DARK SHADOWS 564

 

DARK SHADOWS 564

“Willie, you’ll do as your told.”

 

“Adam is threatening every member of my family. I have no choice.”

 

“We’re going to have to do something about Willie.”

 

Karlen. There’s more male narrations then I seem to remember.

 

The House by the Sea seems to be called a remote section of the great estate of Collinwood but…I thought it was  on the other side of Collinsport!?

 

Julia comes across Joe in the hospital. Joe was here to settle his account. She hoped to see Dr. Beavers (the sub titles say Dr. Peters). He tells her Tom is dead.

 

Hold the fort: Joe seems to say the police will not be involved ever because Tom is dead. They should be MORE involved because of that!

 

Julia’s ear rings look like chocolate chip cookies.

 

WHY haven’t the police figured something out by now? As the two talk, we hear typing. And voices. Julia once more plays with her gloves.

 

There is a fly on Joe.

 

 

Joe won’t let Julia touch him; she suggests medication if he is upset. Maggie does not yet know Tom is dead. Joe tells Julia that Maggie once went with Tom before she went with Joe. It was nothing serious but the two liked each other a lot.

 

I notice a GIVE BLOOD poster behind Joe.

 

Julia offers to drive him home. He does not have his car at the hospital,

 

 

He must have walked or took a cab? He refuses her offer. The funeral will be quick; that is the way Tom wanted it Joe says.

 

 

Everything Joe says seems to be a lie and/or he’s in shock and/or guilt ridden trances. Joe claims he is Tom’s only living relative (we soon find out, that that’s not true). Joe does not want Julia to interfere.

 

Willie expresses revulsion at the touch or sight of the body in the Old House basement. Barnabas shows up and scares him accidentally.

 

It’s Willie vs Barnabas as Willie expresses that people listen to Barnabas and he’s used to that but no one really listens to Willie, who’ll come around to do others’ bidding.

 

 

Barnabas suggests a sedative for Willie, and that he is revolted by what this room has been turned into.

 

 

Willie does not understand  Barnabas. “You know Barnabas sometimes I just don’t understand.”  Or Understand You.

 

 

Willie told him to kill Adam. Willie says, “I know you wouldn’t kill him, you’d find some other way. Well I don’t know why you wouldn’t kill him, I just don’t understand it.”

 

Barnabas repeats that Adam has threatened every member of the family.

 

 

Willie once more talks about himself in third person as in the very old episodes when Willie first appeared.

 

 

He worries that David playing around might uncover this experiment. Willie also asks who is going to be the life force. Barnabas: “I don’t know.” 

 

 

Willie wants to kill Adam and threatens to the next time he sees him.

 

Julia tells Barnabas about Tom and they discuss Willie briefly. Julia suggests the police.

 

The music starts abruptly.

 

 

Barnabas believes Joe knows the original vampire. Did Tom know who it was? Barnabas feels for the victim Tom and recalls the coffin of his own days and the “agony of the nights”. He can’t let anyone else go through what he went through. He calls Willie down and tells him they must do something tonight. When Willie shakes his head no, Barnabas says, “Don’t shake your head at me, Willie, you don’t know what it is yet.”  He asks Willie to get a stake.

 

Graveyard: storm. Tom’s gravestone is 1944 to 1968. Joe voice over. From what Julia said earlier, the funeral was that afternoon. Tom died last night. Julia met Joe early in the morning.

 

 

Julia, Willie, and Barnabas see Joe. We hear the dogs. Joe resists Angelique’s call.

 

Julia interrupts Joe to distract him from what Willie and Barnabas have to do. She mentions that Mrs. Johnson (who?) has saved dinner for her and invites Joe to share it. Carolyn and Vicki will be glad to see him. She asks him to accept the help of  a friendly (?) doctor. She also says IDU why you don’t want to see Maggie.

 

 

“I guess no one understands that,” he counters.

 

Willie says something about Julia is telling Joe, not what you told me,” and Barnabas says, “Of course not.”  Willie and Barnabas wait until Julia has Joe leave with her. He never really said he would but they do leave.

 

 

In any case amid MORE Willie protests, Barnabas tells him they are dealing with an enemy, one Barnabas tells him he knows only too well.

 

 

 

Barnabas wants him to stop worrying and start digging, “Stop…no start,”  and Willie digs. Julia and Joe are almost at Collinwood, I think but Joe is hostile and leaves her. Barnabas has a stake and asks Willie to give him the mallet, then Willie opens the coffin. Tom is not in it. The coffin is empty.

 

Though Willie dug it out, it is now on the open ground near…no hole that we can see.

 

Aside from Barnabas’s lament, this is EXTREMLY tedious. Talk, talk, talk. At least that is how I felt a long time ago, well over ten to 15 years ago. Now, I find it extremely wonderful, milking the Barnabas Willie relationship.

 

Barnabas here is still a nasty man to Willie, very much boss and slave, something Barnabas will come to lament during the Leviathan storyline in at least one wonderful scene there.

 

 

Karlen gives it his all again and comes off as both weak AND strong. If he does kill Adam, would Barnabas die?

 

 

Even without his vampire powers, Barnabas has some hold on Willie but nothing as powerful.

 

The idea of another vampire should be thrilling but having it played by out like this makes it…tedious. Let’s get this over with now: I feel awful about what happened to Don Briscoe. I also feel I was, like I was to KLS, overly harsh on Don in my first round of reviews of the episodes. Thus, in this round, I’ll lay off him and his acting for good.

 

 

 

Joe’s descent is hard to watch, especially in hindsight, knowing how he will end up. A long running character in such dismal circumstances, done in this way, it’s difficult to watch, more so knowing the end of him.

 

True that Sam Hall’s TV Guide ending gives Joe and Maggie a happy ending but watching it…on top of that Willie’s CONSTANT whimpering (justified to be sure) gets on my nerves.

 

 The only thing holding this together is Frid’s performance, which is pretty good.

 

• In the teaser, right before Joe says Tom is dead, the Collinsport Fly flies by the left side of his face.
• Joe states that he is Tom's only living relative. Although this seems like a continuity error, it could just be that he was excluding Chris as he has been out of the loop for years, wandering because of his lycanthropy, and because Amy is a child, Joe might not even have known of her.
• In Act II, Jonathan Frid and John Karlen step on each other's lines. Barnabas says, "Do you think Julia and I want to create this mate for Adam?" Willie then starts to say, "You know, the day you brought Adam here..." but Frid interrupts him to finish Barnabas's line "Can't you imagine how we feel?"
• Although Tom died early this morning, there is a tombstone with his name at the grave. (Perhaps Collinsport has a "One-Hour Cenotaph" store?)
• We see Willie start digging a hole in front of Tom's gravestone, and in the next scene, the coffin rests on the ground, but there is no hole in front of the gravestone; the earth is undisturbed.
• Prior to the 1795 story line, Julia's lab was in a different room in the basement. Now it's crammed into the confines of the smaller coffin room.
• Toward the end of the episode, when Barnabas and Willie are watching Julia talking to Joe at Tom's grave, there is a clanging sound when Barnabas and Willie are talking. It is likely the shovel that Willie is carrying.

So here we are, in a graveyard, during one of Collinsport’s many dry thunderstorms, digging for treasure. Apparently, somebody managed to carve a headstone with Tom’s name on it in less than a day, and Willie can hoist a coffin out of the ground by himself without actually digging much of a hole.

In fact, it turns out that Tom’s coffin is empty, which is one of the most head-scratching plot twists ever assembled. When exactly did Count Houdini make his daring escape? They put the body in a coffin, lowered the casket into the grave, and filled up the hole. I think they would have noticed if there wasn’t a guy in the coffin.

But none of that matters. It’s silly and illogical and utterly grotesque, but once you jump on a runaway train, it’s too late to ask the conductor for a timetable. All you can do is hang on.

Tomorrow: Weird Science.

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Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:

There’s an unbelievable amount of studio noise during the teaser, when Julia is asking Joe about Tom. It sounds like carts being pushed around, and you can hear people talking over a speaker.

At the end of the teaser, Julia says that if Tom was attacked by a person, then the police should be involved. Joe says, “Yes, they should be. But they won’t be, ever. Because he’s dead.” Joe apparently believes that if someone is murdered, then the police have no jurisdiction.

It’s hard to tell if there’s a blooper at the end of act 2 or not. Willie and Barnabas are arguing over what to do about Adam. Willie heads for the stairs, saying that if he ever sees Adam, he’s going to kill him. Barnabas barks, “Willie!” and marches over to the stairs to stare at his servant. It seems like a moment where he should have had another line, but instead he just glares at Willie, who turns and walks away.

When they arrive at Tom’s grave, Willie worries, “Barnabas, what if somebody comes?” Barnabas snaps, “Stop… no. Start, Willie. Now.”

This isn’t a blooper, just a retcon in the making: When Joe tells Julia that his cousin Tom wanted to be buried right away, he says, “I’m his only relative, so it’s up to me.” As we learn in a few months, Tom actually has a twin brother and a little sister.