Discuss - Ep #0512

[Watching Project]

Robservations #512

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

Re: Discuss - Ep #0512

[Mysterious Benefactor]

"♫ I'm gonna dance for you / Gonna dance your cares away ♫"



"♫ I'll do the hoochie coo / And the tara boom de ay ♫"

Oh wait - that's not from this ep - that's from the ep Worldvision played in '80s syndication after Ep #511 instead of Ep #512.

Nevermind.


(But can you just imagine how jolting it was to see Ep #771 instead of Ep #512?!  )

[DarkLady]

  I guess it wasn't a spoiler, anyway.

Sam has figured out who his unusual houseguest is, but they are having a great time laughing and talking. Adam beams when Sam praises his increasing vocabulary--until he starts having pains in his wrists.

Meanwhile, Trask is taking his revenge. Although he never knew Barnabas was a vampire, he doesn't seem to wonder how the same Barnabas is still around in 1968. Evidently he has no idea what year it is and probably doesn't care: His hatred of Barnabas is eternal.

I have to say that the trial is pretty silly. JC dons Nathan's US Navy uniform one more time. Barn's earliest victims parade by in silence. Even the judge, someone named Ezra Simpson, supposedly a traitor of the deepest dye, is just a walk-on. But I suppose that after all, it's really Trask's show.

Finally, Julia returns to the Old House, hears Trask's ghostly laughter and goes downstairs. She sees that Trask's alcove is bricked up again--but will she realize what it means before it's too late?

[dom]

I've a love/hate relationship with this episode.

The Evans Cottage:
Ford's performance - Hate
Rodan's performance - Love
Crothers' performance - /
Directing - Hate
Writing - Hate

Old House:
Frid's performance - Love (OMGoodness, love the yelling!)
Lacy's performance - Love (Like DarkLady noted in a previous episode - Trask is never boring)
Hall's performance- /
Judge & jury - / (points for showing up)
Writing - Love
Directing - Love
Special effects - Love

Frid and Lacy were pretty awesome. Good enough to forgive any teleprompting or forgotten lines. I already mentioned Frid's yelling. I may be crazy but Frid's uncursed Barn is certainly different that the vampire Barn. For me it's subtle and I really admire Frid's ability to pull it off (as it appears to me). At certain points Lacy was knocking it out of the park - mostly via iconic Trask gestures: the eyes upward look toward the Almighty, the praying hands, the sinister smile. I was very turned off by this scene when I watched it the first time this week, but now at my third watch I like it a lot. I wasn't wild about the concept and I still don't understand why they bothered to revive Trask and go Through a trial. But the scene was done/worked so well (in my opinion) that I find I now enjoy it. The third time's the charm I guess. Trask being unfair got to me as per usual, lol. Unfortunately the Sam Evans stuff was pretty bad so the episode as a whole suffers. Crothers was okay but didn't have the material to work with or the actor to work opposite and Joe's presence as a whole was rather pointless. I guess down the line he will be the one to reveal that Adam is alive to all the 'wrong' people (Maggie, Liz, the cops, etc). I'm still waiting to not like Adam. And goddess only knows where Adam's run off to this time. Hopefully to break down the brick wall with his brute strength!

I was amazed at how well the special effects worked. And I giggled in my head when Barn stated that the jury should speak for themselves - In a skit Trask would have retorted that speaking lines costs extra, lol. Anyone know if the jury had anyone reprising their roles? I thought Jane Draper maybe but I have a faint memory of seeing two actresses listed in the role of Suki Forbes on some list somewhere. Hall was fine but was about as useless as Crothers  - but I get it, it'll be important to the plot down the line. At least the characters were following through realistically.

I wonder if Frid no longer sports the wet look as Barnabas because he is human again or if it's because of a conscious decision to change the character's look.

[dom]

BTW, I loved Crothers' performance as Nathan at the trial. Short and sweet but he didn't miss a beat. Also giving Crothers points for looking hot in his dark clothes as Joe.

Old House (basement):
Crothers' performance - Love

[DarkLady]

Trask's body language is always a treat to watch. And I think you're right--JF certainly is different as the mortal Barn as opposed to vampire Barn.

Probably DF had already left the show, in his mind, anyway.

My notes say that Judge Ezra was played by the omnipresent, ever-silent Tom Gorman, who is usually a patron at the Blue Whale and I think played the hand of Barnabas grabbing Willie's throat way back when.

[MagnusTrask]

Where has Barnabas been, anyway?  Before he gets back to the Old House?   Is this the morning after the night he was out searching for Adam with Willie?   Where's Willie then?  If it is, an awful lot of story has been going on in that time, with at least two Adam appearances at Sam's...?

Doesn't the fact that Trask didn't go to Heaven tell him anything about himself?  There's also the idea that we hang around underground until the second coming and then re-animate, of course, and maybe got to Heaven then...?

Was Ezra Simpson anyone we know?

Maybe I should watch it again too, dom.   Rodan seemed okay as always, when mostly non-verbal.  Children have exaggerated face responses too.   Mr. Frid seemed trapped in melodrama, shouting too much and without intelligence or presence of mind.   Trask has an added demonic intensity.

[DarkLady]

We usually think of time as an arrow that goes only forward and always at the same velocity, but things are different in the Collins Universe. Time there is highly flexible and can expand or contract as necessary to the story line.

All of that is only to say that I don't know where Barn has been or where Willie is.

Maybe Trask doesn't know that he didn't go to heaven and was in some kind of suspended-after-death state until Julia and Stokes and Tony so foolishly woke him up. Maybe he's so angry partly because he didn't get raptured up to heaven right away and is taking it out on Barnabas.

According to the DS Wiki, Joshua knew about Ezra Simpson and his crimes. The Wiki has a link about him here, but I honestly don't remember anything about him.

[alwaysdavid]

There is a replay of yesterdays scene, but Julia's part in the upstairs hall is different. Adam throws Joe to the floor and Blind Sam, who seems to have found his vocation teaching man made humans, says he is harmless and gentle.  The joys of the alcohol damaged brain.

[Roland]

Oh Joe, it hasn't been THAT long since you were dating Carolyn - to slip up and call her Carolyn Collins instead of Carolyn Stoddard. That may be a bit of a glimpse into just why things didn't work out for the ill-matched and ill-fated couple. I also wonder if he ever slips up and calls out Carolyn's name in his more passionate moments (if there ever are any) with his current squeeze Maggie.

[MagnusTrask]

Well, Collins is her middle name...