DARK SHADOWS 601

“Julia, with Nicholas in control of Adam and his mate, the danger may be greater than ever. We must put a stop to Nicholas, permanently.”

Nancy Barrett. Different reprise. Stokes is no longer in the drawing room at the Old House? It’s unlikely that with Barnabas choking, Stokes would leave?

The clock at the Old House seems to say 11:15.

Blair calls the spirit, an alien spirit and he seems to make it go, threatening it with the tortures of eternal damnation.

We see Adam’s fillings.

Blair threatens the ghost with the tortures of eternal damnation, knowing no peace, having a grave as a bottomless pit and being consumed by the fires of hell.

So he can send a spirit that has already passed on to hell? Or was Phillip already condemned to something less hellish? Who knows?

In any case, he gets rid of Phillip. Adam says, “IDU what happened.”

Barnabas says, “I just don’t know what could have happened.”

Adam asks him how he stopped it so he wasn’t listening. Blair says, “We will discuss that later.” They never do.

WOULD Adam cooperate if he knew Blair was from hell itself? He strikes me as being so lonely and misguided here, that he might.

NOTE: Doesn’t Adam hear Nicolas’ evil? Doesn’t that make him realize Blair is not for him or maybe Adam is just evil himself?

On another note, it feels as if the good guys always are completely powerless to stop the nasty events and problems that plague them. They constantly need the more powerful bad guys to get them out of things, especially here. Luckily their saving is also beneficial to Blair’s plans for now.

I guess this is scary: the good guys are powerless and many of them die: Dr. Guthrie, Dave Woodard, Burke, Vicki, Jeff/Peter, and others. Those that do not, like Frank, leave the show and Collinsport. Normal men are especially vulnerable. This is also how they squeeze out the drama: when you need your worst enemies or enemy to get you out of, say Maggie remembering you were a vampire who put her in a coffin once, it makes one, and the audience, realize you are a pawn in the games of evil.

One of the things that always bothered me about DARK SHADOWS is that...the characters have almost NO power at all to end the misery and the events plaguing them.

Especially during the 1968 time, Barnabas and Julia's plans just make things WORSE. He goes to find the vampire and gets bitten by vampire Angelique.

Willie kidnaps Maggie and she remembers Barnabas and Willie abducting her and that he is a vampire and put her in the coffin in 67. Julia tries to hypnotize her and Maggie remembers Julia is aiding Barnabas. Finally, Blair solves it, the evil one.

Similarly, when the ghost of Phillipe attacks Adam to kill him, Barnabas suffers (Stokes vanishes from the cliffhanger to the reprise so he can do no good) and again, it is Blair who has the power to get rid of the ghost. Again, evil helping solve the main characters' problems.

This repeats itself throughout the show. Only Angelique sort of can solve some problems especially during Leviathan when Sky attacks her with a knife. She's able to stop him and also somehow later able to ---in 1840 CURE Barnabas.

But I guess this is where a lot of the horror and drama come from: total helplessness by most of the main characters, especially Vicki and Julia and almost all the normal men: Burke dies, Woodard dies, Guthrie dies, Vicki dies, Peter/Jeff dies, Findley dies, and Frank vanishes from the show early on in 67.

Just an observation. And Barnabas seems to spend just as much time being a human as he did a vampire! I wonder how audiences at the time felt about him NOT being a vampire!?

Julia: “I know what happened.”

She and Barnabas wonder what can stop Blair. Barnabas, “I don’t know.”

After a shot from her POV from inside the drawing room and a close up on the partly open doors, Carolyn calls Harry in to her and wants to give him extra money to sneak around the Old House and find out if Adam is there. He feels it is risky and has his mother to think about.

Harry stoops for more money. Carolyn won’t bite. He calls her sweet and innocent on the outside but a tough customer. “Don’t you forget it, Harry,” she says and hits him when he tries to touch her. EWL.

Harry overhears Barnabas and Julia (through a closed window, or at least it looked closed) discuss plans to kill Eve! Julia says IDK, “I don’t think we should even consider it.”

Their plan: to lure Blair and Adam outside and go in and kill Eve! Harry goes to Blair and asks for 5000 dollars for his info.

Blair gives him 100 to tell him what the info is but when Harry tells him who is going to try to kill Eve, Blair will not give him more money. Nicholas (like Pete from MOD SQUAD) plays with his ring---or just his finger---I can’t see if he is wearing a ring. “Well, Harry I didn’t know you were such an enterprising young man.”

Harry explains, with his own IDK “too much about this.”

Harry told him what was being planned and when Nicholas gives him a 100 dollar bill, he tells him it is Barnabas and Dr. Hoffman who was planning to kill Eve but he doesn’t know the specific time. He knows it will be shortly.

Nicholas has a wallet and taps Harry on the chest with it and the chin (which seems odd) and thanks Harry. He also reveals he is not going to give him 5000 dollars.

NOTE: Does Nicholas NOT have the money? And how does he get money?

Harry says, “IDK how dumb you think I am…”

Harry threatens Blair to tell Carolyn that Adam is in Blair’s House by the Sea.

Harry finds himself locked in the House by the Sea, first the front door is locked, then he gets locked in the main room.

Blair is gone. The doors close by themselves. A giant hand menaces Harry, that floats in the air. It is the first really poor, I mean really poor effect but the moment is scary in hindsight. It seems Blair is really powerful and scary and can kill Harry. I’m sure he was going to. Harry seems to have dialog that we can’t hear as he’s being attacked. He’s literally speechless to us.

Harry is down on the couch when Blair reappears and tells him that his first allegiance is to him now. Harry gets a rare “I Understand.”

The music cuts out fast. Harry returns to Carolyn at about 12:40 am. He tells the truth when he says Adam is not with Barnabas and he overheard Julia with Barnabas. He lies when he says he waited until they left and searched the house. Carolyn thinks there is one other place Adam can be. She will go to the House by the Sea to ask Blair if he knows anything.

Adam calls to Nicholas but it’s low and he has to call again.

Blair does not want Adam to leave with Eve yet. He tells him his scars keep him here for now. Blair wants to find a doctor who can remove the scars. He wanted to keep it a surprise to Adam but Adam’s insistence on his leaving forced him to tell Adam now: Blair says.

Of course, it’s all manipulation and lies. Adam touches his scars and is happy about this news. Carolyn knocks and Blair sends Adam to the other room, on the way out Adam’s head lightly hits the crystals on the chandelier.

Outside the main door, Carolyn seems to be…smiling?

Adam listens in as Carolyn comes in, says, “Good evening, Nicholas,” and expresses concern for Adam to Blair. Adam is hiding.

Carolyn is worried about Adam, having become more attached to him than she realized. She gets an IDK.

After she leaves, Adam nearly cries and wants to go to Collinwood to tell Carolyn he is all right. Blair stops him. Blair tells Adam that Barnabas wants to kill Eve. He does have a ring on and is playing with it again.

He stops Adam from leaving to kill Barnabas. Blair tells Adam that he will deal with Barnabas Collins permanently and orders Adam to get Angelique. He wants to see her down here at once. NOTE: there is a light that goes on near the front door as Nicholas watches Adam go.

During the credits the door to Blair’s drawing room closes slightly….by itself or was it wind?

Review: okay, I guess. But it’s quickly becoming the Nicholas Blair show. Which sucks really. Harry stuff almost always feels like filler. Adam is at his best around Carolyn and/or her/his feelings for each other and him. Or something.

Footnotes:

The Ron Sproat interview quoted here is from Edward Gross’ Dark Shadows Tribute Book, published in 1990 by Pioneer Books.

Sam Hall’s quote about Dan Curtis is from Disc 112 in the Complete Original Series DVD collection.

Dark Shadows bloopers to wach out for:

Harry has a flyaway hair for most of the episode, which makes him look even dumber than usual.

Harry is in the middle of a conversation with Carolyn in the Collinwood drawing room, and then he appears in the window of the Old House in the next scene, twelve seconds later. Yeah, it’s time compression, but it feels like he just teleported.

When Nicholas is bargaining with Harry, sparkles from the chandelier are reflected onto Nicholas’ face.

Harry tells Nicholas, “Well, uh — the information, uh — talking about the money, I think what I have to offer is worth about, uh — five thousand dollars.” Then he kind of gropes his way through his next couple lines, saying that he knows someone is planning to kill Eve:

Nicholas: Are you going to tell me who is planning to kill her?

Harry: Well, uh…

(pause)

Harry: Let’s talk about the money first.

Nicholas: All right. (reaches into his pocket)

Harry: I think what I have to offer is, uh —

Nicholas: Worth five thousand dollars.

Harry: Worth five thousand dollars.

Nicholas walks over to lean on the mantelpiece, and Humbert Allen Astredo is clearly struggling to suppress a laugh at Craig Slocum’s expense. Watch Nicholas’ face when Harry says “I don’t know how dumb you think I am.”

Harry: I don’t know how dumb you think I am. But, uh — I had a feeling you’d try to chisel me out of it. So I made sure I had, uh — an ace in the hole.

Nicholas: (sucking in his cheeks) Did you now.

Harry: Yes, you bet I do.

(Nicholas smiles, trying to keep it together.)

Harry: Because, uh — I, uh — I know that, uh, you’ve been hiding Adam in this house.

Nicholas: And what do you intend to do about that, Harry?

Harry: Well, I, uh — I, uh — I could tell Carolyn. I’m sure she’d pay me, if you won’t.

When Harry pounds on the door in the hall, one of the wall sconces wobbles.

As Harry realizes that he’s trapped, the music cue fades down for a moment, then starts back up again.

There’s a tape edit when Carolyn leaves Collinwood.

Nicholas tries to shut the doors to the drawing room as he greets Carolyn, but one of the doors starts to swing open again. He grabs it and shuts it again, and it swings open again. The camera pans away from the door, and Carolyn suppresses a giggle as she goes on with the scene.

That traitorous door is still giving them trouble during the closing credits. It stays halfway open, and in the middle of the credits, it starts to close again, apparently by itself.

Behind the Scenes:

As you can see in the screenshots, Nicholas’ floating hand menaces Harry during one scene. I checked my sources on fill-in actors — the Dark Shadows Almanac, and Dark Shadows Wiki — and neither of them mentions a “Nicholas’ hand” stand-in. There are several credits listed for Barnabas’ hand, Petofi’s hand, Carolyn’s hand, aging Cassandra’s hands, etc, but nothing for Nicholas. My guess is that it’s actually Humbert Allen Astredo, offstage.

Episode 601: The Last Days of Ron Sproat | Dark Shadows Every Day

Christine: He may realize it, but he's trained everyone around him to obey him or face his wrath. I thought it was interesting that Blair knows the same floating hand trick that Barnabas has used in the past. I'd love to see them go mano a mano with their floating hands.