DARK SHADOWS 641

641

Joan. The narration mentions a neighboring village. WHAT? Has there been another murder in a neighboring village? I always thought the TOWN of Collinsport is where the Blue Whale was. What is this stuff about a village? Then it seems to say that the Blue Whale is NOT in Collinsport and in a neighboring village.

Or MAYBE, neighboring to Collinwood. BUT isn’t Collinwood a part of the village?

WTF? A body was found in the Blue Whale? WHAT again---as this seems to make it sound as if the person were killed far away and put in the Blue Whale? The entire narration seems like a flub.

Amy wakes up in bed, screaming. She thinks something happened to her brother. Vicki comes in and then Liz.

Needless to say, NO reprise.

Amy says, “I don’t know what’s happened to him.” She says he’s too big to cry like he did in her dream. Vicki tells her no one is---that’ll help, thanks there, Vicki. “But he was doing it.”

Amy, a bed, and over it a mike shadow. Vicki tells her when you love someone, you can sense what has happened to them. Liz has gone to check on Chris and calls the hotel. She comes back and lies to Amy that Chris is fine.

When Amy tells her who else does she have to worry about, Liz tells her, “You have everyone here.” Vicki mentions Amy can say her prayers all over again. Vicki kisses Amy goodnight. Amy does say her prayers after Vicki leaves.

As Liz and Vicki return to Vicki’s room, there a loud crash. Liz says she cannot understand where Christopher Jennings is and then adds this, “I must call her in tomorrow and tell her about this.” What? Who? Amy? Julia?

Liz flubs over call him for lunch, have them to have lunch with us. “…ask him for lunch to have lunch with us.”

Vicki obsesses over Jeff again and looks at the watch time: 11: 25 is when Jeff vanished. The watch stopped at the exact moment he disappeared. I guess he took it off? Vicki thinks this watch was never in this house and Jeff’s ghost left it here? Huh?

Liz tries to convince her to forget it all. When Vicki asks her if she were her, would she. Liz admits she would not stop remembering. She just wishes she could do something. Vicki tells her that just by her being here is something.

After Liz goes, the door opens and Vicki thinks it is Jeff. Amy comes running to Vicki, wanting to sleep in her room. The door closes and this seems to imply that Jeff has left because Amy came in. Is he jealous? Does he want Vicki to get on with her life and help the little girl?

7pm: Stokes comes to Collinwood. He and Liz talk. They both think she should forget Jeff Clark.

In Vicki’s room, Amy questions the point of having a watch if it’s not going.

Liz, nevertheless, takes Stokes to Vicki’s room. He says, “Good evening.”

Amy says, “He’s funny.” He sure is. “I like you.”

Stokes says, “So my appeal extends to all ages now.” They are introduced. Liz flubs or repeats a word. Liz takes Amy to work on her arithmetic.

“How early it gets dark at this time of year,” Stokes says.

NOTE: I’m not blaming Betsy as I was singing her praised as few eps ago but this is tough to get through and excruciating. As much as the Adam/Eve/Nicholas/Cassandra/Dream Curse has its faults, it was no where near as hard to get through as these episodes. I’m not sure why. Maybe so much was happening then, that this feels slow. I’m taking it a few minutes at a time and it almost hurts to watch and puts me to sleep mostly.

Vicki cannot tell if Jeff is in the room now. Stokes tells her, “I am not a wizard, I don’t transport people through time.”

Stokes: You were in jail, being tried for witchcraft. You want to go back to that?

Vicki: But, surely, I could go back to an earlier time!

Stokes: And know what is ahead of you? What kind of a life would the two of you have, knowing how it must end?

Vicki: We could change it!

Stokes: History? It’s not so accommodating.

He tells that Jeff being around her all the time must be a comfort to her and she says it is and it isn’t. He is sure if Jeff is here he would give her a sign for her to forget all this insanity. She asks if love is insanity. He tells her is has been known to be. He also does not recognize the word MUST when Vicki tells him he must help her. She wants the herbs. Stokes gave Jeff three Indian herbs and will not give them to her.

As they talk, someone or something in yellow is moving on the right side of the screen. Possibly this is in the small mirror and/or it is Vicki’s reflection but it looks a bit like…a blond or Amy?

Stokes thinks Jeff feels the way he does, “Your place is here and your time is now.”

Ever helpful, Stokes says, “The only way for you to join him is to die.” Thanks, there, Prof, that’ll help.

After Liz puts Amy to bed, kisses her. Amy asks if Vicki will come kiss her good night. Amy goes to the window, but we don’t hear a thing. She opens it and then hears howling wind. She opens the windows and asks why these things are crying. They are the widows, who have not been in the show FOR A LONG TIME. She asks them why they are crying.

Stokes tells Vicki that history is not so accommodating and that she and Jeff/Peter cannot change time. He tells her to give Jeff up She says “NEVER!” She runs from the room and he gives chase, yelling her name.

Somehow Amy knows the hill is called Widows and asks them to tell her why it is called that. She wants them to let her help them.

Amy, at the window, leaves it to call Quentin on the old phone. When he does not seem to answer, she returns to the window.

Liz and Stokes vs Vicki. They do not want her to go out. Liz worries about the attacks. Vicki yells and screams at her she is not a child and to let her alone. Stokes chased her down the steps. She yells at them, “I am not a child. Let me alone!”

Vicki goes out. Liz tells Stokes she has never spoken to her that way when he inquires. He thinks following her now could only cause trouble between them. A thunder lightning storm starts again. Liz tells Stokes there is an animal prowling around and there was a murder last night.

Amy comes down the steps and tells Liz and Stokes about the widows. She asks about them. They do not answer.

Liz fears that Vicki will encounter that animal. Liz and Stokes open the doors and hear the wind and the crying. Stokes asks what it is. Liz tells him there is a legend about the widows on a stormy night, if you can hear them, then someone will die.

Vicki is at Widow’s Hill and looks down on the opening credits, text less version. The ocean and the rocks. She recalls Stokes’s words to her about her having to die to join JeffPeter. “The only way you can join him is to die. To Die. To die.” WE HEAR BIRDS. HUH? Or maybe it’s the Widow sound effects? A weird sci fi sounding sound. But the howling also sounds like birds?

For the first and maybe only time, during the credits, the room or the set that is shown CHANGES mid way through the credits. First is Vicki’s room and then it changes to the staircase/foyer/landing.

Review: Pretty good. I can finally get why the writers added Amy: she can experience Collinwood through new eyes and us with her. Here, it works. It works only because the show goes back to the very start of the mythology with the Widows and their legend and Widow’s Hill. It really is good and added to that is the mystery of Quentin and the worry over Chris. One thing: Stokes does not know the legend of the Widows? HIM? Joan is very good in this and away from Jeff and mainly the actor, Roger Davis, Durkin is bearable and better. Stokes gets on my nerves as he takes advice (bad advice) from Liz and then is callous to the love Vicki has. He also has mentioned over the year how marriage and love can usually end up poorly and how it is a bad thing. Or something that eludes him? Could he be gay and somewhat jealous or angry about heteros? In any case, a better than usual episode for this time in the show.

Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:

When Liz and Vicki enter Vicki’s room, there’s a crash from offstage.

Liz tells Vicki, “I think it would be a good idea to ask him for lunch, to have lunch with us.”

Vicki loses track of her lines during her conversation with Liz about the watch. She says, “I know because when I went to call Professor Stokes, I glanced at the clock. It was nearly that hour then.” Liz says, “It doesn’t do any good to think about that,” and then Vicki can’t remember what comes next. She stares at the watch and whispers to herself, “It was nearly that time then,” and then she checks the teleprompter.

At the end of act 1, the door slamming shut and the door-closing sound effect are way out of synch.

When Vicki’s standing on the edge of Widow’s Hill, the lightning flashes reveal the top of the backdrop, as well as a bare patch of floor to the right, with a cable on it.

Behind the Scenes:

All five of this week’s episodes are directed by Penberry Jones, apparently filling in for one of the regular directors. I can’t really tell the difference, so I don’t know why I’m even bringing it up.

The cast credits play over a shot of Vicki’s bedroom, and then it cuts to a shot of the Collinwood foyer for the production credits. This only happens in two episodes; the other one is episode 657.

Our thoughts

John: Boy they're really making a big deal out of Jeff's watch. Of course no one other than Vicki believes it's proof that Jeff is reaching out to her through time. And if he could do that, you'd think he could do something else of significance to communicate with her.

Christine: I wonder if it actually slipped off him when he dematerialized and she doesn't remember picking it up in her state of shock. Vicki is going off the deep end.

John: Wow. In a day, Liz has all but adopted Amy. Makes you think the special attention she gave Vicki when she came to Collinwood may not have been as unique as we thought. Perhaps she just likes collecting strays...

Christine: I thought it was funny that Liz said she was going to help Amy with her arithmetic. Not only does she not want her to miss out on math skills in the one day she's been there, but she's willing to do Vicki's job to see that her education doesn't suffer while under their roof. I enjoyed Stokes' response to Amy's instant enthusiasm for him.

John: So Amy says she heard Chris crying, and then she hears the widows crying. Are we to believe she was mistaken, and it was always just the widows? Or is Chris equally upset about Vicki and Jeff? Will the wolfman be the one who keeps Vicki from going over the edge—literally?

Christine: Or will the wolfman be the one who causes her to go over? You may recall from Episode 50 that Liz told Vicki that someday there would be a third victim to jump from Widows' Hill. Will the legend finally be fulfilled?