DARK SHADOWS 188

 

DARK SHADOWS 188

 

“The time has come for there to be an end to it.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“Our situation has come to an explosive head.”

 

“With Laura, you can’t be sure of anything.”

 

 

Vicki gets an IDU when Laura tells Roger that she’s leaving without David.

 

As an aside, Diana seems to play Laura as slightly human and it’s terrific. She seems to look really concerned about leaving Burke when he knocks on her door and announces it is he. She also seems, in her own way, unless she’s just a really great liar, to love David in some alien phoenix way and perhaps not the way love is defined to human beings. Or maybe she doesn’t. Doesn’t love anyone and it’s all fakery and lies. It’s still difficult to know. Does she think David will be born into a new life in some other dimension after being BURNED ALIVE? Ewl.

 

Burke seems to think Laura’s tears are real and they look real. Thus, we may never know if they are or they are not. Laura is complicated…or just completely evil and faking it all. It’s really up to you as a viewer to decide. She’ll rise from the flames? And David will to? Or will he be sacrificed? It’s never fully made clear what will happen, only that David and THIS Laura will be burned alive. If Laura is burned as she was a few months back (which in and of itself does NOT make sense), WHEN will she be back again---a few months after or in 100 years? What about David? If he’s the son of a phoenix, will he resurrect too?

 

Why doesn’t Vicki sit in David’s room all night? She should know that Laura can get into bedrooms without using doors…after all she did it in Vicki’s own bedroom.

 

I think it’s stunning that the female, Vicki, is completely wise and wary of Laura while both male leads, Roger and Burke feel Laura will leave without a struggle and leave without David. Vicki is right, of course.

 

It’s come to my attention during this episode that THIS storyline probably has the least amount of boring, slow moving, and bad episodes than any other storyline, in fact, I can think of maybe one or two episodes during the Laura storyline that dragged a bit and of course, some flaws here and there, some described above, however, this storyline is possibly the strongest and most entertaining and closest to horror…at least cerebral horror than any storyline before (of course) and after. It is probably as perfect as DS can get.

 

Burke drinks. Just as he says if Laura does go, there’s no need for him to take David on the fishing trip. WHAT? He’s going to renege on David’s fishing trip? WHY would he do that?

 

Burke flubs, “He could use a good sport anyway.” What? He also flubbed earlier when he told Laura, “Some of the things that have happened to you,” and then corrects it with something like, “Some of things that have happened around you.”

 

Vicki says she intends to sit up with him all night until she’s certain he’s out of any danger but as she says this Laura appears in David’s room!

 

Now, the “special” effect of this is a trick used before in this storyline and it will become a trick the show will use many times in the future with Barnabas and Angelique and probably others: the actress is in the room already in a very dark corner. A light is thrown on her and it appears that she just transported into the room, though here it doesn’t really work the way they intended but it’s adequate as I don’t think anyone is going to be thinking about that but about the plot coming to a head: she’s taking David!

 

Laura seems to love David until….she begins lying to him in this scene.

 

One thing that I don’t understand is why the others didn’t just tell David the truth: your mother is trying to kill you and she’s a supernatural creature. He would believe that AND that Josette was trying to protect him. Instead, they, too, including Vicki, have lied to him about the séance. David feared Laura so much at the start of this storyline and her return, that his fear would return and make him NOT want to go with her. Instead, now Laura lies and tells David that Roger is going to send him to boarding school and tells him not to tell Burke that David will go with her fishing. “They have fishing where we’re going,” and she even tells him she’s sure they have muskies where they are going. Where ARE they going? The Elysian fields?

 

Is there a reason Vicki thinks it is tonight but Laura will make it tomorrow night? Is it past midnight when she figured that? Is the timing and date off somehow? Maybe the next ep will tell us?

 

Laura lies a lot here TO David and even wants him to pretend to the others tomorrow and to fake being sick tomorrow morning when Burke comes to take him away. She’s absolutely charming AND creepy all at the same time, especially when calling to David when she wakes him up.

 

Does she more of a hold on David’s thoughts and fear than we might think? Is she also using some power to put him to sleep?

 

The credits, which flash by quick and have none of the stars nor who they play, still stubbornly say 1966 but it’s been 1967 for at least three months.

 

Another solid, tense and well acted episode.

 

Past review:

188

      Burke feels they are not dealing with logic or reality. Vicki pleads with

      Burke to take David now and I agree. Roger goes to see Laura and tells her

      the bad news. Laura says without meaning it, "How dreadful," full of

      sarcasm. Roger tells her their business has come to an explosive head! He

      tells Laura he wants her to leave and so she is soon packing. Why is she

      packing? For show? Does she know she's going to be burned alive and

      reborn? How does that work exactly and does she appear in her clothes with

      a new wardrobe? If you examine it too much, it just does not make sense.

      Laura also seems genuinely upset. Is she? Is she faking? Is the phoenix a

      part of her that comes out every now and again? No real answers. Burke

      also goes to Laura to find out if she's telling the truth. He knew her

      apparently before Roger, before "trouble." She cries and they see to be

      real tears and she and Burke acknowledge the tears. Later, there's a

      terrific fade cross of Laura's face watching David in his bed. Vicki locks

      David's door but...hey, why not sit with him all night? Burke is convinced

      Laura is going to leave. Vicki says, "With Laura you can't be sure of

      anything." Burke will call off the David trip. Why? How can he do that to

      a kid? Vicki gets Burke to agree to take David away anyway, sure that

      David is still in danger. Even Roger gives her nice looks for this.

 

      Laura appears in David's room. Look behind David's bed and on the wall.

      What is that? David will go with her and she tells him he does not need

      permission. She lies that Roger is going to send him to a boarding school.

      She tells him to meet her at 11:30PM tomorrow night at the fishing shack

      and to act sick to fool the others. She lies that they can come back and

      visit. Chimes ring in the room two or three times and then stop in the

      room. The credits are about five seconds long! And STILL in 1966.

 

      A good ep, almost the last that Laura as human or semi human gets to have

      some normal talk scenes and it's pretty well done. The cast has become

      rather charming. One thing: I'm surprised David can't see through Laura's

      line of BS, still, it’s his mother so maybe that explains why he's so

      blinder eyed with her and no one else. He usually sees through adult's

      lines of BS but this new changed David seems to believe everything

      everyone tells him in this ep, even Burke's fishing trip and that Roger of

      all people will allow him go!

 

 

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