Laura: Out of Time...or TOO Much??

[Patti Feinberg]

Tantalizingly close to end of Laura storyline.

Okay...first, Phoenix police POSITIVELY identify burned woman as 'Laura' (let's not do various last names).When coroner does one last check, 'poof', body is gone.

Then, the graves of 1767 & 1867 Lauras are opened, and, surprise, no bodies.

If the aforementioned Phoenix Laura burned in 1967, why does she keep saying she's almost out of time...didn't the 'rising from the ashes thing' have to have happened, i.e., dead body, disappeared dead body, out of the blue (or should I say red & yellow), Laura.

Didn't the 1967 Laura already die? Why then, while in Collinsport, does she keep saying she has to get away...?

Patti

[Patti Feinberg]

And another thing; the year, 1897, the place, Collinwood.

I've mentioned it recently...Quentin saying to Laura, "You're Dead"!?

A few days/weeks later, Barnabas thinks to himself, "Can this be Laura of my youth (1767); I was young, but she looks exactly the same" (or close). Laura thinks to herself, "It was a long time ago, and he was young {if we follow the 1767/Dead Laura timeline}, but he looks exactly like a grown version of himself".

If/since she died in 1897, or 1896, why was she back pretty soon, this time to get Jameson & Nora?

She's a double-minded Phoenix, IMHO 

Patti

[dom]

It's like she gets to come back to get her children because she's never with them when her cycle ends. Weird  but consistent, I guess.

[alwaysdavid]

It doesn't appear that before the Laura's died they had any special powers, so maybe they develop them after they died by fire and come for their children. Though the Barnabas era Laura didn't appear to have children and then there's the question, if they take their children with them, how are there any Stockbridge descendants?  The original Laura story was one of my favorites.

[Gerard]

I think what she meant when she kept saying she was running out of time was to have David turned into a Bic Lighter like her.  From what I recall in the storyline, she had been successful, at least a few times, in her past incarnations to have her children join her going up in flames (and, I guess, turning them into phoenixes making them immortal and cyclical, which, if that's true, it would've made a good topic in a future DS plot - imagine Laura returning again, and this time some of her now-centuries-old kids joins her).

As for her showing up in 1897 when her cyclical rebirths were originally happening once every hundred years (meaning the last time was 1867), it's just another example of how the writers ignored continuity to have a story.  I'm glad they did it, because some of the best scenes were of her and Edward chewing up the scenery when they had their tiffs. 

Gerard

[Gothick]

William Mann, who was once a DS fanfic writer and went on to become a professional author of books about film actors of the past, wrote a Laura backstory tale that I think was published in Dale Clark's INSIDE THE OLD HOUSE sometime in the 1990s. 

Mann's speculation, which cleverly attempts to make sense of the confused material presented in Laura's two storylines, posits that Laura at one time--in her original mortal life--made a pact with the ancient Egypt sun-god Ra.  (Laura might have had a father who was involved, a Dr. Murdoch maybe?  I can't recall now and I have no idea where my copy of that zine is.)  Laura's pact was that she would die by fire and be allowed to live again and go on, lifetime after lifetime, but her part of the bargain was that she had to offer up her own child or children in the flames of her own second hecatomb.

The Laura and David painting in 1967 does imply that David would have become immortal as well had Laura's plan succeeded.  But the spirit of David Collins who speaks at Dr Guthrie's 1967 seance fairly conclusively--and horribly--refutes that idea.

Both the 1967 and 1897 storylines pretty much revolve around the premise that Laura's return has a time expiration date.  It's possible that she expects to rise yet again from her own ashes once she has been successful in coaxing her own progeny into the flames.  In the 1967 scenario, her life energy is supported by what must have been a sacred fire that was kept burning in the fireplace in the cottage.  In 1897, they revisit this idea in a different and interesting form.  In 1897, they particularly wrote it so that Laura's lifeforce began to wane once her "time" approached.   The whole thing about Ra wasn't part of the original 1967 story at all, as far as I could see.  But you could say it is implied by Laura's "soliloquy" (which Actress Diana Millay felt should be memorized and recited by every schoolchild--I really don't understand why, but she seems to have felt it was the most beautiful piece of writing she ever had the fortunate to communicate).

The original 1966-67 Laura storyline is perhaps the most chilling DS ever filmed.  Really exceptional work on the part of everyone involved.

G.

[Patti Feinberg]

Gothick, totally agree about being the or close to the best of all the story arcs.
Possibly though, it's because it has a beginning and an end (unlike Barn, semi-Quentin, Angelique).

to have David turned into a Bic Lighter like her.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Patti

[edited]