DARK SHADOWS 577

“You know every time I come to this house, it seems there’s a new problem, isn’t there?”

“Nope. That would be a very bad move.”

“How can you have been on Earth so long and know so little?”

“Some of the things I’m going to ask you to do may seem strange.”

“They’re not strange at all. Not if you know you’re going to be buried alive and I know that I am.”

Nancy B. Different night dress and clothes for Liz. She now wears red/purple instead of blue. Different hair for Liz? And the green blanket she had is now the Afghan. The green blanket is now a sheet tucked into the bed. Only one scream in the reprise. Liz Voice Over. Carolyn comes in and doesn’t launch herself onto the bed and she is in a different dress, too. In the cliffhanger last time, Carolyn had on a night robe. When Liz rants, there is no superimposing of the coffin in the visuals as in the cliffhanger last time. The dialog, while the same jist, is different, too. Carolyn is less fraught, too.

At Windcliff, they determined Liz had a fixation with death as a result of depression. Liz does not want to hear of any way out. Carolyn believes Liz will make it happen if she keeps on. Carolyn mentions seeing a doctor here or in Bangor. Liz says, “You don’t understand.”

Carolyn says, “No, I do not.” Liz calls Richard Garner (there’s a name from the past, 1966 and somewhat from a bit of 67). He doesn’t answer her call or get on the phone with her. He hasn’t called her back a few times this week. She sees it as a refusal to talk to her. She mentions the money she’s paid Richard Garner over the years.

She calls herself Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. Flub: she says she or he will call back within the how….hour.

Carolyn defends Uncle Roger when Liz mistrusts his motives. Liz and Carolyn hug. When Carolyn goes, Liz seemingly lying to her and seemingly calmer (and this is scary in a way), Liz calls for the number to Anthony Peterson. She does not know his address. His phone has the numbers 4099.

She asks to see him in her room at Collinwood. His first question is if Carolyn is all right. She will tell Mrs. Johnson to bring Tony directly to her room.

NOTE: we haven’t seen Tony since 523 and then we shall only see him one more time: 578, the next ep after this. Tony will return however, in the excellent BIG FINISH audio series TONY PETERSON and CASSANDRA COLLINS MYSTERIES.

As for TV, Tony will only be in 19 episodes total.

Adam plays chess and imagines he’s playing chess with Carolyn. Carolyn comes to him with food and milk. She says, “Good evening.” He says, “Good evening” and then hilariously, seriously, “I don’t think I remember your name.”

He’s read about depression and thinks she has it (has she been watching DARK SHADOWS?). She tells him about her mother and he tells her that he knows her mother and thinks Liz is beautiful. Carolyn agrees. He’s also been reading about mothers but also how a mother can ruin a daughter’s life.

Carolyn tells him that is not the case here but people are complex and not as simple as he makes the world out to be. She tells him people are more complex in a way that he doesn’t understand.

He talks about Dr. Freud, whom he’s also read about. Stokes told him that every 20^th century man should know about Freud. “I am a 20^th century man,” he tells her. He thinks women read Freud, too, and when she tells him she hasn’t, he gives her the book and tells her to read it tonight and they will discuss it tomorrow. She says IDK if I’ll be able to read it tonight.

She does not play chess. He wonders how she can be on Earth for so long and know so little and says so, “How can you have been on Earth so long and know so little?”

Adam’s sweater is more gray than green now. Like Liz, he thinks he believes thinks that he shouldn’t, too.

She wonders how he can be here such a short time and have learned so much. She uses IDK when pondering this. DOES CAROLYN KNOW HE’S A PUT TOGETHER MAN? I thought she found out somehow. She asks if he’s playing chess with Stokes, Blair, or Harry Johnson.

He iterates that he and she play chess together, his imagining. He seems innocent enough in this but she seems to feel creeped out by it. He touches her hand a few times. He asks her to stay and tell him about her mother.

Tony goes to Liz. Mike shadow. Liz wants to change from Richard Garner to Tony Peterson. She wants additions made to her will such as having air vents in her coffin, and having the coffin on a marble stand, but having no marble around the coffin itself. She also wants a buzzer that has a button inside the coffin.

I’m not sure that is a clock on the mantle shelf or not but it seems to say 2:30 or 3:30 and it’s night so that must be AM? It’s hard to see.

When pressed, the lid of the coffin will open and a bell in the tower (room) will ring so everyone can hear it in the house.

NOTE: if someone really believes what Liz does, that she will “die” but not be dead and that she will be put in the coffin, paralyzed and unable to move but alive and aware, THIS plan is not a bad one!

Tony thinks that what little he knows of her family, they would rather do as Liz asks, then go to court against her.

Terrace: Carolyn voice over. She wonders if she reads the book now if it will help her understand Mother or Adam. Tony comes. Clang.

When Tony tells her about Liz making changes in her will, Carolyn tells him to do whatever changes she asks to do it. Isn’t he breaking confidentiality? Tony gets an, “I UNDERSTAND.”

Carolyn cries.

He promises her he will make the changes.

Tony tells her, “You know every time I come to this house, it seems there’s a new problem, isn’t there?”

They discuss Cassandra; Tony saying he hated her. He says, “I didn’t understand it myself.” Carolyn feels Cassandra was never in the house at all.

Adam watches and the ripped shade behind him seems to move.

Tony and Carolyn remind each other about arguing about how rich she was and how much she relied on him. He wants to go back to those days and asks her if they can. Her answer, “IDK, Tony.”

Tony and Carolyn kiss. Adam comes down and watches from the gate.

When Carolyn leaves, Adam attacks him and hits him down, saying not to see her again and to never come here again. Tony falls, without seeing Adam, who attacked him from behind.

Review from over eleven years ago: Morbid and yet not the worst of the morbid episodes, but pretty close. Using Joan Bennett this way might not have been a good idea but at least she has stuff to do. Having Tony back doesn’t really thrill me but he’s not a bad character. Robert Rodan once more is very good but the whole episode seems tiring to be honest.

New review: Honestly, while I can see fans not liking the entire Present Day storylines after 1795’s wild interactions, this is not bad. It’s serious, the actors take it serious and it presents an interesting problem and brings Liz and Tony back into the fold. Adam’s storyline never really bothered me and while it moves slowly, I really DO like it a lot and Robert Rodan is VERY, very good. Everyone here acts up a storm and it all works well.

Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:

At the beginning of the episode, Liz wakes up in a different nightgown and with a different blanket than the ones she fell asleep with. (This episode was recorded out of sequence, two days before yesterday’s episode, not that it matters. They just don’t bother to keep track of stuff like that, because nobody had a VCR in 1968.)

When Carolyn is looking at the chessboard and agreeing to read Adam’s book, something bumps into the camera.

Liz calls Tony, and asks him to take over her legal affairs, which he’s apparently happy to do. When Tony was introduced last November, his entire character was based on his hatred of the Collins family.

Behind the Scenes:

When Liz wakes up, her bedspread is the Collinsport Afghan, a colorful blanket that pops up all over town. We just saw it at Maggie’s house last Thursday.

Liz tries to call her lawyer, Richard Garner, who doesn’t come to the phone because he’s not on the show anymore. His last appearance was in episode 246, in June 1967.

A close-up on Tony’s ringing telephone shows that his number is Collinsport 4099. This was also the number for Collinwood in episode 44, and for Professor Stokes in episode 550. Must be a popular number.