Discuss - Ep #0564

[Watching Project]

Robservations #564

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

Re: Discuss - Ep #0564

[Gothick]

The Youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhaKKxw8AbA

Julia wears one of my favorite outfits in this show.  Chic and lovely!

Despite the grim subject matter, I wonder if somebody in the production unit was having a bit of fun when the close-up on Joe at the end of act 1 reveals a sign hanging on the wall behind him reading "Please give blood."

G

[MagnusTrask]

I enjoyed that sign too.

This was a good episode... in a bad storyline.  How is this possible?   Everything sprang to life, and it became Dark Shadows suddenly, with good writing and acting, personal tragedies that draw you in and put you into the characters' minds, and some actual perspective and reflection.   One requirement for such a thing to occur is, no Adam.  It's okay to discuss Adam, but he must not actually turn up in person.   

I wrote down that the opening scene was good, but as it turned out, the whole of the 21 minutes was.   Intense music for a hospital corridor scene, right from the ep's start when we don't know what's happening yet.   Unusual... we are given the mood music and only later are we told why.   I missed good old identifiable Joe, who was MIA ever since Vicki's return to the present day.   I'm glad Joel C has this section of story to make up for his unpleasant harsh jealous stretch.

Julia: "You couldn't help it."  (Not knowing what she means possibly-- what would she think Joe blames himself for?)

Joe: "That's right."  With a slight sort-of-ironic smile, without humor.   Joe got Tom killed but had no choice, now he has to live with it, without being able to tell anyone.   He has to just stand there and hear the painful comforting and unintentional irony from people.

So Maggie went out with Tom.  ***  John Karlen's good in the next scene, with Barnabas in the lab.   Again, well-written.  Sam Hall is credited.   Willie even raises the life force question before anyone else does, making Barnabas stop and wonder, who's it going to be?   I know though.   Tom Jennings!   Am I a genius or what?!   Cure him of vampirism and complete the project in one act.   Problem, how to put Tom on ice until he's needed?  Come to think, that body needs to be put on ice...

[spoiler]Later, they act as if the life-force source's personality is projected into the inert body, making Adam want to use a woman, but it didn't happen with Barnabas and Adam.  They're nothing alike.  So why not Tom?   Because Tom is very hard to reason with as it turns out.....  Dumb men turn into feral vampires I guess.[/spoiler]

Later in the cemetary... I liked Julia's instantly taking charge, announcing that she'll get Joe to leave, so the boys can get to work on Tom's grave.   She apparently "uses" her genuine concern for Joe, and I'm not sure I've ever seen such pure empathy from her before.   They stay with Julia and Joe for a long time, with her trying to draw him out of his depressed bottomless hole, rather than dwelling on the easy-ratings grave-digging.   I liked that.  It was a good dramatic decision.   Julia even offers him a nice family dinner at Collinwood.

Back at the grave, it turns out Tom has already vampirized and teleported out of his grave and coffin, an interesting ability Barnabas never had, unless chaining a coffin somehow magically prevents this.   It would have been fun to hear Willie giving Barnabas a hard time about this....  Presumably Tom intends to go back to the coffin after feeding, since he needs it, and can pop in and out at will.  They should re-bury it and come back in the day.

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

[spoiler]Later, they act as if the life-force source's personality is projected into the inert body ... but it didn't happen with Barnabas and Adam.  They're nothing alike.[/spoiler]

Are you sure about that? I'd definitely say that Adam's pigheadedness could easily be traced right back to Barnabas. It's something they totally have in common. 

[MagnusTrask]

Lots of people are that way.   I'd have to see Barnabas as a child.   The qualities I think of which drastically differentiate him from Adam are all qualities acquired through age-- worldliness, culture, reflection...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Though it really doesn't matter what Barnabas was like as a child because the point here is that the life-force source's personality is projected into the inert body, meaning thanks to the experiment Barnabas' current adult personality is completely in place in Adam. Later it works that same way with[spoiler]Eve and Danielle Roget.[/spoiler]

And one could say that Adam has some of those other qualities that you bring up. Prof. Stokes was certainly cultivating them in him - and we've even seen Adam display reflection, particularly in regard to how he came to the realization that it was wrong to hold Vicki prisoner and that she should be released. But sadly, from this point on, all of Adam's inherited better qualities will mostly take a back seat thanks to Nicholas' influence on him, and the inherited personality trait primarily on display will be Adam's pigheadedness. 

[DarkLady]

Julia's outfit is very nice! The whole scene with her and Joe at the hospital takes place under a poster exhorting us to “Give Blood--Save Lives.”

A nice moment at the Old House when Barnabas and Julia realize another vampire is in their midst. Barnabas instantly resolves to stake Tom, and JF delivers another great speech: Surely you remember, Julia, those moments just before dawn when I would have to go crawling into my coffin, hoping that someone would find me and stop me before another dusk released me. I know the agony of those nights only too well to let anyone else go through them.

While Julia tries to distract Joe at the cemetery, Barnabas orders Willie to start digging. [When the coffin has been raised, there is no hole in the ground out of which it has been dug.] Once the coffin is uncovered, Barnabas orders Willie to open it. Resolutely he takes up the stake and the mallet, prepared to do what he must. But to their surprise and horror, they’re too late: The coffin is already empty....

[alwaysdavid]

It is revealed that Maggie used to date Tom before Joe and Joe is toms only relative.  Willie is with a sheeted body and Barnabas tells him next time Julia will give him a sedative.  Joe is standing over the grave with the already completed headstone. When he leaves Willie is ordered to dig!  And all for an empty coffin.

[dom]

John Karlen should not do voice-overs.

I would think that Tom's second attack causing his death right there in the hospital, after what seemed a full recovery would be very police-involving. Who left the window open? Joe Haskell. Was he the last person to see him alive? Yes. Bring him in. Perhaps it all happened and everyone provided the right answers.

At this point, Joe is Tom's only relative.

Crothers is taking acting lessons from Davis it seems with all the anger and yelling. Poor Joe, everyone keeps asking what's the matter and he can't tell them.

I very much liked the scene in the Old House basement between Frid and Karlen. I agree with Magnus that Karlen was very good here. I liked Frid too despite his mistakes.

Also a decent scene between Hall & Frid and later with Karlen in the Old House basement.

At least Joe has the good sense to wear a trenchcoat during an approaching storm.

Willie & Barn at the cemetery - funny - shades of Abbott & Costello - stretching it of course.