No fashion notes because it's still Day 6 and nobody's changing clothes. Damn you, Art Wallace. Art wrote both of these babies, by the way. I have to give him props though, there's some good stuff in here.
Our first episode has two sets. The Evans Cottage with its increasingly confusing geography and the hotel lobby. The second episode features Burke's hotel suite with some unwise close-ups of Burke's sofa, and Collinwood's drawing room and foyer.
Casa Evans: When last we left, an outraged Burke was busy inviting his way into Maggie's dinner party. And that's where we pick up. I find this entire episode cringe worthy for a number of reasons, which I promise I will explain in this column. Anyhow, it's a very awkward scenario. It's a situation that perhaps some of us have been in. You stop by a friend's house or you call and they're having people over, people you know too. It's sometimes not comfortable. I would guess that if this has ever happened to you, you did the graceful thing and try to make it less awkward, either by leaving or cheerfully telling the person to call you later. Not Burke. Oh no. Maggie, ever perky, always trying to gloss over the unpleasantness Maggie uncomfortably explains that this is a special occasion. And Burke still ain't going away. Then Sam suggests that perhaps Maggie didn't make enough food for four and Burke glibly proposes he could have a sandwich. It's painful to watch really.
Vicki seems to be onto Burke. All three of them are feeling distinctly uncomfortable and he's bound and determined to keep them uncomfortable. He harasses all three of them. Now why Sam doesn't go and take the sheriff up on his offer, I do not know.
What I do know is that I really hate Burke at this moment. He's on par with Angelique when [spoiler]she's destroying Beth by telling her about her engagement to Quentin[/spoiler] or when Barnabas [spoiler]is pretending he cares for Julia[/spoiler] for me when it comes to casual cruelty. Now I do not dispute that Burke has a real, legitimate grievance against Sam. I agree that he's not far off in conjecturing that Sam knows something about Bill Malloy. And I see fully that Burke has reason not to trust in the system that sent him up for five years. No question. But I have never liked characters who drag innocent parties into their mess and that would be what Burke is doing.
I mean there's Maggie - a character I generally don't care for - and I feel so badly for her. She's gone to all this effort after a long day at work. She's got her new friend over, probably the one person who doesn't look at her and identify her as the daughter of the town lush. She's got the good china out. Her father is home, comparatively sober, and has been behaving somewhat like the man she used to know and respect. And yes, it's a sad, pathetic little dinner party of three, but it's all she has.
Then there's Vicki, who's gotten all dolled up, who was so excited about being invited out (you could tell by the way Moltke delivered the line last episode about "dining with friends" that Vicki was thrilled to be able to say that). She's met a real artist. She finally is in a situation where people are not yelling at her or refusing to answer her questions and it's shaping up to be a nice evening, and then again, it's gone.
Anyhow, Sam leaves for the kitchen ostensibly to get another bottle of booze. The kitchen is now off by the front door. Maggie goes to get him, again to the kitchen, except now it's off by her bedroom. I am so confused. In like two minutes, both characters leave for the same location by two different ways. She comes back terribly upset because Sam's gone. Burke says Sam is running from himself.
Hotel Lobby: Conrad Bain is sorting the mail. And there's far more mail than I would expect for a hotel with about 12 rooms. Sam shows up and casually tries to get the letter out of the safe. They chitchat about Bill. Prevailing gossip has Bill falling in the water, which seems strange to me, gossip being what gossip is. Murder is a lot more exciting than tripping, but whatever. Mr. Wells (or is it Welles?) pulls out the letter. He then tells Sam he's going to have to clear it with Maggie and cites USPS regulations. I believe in order for postal regulations to be in effect, the letter would need to have been mailed, but whatever.
Casa Evans: Maggie is near tears. Burke continues his downward slide in my estimation by telling Vicki it's better she knows what she's living with. Excuse me? Her big crime here was in accepting a dinner invitation. If he's referring to her having the temerity to be working for the Collins family, she's there to tutor a nine-year-old kid, not to hide bodies. It's like being mad at the clerk selling Reeboks because they're made with sweatshop labor. He then starts raging at Maggie, who understandably wants to defend her father. Vicki tries to get him to stop and calls him a bully. Ha! Go Vicki.
Burke keeps on going and finally Vicki tells him about Bill's trip to Collinwood the night of his death. She mentions that both Roger and Bill were upset. Maggie asks Burke to leave--not that he notices. He just keeps on going and going. He does his best to destroy Sam in her eyes. He brings up the trial. He theorizes on Sam's involvement in his conviction. He talks about secrets and guilt and my god, he won't shut up until Maggie really does look like she's going to cry. His work done, he leaves.
Vicki tries to console Maggie, who at this point I really want to hug. I feel that sorry for her. It's a very well done scene. Maggie talks about how Sam used to be and how she wished Vicki had known him back then and how she cannot believe that he had anything to do with the manslaughter trial. Vicki wonders if Bill had jumped to the wrong conclusion. Maggie pounces on that idea.
Hotel Lobby: Burke comes back. He learns that Sam was trying to get at this letter, but before he can pursue this line of thought, Sam comes out of the shadows and tells Burke he's ready to talk.
Hotel Suite: There are some close-ups of the corner of Burke's love seat. I'm never quite sure if these are mishaps or someone being arty or what. Later on they shoot Roger from an angle so it looks like he's looming, which I'm reasonably sure is intentional. Or the other day with the water cooler. Not a visually interesting object and it had no thematic relevance to the plot, and yet, it got a lengthy shot. What's up with that? Less clear about the hotel furniture. Sam, who was being courageous two seconds ago, wants a drink, but Burke is still in full bastard-mode and declines.
Sam left his house in the belief that Burke would follow and Maggie could salvage her dinner with Vicki. He's horrified to learn that Burke instead stuck around and aired all his suspicions about him to Maggie. I'm not a huge fan of David Ford, but he's quite good here. You can really see how much this is killing Sam, that Maggie is all he has left and that he's terrified that he's lost her too now. Burke turns this all into Sam's fault and again, I'm hating the man. I've heard this line before. It's all rationalization and I don't have a lot of sympathy for it. Sam doesn't need any help with his clinical depression though and finally is so melancholic that Burke gets him a drink.
Collinwood: Vicki comes back, I'm guessing without having eaten, and I again feel sorry for her because her evening is about to get even worse. Ah, yes, Roger stops her from going upstairs. It's in an interesting setup. She's on the stairs literally. He follows her up, comes around her, and physically stops her. He then less forcefully takes her arm and leads her back down and into the drawing room. Alexandra Moltke is not as tiny as Nancy Barrett or Joan Bennett, but the way they're shooting Louis Edmonds, he's physically imposing.
I've been knocking Art Wallace's writing lately, but I have to give him full credit for these scenes. It's really well done. Roger's just the right mix of charm and menace and Vicki is visibly shrewder and still vulnerable. It's the perfect flavor for a gothic.
Roger is not about to let her leave until she deconstructs everything that happened at the party. Heh. He refers to Maggie as "caustic." Mister, take a look in the mirror; now that's caustic. Vicki gets direct and asks him if he's fishing about Burke.
Hotel suite: Blah, blah, blah. It's the same old stuff, different day. Burke isn't getting anywhere with Sam. For god's sakes, go and pick on someone else your own size, but no, lots more yelling on Burke's part. He can't even stick to the issue where he at least has a point. He's convinced Sam had something to do with killing Bill. Sam seems surprised and then denies it. Very convincingly too, I might add. Finally he says that if it had come down to it with Bill, Sam would have killed himself. Even Burke seems to be convinced by that.
Collinwood: Roger is busy defending himself and at the same time getting dirt out of Vicki. I think you can all imagine how pleased he is to learn that Vicki shared Bill's night time visit to Collinwood and the fact that they were both upset. Since his previously airtight alibi now has giant holes in it, he does his best to persuade Vicki she's wrong about the timing of events. She recalls him leaving at 10:35, which is actually ten minutes later than his actual departure. Considering that Bill died at 10:45, this bodes ill for Mr. Collins. She escapes.
Roger is looking increasingly unhappy. He opens the drawing room doors to find Vicki sitting on the table, legs swinging, and talking on the phone. He accuses her of going to Burke and she tells him enough's enough. She's done with these accusations. He pours on the charm and apologizes. He then proceeds to make her an offer, that in retrospect, she probably should have taken. He has friends with a lovely child that live in Florida. They need someone. He'd pay for her to go down there. The weather is wonderful (the cynic in me points out that I don't think the summers probably are and that they have bugs the size of Buicks, but given that he's in Maine and maybe his friends have A/C, I'll let it pass). Needless to say, Vicki passes.
Roger grabs his undersized hat and heads out.
I have to say, I know the idea of Roger and Vicki as a couple is a strange one. Even if you don't subscribe to the theory that they're related, it squicks people out. I'm not a big fan of the idea myself. Having said that, I'm enjoying their scenes a great deal. The setup, as long and as boring as it occasionally was, is paying off now. There's a history there for them to draw on. I also love how Vicki is starting to wise up a little. She's not quite so sweet and she's not a doormat with him quite as much. And he seems to respond that.
Hotel Suite: Burke finally comes around to believing Sam didn't kill Bill, but then pronounces that it must have been Roger.
And again, I want to slap this man. Nice of you to think about that now, Burke, after you spent the past couple of hours inflicting pain on people who had nothing to do with your personal problems.
