The night of the dinner party has arrived, and damn if it isn't going to be an eventful evening.

1: I love the way the count had Bertuccio count the guests, I think it was his way of getting confirmation of his story. He needed to be next to Bertuccio when he saw Villefort for the first time to make sure that was the man he stabbed, and not some other guy. He also got confirmation that Andrea is actually Benedetto, the son Villefort thinks he killed. (Congrats to everyone who predicted it.) But we also got a huge twist, Benedetto's mother is none other than Danglar's wife. We knew that she was married to someone else before Danglars, and I think Bertuccio knew the initials of the mom, so I'm betting the count had already figured out she was the mother. (This means that somewhere in the 9-year gap, the count was able to find Benedetto, wherever he was, and go see him as Lord Wilmore. You can bet he's going to be a key component of the revenge, so maybe part of the reason for the 9-year gap was that Edmond needed to wait until all of the pieces he needed were lined up.)

2: Predictions: Do you think it's all going to come out at this dinner, or will the count drag it out? Will the Major and Andrea be able to stay in character for the duration?

3: We also saw some fireworks between Danglars and his wife. I assume he's mad at her for relaying false information that lost him a large sum of money. Do you think the count wants to destroy their relationship? Since he was taken away from his love, perhaps he wants to break up the marriages of his three targets?

4: I just want to say that I loved the analogy of the Chinese vases, forgotten at the bottom of the sea. They also work as a way for the count to show off how rich he is, but I think they're really there for the analogy to himself.

Last line:

Villefort obeyed and they went into the dining room.

The next discussion will be up on Monday.

Link to the last discussion