The 1840 storyline has been my favorite, but so many years have passed since I last watched it, the details of how it all fits together escape me. Recently, I've had the opportunity, the first in many years, to re-watch some DS. I didn't know where to start, so I randomly pulled out a DVD case from my DS storage bin and saw that it was the brief 1995 storyline - one that I remember as the most bleak of the entire series. With Collinwood in ruins, many of the Collins family dead, and the survivors emotionally and mentally scarred for life, I think that's a fair assessment. And then even those survivors die for the most part, except for Quentin. It's such a brief sequence but sets up the mystery that is to follow with the Summer of 1970. A few of the questions that came to mind as I was watching: in an early episode when Barnabas and Julia find themselves in 1995, someone relates to them that a young couple went to the ruined Collinwood on a dare and something terrible happened to them. I think the girl's name was Jean. A framed photo of Jean is shown, and I thought it looked like a young Grayson Hall. Does anyone remember seeing that photo, and if it was Grayson? Also, not so much a question, but a comment, things happen so quickly and with so little reflection - for example, Mrs. Johnson is frightened to death by Gerard - but no one mentions this or anything about her in any of the following scenes. Some depth is lacking; the 1995 sequence seems all about plot points. Even so, there are touching moments showing Carolyn in more depth, such as when she is looking at old photographs and doesn't recognize herself. Barnabas gently points out that the photo is of her, but a few moments later she has already forgotten. This is poignant to watch, and for those of us who have watched a loved one slowly lose their memory, it is also emotionally very real.
And as I said, 1995 does set up the mystery that is to follow. I'm now at the point in 1970 when the night of the sun and the moon occurs, the first clue Carolyn struggles to right down as she searches her memory for what led to the disaster that overtook Collinwood in 1970. Another event she writes down is the "unfinished horoscope." "the night I sang my song," and then there is "Rose Cottage." I found these very intriguing and satisfying mysteries in previous viewings, and I find myself puzzling now how some of them work out. For example, Elizabeth has just received her horoscope for the remainder of the year, but how will this become "unfinished" I wonder? David and Hallie are beginning to be haunted by Tad and Carrie, though they (and we) don't understand it at this point, and in going through some old letters and notes of the children, mention is made of Rose Cottage. The ghost of Daphne is frightening them, but if I remember correctly, Daphne was governess and protector of Tad and Carrie, who sought to shield them from Gerard. But their haunting of David and Hallie is unsettling because, if I remember correctly, they want to possess them in order to live in the physical world ... which seems like a callous and even evil thing to do. I don't know whether that issue is addressed or resolved. I thought Rose Cottage was the most fascinating aspect of the mystery.
