I'm sure Josette has a lot to say to Laura,

[spoiler]After all, they were both married to the same man, and surely Josette is aware of Laura's past exploits on and off the estate.  Laura once lived in the old house, perhaps she even belongs with the spirits there, and is surely wary of them welcoming her too much.   [/spoiler]

Sam really annoyed me in these episodes.  Has he never seen Picasso's paintings, for instance?  Why not paint a woman with flames around her; don't be so damned uptight about it.  From the way he described his paintings to Laura when they ran into each other at the coffee shop, it sounded like he could use some inspiration and experimentation.  But I guess he would prefer to be a dull, mainstream, boring "artist" instead of someone with interesting work. 

Yes, at the end of Leviathins we see a 'carriage house' that is very different from the cottage--much smaller and less welcoming, too.  So it was there in 1795, but no caretaker resided in it--so I guess we really don't know what or why it was built exactly.  Maybe it was lived in while the old house was being built. 

Yes, their scene together was really flat and empty, despite all they could have said given their past experiences.  It occured to me today that this is exactly the type of storyline that Lara Parker and Jonathan Frid averted when they demanded new characters, and thus the 1841 PT story came about which forced the show into a different direction. 

They changed Laura's dress!  I'm so glad, for once, and completely excuse this continuity error--one could even imagine that she went into the bathroom and changed clothes because she thought twice about that outfit.  Anyway, so they've sent Laura off to the cottage--apparently a long-standing tradition in the family of stashing various controversial people there.  I wonder what is the history of the cottage?  It was present in 1897, but I don't know if it was also supposed to be there in 1795 and 1840?  But what or whom was it originally built for?  At least by 1897 it had lost whatever original purpose it served--certainly the caretaker didn't live there or anything of the sort.   But anyway she seems oddly unconcerned about the material comforts of the place she lives in--apparently she is so preoccupied with some other purpose...

It's interesting to watch Carolyn meet and interact with Laura.  Clearly she seems to find the drama of the whole thing rather fun. 

Interesting that it was the trauma of the accident and what happened afterwards that sent Laura into a downward spiral of alcoholism and insanity.  They worry about where her present loyalties may lie, given that she is no longer so much a Collins.

"There are no widows!" Perhaps Viki just thinks they (those with dead spouses) are just deluded people feeling sorry for themselves.  But it was facinating to see the widows that everyone is always hearing, as well as that first appearance of Josette walking out of the portrait that I remember reading KLS describing.  The atmosphere in the deserted old house was just amazing in this episode.  There is an intense lightning storm going on outside, but Roger and Burke have no problems running outside with rifles pointed up towards the sky? 

It's definitely kind of off...
[spoiler]I mean, is it really that exciting that Angelique returns for the 13th time?  I really hope in the next issue that the more normal Angelique returns and that the Collins family remembers her for what they knew her to be--like the wealthy housewife of Sky Rumson or Roger's wife (polygamy...)  I'd expect Quentin in particular not to be hysterical but, holding a drink in his hand, to take the view that so what if Angelique wanted to come back again (certainly the first time he summoned her in 1897 it began with horror and ended with wit.)  I'm still not sure if he turned into the werewolf spectrally inside his own mind or in physical form.  If it was inside his mind, that is interesting.  [/spoiler]

I finally got a copy of issue #1 today, and definitely found it interesting. [spoiler] The way Angelique was presented (as the floating banshee), in my opinion is absolutely 1991; I heard Lysette Anthony's French accent reading those lines, not Lara Parker at all.  Actually, I hated that part of the 1991 series, primarily because her lips didn't move, she was just floating there with her voice in the background.  Anyway I also felt that her apparent control of Julia at the end was very reminicent of the 1991 plot.  I know many fans always imagined this sort of Angelique coming back, but after they spent so much time in 1897, leviathins, and then 1840 humanizing her, it just feels strange to me.  And so different, for example, to the dream Angelique made Barnabas have to warn him about the dream curse, which created horror through dialogue.  

I like Michael's idea about Laura making a return.   Maybe she was the one who attacked Carolyn, ala 1897 when she needed to absorb people's energy to stay alive.   Then again, the idea of another vampire sort of reminds me of in 1968 when Nicholas cast a spell to make Barnabas (and Julia) think that he was the one attacking people when in fact it was Tom Jennings.   [/spoiler]