The opening of this episode is one of the show's most intriguing with Darrin just up and disappearing for no reason, leaving even the most jaded "Bewitched" fanatic to wonder, "Well...if it's NOT Endora, then WHO is it and where IS he?" -- all before the opening credits!
Mercedes McCambridge (looking like Jason Alexander in drag) plays Carlotta, the ONLY guest witch (other than Ticheba or Hepzibah) who would seem to be more powerful than Endora & Samantha combined! It's almost unnerving to see the cowardice Endora displays around Carlotta, even meekly disappearing so as not to have to face her when she explodes for the second time into the Stephenses living room.
Enjoyable as this episode is there are also a few irksome things about it which just seem a bit lazy on the production staff's part: The cheesy clouds around Juke's room look like something Tabitha and Amy made in Mrs. Birch's class; The choice of photos are not so creative and even unrealistic: Why would a picture of Sam & Serena at about 8 years of age be a PHOTOGRAPH from the 1940's?!?! To be historically accurate, what should have been hanging there (if anything) might be an OIL PAINTING of the two since it's a given the two are several centuries old!
The suspense and interest established at the beginning of the show begins to fade quickly upon Carlotta's arrival but still has some highlights: Liz's "Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle" impression; Endora's quick change from scuba gear to "That MOD Girl" and later, Endora lazily "flipping" magazine pages.
GUEST STARS: Mercedes McCambridge would later supply Linda Blair's "devil voice" in "The Exorcist."
FAVE QUOTE: Sam: "Mother, let's be calm about this."
Endora: "I AM calm...I'm positively SERENE!"
Sam: "Mother, Darrin's gone and somebody's got him!!!"
Endora: "Who'd WANT him?!"
OOPS!: Continuity confusion abounds in the final scene when Sam is seen wearing the same dress/hairstyle she's worn throughout the entire episode...although the scene takes place several MONTHS
later.
© Review Copyright 1997 by SCOTT VIETS