Back to Basics

With Laura out of the way, the show once again focuses on the mysteries that have been pushed aside in Episodes #191-195

• David watches as Laura burns in agony/ecstasy like a fried chicken and then rushes to Vicki's arms who's arrived at the fish shack. The spell hasn't worked on David.

Will she rise again?

• Liz wakes up from the trance with Carolyn by her side. After making sure David's OK and all, she wonders if Dr Guthrie has been prowling in the house, especially in the basement?

Liz has her own concerns

• Burke takes Vicki and David home, who doesn't remember anything about the fire and is told his mother is gone. When he's sent to bed, Burke explains they couldn't find the body; only the infamous Collins family locket. Roger's sad to hear about Laura's demise.

Roger takes the news rather bad

• Joe arrives at Maggie's house all dirty from the search and they, along with Sam, discuss Laura's identity as the Phoenix.

Phoenix speculators

• The next morning, Sam's hands are almost healed overnight and he's visited by an art dealer of some sort, Anna Wintour Portia Fitzsimmons, who wants to do an exhibiton of his old paintings and make him rich & famous in the process. He's given a week to collect them all.

A character we'll never see again

• So he goes up to Collinwood to see Roger, who covered his bribery 10 years ago by supposedly buying Sam's paintings. They argue as usual: Roger wants to sell them back to him, Sam threatens to go to Burke and sing about "the accident" if he doesn't recieve them in 48 hours. It's a mess.

The tables have turned:
Sam has power over Roger

• At the bar, a man named Jason McGuire asks Joe and Maggie questions about the Collins family, especially about Liz. Joe doesn't wanna give much away but Maggie considers it public knowledge and generously shares.

Enter trouble!

• Liz finally comes back to Collinwood where she secretly keeps asking if basement has been tempered with? (What does she got there..her missing husband?!!) Carolyn also notices her mother's wish to always be in Collinwood. On the night of her return, Liz sneaks down to the basement and into the pad locked door. After spending 15 minutes in there, she's caught on the act by Vicki. She trusts Vicki not to tell anyone about this. 

Basement drama

• The next morning, Liz makes Vicki lie to Carolyn about the previous night, who's heard her mother wander. Liz later apologises to Vicki for putting her through this and doesn't reveal anything else.

Vicki's disturbed by lies

• At the diner, the mysterious Jason McGuire impresses Maggie with his fancy French and stories about his travels all over the world. He says he's a "first officer" (that's a second captain of a ship in case you were as clueless as moi). Vicki enters and upon learning she works for the Collins', Jason asks question about the family, and Paul Stoddard (Liz's missing husband...hmm very curious). Vicki gets suspicious of the man.

Jason meets Vicki

• Jason pays a visit to Collinwood, introduces himself as an old friend and practically invites himself in. Carolyn kinda flirts with him like she does with any man old enough to be her dad while waiting for her mother to come down. When Liz enters the drawing room and sees the man, her warm welcoming look turns into one of shock (not the good way).

Trouble indeed!

New characters, new plotpoints and only 14 more episodes til Season 2!!~¨
ps. We won't be seeing Laura for some another couple of hundred episodes. Good! But I have one question. If she burns herself every 100 hundred years and this last one was one of 'em, what was the current fire in Phoenix, Arizona all about?