The Wedding Bells part II

The wedding chronicles continues...


MAGGIE'S DISAPPEARANCE

To Josette or
Not To Josette

The last we checked, David was face to face with Maggie in the Old House. So she comes down the stairs behind a curtain of veils and David thinks it is his friend Josette. They engage in a conversation where Maggie, still confused about her identity, can't recall something imporant she is supposed to say to him. When Roger and Vicki appear at the door, David walks away to answer it and Maggie disappears just like we think she would. With the addition of Barnabas to the group, David lies about seeing Josette and they leave. Back at the house when they're alone, (having smelled the scent of jasmine = Maggie's perfume) Vicki makes David admit that Josette was there.

The Sheriff also visits the Old House that night and comes very close to finding Maggie when he hears the music box from upstairs..but being a very serious man of the law, he fails to investigate further. When he leaves, Barnabas pushes Maggie more into Josettedom.

Office raid

Meanwhile at the hospital, Doctor Woodard is trying to determine the cause of the anomaly found in Maggie's blood. He claims it to be terrifying, impossible and eventually inhuman (that's as close to saying supernatural as a man of science can get and it's good enough for us). He's waiting for a blood specialist called Dr. Hoffman (mark this name!!) to come and have a look. But that night, he finds his office trashed, blood samples missing and the bars on the window bent like as if by Hulk. They reach the conclusion that Maggie was taken from her bed.

Doc tries hard to keep a straight
face to Barnabas' blood poetry

The next day Doctor Woodard goes up to the Old House and asks Willie to give a blood sample as he once showed the same symptoms as Maggie. Willie, scared that his connection with the case will be revealed, refuses it like a rabid dog and only Barnabas' interference calms him down. Barnabas promises Willie's blood if he can persuade him later. And he does. The next day, Woodard comes back to collect the sample, which Barnabas switches with one of the random ones he took during his office-trash rave as he distracts the Doctor with poetic words. As expected, he doesn't find anything unusual with that sample.

"Ceci n'est pas une pipe"

Meanwhile, Sam is sinking like Titanic and Burke encourages him to paint to get his mind off things. Sam takes his advice and they go up to the Old House to work on the Barnabas portrait. He isn't home (coffin break) and Willie, scared silly that Maggie will show up any minute, tells him to take the painting home and work on it there. While they're outside loading the portrait and the easel to the car, Maggie comes down to the living room and grabs Sam's fancy looking pipe. She goes up right before they come in looking for it. Sam's unable to find it and leaves thinking he must have dropped it somewhere else. 

Rise and shine!

Maggie gets confused about her identity again. Willie insists that she is Josette but she claims to be someone else. When the right time arises, she sneaks out of the house claiming she has to take the pipe somewhere. Barnabas rises from his coffin in the cobwebby cellar (I mean they cleaned up the whole house but they still keep the cellar as it was and for what..creep factor? Puh-lease), he gets mad at Willie for letting in Sam blah blah and finally/unfortunately realizes Maggie's gone! They rush out of the house so fast papers would fly behind them.

Maggie's ghostly appearance

Back at his house, Sam's working on the portrait here and there looking very professional and Burke's making him sandwiches in the kitchen (remember when things were nice n simple and Burke was pushing Sam around about his trial). Suddenly, Sam spots Maggie outside the window standing like a ghost. They rush out but she's gone...

The Sheriff comes back after hours of searching but they can't find her anywhere. Burke wasn't able to see her so Sam is reluctantly convinced he imagined it.

The punishment

Maggie, and I really dunno how she got there, is wandering through the cemetery (It's a tie between super speed or teleportation powers) and runs into Barnabas, who's quite furious that she escaped. To punish her and make her forget about her Maggieness, he takes her to the secret chamber in the Collins Tomb and puts her inside a coffin against her saddening screams. I think of all the evil he's done so far, this is the worst!

Maggie plays Josette

The next morning, Willie lets her out as soothingly as possible. Back in Josette's room, looking at the mirror Maggie finally remembers her own name and forces herself to keep remembering, even against Josette's hypnotizing music box. She decides to play along to the Josette identity, getting extra flirty with Barnabas and extra snobby with Willie the servant. Barnabas gives her a very expensive diamond necklace that's been in the family for ages but was meant for Josette in the first place.

The Love Nest

Maggie sneaks down to the cellar to listen in on Barnabas & Willie's conversation as Willie builds another coffin for Maggie/Josette. Barnabas, happy that Maggie's finally succumbed to being Josette, plans to give his "bride" eternal life the following night.

Obviously diamonds are not
Willie's best friend

The next day, Maggie comes down to the cellar and pretends to be Josette but this time Willie catches her act. She begs him to let her go and offers to run together, even waving the diamond necklace in front of his face like meat to a lion. Willie rejects as he's a big floppy coward. He stops Maggie from staking Barnabas with a wood/iron sharp spike thing. They hear Barnabas' heart beats emitting from the coffin during the ruffle. Maggie fakes defeat and retreats to her room.

Maggie the vampire slayer?

Dressed in the wedding gown and the necklace ready for her death/rebirth, Maggie is taken down to the cellar is left there alone to wait for Barnabas' awakening. She once again grabs the stake, opens the coffin to reveal the sleeping Barnabas and lifts her hands in a staking motion when Barnabas opens his eyes and pushes her away. He gets up, baring his vampire fangs!!!

Damn, it was close!!! Well actually I think Maggie had millions of chances to escape from the Old House but used none of them. 

And about Barnabas. He's one of those kind and noble on the outside but rotten evil on the inside characters; placing him as a living critique of aristocracy. He'll eventually walk the fine line between good and evil on the road to redemption but that's later..Right now he's pissing me off for terrorising my dear Maggie. What's creepy about him though is that he actually believes Maggie is Josette and he's trying to rewrite the past into a future where they'll live happily ever after.

Btw it really seems that Josette the ghost has left this realm for good. We hope she crossed over nice and good and has a peaceful afterlife. Take care dahlin'~

We also say farewells to Mitch Ryan aka Burke Devlin as he did his final appearance in episode 248. He got fired due to his alcoholism and his failure to show up for an episode's shooting! Luckily in the later years he snapped out of it and continued to work as a successful actor. The new Burke is yet to be seen..