DARK SHADOWS 629

“For the answer to that, I refer you to the book of Genesis. The original Adam and Eve were tempted by the Master. I know him by another name. At any rate, the first man and woman yielded to temptation and sinner against their maker. For this they were punished but they remained his children but they remained his children nevertheless. And now after thousands of years, there is a new Adam and a new Eve, different from every living human being and yet human just the same. And they, and all those they breed shall be the children of my master.”

“Are you gonna send Angelique after him again? Nothing is worse than that."

“I don’t care about Adam! I will kill him!”

“I want to speak to Mr. Barnabas Collins.”

“Speak to me THROOM Maggie.”

“I don’t know whether to be flattered or frightened.”

“There’s cause for you to be both.”

“We both know that nothing is impossible.”

“I will be honest with you, Mr. Blair, I am very happy that Eve is dead. As far as I’m concerned she will stay dead.”

“I’d be happy to indulge your independence, doctor but I’m afraid I don’t have the time.”

Joan. Storm. Is this the same day as Vicki’s near wedding? It can’t be, can it?

Blair tells Maggie he’s always happy to see her during the different, slightly different reprise.

This time we get a close up on one of the light fixtures or lamp and this time, we do not see but hear Nicholas open up the doors to his drawing room. Maggie gets three IDKs.

Blair says something like, “Speak to me THROOM Maggie.”

His worried looks are less pronounced and his eyes are not as visibly showing worry and screwed up. Clunk at end of theme.

Blair begs his master to let Maggie live, she is innocent. The master asks him if he is now the protector of the innocent and pure in heart. He asks if Blair is in love with her. Blair tells the truth, “Yes.” He is more human.

At midnight, Blair will be judged. We hear something that sounds like the buzzing music from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Maggie asks, “What happened.” Nicholas answers, “I don’t know.” Maggie says, “I don’t understand it.” She also says, “I still don’t know why I’m here.” He holds her and kisses her. He will take her home.

Collinwood: 9pm. So it must be a new day depicted here somehow. Liz calls Dr. Hoffman to the drawing room. She’s had a long talk on the phone with Barnabas from Windcliff.

Julia tells Liz he had a nervous breakdown or was on the verge of it. Liz asks how long he will be at Windcliff. Julia, “I don’t know.” Liz tells her Barnabas is miserable.

She asks Julia to bring Barnabas to Collinwood where he knows everyone loves him. Julia will not do this because he needs constant care. Julia is going to see Barnabas tomorrow afternoon and Liz wants to go with her. Julia does not give her an answer. I don’t know if this ever happens.

Blair comes in. Blair says Good Evening to Liz and Julia and they back to him. He calls Liz Mrs. Stoddard and he says, “Good evening, Mrs. Stoddard.” Julia raises her head.

Julia says good evening to Mr. Blair and he says good evening to her, too.

Liz looks as Blair says he has to talk to Julia about herself and Barnabas---BUT THEN she leaves, she says she has things to attend to. She lets them use the drawing room.

In yet another effective and atmospheric scene, Blair and Julia go into the drawing room as the lightning lights up the room and we hear thunder.

Blair wants to cooperate with her and says he needs her help. Julia says, “I don’t know whether to be flattered or frightened.”

Blair says, “There’s cause for you to be both.”

He wants her to repeat the experiment! She says, “That’s impossible.”

He says, “We both know that nothing is impossible.”

Julia flat out says, “NO.”

Blair is undaunted: Eve’s body has not yet deteriorated so they will use that. He needs to find a new life force. He is stern with Julia. Julia says, “I will be honest with you, Mr. Blair, I am very happy that Eve is dead. As far as I’m concerned she will stay dead.”

Blair mumbles something about appreciating Julia’s spirit of independence. “I’d be happy to indulge your independence, doctor but I’m afraid I don’t have the time.” He gives her three minutes to change her mind.

Julia studies and realizes something has happened to him. She says so. “IDK what you mean,” he shrugs.

She feels he is upset and desperate. Julia vs Blair. More.

She asks why he can’t use his powers to bring Eve back to life. It is important to him that Eve be brought to life artificially and not by his powers.

In an effective speech, Blair, in front of the windows of the drawing room as lightning happens, talks about the Book of Genesis.

“For the answer to that, I refer you to the book of Genesis. The original Adam and Eve were tempted by the Master.”

Julia finds this incredible but she believes it. We see it in her face. “By…Satan?”

“I know him by another name. At any rate, the first man and woman yielded to temptation and sinner against their maker. For this they were punished but they remained his children but they remained his children nevertheless. And now after thousands of years, there is a new Adam and a new Eve, different from every living human being and yet human just the same. And they, and all those they breed shall be the children of my master.”

A times during this speech, he looks right at the camera but he’s still very, very good with this as the storm rages behind him and see the lightning through the windows and hear the thunder.

He plays with his right sleeve.

Julia says she remembers how Adam and Eve were tempted by satan. Blair says, “I know him by another name.” Diablos?

He will see a new Adam and a new Eve who will spawn a breed of children of his master. Julia thinks it is monstrous and will not do it. He asks her if she has a choice but to go through with it.

Julia flubs, “Yes! Yes, I believe there is some reason you can’t or…or won’t use your powers! If I am wrong then use your powers to force me to help you.”

“I can if I choose to.” He then threatens Barnabas.

Julia asks, “Are you gonna send Angelique after him again?” He says no, something worse. “Nothing is worse than that,” Julia commands.

Blair tells her he will kill Adam. As she protests he needs Adam, he tells her without the mate, Adam is useless to him.

“I don’t care about Adam!” Blair admits, “I will kill him!”

Julia relents and thinks about the experiment, “I…I don’t know if it’s possible to do the experiment at all.”

Julia puts a call in to Mr. Barnabas. “I want to speak to Mr. Barnabas Collins.” On the landing above, Liz overhears.

Blair is in front of two poles and candles on a table in a dark area. It could be the cellar of the House by the Sea. More 2001 one buzzing music. The chimes of some bell clock or tower ring 12 times so it midnight. Nicholas appears out of the darkness between the two poles.

The master wants him to be permanently brought to his world and talks to him there, bringing him there, painfully. The candles in the underworld do not flicker or move. He gives no second chances but gives Blair 48 hours.

Blair does not wish to return to this world. He will remain on Earth by his own will and will do so without his powers. This means that he might die and Blair admits he will take that risk.

When asked why, he admits it is because of the girl. He loves her very much. The master tells him that he is hopelessly lost then. The master will let him have Maggie but not on Earth, he sarcastically says he was touched by his story.

He will let him bring Maggie here to this place (hell but not said to be). In order for this to happen, Maggie must first die and the master wants her sacrificed on the black altar in a black mass.

“She must be sacrificed on the Black Altar.”

Nicholas protests but Diablos says, “That is the only way you and Maggie Evans can be together, Nicholas. The Black Mass must be performed.”

The credits start before the music and are very short, between 16 and 20 seconds. Diabolos is only named in the credits. The credit year is once more 1966. He seemed to have another name in the scripts (see last episode’s review).

Review: Humbert is extremely good in this episode as he is in most. Blair is not your run of the mill villains any more. His scene with Julia is stunning and almost beautiful in a horrible sort of way.

And he makes us, convinces us that Blair really does love Maggie.

An interesting episode as he admits he does not care about Adam, something we’ve known or suspected ALL along. It is shocking he will use Eve as the body…Liz acts odd: she cares about Barnabas a lot ---that much is known but then when Blair and Julia are going to talk, the demands of her not finding out anything show and she walks away…odd.

Later, I wonder what she will overhear with Julia on the phone with Barnabas. Will she find everything out? I don’t believe that is ever followed through but perhaps she heard everything and knows more than we think she does in the rest of the series or maybe she has all along (the secret being passed down)?

Still, this episode is one of the best, despite the fact that Barnabas is not in it. Grayson is also very good in this episode. She has really stepped up her game…and pulls no punches.

Julia’s become quite a force and a brave powerhouse of both strength, bravery and caring (she doesn’t want Adam to die).

Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:

Julia tries to reassure Liz about Barnabas being at Windcliff: “He’s getting the best — proper care.” Liz urges Julia to bring Barnabas to Collinwood instead: “You’d be here to see — take care of him personally.”

In act 1, there’s a little pre-knock clatter before they do the “knocking on the door” sound effect.

Julia protests: “Yes! I believe there is some reason you can’t — or won’t, or can’t — use your powers!”

The Dan Curtis Productions credit is crooked, and says 1966.

View-Master takes a bit of license with some of the story details, especially in the Peter-Danielle-Jeff-Eve relationship, which is so complex that it hardly even makes a difference. Here’s their version:

The workings of implacable fate lay behind Eve’s confrontation with Jeff on the terrace. In the Collinsport of Colonial days grim tragedy parted these star-crossed lovers at the very foot of the hangman’s scaffold. Jeff, whose name in that earlier incarnation had been Peter Bradford, saved Eve’s life by confessing to a murder that she, not he, had committed.

Condemned to die on the scaffold, Peter heroically rejected Eve’s pleas to save himself by surrendering his soul to the powers of witchcraft which she herself had embraced long ago. Thus an innocent man died in ignorance of the fact that Eve’s powers would work on him even in death and that the two of them would meet again after long centuries had passed.

So that’s entirely make-believe, but if you think about it, it’s just as good of an explanation for what’s going on as anything else is. This might actually be a better version of the story.

And for a lot of kids in 1968, this is actually the canonical version. The episode that was broadcast on television was gone after half an hour, never to be repeated again. The View-Master version is right in front of you, in living color and three dimensions.