User Reviews

Episode 253 offers another battle of wills between Maggie (who's fine when she's not being histrionic) and the imposing Barnabas. Willie once again proves to be the most useful of the lot, while it's fun to see David again, who now seems to be caught up in yet another sub-plot in which he possesses a crucial bit of evidence to solve a mystery.

Six minutes into the scene with Barnabas and Maggie when Barnabas makes demands on her, I half expected him to declare, "I can't wait forever for those shoes!" like Margaret Hamilton in "The Wizard of Oz". It's a very melodramatic moment and Jonathan Frid shows exasperation to Maggie that insinuates that even if she did turn into Josette, the memory of Maggie would linger in his mind, disgusting him. But Maggie does have a way of manipulating Willie, giving him her ring to hopefully help her father find her. Manipulative David also gets under Willie's skin, impish but smart, and very crafty. There's a bit of shocking violence involving them that show a bit of the old Willie.

Somehow David gets ahold of Maggie's ring and unfortunately it ends up in the wrong hands. Barnabas's keeping his cool is a crafty maneuver but it is evidence of the smugness of his power over Maggie. Like Jason, Barnabas could fail over and over with that trait, but at least he has the power of being a supernatural creature of the night that gives him escape mechanisms. Maybe not an excellent episode but one filled with great detail that shows that the writers are truly thinking about how to bring out a lot of surprises in the storyline as it develops.