When God closes a door, it seems, he opens French window, because if Carolyn’s done being proactive than Maggie isn’t. She spends some time in front of the mirror reminding herself, again and again, of her name, and Sam’s name, gleeful as her internal monologue spouts this information again and again--only for it to be all wiped away, however momentarily, by the music box, at which point she looks at the portrait and convinces herself she’s Josette. Only closing the box helps her regain her focus.
So--mirror good, music box bad, portrait probably also bad. Everyone got that? Good.
When Loomis comes knocking for her, and calling her Josette, she almost hollers her name before calming down and....speaking cognizantly. Clearly. “Tell him Josette will be right down. I want to do my hair first.” No more one-word exclamations, no more mindless parroting. Regardless of what Maggie chooses to do next, she’s reclaimed her identity and at least a little of her mind. It’s a huge step for such a normally passive character.
Her conversation with Barnabas goes swell. Turns out he wants to give her a necklace as a wedding gift, and she covers her few moments of panic well: when he calls her Josette, she pulls a successful last-minute word-swap (“I am...unworthy of such a gift.”) When he tries to put it on her, and she fears it might work like the music box, she insists she not wear it until their wedding. And when, to test her, he calls Maggie’s name as she leaves, she says she doesn’t know who that is but that it “sounds like a servant’s name.” Barnabas assures her that Maggie was a servant, but an unimportant one, and that her name will never be mentioned again. Once she leaves, Barnabas looks stern at first, but soon turns giddy--he’s bought it hook, line, and sinker.
It occurs to me that he should find this rather abrupt. It occurs to me that we, the audience, should as well. After all, Maggie’s been nothing but passive for weeks now. But that’s probably a product of having not having seen a lot of her, and not having access to her internal monologue before now. Or it could be bad writing. I like my theory better.
Maggie goes into the basement rooms of the Old House, where she overhears Loomis and Barnabas having a long, rambling conversation about how, after tonight, Maggie will no longer need Barnabas to hypnotize her and how she’ll no longer want to be herself. (Lots of lines were forgotten during this scene, I figure.) That’s why Barnabas is convinced Maggie’s being genuine--because it genuinely doesn’t matter anymore, so why not believe the best?
Loomis is also finishing making Maggie a coffin. They keep it out of sight and try to make it a big reveal as we go to commercial, but what else was it gonna be, c’mon.
Loomis wanders around the basement a bit before Maggie comes in, coinciding with a VHS-esque fritz and an abrupt music cut. (Maggie, god of non-diegetics!) She plays Josette to a hilt, classism and all, but Willie finds her out when she says she finds the coffin beautiful. As he prepares to drag her away, Maggie proceeds to UTTERLY FUCKING SCHOOL HIM.
Like, remember before he was enthralled, when Loomis was a greedy, selfish brute? And remember how that necklace might have mind-control powers? Well Maggie hits him with a double-whammy, using the necklace to take advantage of his greed as well as its inherent effects. What comes next is a thing of pure beauty.
Maggie: They’re yours, Willie. After I’m gone.
Loomis: You can’t go, he’ll kill me.
Maggie: No he wouldn’t. Because you’d be gone, too.
Loomis: I can’t go, he won’t let me.
Maggie: You can go! We can both go! Once he’s killed, really killed.
Loomis: I can’t do it.
Maggie: I can.
FUCK. YES. Maggie Evans: New Favorite Character.
Unfortunately, she doesn’t manage to keep Loomis enthralled for long. The heartbeat returns, compelling Loomis to protect his master, and he wrestles away the stake Maggie apparently had on her person.
When we return from commercial, Maggie’s back up in her room, and reveals she’s successfully conquered the music box, repeating “I am Maggie Evans” as it plays. Loomis comes to fetch her, and the two apologize to each other as Loomis asks her one more time to give in. She refuses.
Once down in the coffin room, Loomis leaves her, and as the sun sets Maggie picks up her stake, placing it on her own future coffin. The heartbeat returns. Maggie opens Barnabas’ coffin. He’s still sleeping. She fetches the stake, and raises to him, but freaks out as his eyes open and he leers at her.
Look--Barnabas isn’t going to be killed, at least not until the series is almost over, and probably not even then. And Maggie has gone through a lot today. I don’t fault her for freaking out. Instead, I applaud her for getting this far. She’s come closer to solving this whole mess than literally any other character, and she did it with loads of quick wit and charm. She could never be this awesome again and I’d still love her--and this episode--to pieces.
Hopefully, though, she’ll get a lot more opportunities in the future.
