Liz is in the drawing room when Mrs. Johnson rushes in. She says she just heard a report on the radio that said Mr. Devlin's plane went down over the Amazon. Liz says she's not to say anything to anyone until she finds out if it's true or not. Liz calls the airline but is unable to confirm anything yet. She tells Mrs. Johnson to remain calm and quiet until they know the truth.
Barnabas asks Julia what she's doing. She says she's working on her notes. They talk about Vicki and Barnabas explains that in time, she will come to him as Josette. Julia asks him if Josette ever came to him willingly. He stands up, clearly offended. She asks why Josette is so important to him, when he was not so important to her. He asks why she's so curious about Josette, as if she was a rival of hers. He tells her to grab her coat, and he'll tell her all about Josette at the place where she died.
Vicki comes into the drawing room and says she's going to go for a walk. She sees the floor plan of the West Wing, and says Burke will know just how to plan things. She says she misses him so much. She says he used to talk about people who went out on ships on dark, moonless nights like this were... and Mrs. Johnson completes her thought saying ...doing the widow's dance. The phone rings and Liz answers. She asks if there's any question about it, and she hangs up. Mrs. Johnson asks if it's true, and Vicki asks who she was talking to. Vicki asks what happened, and Liz tells her that Burke's plane crashed in the Amazon jungle. She breaks down, and Liz helps her up to her room.
Mrs. Johnson sits with Liz in the drawing room. Liz says the airline might call if the search party finds anything. Mrs. Johnson says Burke is surely dead, and Vicki interrupts her saying that Burke will come back. She says she feels closer to Burke when she's outside, and runs out.
Barnabas tells Julia that Josette was the most beautiful and gentle woman he had seen. He describes the first time he saw her—his middle-aged uncle's new wife. He describes falling in love with her as soon as she smiled at him. He says she was a faithful bride, and then he figured out how he could marry her. She realized she had married an old man, and he felt he could offer her a longer life.
Vicki stumbles out of the bushes and they ask what she's doing. She tells them that they just got word that Burke's plane crashed in the jungle. She needed to get out of the house, and something drew her to the cliff. Barnabas tells Julia to return to the house where she'll be warm. She leaves Vicki alone with Barnabas.
Vicki said she wanted to be alone, but she's glad Barnabas is there. She asks him if he's been to Brazil, and he says he has not. She says she'll ask Burke when he gets back. She tells Barnabas that Mrs. Johnson doesn't believe Burke will be back, and asks what he thinks. Barnabas tells her if it were him, nothing on heaven or Earth would prevent him from returning.
Vicki tells him that he's a good friend. She then hears the wailing wind. She says she thought the cliff was just a place of legend, and that tonight, if she thought Burke were really gone... Barnabas interrupts her, grabbing her shoulders and telling her she must never think like that. He says he is sure she will be a bride soon.
Our thoughts
John: What the hell radio station does Mrs. Johnson listen to? Amazing that it's the one that just happens to monitor international flights of local residents?
Christine: What a great day for Barnabas and Julia! I loved when Julia asks what Barnabas would like to do and he responds by asking what she had in mind. I thought she was going to suggest they neck. The two of them spending evenings at the Old House playing cribbage by the fire is rather a charming picture. The look on his face was telling when she asked him if Josette ever came to him willingly.
John: Well, they certainly wasted no time in getting Burke off the payroll. And poor Vicki. Liz breaks the news with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. The only thing missing was Roger being around to celebrate the news.
Christine: At least we had Mrs. Johnson around to comment on how there's not even Dr. Woodard to call on anymore, as she makes a mad dash for Liz's pink pills on her bureau.
John: Do you think there's any chance that a bat or two flew into the engines of Burke's plane?
Christine: He seemed too surprised by the news to have had any involvement, though it's an interesting prospect. Barnabas now has free reign to put the moves on Vicki, unless lovelorn Julia tries to sabotage his efforts.
Barnabas: It's such a dreary night out, no moon, no sign of life outside. I find the evenings increasingly tedious of late.
Julia: Is there something you'd like to do?
Barnabas: What do you have in mind, Doctor? A game of cards or cribbage?
Julia: If you'd like.
Barnabas: A self deception you call it? Oh, you do amuse me. You and your modern scientific words. You and your cold, clinical thinking.
Julia: My thinking is neither cold nor clinical, believe me.
Barnabas: And your curiosity amuses me, too, as well. You're so curious to know everything. Whatever I tell you, it isn't enough and it's always Josette. Always curious about Josette. As if she were—what shall we say—a rival of yours?
I felt bad for Joan Bennett, struggling to remember the name of the town in Brazil. Why not just say Brazil and be done with it? Also, it once again looks as if Alexandra Moltke is on the verge of laughter in several scenes, most notably when she puts her hands over her face after hearing of Burke's plane crash.
ReplyDeleteBarnabas told a version of his relationship with Josette. The past was so painful that he had to lie about it.
ReplyDelete