Fashion notes first . . .
Kathryn Leigh Scott's eye makeup is back to normal, thank god.
Unfortunately David Ford also gets to wear that shirt that is open way too much so I think they cancel each other out.
Roger has on some kind of a sweater vest underneath a tweed blazer. I don't find that a flattering look on him.
Our favorite little governess has a new blouse. This one is checked and looks appropriately dowdy.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth's beehive is rivaling the 'do Beatrice Lillie wore while portraying Mrs. Meers in Thoroughly Modern Millie. I can't remember if we've seen this dress before. I want to say yes. It's not doing her any favors. She also has on the pearls she wore the first day of the show.
Onto the show . . .
Both of these episodes were brought to you by Francis and Lela. Our first episode takes place in Burke's hotel suite, the diner, and briefly in the lobby. They're slow-going here in Collinsport. We've had more airtime devoted to the likelihood of Elizabeth Stoddard hiring Sarah Johnson than the work she'll actually do on the show. On a positive note, it's already Day 10.
Hotel suite: Apparently Mrs. J has been continuing to live at Bill Malloy's, which raises a question. Does he have an estate? He had a niece so presumably there's a sibling out there who'd be coming to settle that and handle things like oh, the bills and the will. I grant you that he's barely cold in the grave and all, but what was Sarah going to do should this Collinwood gig fall through? Burke and Mrs. J discuss the situation at hand. It's not particularly scintillating stuff; he just wants to know how much progress she's made on getting a job. Few things of note to report. Burke tells her that he has two goals in life: getting Collinwood and avenging Bill Malloy's death. Is he dropping clearing his name? Or is he just saying that to keep Sarah calm? It's not clear. Sarah is a pretty tough and shrewd cookie though. He makes a couple of oblique comments and she gets them right away. None of this vacant staring and "But what do you mean?" nonsense for her. From a phone call Burke gets, apparently he's got a spy on the payroll because he's up to speed on Roger and Sam's contretemps the other night.
Diner: Maggie is thankfully not in heat any longer. She's back to wanting her father to forget all about Bill's death except that every two seconds she's questioning him about it. Sam loses his temper with her (I would too and I'm not a drunk).
Hotel suite: Burke gives Mrs. J her instructions. His chief concern is Roger. I like the fact that she points out that she hasn't even interviewed for the job yet. Burke then brings up the Vicki angle. Their scenes are really rather fun. Burke is treating Sarah almost as an equal here and we're left with the sense that he honestly wants her opinion. She doesn't find it at all odd that Liz went to another city to find a governess. She points out that if Liz had hired a local, that person would have known all the gossip and would have had a vested interest in snooping around. I like this theory a lot actually. After she leaves, Burke has a phone conversation with James Blair. First mention of Richard and Frank Garner!
Diner: Maggie is comping Sam for meals. Mrs. J enters and Maggie, no doubt expecting a discussion of the freshness of the eggs, unenthusiastically waits on her. Can't say that I blame Mrs. J today. Nobody needs to deal with fake and perky people that early in the AM. Back at the counter, Maggie doesn't bother to call in the order or make the toast or whatever (btw, Sarah is starting the day with vegetable juice and unbuttered wheat toast). She decides that this would be an opportune time to gossip about Mrs J. There's some chitchat and then when Burke comes in, she blows up, just as David walks in.
David's reaction is explosive and predictable. Fortunately Burke is there to keep the cute little tyke from bashing Sarah Johnson's head in with the sugar container and forcibly drags him out into the lobby. David Henesy goes up, but he recovers rather quickly. He's a good ad libber. David has some fun psychopathic solutions to dealing with the poor woman and Burke decides this would be a good time to take David on upstairs.
Diner: Sam is trying to get to the facts in Mrs. J's vitriolic outburst. She neatly avoids that and instead vaguely accuses Burke of everything under the sun.
Hotel suite: David confronts Burke with Elizabeth's accusations. Burke pulls his usual line of charm and misdirection. Ya know. David is nine-frigging-years-old. Nine. He's had a rough life so far. He exhibits signs and behavior that even a layperson would recognize as troubling. He wasn't even born back when Burke's good name got tarnished. He is a little boy. The decent and humane thing for Burke to do would be to say, "Look, David. I like you and I have nothing against you personally, but we cannot be friends. Your aunt is a good woman and you should listen to her." And then walk the hell away. But no.
David correctly makes the correlation between the situation he faces and the Civil War. He decides Burke is General Grant and Aunt Elizabeth is General Lee. Okay, whatever. He thinks of himself as a conflicted soldier forced to take a side. And Burke keeps right on going. Because it's personally useful to him, he tries to undo David's conviction that Sarah is a nasty woman who will be his jailor. David admits he took Burke's photograph. And Burke, going to hell in a fast car, compounds his sins by condoning David's actions. He meant for him to have that photograph.
Diner: Mrs. J orders another order of toast. Woohoo! Sam, to his credit, tells Maggie that she needs to be nicer to Sarah. Mrs. J has had a rough time of it. David comes in and apologizes.
Our second episode is on the bizarre side. The pacing is faster than a dinner theatre production of Noises Off! The actors move all over the place like they're doing a Jane Fonda workout tape. It was exhausting just watching.
Roger hasn't given up on the pen. As someone who has been in this position before (losing things not worrying about being implicated at a crime scene), I can sympathize. He's at that stage where you start searching parts of the house where you know you haven't been, but you're so desperate you're willing to search there anyhow. He then gets a hold of himself and starts retracing his steps. He's in the middle of this when Vicki walks in. She really has a talent for being in the worst possible place at the worst possible time. Roger remembers he's pretending he likes her and laughs at her rather lame joke. He's also in the midst of persuading her to use her influence on Elizabeth about not hiring a housekeeper, when the lady in question walks in.
As might be expected, as soon as Vicki has departed, Liz gives Roger the 411 about the hierarchical structure of Collinwood. At the end of the episode, she calls her for a job interview. So he's 0 for 1 there. Then Carolyn and he chat about the pen and she concludes that if it's not in the house and it's not at the office, he must have lost it along the way. I think it's safe to say that Roger is um, panicked at that idea. We see him later on at Lookout Point searching the beach.
In our other plot of the day, Carolyn is waxing and waning about Joe and where she wants the relationship to go. At this moment in time she's ecstatic to be his girlfriend and is seriously entertaining the idea of accepting his proposal. Liz likes that idea, but wants to know how Burke feels toward David.
Joe correctly believes that Carolyn would not look kindly on his dancing with Maggie the other night. Vicki is keeping quiet about that.
Liz is busy trying to persuade Joe to accept a promotion when Roger comes in. He's not happy that he's been left out of the decision-making process and he's less than enthused about Joe as a husband for Carolyn. Elizabeth kicks him out to the foyer where he promptly enlightens Carolyn about Joe's "date" with Maggie. That's enough to send Carolyn racing upstairs (supposedly to verify this with Vicki. When she comes racing down again, she tells Joe they're through. The subsequent scene has her in Vicki's room (so where did she race off to?) where Vicki calms her down. Carolyn has a few more mood swings and then races off to Lookout Point to meditate or something.
Roger's day isn't going to get any better any time soon. He dislikes hearing about Carolyn's destination. When Vicki brightly shows him the silver filigreed fountain pen she found there, Roger looks like he's been turned to stone.
