Dumbing down characters is one thing, but why is Quentin acting so.... for want of a better word...whipped. You'd think he was some youth of fifteen or sixteen who'd never had a girlfriend before instead of a man with a rather impressive romantic resume. Yet he's acting like some love sick calf over Daphne.
Quentin's other lady loves were flesh-and-blood, even Amanda Harris (the one created by Charles Delaware Tate). Daphne is Quentin's first ghostly love ... and the logic and influence of ghosts is not the same as that in ordinary relationships.
Onyx Treasure wrote:
When Quentin is introduced as Grant Douglas, everyone remembered him as the Ghost (including Amy and David). Later, Quentin gives the explanation that he is a descendant of Quentin thus like Barnabas is welcomed with open arms. So, I guess technically speaking no one should remember a haunting that never took place but that is not what the writers worked out.
Thanks for refreshing my memory, OnyxTreasure ... Adding to that, I would submit that this is an example of a rather glaring discrepancy within another storyline. I know that no one has specifically said there were no inconsistencies in characterization or factual continuity in other storylines -- although reading this thread one might get the impression that such problems are specific to Summer of 1970, and that obviously isn't the case.
I'm going by my general impressions and memory from my viewing last time, and I don't completely recall the illogical aspects referred to by Luciaphil, though the atmosphere she describes may have been intentional. Everyone's behavior, including Quentin and the children's, is abnormal because they're all under the influence of spirits.
I just remember being mesmerized by this segment's events, fascinated with the mystery of Rose Cottage, challenged by the depressing philosophy that seems to be behind it all -- that we can do nothing against fate: the die is cast. And within the greater context of 1840, the plotting for this entire story arc seemed to me the most well-planned, meticulous, and cohesive. Which is not to say that changes weren't made along the way as 1840 unfolds, but 1995 - Summer of 1970 - 1840 holds together far better, IMO, than the 1897 storyline, for example.