DARK SHADOWS 570

 

DARK SHADOWS  570

Karlen. Different reprise. The lighting is better and we do not see Tom before we’re meant to. This time as Tom bites Julia and HE CROSSES HIS EYES! It is 3:05am?

 

 

Tom’s coming out of the dark corner works well.

 

 

There is a sun over the Old House? Or is that supposed to be the moon? It looks like a dull sunset.

 

 

Willie and Barnabas come back from looking for Tom. Barnabas wonders where he is. Willie says, “I don’t know.” 

 

 

Barnabas feels there is something he is overlooking. Willie asks if he could destroy Tom. Barnabas goes on to talk about Adam’s threat to all, especially Vicki.

 

 

Willie goes through a list of who Barnabas’s worried about: Vicki, Adam, the family THE DVDs once again have a cut and this one pisses me off. Willie’s talk is edited out.

 

 

Willie goes on to mention that Barnabas hasn’t mentioned the one person that he needs the most---Julia. In one of my favorite talks from DS (and let’s face it ALMOST ALL OF DS IS TALKS), Willie mentions that Barnabas is trying to hide his feelings from him about Julia.

 

 

Frid is brilliant as he asks, “Are you being profound?” 

 

 

Willie tells him that he’s acting as if he’s someone whose secretary is missing.

 

 

Barnabas tells him “Very well” and goes on to ask him if he’s trying to make him admit that he cares for Julia more than he appears to. She’s been in his life so long, a very important part…he admits. Barnabas remembers the docks and victims there. Maybe Tom is there. Willie looks a bit sympathetic in a way that makes me think he’s thinking of how horrible Barnabas was or how horrible it was for Barnabas to target women no the docks. This is a terrific scene.

 

Liz comes to the pair. She asks them to hide her. She can’t talk in front of him (Willie) around. Willie carts off. When she expresses before Willie leaves, that she thought Barnabas would believe her about a coffin prepared for her, he says, “I don’t know what to believe.”

 

 

 

 

“You’ve always liked me?” she asks of Barnabas who tells her he has, “Of course.”  Barnabas vs Liz. Zoom in on Barnabas.

 

 

Liz tells him Dr. Hoffman is involved. She thinks there is some conspiracy against her starting with Roger. Liz tells him about the coffin and he wants to know where. She tells him on the edge of the Collins Cemetery. She feels they are hiding her coffin in the crypt there. Barnabas flees to find Julia on the floor of the crypt.

 

Liz wants to draw the drapes. Willie will do it for her. We hear some kind of a creak on the floorboards. He asks where Barnabas went and she says, “I don’t know what concern of that is yours.”  

 

 

Barnabas carries Julia in. Liz: “She’s dead.”  That’s almost funny. 

 

 

Julia, passed out, is blinking. Willie asks if Julia is going to die and Barnabas says IDK.

NOTE: the concern and rapport between Liz, Willie and Barnabas and that they have for Julia is what makes DS so very good and better than most shows.

 

 

Liz tells them death follows her. Willie takes Liz up to the front room at the top of the stairs. Barnabas brings Julia out of it.

 

 

The dogs howl. It is 4:30am. It will be dawn in half an hour. JUMP ON THE DVD. Willie thinks maybe they can get Julia a transfusion. Barnabas orders him to get a stake. He and Willie will go to the crypt.

 

 

Liz comes down the steps with a candle. There’s a nice transition between Liz and Julia in bed in Josette’s room. Liz goes to Julia’s bed in Josette’s room.  There’s a blanket on Julia with designs like he Afghan blanket but it is all one color so it’s not the Afghan.

 

 

She tells Julia she forgives her. She goes on to explain to us, the audience in the guise of telling Julia that she believes Roger made her plot against Liz. “I don’t know why.” We hear banging and males whispering or one male whispering.  Liz thinks Julia will be buried before she is. Joan checks the teleprompter. 

 

Tom’s coffin lid is sideways opening now where a few episodes ago it opened from either the top or the bottom.

 

Willie runs out on Barnabas. Tom comes from behind a pole? The two fight in what is arguably a well staged fight sequence, at least for DS.

 

 

It ends though, as Tom is moving down to bite Barnabas and Barnabas screams like Dr. Smith from LOST IN SPACE.

 

Frid is wonderful despite this being an episode where he seems to stumble across EVERY line almost.

 

Karlen is wonderful as is Joan and Grayson.

 

 

Frid’s unsteadiness just lends more to the character than takes away from Barnabas. It’s wonderful.

 

 

He’s so uneasy and unsure of himself and it works…and it also works that Barnabas KNOWS what the vampire’s motives, and death will mean for Julia and what he will do and where he will be.

 

A truly entertaining episode.

Episode 570: Fridspeak Friday | Dark Shadows Every Day

Dark Shadows Before I Die: Dark Shadows Episode 570 - 8/30/68