Meanwhile, back in Collinwood, Victoria Winters meets another member of the Collins family, this time out young Carolyn Stoddard, who starts to give her a tour of the house.
At the Blue Whale, Joe returns to meet with Burke Devlin, who offers him money for information on the Collins clan.
Roger stops by the diner where Maggie Evans works and they speak of Burke Devlin. There's also discussion of Maggie's father, a painter. Bill Malloy shows up at the diner and through that we learn that Devlin is an ex-con.
Back at the Blue Whale, Malloy breaks up Joe Haskell's discussion with Devlin, and tries to convince him to leave the Collins family alone. But there's clearly bad blood there.
Victoria experiences two strange occurrences, a door mysteriously opening and a letter moving from a drawer to her bed. The first sign of ghosts in Collinwood, perhaps?
My thoughts
It's interesting how Victoria has met the members of the Collins family one per episode in this first week of the show. Will we meet young David tomorrow?
Also worth noting this week are the number of pre-filmed location shots. I always assumed the train shots from the premiere episode were stock footage, but they obviously went out to shoot scenes of Victoria walking outside the house, or Roger driving out to see Devlin in this episode.
While as a new viewer, you might believe we get our first whiff of the supernatural this episode. While I'm prejudiced by having seen future episodes, I think the way he's been talked about thus far, young David Collins is likely the culprit.
"But you've been in this mausoleum a couple of hours. Do you think it will be fun and games?"
ReplyDelete"I'm willing to find out."
-Conversation between Carolyn and Vicki.
Roger has a really nice Mustang. I wonder if it's candy apple red. It's hard to tell in B&W, but I think that's the color he would have. Carolyn seems to have some confused feelings for her uncle Roger that she shares with Vicki. Apparently, he really sends her, and I don't think she means a text message.
Robert Cobert's Rock tune #1, Dum-dum Dee-dee Dum-dum, is playing at the Blue Whale again when Burke and Joe meet. This must be a juke box favorite. You may recall hearing this tune in Episode 2 when Carolyn is introduced. Cobert's Rock tune #2, Dum Da-da Dum, is playing when Burke offers Joe $2,375 for information on the Collins' family. It is the exact amount he needs for a down payment on a fishing boat that would enable him to be self employed and tie the knot with Carolyn. Honest Joe Haskell won't take it.
We find out from Maggie that Burke used to pose for her pop's paintings for quarters, but that her pop has not mentioned him in all the years since. We also learn that Burke made his fortune in a filthy dive bar in Montevideo, because some character offered him a proposition. I wonder what that could have been. Also, what does Maggie's Pop have to do with Roger and the Burke business?
We are introduced to another ancestral painting today that hangs over the piano in the Collinwood drawing room. Carolyn tells Vicki it is Isaac Collins, who founded the town of Collinsport and built the Collins' fishing fleet. Carolyn says that Uncle Roger bears a resemblance to him.
A shout out to Bob Lloyd, who will be our announcer for 328 episodes. You'll hear him read off the slates at the beginning as well as announce that Dark Shadows has been a Dan Curtis Production at the end. Sometimes he will let us know what shows are coming up on ABC while the end credits roll. You can hear him entice us to watch The Dating Game and Supermarket Sweep during today's end credits.
I liked the opening slates in the first year episodes. They stop showing them after Frid joins the cast. Anyone know why we're getting to see them in the first year? (It also seems as if exterior shots become far fewer in number during the Frid years. I was very surprised to see all the shots of people walking around outside, etc. during the first year.)
ReplyDeleteHi Karen - When MPI began releasing the show, they started with the Barnabas episodes, and I doubt they thought anyone would care to see the opening slates, as they'd just interrupt the flow of the narrative. It was only after they had released those episodes through the end of the series did they decide to release "The Beginning," at a point when they knew how popular the show had become. They might have made the decision that viewers would find it interesting, not only to see the recording vs air dates, but also to see what was going on during the slate shots. I too missed them once Barnabas arrived in our chronological viewing of the show, for those reasons, and also as a confirmation which episode we were about to watch. It would have been nice to get those when they reissued the series as a single set, but I can't deny that would have been a lot of work to do that for ~1000 episodes just for the handful of fans that would have appreciated it. One thing I constantly remind myself is how lucky we are that the show was preserved!
ReplyDeleteSo Roger doesn't have much to do with the Business. It's Elizabeth and Bill Malloy. Ooohhh, Burke. He has unfinished Business with the Collins. Carolyn telling Vickie to lock her door and get a good night's sleep, "Cause you're gonna need it." Yep, I guess we're gonna meet David.
ReplyDelete