Schlatt: I'm the man of this house, Alex. I work hard every day to provide for this family. And as the man of the house, I command you to give me permission to go out today.
One of Jonathan Crane's last patients before he began his experiments with fear gas was a young boy, barely out of his toddler years, who'd wake up every night screaming from intense nightmares.
Jonathan could still recognize that boy over a decade later as the boy was wheeled into Arkham Asylum, strapped to a gurney. Danny Fenton shot him a tired grin. "Hey, Doc! You mind if we start holding sessions again? I got a lot more tangible fears I need to work through this time."
I think it's also notable that her expectations for marriage is "the stenography and typing skills I'm cultivating will be useful for work!" instead of more typical housewife skills and having children immediately. It's 1897 and she can't have a career while married, but she's trying to juggle both.
She wants a partnership with Jonathan as her top priority!
Exactly! This is a noteworthy detail that really establishes a lot of Mina's characteristics for the whole novel.
Mina wants to marry Jonathan, she loves him with all of her heart, but her priorities in this future marriage are quite different from one may expect from a lady of that time.
Instead of writing to Lucy about the transition from schoolmistress to housewife, Mina talks about typewrites and shorthand, and training herself like lady journalists (👀), so she can become adept in basically documenting information (👀!!!!).
Why is Mina doing all of this? Because she intends to work alongside Jonathan in his solicitor job. Since lawyering is a profession with a lot of paperwork, then Mina decides to cultivate similar skills as much as she can in order to take charge of that part of the job.
It's incredible how, while she is sad for leaving her current job, Mina isn't lamenting that she can't work because she is (correctly) expecting to work with Jonathan. Housewife skills, home care, and children are last things in her mind. Mina is ready for marriage life, and all of the stuff that comes when you, and your spouse are working in the same space.
Forgot just how much I love not only Jonathan's return to his journal (hooray!), but also just how immediate the turn from 'absolute wreck of self-doubt' to 'Oh, the unholy supernatural peril is real? Cool, that means I get to break out Vendetta Mode (tm) and finish what the shovel started :)'
Sometimes all it takes is knowing you can kill your demons (literal) to vastly improve your mental health (✿◡‿◡)
Oughhh yes. Q always walking slower to keep pace with Schlatt, or sprinting to talk to people and keep them occupied for the time it takes Schlatt to get around. He had a muscular disability after all, and Q’s absolutely willing to wait to make it seem “casual” that they take their time, together!
All of this. Schlackity just being soft with one another, like making sure the other is safe and comfortable in any way that they can. Especially with Q doing stuff subtly, not wanting to draw attention to what he's actually doing.
to me it is evident that jonathan already knows that his situation is precarious at best and actively dangerous at worst. all the "he doesnt see the red flags" stuff that people used to say about him is utter nonsense.
he recognizes that drac is purposefully keeping him awake at night and, while he doesnt remark upon his suspicions, his wording and choice of details to include (e.g. drac going "you must be less interesting, so i don't keep you awake", which is more a reflection on drac being a bad host than on any fault of jonathan's) makes it clear that he understands that this is done on purpose and not by accident.
he keeps taking note of situations in which he would expect to see other people, but doesn't. he is aware that he is isolated and alone with a dangerous man (he took special care to highlight drac's unnatural strength and cold skin, the nauseating feeling he got upon being too close during that first supper, and he keeps taking note of any incident in which drac makes him feel uneasy - the nasty smiles, the way drac comes and goes without letting jonathan know when to expect him).
he is wants to be the model picture of an english gentleman guest, trying not to snoop and wander about the castle, when he doesn't have his host's permission. still, he can't help himself but try the doors, and the second door he tries is already locked (which is, of course, important in conjunction with the fact that drac tells him that he wouldnt wish to go anywhere that was behind a locked door, anyways). additionally, he notices that there are no mirrors, which he tries to frame as "oh, i am lacking one of the comforts i am used to, haha, sure weird that these transylvanian people don't have those", but it gives him pause - especially, considering the obvious wealth and opulence he is otherwise surrounded with.
to me this all reads as a continuation of that sentiment from may 4th where he already penned down that if he doesn't make it back himself, he hopes that his journal does (and that one of the last sentiments he wished to convey was his love for mina, i am still not okay about that). obviously, he isn't yet at the point where he wants to give shape to his fears by outright writing them down, but he is meticulously keeping track of all those red flags people joke about him missing. if he wasn't, he wouldn't be writing them down. their inclusion in his journal shows that jonathan knows what's going on (with the limited information he has, obviously), shows his wariness of his host, and shows that he isn't sure if he will safely return to mina.
theon's thoughts of his existing black wardrobe when considering the watch has been talked of plenty, but let's not ignore the rest of this fantasy which is imo even funnier. bc a) he remembers jon snow joining the nw as a selling point but fails to consider what it would mean to meet jon again after taking wf and supposedly killing bran and rickon and b) he describes it as a life of honor but assumes he can bed wildling women, which watchmen usually see as the most dishonorable kind of sex, not just patronizing the whores south of the wall but sleeping with the enemy. his newly-turned and fleeting ambitions of captaining a ship at eastwatch, rising to first ranger and even lord commander look downright logical and realistic compared with forgetting the celibacy vows and the motive he's just given jon snow--who never really liked him to begin with--to oathbreak by murdering him on sight. (tho, funnily enough he is kinda foreshadowing jon's soon approaching experience of sex with a wildling woman and facing accusations that his black cloak was indeed turned, even after rising to the position of lord commander. biggest difference is jon did not plan and go looking for a wildling lover, was unaware of his own possible princehood, and ygritte likely would not care about jon's royalty except to joke about it if they did know.)