No fashion notes? Why? Oh, I think we all know why. Say it with me now: we're still on Day 2. I was so tempted to title this one the longest day, but I honestly can't remember how many more episodes we have until it's Day 3, so I'm saving that possibility.
We have essentially two plots going on for both of these. Roger and his efforts to pin this on Burke and David and his efforts to pin this on somebody else.
L'il Davy has a nightmare that nearly has him sleepwalking out the window. Elizabeth catches him before he does this, and shakes him awake (which I didn't think you were supposed to do). David wakes up screaming, "I didn't kill him!"
My beloved Bill Malloy and Dr. Reeves (played by an actor who looks like he could have wandered in off the set of The Andy Griffith Show are at Dr. Reeves' practice where he's bandaging up Roger. Props to the set people who did a nice job putting together a fairly convincing small town doctor's office. Too bad the actor had no clue how to tie a sling. Louis Edmonds looks visibly uncomfortable and I don't think it had anything to do with staying in character. He also looks rakish enough with the bandages and all. Too bad, he's still wearing the Wal*Mart dress shirt.
There's a significant amount of Teleprompter reading in these episodes from everyone but Bennett (who according to her new biography was blind as a bat). Even little Henesy is guilty. I will say that they all do a pretty good job of making it look less obvious. Even when Edmonds flubs a line, he doesn't freeze or panic, he incorporates it into the dialogue and moves along.
Snarky Dr. Reeves is my kind of character. He gets in some zingers, including some elliptical and not-so elliptical references to Burke's trial.
Davy wakes up screaming again. I really love how sweet Elizabeth is with him. They kind of lose that relationship later on, but right now? Elizabeth clearly loves her nephew. She and Henesy have some great chemistry together. David's big concern at the moment is getting caught.
Some more fun dialogue from Dr. Reeves about taciturn New Englanders and gossip. He gets even more pointed about the DWI accident ten years ago.
Then we get into the less fun dialogue. Now I don't have any solid statistics to go on, but my guess is that back in 1966, the primary demographic for soap operas was comprised of women, probably (given that there were no VCRs) stay-at-home homemakers. Not exactly the audience who'd give a flying fig about brake systems. Art, I've always thought you were brilliant, but I have to say this scene is proving me wrong.
When I was in high school, there was this elective you could take and it was called "You and Your Car." I took something about urban studies instead, which given my luck with automobiles through the years was probably a big mistake. And if I could do it over again, I probably would have signed up for "You and Your Car." It's not that I want to be a mechanic or change my own oil, but I see this kind of knowledge in the same way I do knowing how to change a fuse or asking for a cordless drill for Christmas (which I did); it's all useful, practical stuff that makes you better able to handle every day kinds of problems. However, if I really cared about master bleeder valves? I would not be watching a soap opera to find out.
Dr. Reeves goes off set to fill out insurance forms or something (thank god they didn't treat us to scenes of Roger filing claims or taking the car around for estimates). And Bill sits Roger down in the waiting room to discuss what happened to his car. Now in case anyone's forgotten, it's still Day 2 (like you could). Actually, it's the night of Day 2. Bill has come back from the scene of the accident and he knows the cause. In fact, not only does he know the cause, he has rather complex looking renderings of not just the bleeder valve, but also the brake system.
So like where did these drawings come from? Did Bill just draw them up now? Did he have them done? What? They don't look like he just dashed them off on a cocktail napkin. We're talking 8½ x 11 sheets with a lot of detail. Also, Roger ran his car off the side of the road into the brush at night. It's dark in rural bloody Maine. Half the car is apparently crushed. And yet, Bill was able to poke around (and he looks mighty clean) and shine a flashlight or something and deduce that the problem is that the master bleeder valve was removed. Sure.
Now I get why Wallace felt it necessary for us to see what a bleed valve looked like. We need to know just what it was David was running around trying to hide. I also can kind of appreciate the description of how the brakes failed, because typically soaps just have somebody snipping the lines. However, I'm not so sure I needed storyboards and a five minute scene about hydraulic brakes. The whole scene was contrived to me.
Evidently tired of running in and out of her nephew's room, Liz is trying to cure his insomnia with a little family history lesson. It's kind of an interesting moment. She's got him in front of a portrait and is talking about Isaac Collins. I like the whole idea of this bit. The more sinister side to her relationship with David is her intent on molding him into the heir to the family fortune (and who can blame her? Her choices: drunken wastrel brother or her trampy daughter. I'd go for the psychopathic kid too). However, she and David are referencing an ancestor from the 1690s and they're standing in front of a portrait of a man in an early 20th century suit. Whatever. Roger comes back and David runs screaming out before he comes in the room.
Roger has a drink. Are we surprised? It's drink number 5 or 6 for the night (and I'm not counting whatever he probably had that morning or at work or what's probably to come). Liz spills about how Vicki found Burke in the garage and Roger goes ballistic. He pretends to calm down and claims he'll go to bed. Uh huh.
As we all suspected, Roger is intent on waking Vicki up. She is one strange girl. Now it's not like he barges in on her and threatens to rape her or drag her out of bed. He knocks. She's mildly freaking out. The guy was just in a car accident after all. Liz came down with a fairly certain opinion it had something to do with Burke. Vicki did find Burke standing over his car with a wrench. It's not exactly a jump that Roger would want to discuss any of this with her. She's also wearing some rather hideous PJs, which (while not worthy of a fashion note) are probably as effective a chastity belt as I've ever seen. Slap on a robe and some slippers and call it done.
David, who is quietly panicking, bites the proverbial bullet and goes into see dear old dad. Roger and he try to talk. It's rather painful to watch actually. Both invariably say something guaranteed to push the other's buttons. Of course, David is also in damage control mode. Their attempt at conversation quickly degenerates into a nasty argument.
Vicki is taking eons to get that bathrobe to fit just so. Good lord, woman. It's not that hard to do. Put arms through sleeves. Adjust. Wrap around. Tie. You're good to go. David comes on in and is quick to point out that her Pollyanna-esque philosophy of life where his father concerns was a bust. He's asking some pointed questions about the police and jail sentences. Vicki interprets this as concern for his father.
When she finally gets her derriere downstairs, Roger could care less about his son's attitude (and I might point out, her appearance). He wants to know about Burke and the garage. I fully admit to being biased about Roger, but I do know the guy's an ass a lot of the time. He's not being one now. His concerns are valid here and she's so idiotic that I want to smack her. He finally gets her to start telling him what happened. She specifically mentions the wrench.
David meanwhile is doing a Peter Sellers on his car.
It's very interesting. This is her second retelling of the event and either this girl has lousy recall or she's a big ol' drama queen. Her initial defense is that she didn't tell Roger because she didn't think it was important. Let's pause a moment. During the actual scene with Burke, she clearly thought Burke's explanation and his presence in the garage was strange. She thought it out of place enough that she told Liz about it after Burke had left. And just now, she implies very heavily that she thinks Burke was up to no good. From Roger's perspective, all of this fits. Actually, had I not been aware that David was the guilty one, I'd say it all fits. His conclusions are quite plausible. He's satisfied and he intends to go out to the hotel and to confront Burke, dragging Vicki along.
All of the sudden, Vicki doesn't want to go. Now she's not certain. Shouldn't they call the police? (Okay, that's not a bad question), but sweetie, don't try and weasel out of your story now. Roger sends her up to get dressed dressed (where I promptly damn him, because if they waited till morning, it would at least be Day 3). And there's cute little Davy busy trying to hide the evidence.
Perhaps Frances Farmer said it best, "Will there really be a morning?"
