“You don’t understand the world, or anything around you. Today, more than anything, has convinced me of that.”
It’s the old story, one of the oldest there is: The young couple wants to dance, and hold hands in the rain, and run away, and fall in love. They don’t care about money or tradition or whatever uptight hang-ups their uptight parents are hung up on. They just want to be free.
And this is early spring 1968, back when being young and free really meant something. I’m not totally sure if that spirit also applies to 1796, but Millicent is going to give it a whirl, and see how far she can get.
Millicent has decided to marry the handsome scoundrel Lt. Nathan Forbes, forgiving him for deceiving her, because she believes that he truly loves her. And then here comes the older generation, who’s a touch more skeptical.
“You’re more gullible than I thought,” grumbles Joshua. “Don’t you realize that Lieutenant Forbes is interested in only one thing — your money?”
This is why you should never trust anyone over 30 — all they think about is money. They don’t understand love at all.
And Millicent steps up, which is a nice surprise. She’s spent her entire life trying to be proper and ladylike. She’s never really asserted herself, because she’s never had reason to. She’s just kind of drifted through her life, chattering away and never really making any decisions.
But she stands up to the authority figure, and declares that she and Nathan are in love, and she’s old enough to decide what to do with her life.
Joshua is determined to be completely L7 about this.
Joshua: Millicent! Don’t force me to take steps.
Millicent: Steps?
Joshua: I’ll have you declared insane.
Naomi: Joshua! What are you saying?
Joshua: I am saying that she’s not responsible for the decisions she’s been making, and possibly a rest would do her good.
Millicent: I’m not insane!
Joshua: Then why did you try to kill Lieutenant Forbes? The man you now say you’re going to marry.
Okay, that’s actually kind of a good point. She did try to stab Nathan with a letter opener a few weeks ago, which was not particularly groovy.
Millicent tries to keep it together.
Millicent: I was angry with him. I thought he had deceived me. I did not understand him.
Joshua: You don’t understand him now. You don’t understand the world, or anything around you. Today, more than anything else, has convinced me of that.
So this sounds familiar, to the young audience of 1968. By this point in the show’s history, Dark Shadows was very popular among teenagers, partly because the wild, boundary-breaking fantasy of the show was an escape from the stern glare of the grown-ups around them.
To be fair, the older generation had reason to be nervous about what was happening to their children in 1968. Free love, LSD, anti-war protests, long hair, dropping out of school, and what the hell was with the sitar music all of a sudden? Young people were turning into something unrecognizable.
There was a widening gulf opening between the generations. Young people saw themselves as the leaders of a revolution based on Love and Peace and their feelings, which would transform the world into something new and beautiful. The older generation saw chaos and anarchy.
So how could the Class of ’68 see the conflict in today’s episode as anything but a tyrannical father who projects his own greed and spite onto everything he sees?
But this is Dark Shadows, a television series that is devoted to upending all narrative expectations.
Joshua is exactly one hundred percent correct. Nathan doesn’t love Millicent, and he is after her money. Millicent is gullible, and borderline insane, and incapable of making her own decisions. There’s not a single thing that Joshua says in the entire episode that’s wrong.
He’s not being prejudiced or unreasonable here. He has wisdom and experience that the young people don’t have, and he sees things more clearly than anyone else.
Nathan invites Joshua into the study for a talk, and essentially dares him to stop the wedding. Joshua is gruff and uptight as usual, refusing to listen to anything Nathan has to say.
But he’s not really prepared for what happens next.
Nathan says, “I know the truth about Barnabas,” and everything changes.
This is a subplot that’s been building up quietly in the background, for about six weeks — little bits of evidence that Nathan’s collected about Barnabas’ night-time activities.
Millicent saw Barnabas in the woods, after he was supposed to have “gone to England.” Suki was killed, and in her dying breath, she said Barnabas’ name. Maude was attacked at the docks, and Nathan found Barnabas’ cane at the scene. And just a couple nights ago, Nathan followed Ben from the cemetery to the Old House, and he saw Barnabas through the window.
Now, according to the youth counterculture perspective, this should be a moment when the blind, corrupt authority figure closes his ears to the truth. According to 1968 rules, Joshua — the aging tyrant — should be denying this to the end.
Joshua should bellow at Nathan, saying that he’s just as insane as Millicent is, and chase him off the property with one of the many loaded pistols hidden around the house.
But that’s not what happens.
He tries to fit into that formula. “That is impossible,” he moans. “It can’t be!” But when Nathan shows him the cane, you can see all of Joshua’s certainty just shattering to pieces and falling on the floor, because he can recognize the truth when it’s in front of him.
So this is the point where the audience realizes that Dark Shadows isn’t following the generation-gap script. Joshua isn’t just a stubborn old man. He’s honest, with a strong moral center, and all of the young people around him are foolish and selfish.
Just look at how Peace and Love has worked out for everyone else in this storyline. Josette and Jeremiah tuned in and dropped out, running away from their families and responsibilities. Yes, they were under a spell, but in that moment, they were the young rebels, swept up in a passionate embrace — doing what they felt was right. It was an utter disaster.
Barnabas tried grabbing some Free Love too, making out with Angelique when he was engaged to Josette. But they ended up with nothing but destructive hang-ups.
Now Millicent thinks she’s found true love, and it’s another catastrophic delusion.
And Joshua is the one who sees through it all.
And so he does all of the things that the young people around him can’t do. He admits that he’s been wrong. He takes responsibility for what’s happening. He faces his fears.
Maybe it turns out that Joshua’s been the hero of the show this whole time. Let’s meet back here on Monday and find out.
Monday: The Son Also Rises.
Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:
At the start of act 3, when Nathan walks over to the drawing room windows, there’s a quick flash of something passing in front of the camera, possibly a member of the crew.
Monday: The Son Also Rises.
— Danny Horn
Dark Shadows Every Day 
Joshua is the strongest character in the 1795 storyline: he’s had to deal with an alcoholic wife, the death of both of his children (although his son’s actions brought most of the tragedy upon the family), the death of both his brother and sister at the hands of his son as well as the suicide of his son’s fiancee and murder of LT Forbes wife, also due to his ‘ beloved’ son. Now he’s stuck with dealing with this BS. And don’t forget the airhead governess that he’s going to have to try and get sprung fron gaol. Oh yeah and don’t forget the whacked out religious fanatic he’s got bricked up in the Old House basement, courtesy of who??
One more important thing – he also had to be subjected to being turned into a feline for 7 days because his idiot son couldn’t keep it in his pants…
True
But it was a VERY handsome cat…
I read one of your stories and you mention that about the cat.
Joane I agree, Joshua because he is the cold and appears uncaring type tries to do the best at the end but some fans still don’t like him because he can be pretty harsh and blunt at times.
I’m also seeing similar qualities in Louis Edmonds ‘1897’ character Edward Collins – initially seeming cold and indifferent then trying to clean up the mess caused by the rest of the family members.
True, Joshua and Edward were more responsible than Roger as characters.Roger takes longer to become responsible.
I like him! He’s a good father! He’s my third favorite character. Louis Edmonds once said that Joshua was his favorite character to play. I think he was the only one with any character growth in the 1795 storyline. Naomi still drinks(but still looks fabulous. Also maybe because he’s so distant and cold towards her. Anyone else notice that wheneverhe insulted her, ignored her, or shot her ideas down that she drank more), Abigail is a religious fanatic that refuses to accept the truth even if it’s staring her in the face. Jeremiah was okay, but still committed adultery. Sarah was 11 and Daniel was 12 so they’re not included in my list of lack of character growth. Barnabas was a murderous and bloodthirsty vampire at the end and Millicent was a flighty hypochondriac. Go Joshua! Congrats on being the only character that learns something, sorry it took your only son turning into a vampire
I definitely think Naomi has developed – she still drinks, but she stands up for herself and others now, and it becoming quite forceful. I think it was Sarah’s death that catalysed the change in both of them – Joshua really was just a cold businessman before that heartbreak (hilarious, but cold).
Millicent started to develop a bit, too – annoyingly it’s a change that has now been reset, so it doesn’t really count.
And Vicki’s developed an unsightly growth – she’s decided to keep it, and has named it Peter Bradford.
How did he do that?(Jeremiah). He married her first.
I love this character and the actor’s performance is top-notch. The energy level of the show shoots right up every time he’s in a scene.
It’s clear that Joshua has always based a great deal of his identity upon his ability to stay on top of everything and it is both fascinating and compelling to see him struggling with circumstances over which he has little to no influence.
I think it would be tempting to characterize him as controlling, and I wouldn’t say that’s wholly inaccurate, but I think it might be more accurate to say that he feels responsible for everybody and everything. Up until Victoria Winters showed up, exercising what he feels has been his responsibility for everyone and everything has been not only his personal mission, but his source of safety and security in life. Now all of that is unraveling rapidly before his very eyes and he’s powerless to do anything about it. This is a man whose core belief system is crumbling just like the Tower in the Tarot.
He and Ben Stokes are my favorite two characters in the 1795 storyline, and I suppose it’s no coincidence that these are my two favorite performances by actors in the 1795 storyline as well.
I totally agree with you, Ricardo, about Joshua and Ben. Also, what a brilliant simile comparing Joshua’s now disintegrating world view to a collapsing tower of Tarot cards.
I really enjoyed your description of this episode being about the generational culture clash and then not really. It sure sounds like Joshua had the makings of being a winning character. Do they ever address with pretty much everybody dead without heirs how there are any Collins family members even alive in 1968?
Yeah, the Collins family of the 1960s is all descended from Daniel Collins. When the show goes to 1840 in a couple years, we’ll see Daniel as an old man, with all of his crabby, scheming children.
And Louis Edmonds himself plays the old Daniel–and very well, too!
Considering that letter opener scene, Joshua was probably protecting Nathan from Millicent, not just the other way around.
The scam of hiring a man to threaten a woman and then “coming to her rescue” actually does go back pretty far. For one thing, you see it in a comical Edgar Allan Poe story called “Diddling.”
It’s funny how deliberate the plotting has been when it comes to Nathan learning about Barnabas. For a show that can really fly by the seat of its pants, they’ve clearly seen Nathan’s involvement with exposing Barnabas from way back and have structured the story accordingly. Nicely done
Yes, that part of the storyline was logically and carefully structured.
I feel like when Millicent grew up she became Aunt Pitty-Pat during the Civil War to Scarlett O’Hara.
From what I know of Joel Crothers’s subsequent career it seems he always played nice guys, which is a shame because he’s really good at this smiling villain stuff.
And what more can be said about Louis Edmonds? If not the best actor on the show (I’ll give a slight edge to Frid) then he’s certainly the most versatile.
I agree about Edmonds’ versatility.
I think Nancy Barrett may have the edge on versatility–her range of characters was even greater. Thayer David is up there too, with quite a spread between Ben/Matthew (they are somewhat similar, though Matthew is more homicidal), Prof. Stokes, and Sandor.
What a great performance by Louis Edmonds in this episode! Both his body language and voice convincingly portray the character’s shock over the news that Barnabas is still alive. When discovering Ben’s complicity in piecing together what’s been going on at the Old House, he doesn’t beat around the bush but forcefully gets right to the point: “Where is he?!,” he demands of Ben. Edmonds’ Joshua is one of the main reasons 1795 is my favorite D S storyline.
At the start of act 2, after Joshua says “This is obviously a bluff” there is a noise. It could be equipment or furniture moving but it sounds like a dog barking “Woof!” or someone imitating a dog barking.
JB is wearing those green sparkly earrings in this episode with that poofy yellow green dress. I might be wrong but I think those might be the same earrings that land up in Maggie’s possession back in modern times. They make her “feel strange” when she puts them on. JB wears them in pretty much every timeline. Gorgeous.
So much is made of Naomi’s tippling, but I think she holds it together pretty well for someone who’s painted to be an out-of-control alkie. These discrete little copitas of sherry don’t cut it; give me a scene in which she’s singing, dancing, slurring her words, bumping into things, and then I’ll jump on board.
Surprising late in the show appearance by Ben; customarily, all the scheduled players for the day have been introduced at least by the 2nd commercial break.
Really fascinating to watch Louis Edmonds as stern, immovable Joshua. Except there are moments, especially in less plot-heavy episodes, where Edmonds’ natural charm and charisma breaks through, and he suddenly turns into post-Episode 201 Roger Collins again, standing around making super-dry acidic comments about other characters rather than being the 18th-century Puritan he usually is …