MAGIC EPISODE!!! This episode includes some of the most frightening moments of the series--all the more so for being so understated. Sorry this is soooo long, but there are just so many thrilling moments!
Elizabeth is still frozen in shock when a little girl suddenly speaks to her. It's Amy, and she says she's looking for her brother. The animal ran away when it saw her. (So we have another scenario in which a little girl has a very troubled big brother.) Amy is apparently afraid of nothing on this earth, neither the dark nor the woods nor being out alone. Elizabeth is still shaken by the memory of what she just saw. Do you live around here? Amy asks. Yes, Elizabeth replies, I live at Collinwood. The big house by the water? Amy asks. Yes, Elizabeth replies. Oh, it’s very pretty, Amy says admiringly. I wish I lived there! You must come with me before the creature returns, Elizabeth says as she takes Amy’s hand. They walk away together.
At Collinwood, Elizabeth nearly collapses as she tells Julia about the animal that walked like a man. Amy has been staring around the foyer, marveling at the high-ceilinged Great Staircase and the portraits. Telling Amy to stay with Elizabeth, Julia goes upstairs to get a sedative. [While Amy and Elizabeth chat in the foyer, someone runs across the foreground.] Are you Mrs. Stoddard? Amy asks. Elizabeth says yes and thanks her for scaring off the creature. Amy says shyly, That's okay. I have to be going. I'm looking for my brother. It's too late to be out alone, Elizabeth points out. Amy replies, It's only too late for those afraid of the dark--and I’m not. I could see that in the woods, Elizabeth says dryly. Amy pleads with Julia not to send her back to Windcliff. Elizabeth says why not let her stay at Collinwood. Amy’s happiness is heartbreaking to see. As if by magic David (wearing a green terrycloth bathrobe) materializes. His aunt tells him, David, This is Amy Jennings. She is going to be staying with us tonight. The children greet each other politely and head for the kitchen.
Up in David's room, the children talk about the Great House. David says no one has ever counted all the room, although very early on, Elizabeth told Vicki there were forty of them. There's a whole wing, the West Wing, closed off all the time, David reveals. I don't want to tell you why--it’ll keep you awake, he adds coyly, hoping to scare her. It's haunted! Amy guesses immediately--and delightedly. She pleads with David to show her the WW, and he's glad to oblige.
These two kids are excellent actors and utterly natural with one another! As far as I can remember, Denise Nickerson turned in a flawless performance almost every time. Poor Amy is pathetically lonely. How sad that Tom, the cheerful brother who raised her, met such a terrible end. The moody Chris, whom she knows less well but still loves, seems not to want her. She would probably have told David that she loved being in shipwrecks just to keep him with her.
The West Wing is a seemingly endless warren of unlit, deserted rooms festooned with cobwebs and crammed with unused old furniture. David shows Amy a portrait of Thaddeus Collins, who was alive during the Civil War. They find a storage room, which has has even more cobwebs. It also has a narrow brass bed [spoiler](later featured in PT 1840)[/spoiler], as well as a ship model [spoiler](much later the notorious _Java Queen_ of 1970)[/spoiler]. David says casually, Another room, down the corridor, has a secret passageway. You’re so lucky to live here! Amy says. She sees a nineteenth-century telephone--the classic candlestick model--on the floor and picks it up. Of course the phone is disconnected--the wire is broken off just a few inches from the base.
The kids decide to play a game with the phone. Amy picks up the receiver and says brightly, My name is Amy Jennings. What's yours?... That's a nice name. Where do you live?... Somewhere near this room?... If David and I came looking for you, could we see you?... Could you hold on for just a minute? Amy turns to David, her eyes wide with fear and delight. The West Wing IS haunted! she says excitedly. What are you talking about? David asks skeptically. I think the man I'm talking to is a ghost, she says. That's enough pretending, David says, a little alarmed in spite of himself. There really IS someone on the phone, Amy insists. You’re making it up, David argues. The ghost's name is Quentin Collins, Amy tells him (the first mention of his name). I've never heard of anyone by that name, David says. Why don’t you listen on the phone, Amy suggests as she passes the receiver to David. You'll find out. David takes the earpiece and says, Hello? When no one replies, he turns to Amy and starts, Isn't that strange. I think your ghost has lost his-- Suddenly he recoils in surprise. I can hear someone breathing! he exclaims. He moves the receiver away from his ear as we hear the quiet click of someone hanging up.
The kids return to Amy's room and look at pictures of Quentin as a kid, but they don't share them with us. Elizabeth comes to check on her little houseguest, and the kids ask her about Quentin. Elizabeth replies, He was my great-uncle. [This genealogy is in fact accurate, as we will find out]. He left Collinwood while still young, went to France and died in Paris. Why do you ask? David explains, I saw his name in a family history and got curious. Already conspirators, David and Amy wish each other a knowing goodnight.
Much later, Amy gets out of bed and picks up the receiver of the DISCONNECTED phone, as if she actually had heard it ring. Why didn't you speak to David? she asks. He was very disappointed... What? All right. She listens intently. Where do you want me to come? Will you be there?... She smiles and says, All right--I'll come right now.... Yes. Goodbye, Quentin. She hangs up and leaves the room, first checking to make sure the hallway is deserted. We get a look through the window at the end of the hall as actual rain comes down for only the second--and last--time in the show as Amy returns to the West Wing. She looks around, her brown eyes huge in her face as she returns to the storage room she and David explored earlier. Quentin? she calls out confidently. I'm here, Quentin. Aren't you going to come out and see me? She looks around hopefully....
