to Stokes. There just does not seem to be anything in the way Hall plays the scene to suggest she is playing Cassandra. If she had told Barnabas that she did not believe that Cassandra was Angelique or was in cahoots with Stokes to see if Cassandra was up to  something, then it would make sense.
Julia doctors Adam in the Basement and Barnabas appears to can't wait to leave and go gallivanting around Collinwood.
Adam says music and Julia plays him the tape recorder. Now would it not seem more practical to just have a transistor radio rather than something that needed to be rewound and buttons pressed to make it operate.  Not to mention the content of the tape being monotonous