DARK SHADOWS 144

DARK SHADOWS 144

 

I freakin love it! Vicki gets a IDU right after an IDK. She also gets another IDK later on. Laura, when questioned by Riley, state inspector, gets an IDK but has a great cover story. I like Riley but I do not think much of his question technique…for one thing why doesn’t he ask Laura WHERE she first met Margaret the fake cleaning lady in Laura’s lie…IF it is a lie. For at this point, Laura might be covering for a different reason or not at all. We STILL are not made privy to whether or not she’s lying (well, almost, we DO know she is lying but not why)…so okay, she IS lying. BUT is there a supernatural reason underneath the lie? Vicki, our resident NANCY DREW during this time is starting to suspect something foul is afoot.

 

Frank is at Collinwood when Vicki gets back from her own questioning of Laura and has a talk about Mrs. Collins with Liz at her desk and within ear shot. THAT BRILLIANT “nice” music is played, which I’m not sure we’ve heard before or at least haven’t heard in a while (it’s almost a theme for Frank, who is the nicest person in dark shadows other than PT OLD LADY JOSETTE in a few scant episodes after thousands of episodes pass by). It’s a calming music and can probably be used for meditation! BTW a brilliant COMPLETE CD set was available of ALL the music.

 

Vicki may have had supernatural encounters before (the supposed Widow Wailings, Josette and Bill’s ghosts) this but Laura is the first physically present being (so it seems) in the flesh and blood (again, so it seems!) that she can converse with and she is still in her heroine mold rather than the victim she will become later who is clueless. There will be others: Angelique and Nicholas for two (in which she will fare against them well for the most part where even Nicholas says, “I rather like her.”). Of course, she totally  misses the mark with Barnabas, even defending the evil villain against Burke’s accusations.

 

The book of the Collins family opens BY ITSELF and we don’t even see the strings. It almost looks like stop motion animation but is not.

 

Vicki gets another IDU and three more IDKs. Liz gets an IDK. Vicki is compelled to go into the Drawing Room. Liz says, “The family album was open to a picture of Josette Collin (no S at the end) wearing the locket.”  Liz then gets something stuck in her throat. The family album painting of Josette doesn’t look like any of the other representations we have had over the last 143 episodes (paints, KLS, Susan Sullivan). Vicki stumbles or rather stutters over the word Josette.

 

Vicki goes for a walk and the location footage is stuff we probably saw before but it still looks gorgeous. Laura’s stern and imposing face is superimposed over it and gives it this otherworldly feel along with the always stunning musical themes (and again we seem to get a best of DS music here and it’s always welcome welcome). I don’t even care that Vicki seems to be wearing a different or darker jacket on the beach than when she left the house (though it could just be the way the light is or isn’t hitting it). She also seems to have her hair in pig tails on the beach and her scarf off.

 

In any case, what strikes me about this strikingly great episode is its simplicity. The building mystery of Laura as seen through only Vicki’s eyes here (and not David or Sam as is the case throughout other episodes and this storyline, also welcome) is how much more like nighttime prime time shows this resembles…some 40 or 50 years before the ones we have now. Let’s face it, like it or not, almost every show now, anime included are SOAP OPERAS and NOT individual adventures. In the 60s that was not the case and this, even some ten years ago, might have seemed slow but compared to stuff like …well, almost any series now, this positively flows and uses and milks its storyline(s) to good advantage.

 

What felt slow even 11 years ago, now feels fresh and lively and this episode gives us the time we need to wonder what the F is going on through Vicki’s POV as everyone else tries to rationalize the incredible clues (two lockets? Or one locket in the same place at two times? David’s hair in both lockets? Laura lying?).

 

A really well done episode and despite the bloopers (and the ever present camera mike shadows…and oh, as Vicki and Frank talk something seemingly falling and making a crashing shattering sound), enjoyable and growingly creepier by the second storyline. Millay conveys every feeling and every cover from Laura convincingly, usually with her eyes and mouth but also the tone in her voice. She’s very, very good. But everyone is good in this episode.

 

 https://darkshadows.fandom.com/wiki/144

 

 

144

      Dan Riley appears again as does a microphone. Laura's Cottage looks rather

      homey now. Laura tells Dan that she had a cleaning lady named Margaret,

      last name unknown to her and who was Scandinavian...and the woman,

      although ten years older, looked like Laura. How convenient for her. Diana

      Millay plays this scene strangely, almost as if she doesn't care if

      Laura's true colors show up.

 

      There seems to be new music: and get this, it's one of the calmest, most

      relaxing bits of music I've ever heard anywhere, anytime in any show or

      movie or musical: on DS! In any event Frank Garner reappears. There is a

      bit of dialog about the family album and as the approach the table it is

      on, there's something moving at the bottom of the screen. Frank feels

      Vicki is too cooped up in "this old house" and that it is getting to her.

      He feels she should get out more. Vicki is reminded that there is a

      reasonable explanation for everything and...HALT! WHAT? Vicki saw

      Josette's ghost right in front of her and saw the ghost of Malloy and the

      seaweed. She should know better at this point!

 

      In any case, when she and Frank leave, the family album, which was closed,

      opens up by itself and the bookmark moves and the book is now on the page

      of Josette Collins. So stick that in your logic, Frank Garner. A nice man

      but clueless about Collinwood, possibly the most the most haunted house in

      TV history. Later, Vicki and Liz find the album open, Vicki reacts, and

      Liz has a near coughing fit. Stop smoking, Joan! Vicki goes for a walk,

      exiting the house in location footage and wearing her scarf in it, AGAIN!

      She's also seen on the beach, nice footage, no scarf. Laura's face is

      superimposed over it all.

 

      A nice episode but Vicki starts her total cluelessness phase...but it

      bounces away for a few hundred eps...point is that in the Laura storyline,

      almost everyone from Liz to Maggie to David to Sam and even Burke and

      Carolyn and Roger ALL know something supernatural is up and are sort of

      driven to know it is Laura. THIS NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN whereas so many

      Collins family members in the present day anyway, are privy to the

      happenings. While I can see that ruining or fast pace a storyline into

      finishing before its time, it certainly slowed things down in later DS eps

      to the point of annoyance. Later, almost no one has a clue...