Discuss - Ep #0547

[Watching Project]

Robservations #547

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

Re: Discuss - Ep #0547

[MagnusTrask]

Great Barn/Ang scene, and JF was glad to sink his fangs into some good writing clearly.   He got across the accumulated bitterness very well.   I've been thinking of pre-vampire Barnabas and present Barnabas as entirely different people, but they're combined here, with the feelings of 1795 Barnabas expressed by his bitter, stern, unmoveable 1968 version.   It's so strange for a very good, smart episode like this to pop up in the midst of the tacky carnival ride that is 1968.   Sam Hall is credited, showing once again that credits don't give us any information in this storyline.   Violet Welles maybe?

There was a lot for all the actors to do and shine with.   Louis Edmonds in particular seemed enthusiastic and relieved to have the fetters off, and be allowed to do some real work.

Cass ages again, with the exact same aging appearance as last time.   It's good to see her desperate and pushed to her limit.   It's always interesting when Barnabas and Julia need to confer on the spot, over something that has to be acted on that second, but can't because others are in the room.   He's wondering whether Julia is going to slaughter Ang right there, right now, on the pretext of examining her,  though presumably not with the gun, which I think Barnabas took from her anyway.  You can tell he figures a doctor could find a quiet way to do it anyway... all this stuff is going on, without our needing anyone to say it.   I would not put it beyond Julia at this point just to shoot her dead with the gun on the spot, consequences be damned, if she had it.   Her nerves may be frayed beyond endurance.   Science offers a promise of controlling a situation, while with the supernatural everything's up for grabs and beyond any of her expertise.

[DarkLady]

Nice bit with Barn and Cass: Your hand is trembling, Barnabas observes. Don’t come near me, Cassandra warns him. Are you afraid of me? he asks mockingly. You have the gun. I have nothing but my mind and my hands, he says with massive understatement--and some pride.

Julia is all for shooting Cass point blank, but Barnabas insists that he might learn more about Nicholas if he lets Cass go. Maybe he's also remembering all the murders he did commit. Seeing Angelique certainly must bring back his whole past in a vivid and forceful way.

The big break-up with Cass seems to have made Roger nicer--at least for now. When Vicki doesn't want to be left alone with Angelique's portrait, he very kindly suggests she stay with Carolyn. And later, Roger does not recognize the extremely old woman and has no idea how she got to the house, but he kindly helps her to a chair.

Roger does give us some idea of the vastness of the Great Estate when he mentions that the gates are a quarter of a mile from the house.

Julia and Barnabas are the next to arrive at Collinwood. They stop to argue at the front door. Julia still has the gun. Please, Barnabas, let me finish the job, she pleads. He answers with real  regret, Your life has already changed because of me. [Maybe he is thinking of Dave Woodard.]

Julia kicks the two men out of the drawing room while she examines the very aged Cassangelique. She emerges to tell them that her patient will be dead in a matter of minutes. But when all three return to the drawing room, the couch is empty and the french windows are wide open.

[dom]

It never occurred to me that aging Angelique is a redo of aging Barnabas.
Does anyone have sympathy for Angelique? I don't.
I'd give my right arm to know why the decision was made to have Ange wear gloves. Probably so they wouldn't have to age her hands, only her face. Yeah, why else? It didn't make sense until I saw the foyer scene.
This is akin to one of those audience update episodes I was talking about a while ago. And you can sense one plotline or thread ending and another beginning.
We are treated to once of Magnus' pet peeves, when Julia enters a room and does not see or hear what's right in front of her face (a loudly writhing Angelique on the floor).
Barn had no choice but to leave Ange's fate in Julia's hands (well, for the most part, he could have insisted on staying in the room with Jules) and I prefer to think that he didn't want her killed but wouldn't have minded so much if Jules took care of this 200 year old problem with a bucket of water. I suspect that for once (because he is human?) that Barn's willing to hand the reigns over to someone else with just a tinge of reluctance and a smidgen of trust.
Angelique's disappearance is par for the course.
I liked yesterday's version of 'Ange & Barn' better than this ep's opening retread. Parker wasn't bad but Frid was lacking IMO. Hall was good and so was Moltke and Edmonds. But no one deserved an Emmy nod for today's show. I'm still not interested in Ange's revenge or fate anymore so this ep is just okay for me. And Julia's still wearing that awful outfit.

[MagnusTrask]

It was interesting to hear Julia talk about how if Ang were dead, she thought she might be able to return to her regular life.   She says this outside Collinwood's front door.   This means Julia isn't just sort of hanging around perpetually because of her Barnabas fixation, which is the general impression I get from having had no explanation for all this time.  That's one of the dangers of a show/plot running on auto-pilot... what characters are doing may make sense, but if we're not told how, it can look otherwise.

With that statement, Julia stops looking like a stalker, and looks like a sensible concerned adult.   With Barnabas safe and human, not under threat, she could relax, resume her career, and she would hope, visit the Old House now and then in an ordinary, social way as a friend, and hope for more.

We could understand the pressures on her better, if we kept this in mind.   Part of her desperation is about being stuck forever in this crazy knife-edge situation, while her career is in danger.

[DarkLady]

Another thoughtful post from MT. I had never thought of it that way. Barn's safety has been Julia's prime directive for so long. No wonder she was willing to shoot Angelique, if it could have meant that Barn--and Julia herself--could have had more or less normal lives.

[alwaysdavid]

I liked the line about Justice in Hell. Then Vickie awakens with the painting glowing as it ages and Vickie suddenly decides that what happens to the painting happens to Angelique. Julia in a role reversal of last year is up for another killing this time of Angelique and with the gun. Unlike when she hoped Adam got hit by a car and killed, she doesn't plan to leave this to chance. Then when the old crone appears to Roger, he does not even recognize his wife and is sympathetic to the shriveled creature.  Julia examins her alone and we are left to wonder is she bashed in her head, while her two husbands talk in the hall.