Discuss - Ep #0877

Robservations #877

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

Re: Discuss - Ep #0877

Stroka VO, first?  In my notes it says: "Outwitted Petofi but I don't know it!!  Tell me please!!"  I no longer know what this means.  Aristede is funny at this point, piling up stupidities on top of each other.  Now that he knows knifing Petofitofi was bad, he's rushing off to KILL Quentin, aka Petofitoftifi's boat to the future, to make up for it.  There's already a relentless pursuer after Aristede, and his name is Darwin...

We see a Petofi dream, which turns out to be the origin story for him and Aristede, and it's good.  How a man like Petofi came to be roaming the moors, I don't know.  This nostalgia would have softened someone else, maybe, but for Petofi, it just adds the perspective that they've been through a lot together, he will miss Aristede, and while Aristede deserves death, he deserves better than an ordinary one.  So he decides to create a very special, dramatic death with a lot of unnecessary collateral damage to others...

Welcome, wonderful actor playing Garth Blackwood, forget name, as well as Garth Blackwood.  Petofi seems vulnerable to Garth, yet assured and unfraid, interesting.

The actor who played Garth Blackwood (as well as PT Horace Gladstone) is John Harkins. He is also the priest delivering the eulogy for Chuckles the Clown in the classic episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Wow, had forgotten that about John Harkins! He is wonderful as the master of Dartmoor here.

Petofi still insists that Quentin must not be harmed, so I suppose he's planning to go into the repo business in order to go to the future.

Charles gets to be an action hero: As Aristede watches from outside, Quentin gives further proof that he is himself again, as if further proof were needed: He has finished one decanter of brandy and starts on his second. He takes a sip before answering the knock on the door. Aristede insouciantly pretends that he was successful. Petofi has got a knife sticking in his chest, he reports, and will be dead very soon. You should have stayed till you were certain, Quentin says. I promise Petofi won’t survive, Aristede assures him. Why don’t we have a drink. Quentin takes Aristede into the drawing room and unwisely turns his back as he pours the drinks. Aristede spots the crossed swords on the wall and takes one of them out of its scabbard and makes ready to run Quentin through. I already know what I want for my reward--your life, Quentin Collins! he shouts. Even when in danger of his life, Quentin carefully sets the drinks down before he backs away, but Aristede puts the sword point to Quentin’s chest and forces him backward. I know you’re Quentin and that you tried to trick me, he snarls, and you will pay. Just as he has Quentin’s back against the wall, Charles rushes in, pistol drawn. Put the sword down or get your head blown off! he orders Aristede. I don’t want him to live after what he has done! Aristede argues. Charles says he’s just following orders. Will the count will live? Aristede asks with some trepidation. Why don’t you go see for yourself, Charles suggests sarcastically. I don’t want to, Aristede whines. You have good reason to be afraid, Charles says, but orders him out anyway. Aristede finally throws down the sword and runs out. I’m sorry to hear Petofi isn’t dead, Quentin observes. I thought one of us would die and didn’t especially care which. You’re lucky to be alive, Charles says in some surprise. I know why Petofi sent you, Quentin replies. I don’t consider myself lucky at all.

Great dream sequence on how Aristede met Petofi. Why would Petofi--who seems to be very much a city mouse--be strolling the Devonshire moors? Maybe he was researching the Hound of the Baskervilles. The more collateral damage he causes, the more he enjoys himself, it seems.

BTW, we already saw John Harkins in one episode as Lieutenant Costa in 1967. And we'll see him again briefly as Strak before we meet Horace Gladstone.

That's right DL, thanks, Harkins appears four times!  He makes brief appearances generally, I wonder?  In and out fast, making a big impression with extreme character parts?

As somebody once said about characters (I paraphrase), "There are no small parts, only small actors."