DARK SHADOWS 520

 DARK SHADOWS 520

520

“Barnabas, if the skeleton is there, then you will be free.”

 

“You must hope, Barnabas.”

“Yes. Yes, I must.”

 

“Oh, what is it about this family, Julia. We seem to attract trouble, tragedy even.”

 

“Liz, it is our Barnabas that is there. Our cousin from England.”

“Oh, so that is the story now?”

 

“What did you say? That Barnabas is one of the living dead?”

 

“She thinks that she is Naomi Collins and she actually said that I was one of the living dead?”

 

 

Joan. Morning and the night has passed and the devils have flown from the witch. Roger waits. It is 9am. Julia comes in, she’s had a walk before breakfast. Julia suggests maybe Cassandra, missing, is visiting friends in Brockport or Rockport. She starts to talk but Roger interrupts her, “Perhaps you…” Julia tells him to pay attention to his feeling even though he mentions it is a formless feeling.

 

Vicki left Cassandra at 9pm last night. Roger took a sleeping pill, he seldom does but he hasn’t slept well lately. He calls the police.

 

No reprise. It is soon 9:30am and Barnabas comes in to talk to Julia and we get a rare side view POV of the little hall by the door, the jacket area. Angelique is a fact he can’t escape. Then he thinks the opposite: is may be possible to live out his life. He goes back and forth between hope and misery, expecting that at any moment Angelique will come through that door with some absurd excuse (much like he and Julia!).

 

 

They talk about Trask and that maybe he is back in the other world. He is at peace now they think but only if he destroyed the witch or got rid of her. It is odd that there is no picture on the wall behind the two of them. If Trask’s skeleton is hanging in the alcove behind the knocked down brick wall, maybe he’s done the deed and gotten rid of Cassandra.

 

 

This means Barnabas is free. Barnabas, ever the pessimist, wonders if Trask will finish him, too. They rush to the Old House and find the skeleton is there! Barnabas dare not hope, “Her cruelty would want me to hope…”  but they both agree he must hope.

 

 

 

Collinwood: Roger tells Julia the sheriff has gone and inferred that Roger and Cassandra fought. Roger asks, “Oh, what is it about this family. We seem to attract trouble. Tragedy even.”  They talk about Liz, who comes down the steps to them. She calls him Joshua and her Natalie or Countess. She mentions Barnabas and Millicent.

 

NOTE: Joan is very, very good here, this might be her best episode yet.

 

Roger asks, “What are we going to do?” Julia answers, “I don’t know.”

 

Liz calls Barnabas her son and says, “Barnabas is one of the living dead.”   Zoom in on Julia. She puts her hands on her face.

 

 

After the commercials, Roger says, “What did you say? That Barnabas is one of the living dead?”

 

“She doesn’t know what she’s saying,” Julia counters.

 

Roger tells Liz to stop this for “my sake, for Carolyn’s sake.”   Roger teleprompter.

 

 

Julia thinks Liz should be in the hospital but Roger won’t commit her. Julia gets another IDK. Liz is convinced she is Naomi. A storm rises up.

 

Julia tells Barnabas what is happening with Liz. What if Liz makes the connection between the “living dead” and vampire. Roger knows more about the family history. He might figure it out.

 

 

Julia points out that he is no longer a vampire. Barnabas asks, “What am I going to do?”  She responds first with, “IDK,” but then says, “Nothing.” He asks her if the curse is still over and Angelique is still gone. Julia gets another IDK.

 

Barnabas knows that Roger knows more about the family history than Liz does.

 

 

In any case, this means Cassandra, to Barnabas anyway, is still around but Julia wonders if it is just some residue spell left over to torment Liz after Cassandra’s vanishing or death? Barnabas calls out to Angelique. Naomi took her own life and the sight of Barnabas might…bring her back or make it worse. When he sees her, Julia tells him he only has so believe in and sell one lie: that that Barnabas Collins no longer exists.

 

 

“In a way, it’s true,” she happily adds, “The vampire part of you is dead.”  The man he is lives.

 

Thunderstorm.

 

Liz writes a note to Joshua and has her own voice over, asking herself why she is doing this. She puts the powder from the desk that Cassandra put there, into a drink. She drinks it! Question: Where did she get that? Cassandra put poison in her bedroom drawer on a desk. Did Liz have her own stash of poison? Or did she, thinking she is Naomi, find it in the bedroom?

 

 

Julia asks Barnabas to tell it all to her about his mother so she can put the pieces together. Julia gets a “You don’t know.”  The pair of them find the note in the drawing room.

 

Liz goes to the Tower Room. A shadow comes over her. There are lots of little messes inside and it seems used for storage. Barnabas comes in to Liz and as Naomi she says, “I’ll keep your secret.”  He tells her she is under a spell. She gets an IDK. She also claims that the poison is where Naomi (she!) put it so long ago. She falls out of his arms. While in his arms, Liz teleprompter and/or Barnabas teleprompter.

 

The credits get stuck at Robert Cobert’s name and never get unstuck. They vanish. 22 seconds later, the Dan Curtis logo appears…with the wrong year, this time is reads 1966!

 

A really good episode with the four main characters: Liz, Roger, Barnabas, Julia. Of course there is also a heavy presence of Trask and mostly more of Angelique/Cassandra as the events that she set into motion both for Liz and Barnabas carry out. The acting is strong, the script is strong and the ambition there.

 

 

It’s also cool to see a room we first saw in 1795’s storyline in the present of 1968. Joan does a great job. It is truly shocking as it seems Liz will die. I don’t know but the next episode seems to make one think that nightshade is no longer deadly. Or perhaps Julia did something else to help Liz not die???

 

In any case, a good ep. Even the Barnabas angst was well played. Julia continues to be a smart person amid all the supernatural goings on. There is also something incredibly refreshing about Liz and Roger coming this close to finding out about Barnabas’s former secret.