Discuss - Ep #0498

[Watching Project]

Robservations #0498

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

Re: Discuss - Ep #0498

[dom]

Fast Forward: David's told Willie his dream but we were not privy to Willie’s dream. So we have no idea who led Willie to the room or what Willie saw behind 'his' door. Perhaps we will see Willie’s dream when he tells it to the next dreamer. He & Barn discuss Willie’s ‘dream’ fears. And Barn, feeling the noose tightening devises a plan to rid the estate of Angelique. He will set it up so that Willie can easily steal Ange's portrait from the Great House, so once in hand he can perform black magic on it.
 
Fast Forward: Barn serves Adam his supper and Adam speaks three seemingly meaningless words: “if both live”. An astonished Barn tries to get more out of Adam but Willie interrupts with the stolen portrait in tow. As the men discuss the portrait outside the cell, Adam gets jealous when Barn praises Willie with a pat on the shoulder. Neither understands Adam’s adverse reaction and Willie tries to placate him by holding the portrait up to the cell window and Adam reacts with great fear. Barn surmises it is because even in his primitive state, Adam knows evil when he sees it. Barn leaves to set the next stage of his plan in motion. Willie, staying just outside Adam’s containment perimeter teases Adam into frenzy until he falls down, enabling Willie to escape the cell unharmed and deliver a note to Cassandra per Barn’s plan.

Barn visits Sam Evans with the portrait and commissions him to age it 180 years and to do so with a hard, stiff-bristled brush. It’s obvious now what Barn’s plan is and it is pretty impressive (IMO). Barn’s parting request is that Sam start aging the portrait at a specific time that evening. Again, not to hard for us to figure out what Barn is planning for Angelique.

Cassandra shows up at the Old House per Barn’s note. The two discuss the missing portrait. Barn taunts Cass with its disappearance and it’s implications and starts speaking to her as Angelique. At 10:15 Sam starts painting and Cass starts to scream with pain in her face. Barn goes into a speech about switching the tables on her, telling her he has found a way to destroy her before she destroys him (with the Dream Curse). He has her look at her hands and we see that they look old and arthritic. She screams in horror. Barn gets the answer he's looking for - at least that Ange & Cass are tied together via the portrait. I'm not certain he can say which came first, the portrait or the Cass.

Afterthoughts: Sam’s looking very ’Apple’s Way’ these days. I’m chalking it up to having quit drinking post Maggie’s kidnapping. Or maybe it’s just the mustache. No, wait, I think it's his new hair. BTW, he’s an extremely fast painter, no? Parker’s wig was in good shape. I like Frid’s acting when he is tormenting Angelique. The script is inconsistent with the painting and aging of Cassange.

[DarkLady]

Barnabas has no sympathy for Willie's misery over his upcoming dream, even though JK looks a little bit like James Dean in the shot where we see his face framed between two balusters of the staircase. Barnabas tells Willie, You will survive the dream, however frightening, but it will kill me if it reaches me. Angelique won’t let me escape the curse and has come back as Cassandra to make sure I don’t. I tried killing her several times long ago [by gunshot, poison, and strangulation], but somehow she has returned. Then he tells Willie to steal the portrait of Angelique and bring it back to the Old House.

Barnabas visits Adam, who repeats the new words he has learned from Lang's last message. Barnabas is delighted at Adam's progress, but Adam can't explain how he has extended his vocabulary. Willie comes downstairs with the portrait--and Adam backs away from it in terror. Barn considers this a good sign, but after he leaves, taking the portrait with him, Willie cruelly teases Adam over his fear, being careful to stay out of Adam's reach. (JK and RR do work well together.) Why is Adam still shackled? C'mon, Barn!

Sam seems a bit heavier than before--David Ford put on some weight, it seems. Nice work by JF as Barnabas taunts Angelique about aging. He never does call her Cassandra.

[Nicky]

I always wondered why her hands aged so drastically first (or at all).  Plus, how would you like to be the actress who played Cassandra's hands?  (There's a credit in the DS Almanac for this part.)  "Looking for an actress, 95-300, with horrific, scary-as-hell old lady hands.  Competitive rates."

[MagnusTrask]

Adam's about as good in a fight as I was.   I'm sure I looked just like that, minus the lengthy arms...   Sam!  Re-introduced just to [spoiler]write him out, though, in a blatant rip-off of the old blind man thing in Frankenstein...[/spoiler]   

[alwaysdavid]

So Willie has been told the dream. I wonder if they were getting complaints that the story was going to slow and decided to speed it up.
Barnabas in a moment of brilliance decides that Adam might get bored with hearing the same tape over and over again. 
Willie teases Adam like a jealous older brother.
Sam looks like he's gained fifty pound all in the gut from the side view and lights up at the thought of 500 in cash and will do anything.
I wonder how he hands aged first since he was painting her face?