By the end of Episode 3, the entire voodoo temple should logically have been in her stomach after all her scenery-chewing.

In this episode, we meet three new characters and, with them, see the introduction of one of the Maljardin arc’s main subplots. Unlike Tim’s subplot, which I don’t care about because he’s boring, this one involves one character whom I adore, one whom I find interesting if somewhat creepy, and one other whom I can tolerate for now despite her being kind of annoying. The first two are the newly widowed Elizabeth Marshall (Paisley Maxwell) and Reverend Matthew Dawson (Dan MacDonald), respectively; the last is Elizabeth’s daughter Holly (Sylvia Feigel).

From left to right: Matt, Holly, and Elizabeth. Matt is dressed like a Catholic priest for some reason despite being a minister from an unspecified Protestant denomination. For Holly and Elizabeth, I get the distinct feeling that the showrunners meant for them to look like early Liz and Carolyn from Dark Shadows, making this an early instance of Strange Paradise copying something from DS (who, I should note, also dressed one of their reverends like a priest). Still, they are in most ways different characters from their DS lookalikes/dress-alikes.

The central character of this plotline is Holly, who is a few months away from her twenty-first birthday, when she will inherit her late father’s fortune. Elizabeth wants the money for herself, so she had Holly committed to a “house for kooks” called Westley House, which Matt runs. At some point during her stay at Westley House, Matt fell in love with Holly and wants to marry her, but Holly doesn’t love him back because he persuaded her mother to have her sent there. The narrative treats this as creepy less because of the weird power dynamic going on (why should Holly want to be with someone who was essentially her jailer?) and more because, in the Strange Paradise universe, twenty-year-olds are considered children despite being above the age of majority in most countries and above the age of consent just about everywhere in our world. Granted, Matt is probably at least thirty-five (the age of his actor at the time of filming) and he does dress like a priest, but that’s still not a huge age difference between adults and he’s actually a Protestant minister. So he can marry Holly; there’s just the question of whether he should.

Proof that Rev. Dawson is Protestant: his church’s altar has a cross, not a crucifix.

Even so, the narrative doesn’t treat Holly as an adult and treats her instead like she’s seventeen. It’s so weird. A thirty-five-year-old being attracted to a twenty-year-old is way less creepy than one attracted to a teen. It’s also way less creepy and problematic than him being attracted to someone he held prisoner at her mother’s request, giving him far more power in their relationship. That should be the focus here, not her age.

This is how you make the church scene, at least if you’re Holly Marshall.

Anyway, Holly ran away from Westley House to confront Matt at his church (”making the church scene,” she calls it), and ends up confronting her mother as well. That’s the Cliff’s Notes version of the plot points in their half of this episode.

Mrs. Marshall is a fun character: a ruthless middle-aged diva so greedy that she preys on her own daughter for money. I wouldn’t like her if she were a real person, but, as a character, she is loads of fun. She kind of reminds me of early Disney villainesses like Maleficent and the Evil Queen from Snow White, in the way she talks and carries herself, the way she preys on an innocent young woman, and the underlying implication that she is a heartless psychopath. There are also some implications that she was even more of an evil diva in a past life, but I will save that discussion for a later post because I want to delve deep into it when it becomes more relevant.

Additional screencaps of Paisley Maxwell’s face and hair, just because.

Holly is also pretty fun at the beginning. She whines a lot, yes, but she can also be funny in a snarky way, and I’ve gotten quite a few chuckles out of her snarky comments and now outdated slang. (In this episode in addition to her “church scene” line, she sarcastically calls Matt “padre,” which made me laugh.) I’m not very fond of her overall--especially since later writers tend to butcher her characterization--but she does have her moments and some amusing lines.

As for why I find Rev. Dawson interesting, it has to do with the way his Christian beliefs are juxtaposed with those of voodoo priestess Raxl, which is not at all handled in the way one would expect. To delve too deep into it this early on would mean many detailed explanations requiring spoilers, so I will also wait to discuss it. Right now, we’re dealing with the creepy side of him and not the interesting side. As a romantic hero, he is patronizing and gross and I doubt that, even in 1969, many people would have wanted Holly to end up with him. I certainly don’t. Holly needs someone who respects her and treats her like an adult, and I don’t think Matt is capable of that.

In the next episode, we will switch back to the main story as THE DEVIL JACQUES ELOI DES MONDES comes out to play once again, this time with the visiting Cryonics Society and with Jean Paul’s lawyer, Dan Forrest. Also, Jacques says something absolutely hilarious and makes an absolutely adorable face. See you next week with my comments on Episode 4.