DARK SHADOWS-512 -The Trial of Barnabas Collins
DARK SHADOWS-512
“The Trial of Barnabas
Collins shall begin.”
Grayson. Trask laughs.
Different reprise. Julia comes in and this time she does not call Willie.
Julia’s voice over is different. Trask vanishes. Does Collinwood’s picture have
hedges?
Adam comes to Sam. Or…he’s
been with him some time. Later, Sam tells Joe, “He stopped by a few days ago. I
gave him food and a place to rest.”
Yet when Adam and Sam talk,
it feels as if they are old friends and Adam is more…mature and calmer. How
long have he and Sam been seeing each other? Is Adam staying here? How many
days since we last saw Adam at Sam’s Cottage?
Adam and Sam have been
studying words but Adam is repeating words that they haven’t even studied.
Light heartedly, Sam wants answers from Adam. “My name is Adam.”
Sam also wants to introduce
creativity to Adam and wants him to paint. He thinks they will make a fortune.
He’s kind of kidding. I hope.
Adam feels hurt on his wrists
at the same time Barnabas wakes up and feels his wrists hurt. Adam says
Barnabas hurt. For a few moments, the camera lingers on both men’s faces, one
at a time and together. Blooper?
We see the multi colored Afghan
throw blanket again.
Adam rushes out and brushes
into returning Joe, knocking him half way across the room as Joe puts it later.
Joe asks, “Who…or what is he?” Sam
tells him a few days ago, Adam showed up, Maggie is still away.
Sam has never judged anyone
by their looks. Joe thinks that is good because
Joe wonders if that man is an
escaped murderer and maybe he was going to Barnabas not to help him but to hurt
him. Joe finally puts it together and thinks about the news reports of the man
that kidnapped Carolyn Collins! Yes, Joe flubs, calling Carolyn, Carolyn
Collins.
He then calls her Carolyn
Stoddard. Sam knows it is the same man and tells Joe this. Joe thinks maybe
Adam was saying hurt Barnabas instead of Barnabas hurt. Joe goes to the Old
House but knocks and when no one answers, leaves. Thanks Joe.
When left alone, we see Sam’s
painting on the easel: if it is his or maybe it was Adam being directed by Sam?
It looks like a sailboat and something yellow? Bananas? A bird of some kind?
Barnabas is calling for Julia
or Willie but it is Trask that appears before him. Trask does not know who
summoned him. Barnabas realizes it cannot be Cassandra/Angelique…she would not
want him to die this way, nor would she want Trask here. Trask says, “I do not
know who it was.” Barnabas gets his own
IDK in.
Trask tells him that he and
Barnabas’s other victims have not had rest for 200 years. Barnabas counters the
same could be said for Trask’s victims, too. The ones that went to the gallows
and who were innocent. Barnabas yells at him, “Hypocrite,” three times. Trask
calls a jury of the dead. There is a long pause and lots of dead air. Both men
look at the teleprompter, it seems.
Jeremiah is called. Barnabas
says Jeremiah has no right here, he died in a gun duel. From their watery
graves come Ruby Tate and Maude Browning, neither of the actresses the same as
the ones that played the two women in
the 1795 storyline. Suki Forbes is also called and it looks like the same
actress. Trask also calls Nathan Forbes who died on
So it all started in October
1795 and finished in March or very early April 1796!
Barnabas recalls that Nathan
was responsible for his mother’s death, Naomi. Ezra Simpson is called as judge.
Barnabas calls him a criminal and a traitor.
Trask says, like all those
called, he is one of the damned.
Not sure if this info comes
from an episode but this is from DS Wikia: “Ezra Simpson was
a murderer and traitor who lived during the American Revolution. After becoming
a hero in the war, Simpson committed several acts of murder in his hometown
of Collinsport, Maine.
When Joshua Collins learned of Ezra's
acts of murder, he also learned that he had been a traitor during the war. Ezra
was sentenced to be hanged.”
Trask says, “The Trial of
Barnabas Collins shall begin.”
A light lights up the jury as
the rest of the room darkens. Barnabas pleads not guilty, he was a victim, too
and had no control over circumstances. Nathan testifies. Barnabas tells them
that he lied under oath before. Nathan tells them that he, Maude, and Suki were
strangled, Nathan also says Ruby was strangled, too. Barnabas snaps loudly,
“That’s not true!” It isn’t true. She
fell back into the water and …somehow drowned?
Barnabas licks his lips (as
Sam did twice already).
Nathan Forbes is seen
REAPPEARING. It seems he left and vanished BUT we don’t see that. Then he
reappears and starts to walk away as Barnabas yells for him not to go. Forbes,
a ghost, of course, walks through the wall.
Barnabas asks if he can
defend himself and Trask agrees he can, it is one of the reasons Trask held a
trial. Trask…then doesn’t let him defend himself. Barnabas calls him a madman.
I agree. Barnabas’ punishment is death. Everyone walks away. New music, piano
music. Julia returns to the Old House. Trask laughs.
Julia goes to the cellar and
gasps, putting her hand to her face. The brick wall has been bricked up again!
A good episode but more could
have been made of the TRIAL. This is NO DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER. Almost none
of the victims speak at all. So what was the point? Barnabas was supposed to
defend himself but then was not allowed.
He couldn’t call any witnesses for him. It was still a good episode to be
honest and oddball enough to keep it interesting.
The entire trial was less than
ten minutes long!
Unfortunately, the entire
continuity between ep to ep , even and sometimes especially during, the
reprises to the next ep, were more than a bit off.
It’s the copyright logo only
for the credits and ….it reads 1967.
Ruby Tate is played in this episode by Natalie Norwick, who will appear in six more episodes. We’ll see her again next week, as the ghost of Josette. Norwick (also credited as Natalie Norwich) has television credits going all the way back to 1950, which is impressive.
Norwick’s 1950s appearances were mostly on the “Playhouse” shows that were based on the early-TV idea that making television is just like doing a stage play in front of a camera. The most amusing example is Schlitz Playhouse, which was named after its sponsor, the Schlitz Brewing Company, makers of the beer who made Milwaukee famous. She also had parts on The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse and Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theatre. In the 1960s, she had guest roles on some very popular shows, including Dragnet, Mike Hammer, Have Gun – Will Travel, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason and Star Trek. In the 1970s, she appeared on Ryan’s Hope and Starsky & Hutch, and she also had a part in a Broadway play called Break a Leg, which closed after one performance.
Maude Browning is played by Maggie Benson, in her only Dark Shadows appearance. Benson was a member of the ensemble in the Broadway production of Hello, Dolly!, which ran from 1964 to 1970. Her other credit is as a Nurse in The Gardener, a 1974 horror movie featuring Warhol superstar Joe Dallesandro.
Suki Forbes is played by her original performer, Jane Draper.
Ezra Simpson, the judge in Trask’s kangaroo court, is played by Tom Gorman, a regular fill-in actor who appeared in 18 episodes between 1967 and 1968. He was also one of the non-speaking judges at Vicki’s witch trial, so it’s kind of funny that Barnabas objects that this character isn’t a real judge. I mean, it’s funny to people who actually pay attention to the fill-in actors. Like me. It’s funny to me. We’ll see Gorman next in October, as the Blue Whale bartender.
Dark Shadows Before I Die: Dark Shadows Episode 512 - 6/12/68 (dsb4idie.blogspot.com)
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