DARK SHADOWS 598

“I mean, Maggie, I never treated you bad, did I? I mean I never treated you bad like Barnabas did. I never put you in a coffin, did I?”

NOTE: Karlen and KLS are marvelous in this episode.

KLS. It is day and the long night of danger is over.

Stokes goes to the West Wing. No reprise. David comes to the room Stokes is in. Stokes lies and says he wanted some books Carolyn told him were collecting dust here.

David shrugs and says, “I thought you might be looking for Adam. He and I were good friends.” HOLD THE PHONE. Are WE IN ANOTHER PARALLEL UNIVERSE?

David and Adam shared maybe one extended sequence a LONG time ago.

In episode 495, over 100 episodes ago and that was it. Somehow I got the feeling here that Harry Johnson was replaced by David at the last minute. I mean we NEVER saw David find out about Adam, never saw Carolyn tell David about Adam and in fact, never saw David and Adam together EVER ON SCREEN since that near abduction!!!

David tells Stokes they were great friends, that he came here often to visit Adam and Adam liked to show off for him, that Adam would never hurt him and that he knew about Adam a long time! WTF?

He tells Stokes Adam went away last night. He says Adam told him that he is never coming back to this house. Adam told David that about 6pm.

David used to bring Adam new books about 6pm. Adam liked to show off how much he was learning to David. Carolyn told David about Adam a long time ago but told him not to tell anyone.

David does not know where Adam went, “I don’t know,” and asks if Adam can take care of himself and if he is in trouble.

Stokes asks him what he means by that and David says IDK. David calls him a strange man. David doesn’t think Adam can take care of himself.

Carolyn comes in (Stokes says “Good afternoon, Carolyn.”) and tells David that Mrs. Johnson has his lunch ready but he says he is not hungry. David leaves but listens outside the door.

Mrs. Johnson told Stokes that Carolyn was out so he came up here looking for Adam. Carolyn is angry, gets her own IDK, and asks Stokes why he told Barnabas that she was housing and hiding Adam. Stokes would rather broach this some other time: he has to find Adam and that woman he is with.

Carolyn is upset: to her there was no indication that he was leaving: remember that Blair erased her memory of everything connected to the experiment, a shame really as she and Adam were having a real connection.

When she asks who the woman is or where she came from, Stokes says, “I don’t know.” Stokes tells her it is not the first strange thing Adam has done.

Stokes, for all his bluster about Julia and Barnabas never telling him the full story, is not willing to tell Carolyn the full story this time. She asks if Adam is in danger and Stokes thinks Adam might be.

David goes to the graveyard. It is day.

In a totally hilarious sequence, Maggie just stares at Willie, doesn’t answer him, doesn’t acknowledge his taunts or his nervous outbreaks…just watches him. It’s fantastic. His comparison for treating her good: Barnabas and that Willie, he, never put her in a coffin!

Willie says, “Maggie, GIVE ME A BREAK.”

Willie cries. Maggie tells him he feels the guilt. Willie really just wanted to save her life. “I saved your life.”

He tells her to shut up, Maggie. Then he realizes she was shutting up and apologizes, “Don’t shut up.”

He has to leave for food and ties her up. As he does, she tells him that she plans on not eating…at all. As he gags her, Willie says, “When you’re hungry, honey…”

He goes out and David hides behind a tombstone from him. David voice over as he goes into the tomb. He thinks there might be something horrible in there. SO anyway, he opens the secret room. “Maggie Evans!” Clunk.

HOLD THE FORT: As happy as I am to see David again, some of this does not make sense.

Apart from the fact that he’s known about Adam for A LONG TIME, he opens the secret room, finds a tied up Maggie there, lets her go and doesn’t go with her or talk to her about what’s going on, doesn’t get scared enough to leave but STAYS THERE AND WAITS FOR WHAT HE CALLS A FRIEND…A MALE FRIEND…at first I thought it might have been Sarah he was talking about but he tells Willie, WHO RETURNS AND FINDS DAVID has set Maggie free!!!!! WTF ? WTF?

For her part, Maggie doesn’t tell David ANYTHING (?) and does not enlist his help? Maybe she just didn’t want him to be caught up in this danger? Anyway, it makes NO sense.

Willie in the Old House is visited by Stokes (with his brimmed hat on), Barnabas and Julia are “out” (doing what? Dining?).

It has been calm all day but a strange visitation opens the doors, blows the curtains despite the windows being closed, and shakes the chandelier. The trees are not moving so it is not the wind.

Stokes calls it an astral projection. I call it a ghost. Willie flees and Stokes becomes Mr. Spock, “Fascinating. Very fascinating.” OKAY IS THIS JOSETTE? I don’t know if they ever tell us!!!!!

NOTE : we get a good look at the front porch steps and buttress holding up the overhang, in a rare glimpse.

Willie returns and finds David in the crypt. David tells him he was looking for a friend…a he. This is possibly Adam he was looking for. Willie relaxes as he first thought David found Maggie…until David tells him he did find Maggie. Willie asks what she wanted and David gets his IDK. The credit music does not start right away.

David slips right back into the show and seems not to have noticed he was gone. Unfortunately, the writers don’t seem to really care for him at all nor do they give him a solid series of scenes but give him some really silly things to hinge his appearance on. As noted above, he never shared the screen with Adam for more than one episode and Adam, at that time, wasn’t really talking and scared David. Then, they make him free Maggie and stay in the crypt to wait for Willie, who he MUST know was behind Maggie being tied up. Is David mentally deficient (like Sarah was) now? At the very least, his encounters with Matt Morgan and Vicki’s kidnapping must have given him a clue to what was going on here.

David, of course, usually knew what was going on but this…is just poor writing and poor plotting. Still, there is something charming about this episode. Perhaps that a child is back in the show and it makes it more fairy tale like? Not sure.

Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:

Near the end of the teaser, when the camera cuts to a close-up of David as he’s lying on the bed, the right edge of the screen looks fuzzy. It’s possible that that camera happened to be shooting at an angle where it was behind some of the fake cobweb in the room.

When David stops eavesdropping and walks away from the door of Adam’s room, you can see the silhouette of the stick holding the boom mic at the top left of the screen. If you look closely, you can also see that the sky outside the window is wrinkled.

NOTE: this web site also goes into why Barnabas only thought or speculated Carolyn was hiding Adam and blah blah blah. Carolyn's part here shows the writers are straining and she has no clue about the experiment, what Barnabas really thought, and Eve or what Adam really was going through. In short we can blame Blair!?