DARK SHADOWS 584

“But don’t worry, Maggie, you’re safe just as long as you’re with me.”

“Julia, you’re using common sense again. When did common sense or reason ever mean anything to Adam?”

“Now, we must only think of Vicki and the family. There’s only one way we can save that family.”

KLS, no reprise. Barnabas is in the lab. Julia has big ear rings. They guess that Willie kidnapped Maggie. Julia gets an IDK.

Barnabas flub, “Use Julia…use Maggie.”

Willie carries Maggie into the mausoleum. Even HE later admits he should never have brought her there, as stated before, too many people know about that room although it’s possible Willie thought it was a double bluff: since Barnabas and Julia both know about the room there’s no way he would ever hide her there!

Barnabas gets his own IDK. “It may be too late to do anything now.”

He also flubs, “It’s all…we’d never be able to cover this…”

During a calm talk between Barnabas and Julia we get a LOUD dramatic music cue, large and imposing…Julia thinks they will have to find someone else.

NOTE: the subtitles have Julia says, “Barnabas, why do we have to use Greg,” instead of “Maggie.”

Barnabas asks who and she says, “I don’t know.” She adds, “I could do it.” Barnabas is opposed to that. He also flubs big time, “Who I…uhm, fit into that.” Julia suggests Jeff Clark can do the experiment while she donates the life force. Barnabas won’t let her do it.

Julia flub, “Adam will go through his threat…go through WITH his threat.”

As the scene shifts to the cemetery, the music whines as if distorted.

Willie vs a recovering Maggie. Maggie asks when it will all be over. Willie: “I don’t know.” Maggie’s hair is auburn. She remembers the room and KLS is very very good in this episode and this entire storyline.

Willie asks, “Don’t you understand,” and Maggie answers, “No, I don’t understand!”

She had two months of her life missing that she could not remember and Windcliff figures into it. She remembers a woman brought her to the mausoleum. We get a strange sound as the flashback happens. Josette tomb reads: 1774 to 1795. In the flashback, Julia asks Maggie if the name Josette means anything to her and Maggie says IDK. Sort of a Maggie voice over.

Josette music plays and stops and starts during the flashback. Julia brought her to the mausoleum.

In the flashback, before Julia ever touches the gate to the mausoleum, it opens by itself. This makes me wonder if this is Maggie’s perception of the past and also makes me wonder if this flashback is a redo or an actual clip of the past episode? Maggie looks more like she does NOW than then. Julia’s hair, however is her old style…or is it made to look that way?

WIKIA has this: FLASHBACK: Maggie remembers when Julia took her to the Collins mausoleum. This scene was originally shown in 283. It has been re-staged for this episode as the series was still broadcasting in monochrome when it was originally shown. The sequence also uses an extraordinary number of dissolves between shots.

Another thing of note are the dates on Naomi’s tomb stone. It’s hard to see in the dark shadows (!) but the look wrong.

WIKIA says this about Naomi’s tombstone: As illustrated in episode 210, the dates on Naomi’s memorial plaque at the Collins family mausoleum read 1761-1821.

In 210, the Collins family mausoleum shows the following dates: Joshua Collins: Born 1755, Died 1830 and Naomi Collins: Born 1761, Died 1821. However, in 458 Naomi's death is shown on-screen to occur in the year 1796. Accordingly these dates have been adjusted in order to retain the originally stated ages at the time of death and the age gap between Joshua and Naomi.

So, Joshua's becomes: Born 1730, Died 1805 and Naomi's becomes: Born 1736, Died 1796. If Naomi Collins were born in 1761, as originally stated, that would make Naomi thirty-five-years old at the time of her death. Given the relative age of actress Joan Bennett during filming of the 1795 flashback storyline, it becomes highly unlikely that Naomi was actually born in 1761.

It could be explained that Naomi’s excessive drinking made her physically appear to be older than she actually was, but that still doesn’t account for her age in relation to her family members. If the 1761 date is to be considered canonical, then she would have been little more than a child when she gave birth to her son, Barnabas.

Naomi Collins’ actual last appearance is in episode 458, but her death is not confirmed until episode 459.

Naomi’s tombstone seems purposefully unable to read.

The gate squeaks before opening and seems to open before Julia touches it but it is difficult to see. This could just be Maggie’s memory of the actual scene rather than the scene itself.

“It’s all so clear and yet IDK what it means.”

Extreme close up on Maggie. She asks Willie who tried to kill her. Willie worries and frets and tells her to forget all about this. He frets that he should never have brought her here. She knows he knows. Willie says, “I don’t know nothing.”

6pm: it will be dark soon. In past episodes darkness hits at 5pm. Julia says there’s almost another hour of light! As Barnabas sits down, a huge boom mic shadow is seen.

Barnabas and Julia come back and then Julia tells him they can go out and look for Willie. BUT didn’t they just come back from that? Julia suggests they tell Adam the truth.

Barnabas tells her, “When did common sense and reason ever mean anything to Adam?” He gets a rifle from the slated doored room and announces the moment Adam steps through the front door, he will kill him.

Review: Despite the over long flashback, this is still fascinating and riveting. Compared to almost all of 1968, this is the best storyline and probably one of the best DS storylines ever because it means something. Ignore the way it ends…because it is just great. Everyone steps up their acting game despite the flubs and even the flashback is intriguing and shows how much Julia has changed if nothing else.

Far be it for anyone to forget what Maggie went through, even if she herself forgot the symptoms even…notice how she didn’t recognize what happened to Joe or what is happening to Joe.

In any case, the next few episodes are even better and to be honest, this is DS at its very best, recognizing its past while taking it to a new level of drama without the overly stupid stuff they did later on in Leviathan with Vicki’s past and Jeff’s-Peter’s past ending so horribly. For now just enjoy Willie, Maggie, Barnabas and Julia’s dilemma. It can’t seem to end well but that’s another story.

Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:

Okay, here we go.

In the teaser, when Barnabas says, “Where else could she be?” the boom mic drops into the shot.

In act 1, when Barnabas says, “It might be too late to do anything now,” there’s a scraping sound from the studio.

Barnabas says, “Julia, it’s already dawn! It’s all — we’d never be able to cover this entire area by tonight.”

When Barnabas says, “What if he didn’t take her by force?” there’s a stray music cue — a huge dramatic sting that they use for big cliffhanger moments.

Barnabas says, “But even so, they’re far enough away by now that we’ll never get them to by tonight.”

As Julia walks around the table, we see the boom mic at the top of the frame, the edge of the set on the left, and the studio lights.

Then Barnabas says the line I quoted above: “Well, because if you were to conduct the experiment, who — how can I — uh, fit into that? You would be giving the life force.”

Julia says, “We both know that this time, Adam will go through his thr — with his threat, won’t we?” At the same time, there’s a weird tapping on the soundtrack.

When they transition from the Old House basement to Willie and Maggie in the mausoleum, there’s another stray music cue — one of the sweet woodwind pieces that’s usually meant for a happy morning scene. This overlaps with the correct music cue as the mausoleum scene begins, and the woodwinds fade out.

To introduce the flashback, Maggie looks off into the distance and tells Willie what she remembers. But there’s also pre-recorded narration over the flashback, and Maggie overlaps herself. There’s also a weird echo for the first sentence of the flashback narration.

At the end of the episode, when Barnabas grabs his gun, he says, “We must think only now of Vicki.”

Behind the Scenes:

Maggie’s flashback is based on a sequence from episode 283, which aired in July 1967.