DARK SHADOWS 565

 

DARK SHADOWS  565

 

“You know some day I’m going to find out why you’re so…so fascinated by Barnabas Collins.”

 

 

Vicki. No reprise. Julia in the lab. Barnabas arrives, “Thank God, you’re here. Tonight another vampire walks.”   He wonders if Cassandra is dead. They never found the body. This is the sort of thing she would do.  A loud pong.

 

They wonder if Blair created Tom Jennings as a vampire. Barnabas remembers his 200 years as a vampire.

 

 

Julia won’t let Barnabas go after Tom. He knows what Tom will do to someone and what Tom is going through himself.

 

 

Night has a special meaning for Barnabas and always will. He worries about some poor innocent victim. Julia tells him about the experiment and that he is the only one that can control Willie and deal with Adam, “You’re the only, the other …” in a flub. She mentions the lives in the balance, especially Vicki’s.

 

 

He is responsible for them all.  The dogs howl and there is one long howl. Jeff hears the dogs. There is that thunderstorm still raging, too.

 

Jeff coughs. Vicki has received another note from Barnabas to go to the Old House. Jeff says IDU. He then repeats what he said, “All I said was I don’t understand.”

 

 

He hugs her and frankly, it feels creepy and possessive.

 

 

Jeff knows that Barnabas loves Vicki and is jealous. Vicki insists he is just a friend to her. As they talk, I hear some electronic noises and talking behind them.

 

Barnabas has no phone.

 

Jeff and Vicki hug.

 

 

Jeff will drive her over (SOMEONE IS USING THEIR HEAD AND EXPERIENCE ON THIS SHOW? AND IT’S JEFF?!). He says that someday he will understand why Vicki is so fascinated with Barnabas Collins. When they leave, the camera moves to the window as if we’d see the vampire out there.

 

Vicki at the Old House is told by Barnabas she shouldn’t be out tonight. He tells her it is always delightful to see her, though. Zoom out and zoom in. ANOTHER CUT. He gives her the ring, telling her a lie that he found it in the woods but then tells her Wilie found it in the woods, reflecting in the sunlight.

 

 

Vicki wonders how she dropped it. “I don’t know” is his answer, followed by a “but”. Vicki feels she should give him a reward.

 

Julia comes up and has a book. Barnabas lies and tells Vicki he and Julia are working on a book about Eric Lang. Julia says there’s something in the book he does not understand. He will take Vicki to Jeff’s car.

 

When they leave and Julia sits down, she touches under her nose but more importantly, when the lightning effect comes from outside, we see a full up and down space gap between the join between walls near the windows.

 

Julia and Barnabas talk about Eric Lang. Vicki and Jeff are soon back at Collinwood. Jeff says, “I just wish I understood.” Vicki comments, “So do I.”  When she complains that if it were Carolyn or anyone else that found it, he would not be suspicious. “Vicki, you just don’t understand…” he starts.

 

 

Jeff mentions he spent 3 days looking for Vicki. Wasn’t she gone for two?

 

 

Vicki recalls being in a room alone by the sea. The waves were pounding on the shore over and over. Oh she’s just been watching the opening credits.  Jeff talks to her some more. She asks, “How can there be?” “I don’t know.”  He  is suspicious of Barnabas.

 

Barnabas has things to do. He has to meet Willie. For what? What’s more important than staying here and protecting Julia and the experiment. He claims Willie loses his courage is lost when he’s late like he already is.

 

 

When Julia questions if he and Willie have to go out tonight, he tells her they must: Adam is impatient. Is it a good idea to bring Willie to Adam after Willie vowed to kill Adam the next time he saw him?  

 

Julia is very tired but has to go down to clean up the lab. Barnabas tells her, “Julia, I’m very grateful for everything you’re doing, believe me.”  He leaves and she smiles.

 

 

In the basement is an old radio playing as Julia works. The song playing on the radio is the Jackie Gleason Orchestra's version of Gershwin's "Love Is Here to Stay."

 

 

Jeff comes nosing around the Old House and inside, looks at and touches a statue. He finds Eric Lang’s journal. And has a voice over. He reads an entry that reveals Lang wanted to find a mind that was of genius caliber. Jeff did his work for months and laments that he saw this handwriting, having hoped to never see it again. He also thinks if he hasn’t worked for Lang, he would have never met Vicki.  

 

 

Julia comes up and Jeff scares her and apologizes. Julia holds the journal nervously and/or like it is a baby.

 

She lies, telling him that she and Barnabas as considering a book about Lang. Jeff laughs about this, that it would not do Lang’s reputation and memory much good to find out how he intended to create a man.

 

 

She lies that Willie and Barnabas drove up to Bangor (or is it a lie?). Dogs.

 

Tom is looking in from the window. Now, it IS Tom or supposed to be. On Dark Shadows Wikia apparently someone logged in that this figure is Humbert Allen Astredo (Blair) and I have to admit, it sure DOES look like him. It could be that the shadows of the window frame made it look like Tom (Don Briscoe) has a moustache and the figure does look  a lot like Astredo but it’s probably Tom. Hard to tell. Don is credited, of course.

 

 

In the basement, Julia writes a note (WHY would she put this evidence down on paper?!) which includes the sentence, “IDK what he thought…” to Barnabas about Jeff’s nosing around, when she hears a noise.

 

 

Julia voice over. We’re not supposed to but we see Tom in the basement shadows long before the vampire is supposed to appear.

 

 

The noises indicate that maybe he’s supposed to be coming down the steps but he’s just standing there.

 

When he steps out of the shadows, maybe she does not see him but she asks who he is. Hasn’t she seen Tom’s face already? Or at least Chris’ face?

 

On another matter, knowing about a vampire on the loose, why isn’t she armed with at least a cross?

 

 

Tom attacks Julia. Is it cut? The entire thing is shoddily done. It lacks any tension. The shock that they would do this is the only thing keeping me watching and that wears off after you know he’s going to do this and/or you’ve seen it before.

 

Julia’s scream blasts us into the credits but the visual is Tom approaching faster and baring his fangs. It’s pretty creepy and even scary. Briscoe can be scary. I kind of wish they kept the vampire Tom around longer, he’s almost a different kind of vampire, more a savage monster than Barnabas ever was.

 

The credits don’t linger but stay on Grayson Hall as Julia Hoffman’s credit longer than the others IMO.

 

 

 

More tedium. Yeah, it’s compelling in a way that Jeff is finding out stuff and that there is a vampire and that he attacks Julia but the whole thing is terribly done. Again, Frid and Grayson are just about the only things worth watching in this ep.

 

His thanking her is almost a rarity but perhaps not in the 1968 storyline. More talk.

 

 

Back when the replaced Vicki and/or got rid of her, I lamented the loss but honestly, Vicki does nothing for this show now and her leaving is probably a good thing, especially if she takes Roger Davis with her (she won’t but Jeff will leave). Not terrible but not great.

 

I know I’m being hard on the actress and Roger Davis and truth be told, they’re not terrible here and this episode is not bad and not really tedious when I watched it in 2025. But some ten to 15 years ago, maybe it was. Not watching every day or two a day, makes one appreciate it more maybe?

• The song playing on the radio is the Jackie Gleason Orchestra's version of Gershwin's "Love Is Here to Stay."

Story

• INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: Jeff: What's Eric Lang's journal doing here?; Julia: Note to Barnabas.

Bloopers and continuity errors

• Jeff says he spent three days looking for Victoria. However, the on-screen passage of time from 552 to 559 indicates she was missing for only two days.
• While Julia is writing a note for Barnabas, she hears loud footsteps twice, which are supposed to be those of Tom Jennings, but Don Briscoe can be seen in the back immobile all this time.
• When Julia tells Barnabas that he is the other part of the plan to bring the body to life, she stumbles over the line and starts to tell him he is the only part of the plan.
• In the Old House parlor, Julia asks Jeff, "Did you simply walk in?" Jeff replies with a non-sequitir: "No, the door was open."
• After Jeff leaves the Old House we see a figure watching Julia through the front window. The figure is intended to be Tom however it appears to be Humbert Allen Astredo whose moustache is quite clear (see this image). At the beginning of the next scene we see Don Briscoe still moving in to position so perhaps he had been held up getting his fangs in and Humbert was asked to stand in for the window shot. [It seems unlikely the figure was not Don Briscoe. It would be extremely unlikely to have been Humbert Allen Astredo, since he isn't in this episode so likely wasn't even in the studio that day. Any mustache you think you see could easily have been a shadow.]

 

FROM DS EVERYDAY:  I corrected this for clarity in the quote above, but Julia actually tells Barnabas: “I can assemble a body, yes, but that’s only part of it, Barnabas. You’re the only — the other part.”

Barnabas refuses to put electricity in at the Old House, so what is Julia’s radio plugged into? I know, they must have a generator down there for all of the mad science gear, but really, maybe it’s time to just call a contractor and get it over with.

In the last scene, Julia is writing in the basement laboratory, and she hears somebody walking quietly down the stairs. Finally, she turns around, and sees Tom walk out of the shadows behind her. Unfortunately, the lighting isn’t quite low enough around Tom, so the audience can see him perfectly clearly, standing still at the back of the set, during the whole time that Julia is listening to him walk downstairs.

Barnabas:  I’m going to meet Willie. We have things to do. His courage is lost as it is, when I’m late like this. Now, I want you to try to keep making some sense out of this.

And then, oh, just look at what they do.

Julia:  I wish you and Willie didn’t have to go out tonight.

Barnabas:  Well, we must. Adam is impatient.

Julia:  Be careful.

Barnabas:  Don’t worry. Will you be here later?

Julia:  Do you need me?

Barnabas:  Oh, tomorrow morning will be soon enough.

Julia:  All right. Then I’ll just go downstairs and close up. Good night.

Barnabas:  Julia… I’m very grateful for everything you’re doing. Believe me. Good night.

He leaves, and she smiles, and then we fade to a shot of a radio. It’s on Julia’s workbench downstairs, and it’s playing a lush orchestral arrangement of “Love Is Here to Stay”. There are seriously not enough Tumblrs in the world to hold all these feels.

So that’s what holds things together on this show, when the lunatic plot contrivances pile up so high that you can’t see daylight. As reckless and irresponsible as the producers are, they pay attention to the one thing that really matters — keeping the interesting people together.

I love these two, which is bizarre, because I kind of hate Barnabas. It can’t be explained by science. I just love them.