O Sister, Where Art Thou?

EPISODES 301-315

Burke's investigation of Barnabas controverts everything Barnabas has been claiming about his origin. However, Burke's forced to drop the case when Vicki scowls him about it.

It seems everybody in town is looking for the mysterious Sarah: Sam Evans and his party think she'll help uncover the secret of Maggie's disappearance meanwhile Barnabas and Julia speculate why she is here.

Julia still poses as the family historian to everyone but the people closely involved with Maggie's case. They too begin to doubt her intentions.

Sarah takes David to the secret room in the Collins Tomb where he gets locked up. The search party can't find him and Barnabas will kill him if David finds out about his "condition". After a couple of days of lock in and with Sarah's help, David finally gets out but right into Barnabas' arms.

The Burke vs Barnabas Round I: The Pissing Contest was fun to watch with both men stating their mutual dislike which Burken likens to a game of cards and Barnabas to a duel. Burke'd finally started to put the pieces together (the music box, Barnabas' fake past in England etc.) and he was close to uncover the secret when Barnabas found out about it and did the coyest thing possible: Complain to Vicki. Actually it was a one stone two birds move that'd remove Burke as a threat and disrupt his relationship with Vicki, so it was actually more smart than coy. But what the heck, I was supporting Team Burke. 

A forced truce

And what Vicki did afterwards was more painful to watch. She, not unpredictably, got offended by Burke's prying into a gentleman like Barnabas' life and got as sour as Nicole Kidman's post-op face. She then shamelessly used the marriage card to make Burke frakkin' apologize to Barnabas which he did at the end (but not without biting his tongue). There appears to be a truce between them but Burke's lost this round! Raise your hand if you too have found Vicki's naivety a little too much to swallow. And I'd never thought I'd say this about her but what a bitch for threatening to call off the marriage when she barely accepted his proposal. You'll feel sorry if Barnabas snaps Burke's neck like a twig my dear Vicki.

My, isn't Sarah highly popular for a ghost (Josette must be turning over in her grave with envy).. The whole town is practically after her. Personally I find her overrated and annoying with her random showing-ups and her ball games and musical performances and the objects she leaves behind. Cross over already!

What's so special about her really?

But then I'm satisfied with Julia's theory that she's here because Barnabas has willed so and she represents everything innocent and sunshiney, you know the things Barnabas had lost! It also seems Barnabas himself is very sentimental about his sister, confirming my theories about her being the antidote for his evilism. Their reunion is yet to occur. I've a feeling it's gonna happen at a crucial point.

Meanwhile Julia and Barnabas' relationship is getting interesting. She's conducting her experiments while trying to suppress his murderous instincts, mostly to save her own neck quite literally as Barnabas tends to choke her with his bare hands when he's not happy. But they get along one way or another, it's quite symbiotic really. Barnabas openly voices his dislike of Julia's domineering characteristics because he's an old fart. He obviously feels threatened since he ain't the only scary thing around cause he knows Julia looks equally scary in candle light, if not more. But I wonder if the injections she regularly gives him are the real deal or she's just stalling him. Afterall, can vampirism be cured?

Julia gets her daily dose of choking

However, Barnabas isn't the only thing Julia is worried about as she's facing exposition. She's the true meaning of a double agent: Only Maggie, Joe, Sam and Doc Woodard knows that she is a doctor but what they don't know is, she knows about Barnabas' true face and works her ass off to cover his tracks. It's proper to say her true loyalty lies with Barnabas but that doesn't mean she agrees with his method of handling things, namely her throat for instance.
One way or another, Maggie and the others begin to get suspicious as to why she isn't treating her and instead living the luxury life in Collinwood under the disguise of a historian. Dr. Woodard rightfully thinks Julia has come across to something supernatural and isn't sharing. Also on that note, almost everyone in town is convinced there's a supernatural force at work in Collinsport due to the number of unexplainable happenings. I'm getting a Twin Peaksy vibe and lovin' it!

If these walls could talk..

Everybody's looking for Sarah but she chooses David as the lucky contestant to take to her secret playground that is the secret room in the Collins' Tomb. Obviously it wouldn't be a soap if there wasn't a captivity or immobility involved in every 10 episodes or so and thankfully, David fills that hole when he accidentally locks himself in there. You know what I hate more than those captivity plots? It's those scenes when some characters, Roger and Joe in this case, show up at that exact location but fail to find the missing person. It happened before with Vicki when Matthew had her and many other times with Maggie recently. This time, David falls asleep with fatigue just moments before they arrive and misses them with mere seconds when they leave. It. is. just. cruel.

Roger in multicolor learns
 the news about David

Speaking of Roger, he'd been missing for like 20 episodes and he finally made his in-color debut. Can't really  say he looks better or less cunning. His absence is explained away as a trip to Boston where Liz also is right now. Understandably after 18 years of self-imprisonment that woman deserves a shopping spree. It's also a good thing she is finally out and about just in time for the upcoming hippie movement.

Anyways, when the kids entered that room and saw the coffin, I thought they were gonna find Jason McGuire's body as we last saw it being hidden there. However the coffin was empty and there is no trace of Jason's body. I wonder if they're ever gonna explain what happened to it.

Always an opportunist

The scene where Barnabas comforted a worried and crying Vicki in his arms was interesting when Barnabas suddenly got all worked up and excited and bared his fangs unexpectedly to bite the poor girl. His performance of course got interrupted when Carolyn walked in but the whole thing was so random that I kind of chuckled. This also falls in the same league as the classical vampire mythology where "biting" ritual symbolizes the sexual intercourse compared to today's modern and openly sexualized vampire stereotype. It's also interesting to note Barnabas only bared his fangs to Maggie and Vicki; the objects of his desire. His usual method of violence is by strangulation (Jason, Willie, Julia to name a few) and the biting is reserved only for special events.

That's why children shouldn't
play at cemeteries.

After some time of imprisonment (was it one full day or two days, I dunno I lost the track of it) and with many worried people around, the question of why Sarah waited all this time to reappear and show David the secret mechanism that opens the door from inside is beyond me. But with Barnabas onto him with the intention of murder (despite Julia and Willie's tries at discourement), David is hardly free and faces a greater danger than just starvation. I mean we know that David doesn't know anything about Barnabas being a vampire but he does know that he and Willie are aware of the secret room in the tomb. Will David be able to figure it all out as he's caught in Barnabas grip? Ok Sarah, now would be a great time to make your grand enterance.


I haven't really had time to update the blog lately as so much is going on right now, one of which is my sister recently gave birth to a son and made me an uncle for the 2nd time. Believe me it never gets old :)

Also, has everyone seen the first glimpses of Johnny Depp as Barnabas from the set of the movie? It's too early to judge but from the looks of it, Tim Burton is indeed going for a cartoony adaptation. Seriously, how many more times do we have to see Johnny Depp in a pale make-up!! And the young woman next to him is Bella Heathcote as Vicki Winters and they're strolling during the day???