DARK SHADOWS 436-441 OMNIBUS EDITION

 NOTE: This does not include my updated IDKs and other notes. 

436

Vicki. And she’s hoarse. Gaol: no reprise. Vicki pieces together things and knows Ben is telling the truth. Good for her, it only took about how many episodes??? She knows the witch could only be one person: Angelique and that there was indeed witchcraft. The choking of Barnabas, she realizes now was done using the toy soldiers and the handkerchief.  In Angelique’s eyes, she saw that the woman loved Barnabas. Peter keeps changing what he’s saying, as if Roger Davis does not know his lines and refuses to look at the teleprompter. It’s most annoying that he keeps starting to say one thing and then goes with another, almost similar thing, sometimes not similar. They kiss.

 

Ben voice over. Nathan Forbes vs Ben. He gives Ben money but Ben gives it back. Nathan knows Barnabas did not go to England. Ben wants him to leave the whole family alone and himself, “Miss Millicent ain’t right in the head…”  and he blames Nathan. Nathan knows no ships left Collinsport for England on the night Barnabas left and he can check other village’s ships’ records for passengers. Ben warns him, “I’m going to kill you!”  if he doesn’t leave them alone.

 

Birds. Peter comes to Ben at the Old House. Ben’s not having a great time these days or nights is he? Peter is actually looking for Angelique and has already checked all the boarding houses and rooms. Ben tells him she is in her grave and what walked in was a ghost. Mike shadow. He tells Peter that Angelique is dead and he buried her himself. Ben takes him to her grave and Peter asks for a shovel. Vicki voice over as she waits in jail. Peter is digging but Ben tells him to stop, he didn’t bury the witch that deep. She’s gone, vanished. Ben thinks he hears her laughing and feels her watching. Ben backs away, hits a tree behind him and shakes the prop wildly. Peter wants to put Vicki on the stand and let her tell the truth…because? That’s worked so well in the past for her? He’s an idiot.

 

 

437

Vicki, Black and White! Peter has the book for more evidence of Vicki’s innocence because ? that worked so well in the past too? In the courtroom alone, Trask hits his hand on the podium, why? Nathan comes in and they talk. More of the joke, “Mr. Trask,”  and Trask correcting, “Rev. Trask.”   It is Monday and Trask wants Nathan to testify that he was bewitched by Vicki and that’s why he helped Barnabas and Vicki. Nathan won’t say another word against that girl, he states.

 

As a child Vicki tells Peter she had nightmares and she would always wake herself up after the car crashed or the monster caught her or whatever  and then wake herself up…uhm, why wouldn’t she wake herself up before the finale horror if she could? She then echoes my feelings for the entire storyline, “It’s gone on for too long! It’s got to stop!!!” I know but there’s like over 20 more episodes to go! Peter slaps her.

 

Nathan is forced by Trask to re-testify with Trask leading him terribly and dumbo Peter not saying a word about Trask’s leading of Nathan. Nathan says,  “Perhaps I’d been BEWITCHED.”   He’s not as  pretty as Elizabeth Montgomery. Peter cross examines Nathan about the first time he met Vicki and how Nathan tried to kiss her. UHMMM< Peter’s such a bad lawyer/investigator he knows NOTHING about Suki or the lies to Millicent or any of that which would destroy Nathan’s credibility as a witness…Peter’s a jerk. Nathan leaves and takes a look at Vicki.

 

Vicki testifies and is forced BY PETER to tell that she was born in 1946 and was raised in a foundling home in NY. She left there in 1966 to be governess to a boy named David. She tells them she was in the drawing room and was knocked unconscious and found herself at the Old House, the house being 150 years younger. She tells them that everyone, even Nathan Forbes, has a counterpart there. Then they present the book! THE BOOK HAS NOT BEEN TALKED ABOUT YET BY EITHER SIDE???? WTF???? Natalie saw it and Josette saw it…Trask doesn’t know about it??? I believe even Abigail knew about the book!!!! The book was published in 1965 and is a history up to 1964 with photographs.

 

Trask cross examines Vicki and does a good job of making her look even more guilty, making her tell that the “meeting” that sent her to 1795 was in reality a séance where she and others tried to call up the dead! He even makes her admit she took part in séances before that time! Vicki tells the truth here…why? Trask calls her a bride of the devil and that she flies through time.

 

The judges deliberate and after an hour it is 5pm and they still have not reached a decision. Trask tells Nathan he just tried to make him see the error of his ways,  not blackmail him. Nathan has the urge to tell the judge everything about Trask. At 5:30 the judges return. Nathan hopes they free Vicki. What’s wrong with him? The verdict is that they find her guilty and she will be hanged until dead. There is a zoom in on Vicki. Vicki passes out.

 

 

438

Joan. It is 4am. Barnabas comes to Ben who tells him that Peter questioned Ben until the trial was over. Ben tells Barnabas the verdict. No reprise. He also tells him about Angelique showing up. “What did Miss Winters ever do to her?”  Ben asked. Freeing her is what Barnabas wanted, so Angelique made the reverse happen. Barnabas plans to get fear into Trask and let him live through it and let him live for a time, then eliminate him. Ben tries to talk him out of this but Barnabas says Trask will die slowly and horribly.

 

Trask goes to Collinwood and demands the keys to the Old House to cleanse Vicki’s room of all her belongings. Naomi tells him his presence disgusts her  and when he makes rude comments about her, she slaps him, “Don’t you ever talk to me way that way.”  One of them also flubs with “You’re your.”  After Trask talks more dirt about her and mentions Joshua, Naomi has Ben get the keys and take Trask to the Old House. She tells him he can forget his chores for now, she will tell Joshua.

 

At the house, Trask goes upstairs and Ben goes down to warn Barnabas; Trask hears Ben talking and when he confronts Ben a few moments later, Ben tells him he talks to himself. If Trask saw  Barnabas, Barnabas tells Ben later, Trask wouldn’t live to tell about it. As it is, he will go through a night he will never forget. Barnabas goes to the window.

 

SPEAKING OF WHICH: JUST WHEN did Barnabas get to be taught by an Indian from Barbados the rituals of enormous power (ep358)??? Was it during the time he was near Martinique? Are they even near each other? It seemed as if he saw the man’s jailing and/or trial and escape and/or was he a vampire then or not??? It must have been when he was human but the Barnabas we see from 1795 to his “Death” by bat bite is so innocent of all supernatural stuff it seems unlikely. AND unless he took an unscheduled trip some time in the middle of the 1795 storyline, ALSO unlikely, he is NOT the same Barnabas from ep 358 or that timeline maybe??? Just another discontinuity.

 

I say this because here he uses the same type of haunting techniques he used on Julia and MORESO now as he haunts Trask unmercifully. Trask’s home looks like parts of the Cottage that Laura stayed in. In any case, Trask hears chains, screams and without knowing it, Barnabas’s barely disguised gruff voice calling him. The voice also tells him that he is not going to hurt any more innocent victims. He will never live to see the hanging. SO HOW IS THIS HELPING VICKI? It’s not really. He just wants revenge BUT  if Barnabas can do all this to Trask, why not haunt the guards and make them run away to help Vicki escape??? Trask also sees a skull instead of his face when he looks in the mirror and then the mirror drops blood. The voice seems to indicate that she will live and he will die. Next a tiny floating hand with Barnabas’s ring on it…why would he leave that on when doing this?...attacks Trask humorously…but it grows and grows to gigantic proportions. He can’t get out of the room and there is laughing from Barnabas. The voice tells him he will not die tonight or the next but very soon, “You are going to die!” 

 

I noticed when the credits turn yellow the roll starts and one thing may have to do with the other.

 

A strange ep. Barnabas seems almost Angelique-ish here. Ben tries to stop him from doing more harm and knows it won’t help Vicki at all. Here, Barnabas seems the Barnabas that would haunt Julia, kill Woodard, and make Willie almost die or wish him dead. He seems bent on revenge instead of helping Vicki, selfish instead of caring. It’s a disturbing take on the character but somehow it fits.

 

 

439

Maude aka Vala Clifton does the narration and it’s jarring but somehow it seems fitting somehow. Strange just like this entire show. Coffin opens, and Ben comes down the steps in a scene almost identical to one we’ve seen before. Barnabas is in his coffin. When we cut to Ben, and then back, Barnabas is out of his coffin. “Good evening.”   Joshua has kept Ben busy. Trask’s dreams will get worse. Ben says, “You shouldn’t kill him, sir.  He thinks it will make it worse for Miss Winters. Ben admits, “I ain’t clever.”  Ben tells him to make it so Trask can go running back to Salem but Barnabas  tells him that means Trask can get another innocent girl. Barnabas has an idea: make it so that Trask will not be found dead but will look as if he has left…he plans to bring him here to the Old House!  Barnabas wants Ben to put a brass ring on the arch and he needs bricks and mortar. Ben says he will not help do this. He’s seen as much killing as he can stand and says he thinks Barnabas has no feelings anymore but Barnabas claims he has feelings now: hate. Ben claims he thinks Barnabas feels he can get away with anything. Before the curse, Ben says something like, “You always thought about me…”  he wants all this to end. It will never end for Barnabas, Barnabas says.

 

Barnabas then says he can’t let Ben go, he’s seen too much. Ben tells him he can trust him. “I trust no one,”  Barnabas responds. If he had to, he tells Ben, he will kill him. Go on, basically is what Ben tells him, “I don’t want to watch what’s going to happen to  you,”  Ben says as he describes what will happen when they find him. Barnabas says, “Ben, I can’t hurt you.”  They will go on together. Ben tells him he just needs him and that’s why he will not kill him. Barnabas says they will go on together.

 

The above scenes between the two are EXPERTLY written and acted and one of the most touching scenes ever really as they realize their friendship and their chains. GREAT!

 

Eagle: Ben drinks with Maude Browning who is new in town. Ben advises her to be careful and mentions Ruby Tate. Ruby died the day Maude got here. Maude says Ruby was common and basically had it coming. Maude claims she doesn’t talk the kind of men Ruby Tate did. Foreshadowing. Or Fore dark shadowing. Ben drinks rum. Nathan comes in with Noah Gifford, who seems to be his accomplice and some kind of sailor or cabin boy or pirate? And maybe a gay one at that? In any case, Maude complains about the men in Collinsport and thinks maybe she should go back to New Bedford…

 

Okay this has to be asked? Are she and Ruby…prostitutes?

 

Just asking.

 

In one hour, Nathan will look for Maude. She already knows him. Nathan tells Noah to find out what he can from Ben about Barnabas Collins. He introduces himself to Ben as a former gardener who is looking for work. He asks if the Collins family are a good family to work for. Ben says, “No, don’t work for them.”  Ben is mumbling about brick and what Barnabas wants him to do but he also seems to be planning on leaving, talking about the fact that he’s never been at sea and maybe he should ship out to China.                    

 

At the dock, Barnabas meets Maude and he tries to leave her alone at least twice but she fakes a faint. She likes to  travel and he thinks she might be lonely. She seeks company sometimes. Barnabas looks really pale. She says she will be meeting friends later. Barnabas bears his fangs, she screams, and seems to pass out  downward. The fool drops his cane and leaves it there when Nathan comes running to help Maude, who is still alive. They call the man the “strangler”. Has he strangled before besides Suki? I mean Ruby surely drowned. Couldn’t she swim?

 

Nathan tells her he knows or thinks he knows whose cane it is. Nathan is a strange one. WHAT ARE HIS MOTIVATIONS right now? Motives? In any case, he mentions the police but Maude doesn’t want to go anywhere near the police (lady of the night much?) and wants to take the first stage out of here. Nathan mentions a friend in England (BUT he already knows Barnabas is not there, most likely).

 

Maude describes Barnabas to him: his eyes were terrible and looked right through you but his voice was deep and refined but he seemed sad and quiet…but his face changed like animal. She mentions the ring on his finger, a black onyx ring around gold. He tells her not to tell anyone else.  He thinks that both she and he have gotten lucky tonight…

 

Uhm, is that supposed to be barnacles on the poles at the dock?

 

Nathan is starting to be as schizo as everyone else. He wants Millicent but he’s hanging around Maude; he is or was Barnabas’s friend but does he want to avenge Suki? He wants Vicki free but he testified against her. He wants to get in the good graces of the family but then he does some things that seem like he just wants to make them pay. I’m not sure where he’s going and maybe that’s the point but he sure seems like a hero at times AND a very, very bad guy.

 

I’m guessing Barnabas still needs blood but not much is made of this. He’s now “the strangler”. HUH? How’s he eating these days and drinking? In any case, it is also n ice to see Trask getting his. And what is very annoying is that he doesn’t seem to see how justified it all is. He just thinks he’s a victim!         

 

440

Maude. No reprise. Barnabas finds Ben having been drinking, if not drunk. “I thought you were leaving me.”  Ben will stay but Barnabas tells him if he is to stay he does not want any moralizing from him or about what he does. Are these two a couple or what? They discuss his cane which cannot be found. Ben asks, “What’re we gonna do? What?”  and we go into the theme song.  Ben tells Barnabas that Maude lives over the Feed Store. Barnabas says the devil makes work for idle hands, “Well he will be busy,”  meaning Trask but..what? Trask’s lights will leave him; Barnabas blows out a candle and Trask’s candles won’t light. Barnabas laughs and Trask hears it, thinking it is the devil. Nathan comes in and tells Trask he does not believe in witches.  He tells Trask he’s too complicated but Trask tells him his cynicism is of the devil. Nathan tells him they can never talk man to man. Trask tells him about the hand and the ring on the first finger: the black stone in the gold and Nathan tells him, “Barnabas Collins” not the devil wears that ring. Nathan would like to see the ring but Trask will not draw it. The hand makes a fist at Trask behind Nathan’s back. While Nathan sees and hears nothing, Trask sees the hand and also hears Barnabas’s voice saying mean things to him. Trask yells that as a man of God, he always has a multitude of warriors with him and he has his faith. Trask yells at Nathan, “I am not alone,”  or something like that. Nathan tries to be nice to Trask but Trask is mean to him and wants him to leave. Trask blames Nathan’s worldliness. After Nathan goes, still extending niceties to Trask, Trask hears Barnabas say over and over, “You are going to die, to die, to die.”  Trask runs out and we get an unusual quick fade out.

 

Ben searches Maude’s room and has a voice over. Nathan knocks on the door and then fakes that he goes back down the steps. When Ben leaves, Nathan sees him. He goes into the room. Barnabas is at his window again. Ben returns and tells him Maude is at the Eagle drinking and by now has been telling the story that the Strangler is eight feet tall. A storm comes up. Nathan is listening at the window, hiding. Ben tells Barnabas to just leave it alone, in time the cane will be forgotten. Barnabas asks, “How can I be so stupid?”  Ben says, “You’re being more stupid now.”   Barnabas thinks maybe Ben is right and Ben suggests that maybe he should just leave Collinsport. Ben will go with him and do what he wants. Barnabas is a jerk and says that he cannot leave the house that he and Josette WERE SUPPOSED to be happy in. Ben tells him to forget Josette and Barnabas tells him he will never forget Josette. ARE THESE TWO, SERIOUSLY, A COUPLE OR WANNA BE COUPLE? Barnabas leaves.

 

Nathan goes to Maude’s room and we hear some kind of squeak. He wants her to leave on the 8am carriage. He kisses her and THEN LEAVES---WHY? He thinks she will be safe if the room is locked and she stays inside. As soon as he leaves, a bat appears at the window. Barnabas appears right in the room.  He asks her about the cane but she honestly does not know. He chokes her in his anger and before she can tell him. Trask has gone for a walk out of fear but now berates himself as he returns. He has a voice over and goes inside and finds Maude’s body.

 

I can’t say that I’m proud of my attraction to horror and this ep as well as some MASTERS OF HORROR that I saw last night show. I mean I watched an ep of that where a witch tortures a young college man who baby-sits a baby, makes him try to kill the baby, the baby is nicked by a knife and blood comes out. They escape and the witch is blinded or dies but the baby is bitten ON SCREEN by a rat on the neck and blood comes out. The man is blamed and put in an insane asylum, then the rat gets in there and bites him from the inside of his body. What is that all about? This isn’t as graphic but it’s just as much a downer. Trask, who despite his stupidity, means well and never learns. Nathan is a blind fool. Maude is a victim. Barnabas is evil and can’t see reason. Ben is a slave….what does it all mean in the long run? It all just seems so…dark and sad.

 

I guess I’m losing my attraction for horror…also recently watched DRAG ME TO HELL, what a terrible horrible disgusting movie and it got high ratings. Just awful.

 

 

441

Joan. The narration tells us that Trask will find a fate worse than death. Reprise which seems exactly the same. Trask voice over. Maude’s unblinking dead body is …well, I give the actress credit for not blinking. This is indicative of DS deaths: the bodies have their eyes wide open but unstaring and unblinking. Nathan wants Trask to deliver a letter to Millicent and as Nathan is not welcome at Collinwood, he needs Trask to bring it. Trask, at first, refuses but Nathan sees the arm of Maude from under the blanket that Trask stupidly threw over her body..she’s on his bed and was found that way. Nathan, at first, believes Trask just had a girl over and that she’s asleep.  He says things like, “You’re a man after my own heart” and “I never find them waiting for me when I come home.”   Trask tells him she’s dead and he finds out it is Maude by looking at her. Trask and he figure if the town never finds out about this, his name will not be tarnished or gossiped about. Nathan tells him he will help him if THE PRICE IS RIGHT. Trask will deliver his letter. He will do it tomorrow morning but Nathan will help him after he delivers the letter. “I don’t trust anyone.”  Trask talks him into it anyway. Nathan will get rid of Maude’s body tonight.

 

Millicent uses the tarot cards to plot a disaster on Nathan involving the tower of destruction, the star, the death of feeling (her love), the moon, the chariot, and news that’s hidden for a long time, the lover, etc. With her at the top of the card pyramid as the high priestess. She talks to herself and says that the death of her feeling of love has been replaced by hatred. Naomi asks whom she is talking to—and Millicent says to Nathan. Millicent explains the cards to her. Naomi thinks she needs to stop talking this way and act this way and get over it. The lover is dead, Millicent says.

 

Trask comes to deliver the letter. Naomi is there and denies him the chance to get to her but Millicent tells her to let him in. She also states that Naomi may stay (“I keep no secrets from cousin Naomi”) and she abides by and approves Naomi’s decision to tear the letter up…in word only. After Trask leaves and Naomi goes into another room, Millicent tries to piece the letter back together.   

 

Trask has a dream and thinks he hears Abigail’s voice in it. We see those psychedelic lights again but this time there is no Julia medallion. Lacey is terrible as he says, very stiffly, “Where….are…you?”  But he’s usually very good. He sees a door and tinsel streamers on it. In his dream, he hears the voice of a female tell him to find out the secret and that she knows the secret. It sounds like Abigail. In the door is Maude’s wet body, a ghost possibly, that tells him THEY (Nathan and? Noah?) threw her body into the water. This ghost is a bit scary. Trask calls for Abigail who shows up and tells him to go to the Old House to find out the secret of the witch. She shows him a visual of the Old House but the hand is there beckoning him to go there, also. Would you go? When he wakes up, he decides he must go to the old house.     

 

 

Note: 440 started off  March.