DARK SHADOWS 625

 

DARK SHADOWS  625

 “I’m not going to disappear. Collinwood will always be home to me.” 

“Nothing ever works out for any of us, does it?"

"I prayed that for once everything would be well.”

"The past does follow us, doesn't it? No matter how independent we think we are, it follows us." 

"Is there a law against opening your own coffin?"

“You really think you’ve come from the past, don’t you?”

“I don’t understand myself. I don’t understand anything.”

"I don't understand you!"

"You never let me understand."

Louis. Day. No reprise. Guests assembled, the narration tells us.

 

Right there, I can tell the difference between today’s soaps and the cheaper made DS: today’s soaps would have the wedding shown, guests and all, mingling right there in the house.

 

DS avoids the entire thing probably due to budget. No one is seen at the near-wedding. Shame.

 

Liz is in blue; Vicki in her gown. Jeff smokes near the fountain at the terrace. Eve watches him. Louis narrates that the groom waiting the terrace and that one woman watches him. Zoom in on Jeff as he sees Eve. She shows him the note as the curtains on the windows blow.

 

A strange leaf gets on Eve or makes itself known but I can’t find any evidence of this which is odd (are the versions on Amazon cut as the MPI separate volumes?). There is a strange light on the wall of Collinwood.

 

Eve calls today’s wedding a dead man’s wedding.

 

Eve tells Jeff that they are the same and belong together. She tells him there is one other way to see “if you have risen from your grave.”  Roger comes and wears a suit. Jeff tells him he cannot go through with the wedding.

 

Liz tells Vicki that Naomi imported the wedding veil from France for her marriage to Joshua. Vicki talks about that first day on the train when she came here, a stranger. Liz says, “You were never that.”   She almost can’t remember when Vicki wasn’t here. Vicki feels that she grew up here, or feels like she did. Liz thinks that, too.

 

Vicki wonders if she dreamt it all and she sometimes feels as if she grew up here. Liz tells her that she can remember a time when she wasn’t here because of David: he’s very different now, so much more different. She affected an enormous change in David. They are all going to miss her.

 

 

Vicki says, “I’m not going to disappear. Collinwood will always be home to me.” 

 

How ironic when compared the fact that she will literally disappear.

 

Roger tells Liz and Vicki. Jeff wants to see Vicki now. Liz says, “That’s impossible.” She brings up it is bad luck to see the bride before the wedding.

 

 

 

Liz calls Vicki darling.

 

 

Vicki goes out to see Jeff and stops Liz from doing so. Liz asks Roger what happened, he was with Jeff. Roger says, “IDK” and “I tell you IDK.”

 

 

Liz has a double flub when talking to Roger saying “calm and emotional like Roger” instead of saying calm and unemotional.”   She also falters over the first flub with her words, “about…about every everything.”  Roger tells her he is neither calm or unemotional. She apologizes. She didn’t mean to attack him.

 

 

Liz says, “I prayed that for once everything would be well.”   The clock looks like 5pm. Liz has been better lately. Roger tells her, “Vicki may need you more now than ever before.” 

 

Jeff wants to postpone the wedding. Gosh, first he wants it moved up and now this! Vicki says, “I don’t understand you!” and “You never let me understand.” 

 

Which sums up her entire time in the show. He shows her the note and if he is Peter Bradford he cannot marry her. He tells her about Eve. She asks who Eve is and he lies with, “IDK anything more about her.”  Vicki wants him to be honest with her.

 

Jeff says, “Good God, let’s not argue about it now.”  Argue?

 

She presses him to tell her more about Eve despite her saying he’s right that they should not argue now. “I don’t understand myself. I don’t understand anything.”

 

He questions who he is now if he lived in the past. I don’t get him. Why bother with it if he loves her and she loves him and they are going to get married. He’s lucky he is where he is. Why go digging? Literally!?

 

Jeff teleprompter despite what Roger Davis says about his never looking at it. Here, he does. He tells her there isn’t anything that can keep him from marrying her right now.  “Do you think there’s anything that can keep me from wanting to marry you right now?”

 

Well, obviously there is! WTF? He has to go to the old cemetery.

 

She says she does not care but he insists she will later on. WTH?

 

A storm rises up and the next episodes seem to have a continuous storm going. Not sure if it is all meant to be the same night or what…

 

Roger tells Liz, “I don’t know what to do.” 

 

The ceremony should have been over by now. Vicki has been gone for almost half an hour. Guests and the minister are waiting. So I guess she’s not Catholic or Jewish.

 

 

Roger goes to talk to the minister but Liz stops him. She doesn’t want to be alone.

 

Liz wants her to know she is not alone and does not want Vicki waiting alone. “Nothing ever works out for any of us, does it?”  The clock has not moved.

 

Liz wonders why Vicki, if Roger is right that Jeff and Vicki may have solved whatever problems there were, hasn’t come back. “Oh, Liz, IDK.”

 

 

Liz suddenly knows that Vicki needs her, she can see it, psychically. Despite Roger’s advice not to, Liz runs out to go to Vicki.

 

Jeff voice over. Peter died in April (the 3^rd or the 13^th?)1795 and was born Jan 18, 1771 or 1770.

 

Okay, Jeff’s voice over says 1771 but it sure look like 1770 on the grave stone. He digs to find out if the coffin has Pete’s bones or if it is empty. We hear bangs as he digs.

 

 

NOTE: I can kind of see what the show was going for here: a man who’s love was so strong he transcended death OR time and found his love but –and this may or may not be Roger Davis’ fault or the writers…they  hardly seem to milk the romance of it all, which it is, given the premise. Instead, it’s just presented flat. I can’t say Davis and Moltke have any kind of chemistry either, which doesn’t help.

 

Liz and Vicki. We hear squeaks. Vicki tells Liz there will be no wedding today and asks her if she can make some explanation to the guests and minister. She says, “I…IDK what to say.”

 

Roger, on the terrace, tells Vicki, “I’ll think of something, don’t worry about it, Vicki.”  My, how he’s changed over the years into someone totally likeable.

 

 

Vicki says, “The past does follow us, doesn’t it?”   She can’t cry any more.

 

Roger goes to Jeff. Jeff asks him, “Is there a law against opening your own coffin?” 

 

Jeff tells Roger about what he thinks he will find. Roger asks, “You really think you’ve come from the past, don’t you?”

 

 “I don’t know.” 

 

The coffin is empty. The credits have lightning over them. The Sound of thunder comes as the crew names roll by. Sam Hall’s name is in yellow.

 

Review: Not bad. Even Roger Davis is in top form. More good stuff from Liz and Vicki and Roger interacting. It is VERY distracting though to have a wedding or at least a near wedding and not be able to see it. Presumably, Carolyn (who seems gone a very long time) and David (ditto) and Maggie and others are there including Stokes and maybe someone from the orphanage or more than just one person. Lots of good dialog and an excruciating      situation  for Vicki, Jeff and viewers. It would have been nice to see them married but this is DS…

 

 

Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:

In act 1, when the scene cuts from Jeff and Roger on the terrace to Vicki in her wedding dress, somebody in the studio says, “Please.” There’s a lot of studio noise as Vicki talks to Liz, with people shuffling around, and the sound of a door closing.

Liz is supposed to say “I cannot be as calm and unemotional about everything as you are.” But she says “calm and emotional,” realizes her mistake, and stumbles through the rest of the line.

When Liz approaches Vicki on the terrace, there’s another burst of studio noise — someone crinkling up paper, and then a cranking noise.

As Vicki steps away from the wrought-iron gate, you can see that the left side isn’t attached to anything; there’s just empty space there.

Jeff gets the coffin up out of the ground all by himself, and he doesn’t even get dirty.

This isn’t a blooper, just an odd quirk of the staging — Roger leaves Vicki and Liz on the terrace, so he can inform the guests that the wedding won’t happen. A minute and later, Roger shows up in the cemetery, with no explanation for when he left Collinwood or how he decided to come here. It feels Roger simply walked away from the terrace and straight to the graveyard, for no particular reason.

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Behind the Scenes:

The credits in today’s episode are unique — they play over a shot of the terrace as lightning flashes, and thunder is heard as the theme plays.

John: Seriously, Jeff? You assume that if you're Peter Bradford reincarnated that his grave will be empty? This is what you get for being a career grave robber.

Christine: Peter Bradford was hung as a murderer. Who would have gone to the trouble of putting him in a coffin and marking his grave? Did those responsible bury an empty coffin or did he venture forth into the future from under the ground?

John: Once again, we see that one man with a shovel can do miraculous things, like dig up a coffin, lift it to the surface, and check its contents in a matter of minutes! Of course if we're to believe Peter was transported from 1795 to the present, just when and how did that happen, and how did he become Jeff Clark? And isn't it oddly convenient that he would only come to Vicki by way of Dr. Lang's experiment? I have to say, I think the writers have let us down on building up the Jeff Clark side of the Peter Bradford story.

Christine: They may come up with some semi plausible explanation for how it all happened, but it's a pretty weak storyline as it stands now. Perhaps we'll be whisked away into the past again soon so we'll forget all about this mess they've created for the characters.

Production

• During the end credits, the thunder sound effects continue to be heard.

Story

• When Elizabeth talks to Victoria in her room and mentions how she is like part of the family, it would have been a good time to reveal to Victoria that she is Elizabeth's daughter. This was to have happened in a later episode.
• The wedding veil that Victoria is wearing was Naomi Collins's, who had it imported from France when she married Joshua.
• INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: Jeff: What will I find in Peter's grave?

Bloopers and continuity errors

• Victoria was hanged in 1796 before Peter Bradford, but the dates on the note and his tombstone both say 1795. (In 660, the same tombstone is seen but with an amended death year 1796, the '5' seen here having been amended with felt tip to show a '6'.)
• When the scene shifts from the terrace to Victoria's room in Act I, Jeff can be heard off-stage saying, "Please," seeming that they shifted the scene too early before Roger Davis finishes his lines. Also in the scene when Elizabeth and Victoria are talking, there is the sound of a door closing (before Roger arrives), and in one shot, the figure of a person can be seen moving behind Vicki. [Addendum: the person seen moving behind Vicki is most likely just a reflection of Elizabeth as Vicki is standing in front of a mirror.]
• Joan Bennett flubs when she says she can't be "calm and emotional" like Roger, when she's meant to say, "calm and unemotional".
• The clock in Victoria's room says 5pm for a very long time.
• A leaf appears to plague Marie Wallace whilst on the terrace.
• After Jeff tells Victoria that if he is Peter Bradford he can't marry her, it is unclear why he couldn't or wouldn't marry her since the letter he wrote tells of his love for Victoria then and will always love her and they will be together in death or in a new life. It would seem that if he is indeed Peter, he would still love her no matter what. [Addendum: Jeff does say that he needs to find out "what he is" before he can marry Vicki. During the conversation with Vicki, Jeff suggests that he can't let himself marry Vicki if he isn't "real."]
• When Jeff begins digging at the grave, there is a loud banging sound, almost sounding as if Roger Davis hit something with the shovel. When the scene shifts to Vicki at the terrace gate, there is a loud knocking sound and the sound of turning pages from off-stage. Then as Elizabeth and Victoria start talking, squeaks can be heard as if someone is rolling a cart.
• When Victoria and Elizabeth are talking on the terrace, Alexandra Moltke flubs Liz's name, saying, "Mrs. So--Mrs. Stoddard..."
• It's not clear how and why Roger shows up at the cemetery to find Jeff. At least in the conversation we see with Vicki, Elizabeth, and Roger, Vicki does not tell Roger that Jeff went to the cemetery.
• In addition, how did he get there so quickly? Jeff barely finishes excavating the coffin, just as Roger exits the terrace at Collinwood. Roger still manages to arrive at the cemetery before Jeff has time to open it.
• After being in the ground for almost 200 years, the coffin of Peter Bradford is in remarkably good condition given the amount of rain Collinsport receives. [Although we know that Collinsport has the most dry thunderstorms in Maine.]
• The sound effects when Jeff pounds on the coffin with his crowbar are not in sync with the visuals. Also, at one point, the coffin lid moves upward slightly when Jeff works on it with the crowbar, and he puts his hand on top of it to hold it down while he pretends to be trying to pry it open. At one point, Jeff also is pounding the crowbar onto the top of the coffin, not under the lid, which is what one would do to pry it open.