Sam sits down with Vicki while she waits in the diner with her coffee. Sam asks where Roger is. He saw them arrive together. He asks if Roger deserted her? He continues to probe, and then realizes he went up to see Burke.
Roger knocks on the door and Burke answers. He asks what happened to him. Roger says he was in an accident, but he survived. He asks Burke about the business deal. Roger wants to talk about it. He wants to know what Roger is driving at. Roger agrees to have a drink, and wants to hear about the business deal.
Sam arrives back home and the phone rings. It was the hotel clerk, calling to see how Maggie was feeling after midnight. Maggie says not to worry about it, she asked him to call. Sam realizes that Maggie had the hotel clerk call if he saw him.
Burke says he wants Roger to talk to Liz about selling the cannery. Roger calls him a liar. He accuses Burke of trying to kill him. Burke denies it, and Roger spells out how he tampered with the car, and then calls down to the diner.
Sam shows Maggie a painting he made of the Collins house, and she says she hates that place.
Burke denies having anything to do with Roger's car as Vicki arrives. Burke jokingly talks about tampering with the car, using a tool... and then hesitates. Roger accuses Devlin of having a wrench, which Vicki confirms. Burke says he picked it up from the front seat before throwing it on the bench. Burke tells Vicki to get Roger out of his room. Burke says he's no longer a young kid who will get railroaded. He then turns to Vicki and suggests she should get on a train out of Collinsport.
Back at Collinwood, Vicki asks if Roger is still sure about Burke being responsible for the accident. Roger says that he needs Vicki now, so she has to stay whether she likes it or not.
Our thoughts
John: Is it safe for Roger to drive with one arm in a sling?
Christine: Is it safe for Roger to drive with one arm in a sling after downing snifters of brandy? I wonder how many cars he has wrecked. Roger's got a lot of bravado while meeting with a man he believes tried to kill him. What happened to the sniveling coward we've come to know and love?
John: Sam seems suddenly sober. Other than the fact that he's incoherent. Of course it may be the fact that his daughter is a long-haired brunette for the first time. She must have really felt ill to not put on what must have been the horrible blonde wig we've seen her in prior to this episode.
Christine: We haven't seen Maggie since Episode 12, so she's had some time to grow and color her hair. Thank goodness the wig is off and the real Maggie Evans is here.
John: Roger seems to like having the upper hand on Burke... as far as he knows. The poorly choreographed slap of Burke's drink out of his hand was quite humorous. Too bad Burke didn't punch him in the nose...
Christine: It's even better in still shots. Enjoy.
Of course the time-warp that is this show has started to affect my mind... But has it been much over 48 hours since Victoria Winters arrived in Collinsport?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I didn't even notice the change in Maggie Evans' hair until my wife mentioned it. I really only remember her from the Barnabus period, so her blonde look never seemed correct anyway.
Vicki's first line in this episode picks up on what she'd said to Roger in Episode 18 when he'd told her he wanted to go confront Devlin- it would be better to go to the police. As of course it would be, if Roger's goal was to win a victory in court. But when it comes to Devlin, Roger is driven by emotions that he can't explain, least of all to himself. His tempestuous vacillations between uncharacteristic courage and sudden quailing during the scene in Devlin's room limn these unpredictable, uncontrollable feelings.
ReplyDeleteThe ending of the episode is especially powerful when you've seen the whole series and knows what staying at Collinwood will mean for Vicki. Up to this point, Liz and, half the time, Carolyn have been the only ones wanting her to stay. It's been the easiest thing in the world for her to go back to New York. But now she's stuck. It will be thirty-four weeks before she even seems to have another chance to leave, and by that time she has joined the ghosts and begun to haunt the house.
Another major point in this one is Mark Allen's substandard acting. For once, he doesn't whine Sam Evans' lines, but neither does he use them to interact with the rest of the cast. He just bellows at them. Marc Masse, in one of the whimsical tales that enliven his blog "Dark Shadows From The Beginning," invites us to imagine Allen sexually assaulting Alexandra Moltke Isles immediately before the filming of this episode. That, he claims, explains Vicki's angry reaction to Sam in the diner. He also says it led Lela Swift to put rat poison in the tea cup Allen lifts to his lips during his scene with Kathryn Leigh Scott.
Be that as it may, Mrs Isles' decision to play Vicki as hostile and distrustful of Sam on the one hand makes sense in light of her previous encounter with him as a menacing figure who nearly prompted her to fall the edge of a cliff and on the other hand enables her to stand up to his bellowing. Miss Scott, by contrast, just bellows back. Her bellowing is more agreeable to listen to than his, but it hardly saves the scene.