Julia's Days of Desperation

EPISODES 356-365

Worried for her life due to Barnabas and Carolyn's constant tauntings, Julia hands her notebook over to a lawyer named Anthony Peterson to keep it safe. Carolyn attempts to steal it but fails each time. On top of that, Barnabas casts a spell on Julia to drive her mad that causes her to see things.

During Julia's hours of desperation, Sarah appears to her. She also finally appears to Barnabas telling him she will go away forever unless he becomes good again. To seek Sarah's help and to prove David is right, Julia suggests to do another séance, during which Vicki is somehow sent back to the past and a governess of that time appears in her place.

Before everything else, I'd like to take a moment to honor the late Burke Devlin, who is now officially declared dead. Actually the bodies in the plane were all burned beyond recognition but forget him folks he ain't coming back. Though I bet if the show went on for another couple of years, he'd eventually be brought back. Afterall isn't that the thing with the soaps? Also, what kind of a plane has only 16 passengers I wonder. Apparently it wasn't the best season for Brazil. 

Long story short, so long Mr. Devlin~

Vicki's still in denial but you know what they say, there's nothing like a time travel to ease the pain of grief.

But there's someone else in Collinwood that is also having a bad time. Dr. Julia Hoffman hasn't always been the well balanced of the bunch. However, what she is going through right now is starting to take it's toll even more. She has to deal with,

a) Barnabas' open death threats

b) Carolyn's tauntings, stalkings and snoopings

c) Barnabas' ancient Indian spell that makes her see stuff like the ghost of Dave Woodard, blood running down walls etc.

"What's your favorite
scary movie, Julia?"

I really felt sorry for the woman during her locked-in hours in the Collins' Tomb and in Collinwood during the storm. Yes Grayson Hall did over act those scenes and yes her scream does sound like a goat but she also displayed the feeling of isolation and helplessness quite good. But I gotta add I really liked the telephone call scene -right out of Scream movies- with "Who's this?"es and the caller on the other end, the voice of Dr. Woodard in this case, blustering to an alone and scared woman in the house. And as they do it in those films, the helpless victim should immediately hang up the phone and dial 911, not rub the reciever all over their cheeks and wait for the caller to stop his threats..Right Julia?

That's where I find myself asking "Girl, is it worth it?". Why doesn't she just go ahead and expose Barnabas, with the medical evidence and all. She has nothing to lose but her life; surely losing her medical licence won't be as unbearable as this psychological torture. At least she's come to her senses and offered the séance. It's a bit wussy to hide behind a little ghost girl but if that's what it takes, I say go for it and they did~ But back on that later..

What the worst thing Barnabas did to Julia is however, at one point pretending to have feelings for her. Now I can take all the blood and the ghosts and stuff but you. can't. mess. with another person's feelings!!!! That's where I started to feel sad for her rather than sorry. She bought it for like five minutes and didn't really think much about it afterwards but I just know deep down, despite all the murder attempts she still has feelings for Barnabas and this hurt more than the rest. Wow look at me, am I over dramatic or what?

Time travel to 40's

And let's talk about Anthony "Tony" Peterson. He is as Carolyn so beautifully put it "rude and violent..and yes (he's) attractive". He practically appeared out of nowhere, a random lawyer that has a minor work related case against the Collins family but Julia, being a sly woman despite all the shit that's been happening to her, stuck to him like a tick and had him involved in the whole deal. Tony is such a film-noir character. He has the attitude required from the anti-heroic protaganist of noirs; he surely dresses more like a PI than a lawyer. He gets involved in the case unwillingly and Carolyn works like a charm as the deceitful femme-fatale. But Tony must have seen tons of those films for he always managed to evade Carolyn's foxy tricks. 

He also had some pretty fun lines. My fave was:

(to Julia) You aren't too..err..stable, are you?

For some reason, this guy reminds me of Billy Zane circa early to mid 90's. I think he'll make a good filler for the hole left by Burke's departure. And he's already given the set that used to be Burke's hotel room so~

The long awaited reunion finally happened and Sarah appeared to Barnabas. But it wasn't the most intimate of the family get-togethers as the angry ghost of little Sarah practically made Barnabas her bitch. He almost got down on his knees and begged for forgiveness but Sarah the unlikely dominatrix wasn't so forgiving and left with an ultimatum. Will Barnabas be a good boy for his sister's sake?

Barnabas 0wn3d!!

There was also a sophisticated showdown between Liz and Barnabas concerning the séance and David's welfare. Barnabas may have the fangs but Liz has the balls. You go girl!!

Carolyn fakes her trances

And I gotta say, Barnabas had the worst plan during the séance: Have Carolyn fake the possession. I mean seriously dude? How embarrasing it was to watch Carolyn mimic Vicki's previous channeling of the spirits but with such poorness. Then Vicki, the Sponge Bob for the spirits, got sucked into a real trance by Sarah and named Carolyn a big faker. HAH! Suck it blondie! After that Carolyn could do nothing but deny it like a 5 year old child. Real mature~

Governess swap!

However, different from the other séances which Roger is already deeply accustomed to (even though his ritual isn't so fluent) something else happened and two women of two different time periods got swapped. It's like a governess exchange program really. Obviously it was a trick by Sarah to have Vicki see how it all began. And in the process this out of time governess, Phyliss Wick, can learn a thing or two about vacuum cleaning and washing machines. 

Ohh and how hilarilously impulsive was Roger establishing his "authority" on the poor little girl who just did a 200 year jump into the future when he said "we ask the questions here". Somebody please give this impotent guy a bone to play with!

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Ahh finally the long waited time travel episodes!!! Actually I wanted to have up to Episode 371 covered in this post as to conclude the Collection 4 but I realized the time travel elements would totally overshadow poor Julia's adventures as the vampire-bait.

Now, Vicki's outside the now-not-so-old Old House wondering how she got there. Let's watch and see how she'll climb herself up this one.