Fashion notes first . . .
I don't believe I've ever seen Roger look quite so casual. He's got on slacks and a dark sweater. Don't get me wrong. It's not as if he's dressed to go do yard work or anything, but it's a marked change from the usual blazer, dress trouser thing he tends to have.
Laura now has a heavy tweed coat and sweater. There's a light colored scarf that works rather well. I had forgotten how well Millay looks in these episodes. Mostly when I think of her, I think of her in 1897 with the cracked pancake makeup and the heinous dresses.
Onto the show . . .
John Sedwick directed both episodes. Ron Sproat wrote the first. Malcolm Marmorstein did the second.
No, I didn't skip an episode. That's what the production slate and the announcer say. Also, I looked it up and I gather 131 was preempted for Christmas, which is a worthy enough reason I guess.
The idea that David has psychic ability starts in this arc, I believe. Before this, he's just been a bratty kid with some serious mental health issues. Now he's a psychic, bratty kid with some serious mental health issues. When last we left the child he was sleepwalking, shaken out of that, and started screaming "mother!" Well, now Liz tries to put him to bed, but he's pretty darn adamant that he saw his mother. She leaves and he opens up his window and calls out "mother" again.
Day 25
So we're in the kitchen set, which always gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. Sitting at the table are Roger, David, Liz, and Vicki. No mention of Carolyn so perhaps she slept in. David is not happy with his eggs. I can't say that I blame him. I'm a breakfast aficionado myself. I've heard people ask "how can you ruin eggs?" Very easily. Try ordering them over medium sometime. They're supposed to come out a little firmer than over easy, but the yolk should be slightly runny. It's an art, really. Roger is either not that picky about his eggs or he doesn't care. Probably the latter, because he tells David to eat up. David, of course, immediately appeals to Aunt Elizabeth, who caves like an unstable coal mine.
The times when Roger is right about his parenting instincts and decisions are few and far between, but this is one of them. He's ticked at his sister because she's undermining his authority with David, and I have to agree with him. Elizabeth, for all of the stable influence she brings to this kids upbringing, is loathe to be the bad guy. She pretends not to notice. David then tries to ditch math with Vicki, but Vicki isn't having any of that.
Roger now expresses his annoyance at Elizabeth playing "good cop." She claims she's indulgent because the poor kid had a nightmare. God, to be young again. I have vicious nightmares and nobody lets me out of work or anything. Liz tries to turn this to her advantage suggesting that the dream was David's subconscious desire not to see Laura. She doesn't want the woman anywhere near the kid.
Hmmm. Okay, David is 9. Now we're told Laura went into the hospital when he was 5. Since Vicki arrives shortly after Roger has come home and begged Elizabeth to take him and David in which now means that he had sole charge of David for 4 whole years. It doesn't jive with what was implied in the earlier episodes and it makes less sense. Like Roger seriously would have tried to be a single dad? No.
Roger has his sister's number. I'm not saying that Elizabeth doesn't love David. I think she does. At the same time, she sees David as the heir apparent. She has no desire to lose him to Laura. At the same time, I think Elizabeth has Laura's number. She believes she's totally unbalanced. I love these sibling rows. Liz also points out that Roger wants any excuse to unload David elsewhere. She is ready to go to court to keep that from happening. All of these accusations are true really. Nobody's wrong or right and yet they are. It's a nicely written and performed scene.
Upstairs the heir apparent has gotten a 75 in math. That will come in very handy when he's doing company finances. He is less interested in improving that score than Vicki would like. They chat about Matthew. Vicki claims to have had some anger management issues as a child, which I find intriguing because there's no evidence of that now. They move onto the topic of Laura where he states that he doesn't want his mother to come back.
Downstairs, Roger is busy preaching the beauties of mother love and how David really wants to see Laura. Heh.
David settles down for a nap. Again with the window. Maine, people. Maine in late December.
Roger is all logical explanation about David's nightmare. Liz remains troubled. She doesn't come out and say that there's something supernatural or "spooky" about Laura, but you can tell she's thinking it.
Meanwhile, in Burke's shabby hotel suite, he's on the phone with an unseen James Blair. At first Blair was a financial advisor cum banker. Now the writers have apparently confused him with a private eye of sorts. It makes no sense so we'll move on. The important thing to come away from this scene with is that Burke is hipped on Laura being the key to proving his innocence.
At the Evans cottage, Sam smokes a pipe and stares out the window at the fake tree, and then at his painting. The latter troubles him.
Maggie comes out and he snaps at her. She pressures him to eat breakfast. I admit to not always being quick on the uptake, but there is nothing subtle about Sam right now. He's in a bad mood. He snapped at her. And yet, there she is harping about how he has to eat something. She really is annoying sometimes. Not Kate-on-Lost-annoying, but darn close, a nag in fact. Finally she comes around to the subject of Laura and Sam terms his daughter as such. Heh.
At the hotel, Burke knocks on Laura's door, but nobody answers.
So he walks down to the coffee shop and there's Maggie and a lone extra; I guess she's given up worrying if Sam got his Product 19 for the day. He makes inquiries about Laura and her behavior, and Maggie ever anxious to spread the news, obliges. For awhile there's a plot point that Laura eats nothing and drinks less. IIRC, that never goes anywhere, but it's mentioned here. What's more interesting to me is the Laura that Burke remembers so fondly was a fun-loving gal. I guess she's changed a hell of a lot since then.
Oh, and Sam comes in. My notes are illegible on what the heck he and Burke are doing or saying. At some point, Maggie demands answers from her father (Burke is elsewhere at this point). Sam has had enough of Maggie (and frankly, so have I) and turns to leave only to walk smack dab into Laura. I really like these scenes. I'm no fan of David Ford, but he's surprisingly good here. Both actors do a beautiful job of playing their characters. On the surface, they're pleasant and chatty, but they perfectly convey their mutual unease and distrust. Sam leaves.
Maggie introduces herself and apologizes for being a nosy parker. Laura goes so far as to acknowledge she's been someplace warm, but that's about it. I love how Maggie sits right down at the table without being asked. From the expression on Laura's face, she loves it not so much. Maggie jabbers away and lets her know that Burke is in the hotel. Laura is remarkably unenthused to learn he's there. It's not that she's upset or deeply unhappy. She's just . . . annoyed, I guess. She's in the middle of getting Maggie not to let on she's been in the restaurant or in Collinsport, when Burke walks in and sees her.
For someone who was betrayed in the worst way, he's awfully goopy. Remember this is the man who's been busy seducing Roger's teenage niece to get revenge. Here is the woman he was dating (and sleeping with), who sold him down the river so she could marry his rich best friend. That, from his behavior, would seem to be water under the bridge. Okay, fine. He also seems to think she's back to clear his name. She shoots that down PDQ. She's all about David. Burke dances around the question of David's paternity. If Laura knows the truth, she's not spilling. She very pointedly tells him she wants a divorce and David. To shut him up and get him off her back, she hints that once those goals are met, she'll clear his name. He is totally okay with it.
Again, he's the guy who is trying to take down the entire family of Collins, whether or not they had anything to do with his conviction. He has been hounding a broken alcoholic, who arguably has been doing penance for his crime. He has been doing his level best to drive the local cannery out of business (and by extension, put all those workers out of jobs). But Laura shows up and vaguely suggests she may be able to help him once she has what she wants and he's cool.
Yeah, it makes no sense to me either.
We close at the Evans cottage where Sam is doing anything he can to work on the freakish painting of the woman in flames. They do some f/x to make it seem like the painting itself is flickering.
