BIG FINISH’S DARK SHADOWS-BLOODLUST - EPISODE 5 spoilers

 

BIG FINISH’S DARK SHADOWS-BLOODLUST

EPISODE 5

SPOILERS

 

Narration by: Possibly Scott Haran (Harry)

: I don’t know. He’s young-ish with a deep voice and British accent, I think.

 

Amy confronts Andrew and allows Harry and Tommy to stay for it. She asks why they came to this town. Andrew admits most of it but blames Amy. He did think she was that stupid.

 

Ed wants to tell his mother Jessica something about the night Melody died but Mel’s husband Mike is there but soon leaves.

 

Andrew find Amy’s diaries and knows about her past. Andrew asks about Simon Turner and her brothers and what happened to them.

 

Looking up Simon Turner on:

 

Big Finish Audio Dramas, Characters A-Z | The Dark Shadows Wiki | Fandom

 

Simon Turner is from the audio THE HAPPPIER DEAD. The reference Andrew makes about Egypt could be from the BIG FINISH history where Amy supposedly left Collinsport after Chris died (Sam Hall’s TV Guide article and/or Big Finish continuity) and she lost contact with Sabrina (she picks up contact with Sabrina again in THE LUCIFIER GAMBIT). Amy stayed with Stokes in Cairo as revealed in THE LUCIFIER GAMBIT.

 

A few notes on Chris’ death:

In the Big Finish Productions audio drama The Enemy Within, it is established that Chris escaped the werewolf curse with the aid of 'gypsy magic'. Chris and Sabrina then married shortly after leaving Collinsport. However, an unexpected side-effect of the 'cure' caused the curse to transfer from Chris to Sabrina, and on the morning after the marriage Sabrina found she had been responsible for Chris' death.

In Sam Hall's article Here's What Really Happened to Barnabas & Co., Chris and Sabrina tried to control his curse after leaving Collinsport by building a cell to lock him in when the moon was full. But the very first time they used the cell, the werewolf broke out and killed Sabrina. The following morning when Chris saw what had happened, he committed suicide.

 

Andrew knows Simon died in the hospital, that Chris and Sabrina (who killed Chris in werewolf form) were werewolves and Tom was a vampire. That Amy fought the living dead in Egypt.

 

Andrew wants to know why Amy didn’t use a spell to relieve his debt…he made from gambling. When he saw the diaries, he knew she hid a lot and thought she was a witch. Amy claims not to be.

 

Amy tells him, “When you mess around with the supernatural, people die.”

 

Kate, who was in bed with Frankie (a DS first other than the 1991 series?), knows a storm is coming. They joke about the murder. She gets out of bed to get a beer. Frankie doesn’t think Kate had anything to do with Melody’s murder. Kate lost her job back home because of the supernatural and that she knows it exists. She was in London during BEYOND THE GRAVE, though she is mentioned in THE PHANTOM BRIDE. She was fired from her show BEYOND THE GRAVE in London.

 

Kate thinks Mel was killed by a vampire.  

 

Frankie suggests she let things go now, “Be normal.”

 

Amy’s first boyfriend died, too. Harry admits he knows Andrew was trying to use the witch. Harry admits he followed Andrew.

 

Maggie talks to Mike about her suspicions. She knows about Tommy aging up to a teenager from a baby.

 

When Melody was attacked, Andrew was not in town.

 

Maggie will get Mike a drink.

 

At the Blue Whale:

Jessica, “Wel, might as well finish this off.”

“You running a bar really isn’t a good idea, is it?”

 

 

Jessica once ran a girl named Jane Ellsmore out of town after their first date because she wasn’t right for Ed. NOTE: this is odd because an actress named Jane Ellsmore plays in the audio BLOODLUST as Nurse Alice Chen.

 

 

Jessica didn’t think Susan was right for Ed. Jessica is wrong and right when she says something it is like Susan is really here (she is) but she’s gone. Ed tells his mom that Susan has come back. Good weird music here.

 

Harry is Andrew’s son but feels he hasn’t really been that for a long time and that Andrew doesn’t care about him. He’s rather stay with Amy and get a job and reveals he’s already doing some work for the Collinsport Star. Andrew tries the “mistake” route.

 

Harry admits he hasn’t had the best childhood and so he chooses Amy to stay with.

 

Amy wants Andrew to leave. He will find somewhere else to stay and they will talk in the morning, he says. He leaves.

 

Amy and Andrew had a big fight before they arrived at Collinsport and were at a hotel. Andrew could have come to Collinsport the night Melody was killed. Amy doesn’t care. She wants to know where the witch is and she wants to put Tommy right and get them all out of Collinsport.

 

Kate is listening to a tape of the past of what happened during her program. That was ten years ago. Her friend was killed, he was possessed. Frankie believes her (his first name is Benjamin). He grew up in Collinwood. Kate needs to know about why Tom Lacey died, the ghost ship, Susan Griffin, she needs to understand it.

 

NOTE: not much about how Susan died or if it is related to the audio THE GHOST SHIP.

 

Kate knows she can’t get back to an ordinary life. She doesn’t hate it but does? She needs it?

 

Ed told his mother that Susan is back. She resists this knowledge. Ed reveals Mike heard him talk to Susan and he may have seen her, too. He tells her Frankie saw Susan, too. Willie Loomis and Jessica went on one date and then he left town.

 

“Everything Maggie’s saying. It’s real,” Ed says.

 

Harry calls Angelique terrifying but sad as if she were grieving. Amy leaves Tommy with Harry while she goes out. Amy leaves Harry to give Tommy all the food he can. She seems happy in this. Harry warns Amy about the witch being dangerous.

 

Amy feels she used to stand up for herself before Andrew. She declares Amy Jennings fights back.

 

Kate saw Tom Lacey and the sheriff die. She knows it was not a hoax. She came to find out the truth to reveal what really happened but no one was talking. Kate realized she never felt more alive then the night of hell and the rest of the world is so safe but she needs this town digging its claws into her. Frankie calls her sick and twisted. He tells her she needs help. Frankie wants to help her; they had fun but she’s not just a posh British broad who got her drunk that night. He thinks he loves her even after what she just said. Kate thinks she might love Frankie, too. They both need another beer.

 

Maggie tells Harry to tell Amy the three of them are staying here as long as they need, free of charge. Harry explains that Tommy should not eat with his mouth full and to call Amy mom instead of mommy. Tommy knows who Harry is and who he is. He knows more than he did than when he was a baby. He knows how to talk. He has no memories of growing up. Tommy jokes when he asks if he can’t wear diapers anymore. He is sure he can figure it out.

 

Harry, “This whole town is crazy.”

 

Tommy asks if Harry has a princess. Harry quickly answers, “No.”

 

Tommy asks for more of bacon. Tommy says he would like to be called Tom instead of Tommy.

 

Amy talks to herself or has a voice over as she goes to the cave of the witch, hoping just to talk to a being who used to be a human woman. Angelique answers her calls, “There is always someone there, hiding in the dark, waiting.”

 

It is after midnight. Jessica wants to call Frankie to talk about this Susan stuff but it is after midnight. Jessica wonders why Ed’s dad didn’t come back. Jessica blames Maggie for Ed’s thinking, “She’s mad. She wants us to be scared of the dark.”  She will not let Maggie have any more meetings here at the Blue Whale.

 

Mike says, “The supernatural is real.”

 

Mike and Maggie chat. He thinks people need to take action. When Harry was cooking, Tommy left. He thinks someone’s taken Tommy. Mike thinks it might be whatever killed Melody and they can’t go outside even if it isn’t. That thing that killed Melody is out there.

 

Angelique smells on Amy werewolf, vampire and ultimately that Amy is descended from a Collins. Amy doesn’t know she is a Collins. Amy can smell her power, so much magic, like fireflies dancing in the moonlight. Angelique muses on curses and sons and daughters and that that is how magic works, and sons and daughters punished for their parents’ mistakes. Amy thinks there is good magic and Angelique can do something good. She feels she was good, abandoned by the man she loved, left in a miserable town. She can flay the skin off Amy’s bones with just one word (like Evil Willow in BUFFY!).

 

Frankie and Kate grow closer in bed. Frankie says, “Another day, another dollar,” again. She asks what he is digging for. Frankie asks her, “What else, this beer? This beer haunted?”

 

Amy asks Angelique to reverse the spell on Tom. “You are a strong woman, Amy, I like that. I forgave far too many times,” she tells Amy. Once people started dying, Amy gave up magic. Angelique tells her she can give her the spells and magic, “Amy, you could become a witch.”

 

 

Frankie wonders if Kate does not love him at all but just wants to know if there is something supernatural at the mine. Frankie brings up David, the mine, Jessica, and others, wondering if Kate will think he is one of the monsters.

 

Kate runs out. Frankie answers the phone call from Jessica. As Jessica talks to him, Susan appears to Jessica at the bar, the Blue Whale, “I did come back, Jessica.”  Jess drops the phone. Jessica doesn’t react well. She runs away.

 

Tommy appears at the cave. Angelique says, “Hello, handsome boy.”

 

Tom pleads with Amy not to become a witch. He calls Angelique, “Wicked witch.”  Angelique tells them that magic is seductive and Amy will want to use it again and again and people will die. Tom is fine how he is and loves his life already as it is.

 

“I am happy. I might not always be happy about what’s happening but here and now, I’m happy. I don’t want you to be like her: alone, weird, crazy, alone.”  Tom tells Angelique, who summons Isiah Trask.

 

Amy calls Tom a brave, brave boy, “And I love you so much. And you…” she tells the witch, “I feel sorry for you. Because something made you like this. Barnabas Collins? You’re letting him run your life.”  She asks her to stay out of their lives and summon someone to play with…Barnabas.

 

“A strong family,” Angelique comments. She tries to summon Trask again. She can feel so many lost souls out there, wandering the streets of a lost town. “Some with dark hearts, some acting out of love. But all of them, all of them scared. It’s almost as if they know what’s coming.”

 

Outside in the storm, Jessica encounters Andrew, who is drinking. He’s lost everything, he’s lost it all. Jessica is sure he hasn’t.

 

Susan apologizes to Ed. Susan knows something is out there and implores Ed to go out after Jessica, nobody is safe!

 

Jessica encounters someone outside she says, “Hello again” to. Whoever or whatever it is, attacks her and she screams. Andrew hears her scream and runs back to her. He is attacked, too.

 

Rhonda questions Maggie. Maggie tells her Amy, Harry and Tom are outside. Harry returns and found both Amy and Tom. “I really need a hug,” Amy says. Maggie hugs her. She lets them eat whatever they want and she will put the water on (tea?). On the way back, they met someone.

 

“Good evening.”  The new arrival says to Maggie.

 

“Quentin Collins.”

 

“Hello, Maggie. I don’t suppose there’s any room at the Inn?”

 

WOW. The first four and the prelude were amazing but this…this is perfect. The dialog, every scene, every character beat, all of it, just perfect. If you don’t fall in love with the new characters and love how the old classic ones are woven into it, I don’t know what you will ever like in ANY Dark Shadow revival. This is so PERFECT on how to do it.

 

The tension rises too in the storm outside like never before (no, really) as we know someone will be attacked and probably die. Lara’s never been better as here. The writing is strong and the thing about this is it cleverly ties into older audios and the original TV show without over egging the pudding. It also gives us new dilemmas that there are no easy solutions for such as Tom’s growing into a teen from a baby a few hours ago.

 

This is just absolutely interesting, entertaining, scary, and makes you want to hear more. I care about ALL of them, even Kate. The horror has to happen to good people, something much horror doesn’t understand. When it happens to people who get their comeuppance, well, it’s sort of expected but when it happens to good people. And even Andrew, as awful a person he is, is such a well written character that he has depth and is not just a “bad guy” and Angelique is written as more than just an evil witch. They all jump out of the audio and take on a life of their own.

 

I have to say the evolution of the characters feels natural, too. The whole ghost thing, the Maggie against the supernatural thing, Kate’s addiction to the danger of the supernatural and Frankie’s every man’s attitude. We see Collinsport from EVERY angle we can and even if it was just in this episode which is a strong one, we see it in the entire BLOODLUST.

 

 

This is why it is so sad that BLOODLINES was so very different and so very inferior to this and also sad that BIG FINISH hasn’t been able, for whatever reasons (deaths in the cast, COVID, world situations, technical issues?), to continue the mini series format which they were planning to do with at least two, maybe three more.

 

For fans, this is not to be missed: fans of DS and fans of horror. This is HOW to write horror. Mystery, oddness, fear, growing tension, atmosphere and characters we care about who have real motivations and concerns. Amazing.