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« on: January 17, 2007, 11:43:19 PM »
As I've mentioned before, a fan once wrote an article suggesting that Elizabeth, as the living Keeper of the Family Secret, was perfectly aware of Barnabas' identity as a vampire. This fan claimed that Liz's hand was trembling when she took Barnabas' hand. I've watched the episode several times and I can never see this. The fan theorized that Liz decided to welcome Barnabas into the family because she figured HE might get rid of Jason. It's an interesting notion, but quite a long shot. If it were true, then Liz certainly did have nerves of steel--and fewer scruples than widely credited.
I'm guess that when this episode was written, an outline for the plot of the Barnabas storyline had not yet been prepared for the writers, which is why Barnabas speaks to Josette more as a guardian spirit of the family than as his long-lost love in this first episode.
I know that DC was in England at this time working on the Jack Palance Jekyll/Hyde... it would be interesting to know whether Bob Costello had the de facto head writer's chair at this point in time. I read in an interview with Art Wallace, I believe, that he did a short outline for the introduction of Barnabas storyline--he said it was the last work he did on the show, although his contract had been written such that he kept his credit as creator of the series.
Best, G.