DARK SHADOWS 566

 

DARK SHADOWS  566

“Julia…Julia, you sure there isn’t something else you want to tell me?”

 

“The howling of those dogs, that’s what’s wrong.”

 

 

 

Who is that? Briscoe? Different reprise. Tom looks different and we actually see Barnabas in the woods. We hear more smashing.

 

Julia yells like a loon. Willie finds Julia and DOES NOT THINK there is anything wrong with anything wrong with her neck. She doesn’t want him to say anything to Barnabas about her falling and fainting.

 

 

He offers to walk her back but she refuses. Mrs. Johnson unlocks the door and lets Julia in.

 

She locked it, thinking that everyone was in bed.

 

NOTE: if doors were locked more often, a lot of the situations would not be as dire as they are.  I mean Tom just seemed to walk into the Old House and later, at night again, Julia leaves Collinwood, leaves the door open and Johnson hears the dogs after Julia leaves and shudders from that or the cold and closes the doors again but does not lock them then.

 

 

 

She goes on and on, nagging and mentions everyone’s comings and goings. Julia without a word, goes upstairs.

 

Even though Willie promised Julia he would not tell Barnabas that he found her on the floor, he eventually does. He also says, “I don’t know,” at least once.

 

Their rapport here is very funny. The actors know these characters so well and the characters know each other so well and it just works between the two of them.

 

 

Barnabas flubs “Look…she…about what?” 

 

He seems to have forgotten his lines.

 

 

Julia is covering the fang marks. Mrs. Johnson comes to her and Julia tells her that she will sleep in all day. When the nag asks her about it, Julia says, “I don’t know.”  

 

 

Julia wants the room curtained off for the day. Barnabas comes in and hangs his cane and cape/coat up in the doorway hall, a rare shot. Mrs. Johnson says good morning to him and he to her. When she explains a bit about Julia not seeing anyone, he says, “IDU you.”

 

Barnabas asks a worried Mrs. Johnson what is wrong with Julia. Mrs. Johnson: “I don’t know.”   They talk. When Johnson explains Julia does not want to see anyone, she also says, “IDK what to tell you, Mr. Collins.”  She will not let him see Julia so he writes her a note.

 

 

The layout of Julia’s room looks…different. Julia rips up his note---seemingly in front of Mrs. Johnson.  

 

Creepily, Willie sneaks into Julia’s bedroom, sent by Barnabas. He tells her this and that Mrs. Johnson told Barnabas that Julia tore up the letter he sent her.

 

 

As the dogs howl, Willie finally becomes suspicious of Julia and her actions Amid threats from Julia to get Miss Stoddard, Willie leaves.

 

Tom calls out to Julia 

 

In any case, this starts out telepathic…in fact his mouth does not open. In this scene, all of his dialog seems recorded over the visuals and we do not see his mouth move at all.

 

 

Johnson sees Julia leave. Tom bites Julia again.

 

 

Willie tells Barnabas he’s worried and mentions the dogs. Barnabas leaves. Talking with his mouth moving, more traditionally, Tom sends Julia back to Collinwood. We hear sounds in the foyer. Is some ghost playing jacks?

 

 

Barnabas sees Julia’s return (he was about to check out the closed doors to the room of the Drawing Room but hears the door open and close) and he enters and blocks her from going upstairs.

 

 

BTW, Julia seems to enter the house via the doors by what we hear. We do NOT see her open or close either of the doors but to be fair, one side to our, the viewers’ right, is not seen so maybe she came through that side?

 

He pulls the scarf off her neck and sees the fang marks (they seem to be on the right side of her neck and later on, I believe they move to the other side!). The credits are slightly wobbly.

 

Again, this SHOULD be the highlight of the entire series: Barnabas facing another vampire but for some reason it remains dragged out and tedious. Almost.

 

Uhm, and isn’t Liz in Windcliff? Maybe Willie does not know that?

Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:

In act 1, Barnabas is surprised to find that Julia has left the Old House; he tells Willie, “I thought she was going to be working late tonight.” Actually, at the end of the last episode, Julia told Barnabas that she was going to finish up her work and head home.

Barnabas forgets a line, checks the teleprompter, and starts to say Willie’s line again:

Willie:  Look, Barnabas, she made me promise not to tell you anything.

Barnabas:  Look… (long pause) She… About what?

There’s something wrong with one of the studio’s three cameras this week — it’s always out of focus, and the color balance is wrong. It’s going to take them a minute to get it fixed.

• In the teaser, there is a sound effect of crackling leaves as Barnabas walks in the woods, but when he stops and looks around, the sound effect continues.
• Similar to the end of the previous episode, in the teaser, Julia hears a clunking sound that seems to be Tom Jennings coming into the basement (though in the previous episode the sound was footsteps), but we see the partially lighted figure of Tom already standing behind her.
• In the previous episode, Julia told Barnabas before he left that she was going to finish up and go home; in this episode, Barnabas tells Willie that he thought she was going to be working late.
• In Act I, Jonathan Frid seems to forget his lines. When Willie says Julia made him promise he wouldn't tell him (Barnabas) anything, Barnabas says, "Look..." Then there is a very long pause as Willie looks at him. Then Barnabas says, "She...about what?"
• Julia's room at Collinwood is seemingly not the same one as before the 1795 storyline.
• When Barnabas arrives at Collinwood, it's not clear why he knocks on the front door and then immediately lets himself in.
• Julia threatens Willie with telling Mrs. Stoddard that he was in her room, but Liz has not yet returned from Windcliff. [Addendum: Julia tells Willie he wouldn't want her to tell "Miss," not "Mrs." Stoddard, referring to Carolyn.]
• When Julia looks at the window as the dogs howl, while the still shot of the full moon is showing, there is a loud clanking noise.
• When Tom bites Julia, neither he nor Julia removes her scarf, and Tom appears to bite her through it. [Not a blooper. He has fangs and he's a monster. Biting through a scarf is not out of the question.]
• In Act IV, when Willie tells Barnabas he's worried about Julia and the howling dogs, Jonathan Frid seems to forget his line. He hesitates, says, "Well," and then turns to the teleprompter and says, "how did..how did Julia look when you saw her?"
• In Act IV, Don Briscoe and Grayson Hall step on each other's lines. As Tom is telling Julia that she must come to him every night, Grayson Hall starts saying "Yes" twice while Tom is still talking.
• In Act IV, after Barnabas enters the Collinwood foyer, an off-stage clanking sound happens twice.

From Before I Die web site: John: I love how Barnabas peppers Julia with questions, and in true Perry Mason fashion, yanks her scarf off as if to prove his hypothesis before he even bothered spelling it out.

Christine: I can't believe you have nothing to say about Vampire Tom! He just seems so happy to be a vampire. Unlike Barnabas, who was remorseful about having to suck blood his first time out (and was also a much messier eater), or Angelique, who had to have Nicholas teach her how to call her victim, he seems to relish his new lifestyle, and is quite a natural at vampirism. Unfortunately, his condition has exacerbated his tendency to overdramatize his dialogue, and I thought he was more frightening when he was silently snarling in the last episode. Julia has finally gotten some vampire action, and from a handsome, young hunk to boot! I wonder if Barnabas will be jealous.