“I cannot die… because I am already dead.”
It’s another gloomy evening in the great house at Collinwood. Naomi has died from poison and plot points, and they’re going to have to reset the “3 days since last accident” sign again. It’s a good thing we’re leaving the 18th century soon; we’re pretty much down to the minimum viable family.
So I guess Barnabas — who everybody thinks is either dead, or in England — just feels free at this point to stand around in the drawing room where anyone can see him. We’re not bound by rules anymore; if you look down, you can see the shattered pieces of civilization lying at our feet.
We are now free to do the most unlikely things, like watching a Revolutionary War soldier and a blood-soaked ghoul have a conversation about their feelings.
Joshua: I thought she had stopped loving me long ago.
Barnabas: Because you stopped loving her.
Joshua: Perhaps. I wanted to love her. She was my wife!
Barnabas: But you didn’t.
Joshua: I’m not a sentimental man. I never have been. Perhaps… perhaps I’m incapable of loving anyone. I don’t know why.
Barnabas: It could be your salvation.
Joshua: My salvation?
Barnabas: You’re incapable of loving me, so you will be spared as a victim of the curse.
I don’t know if any other character in fiction talks like this. I think Dark Shadows is inventing a new kind of person.
As we talked about the other day, this is the week that executive producer Dan Curtis is trying out directing for the first time. He loves gimmick shots, and today’s gimmick is to shoot all of the intense conversations in super-tight close-ups. In this scene, it works, because we really get to see Joshua, a broken man who is now running entirely on pain.
Joshua: The curse must be ended!
Barnabas: It cannot be.
Joshua: It must! And I must be the one to do it.
Barnabas: You?
Joshua: Yes. I cannot allow this nightmare to go on any longer. I cannot allow more people to die! I must destroy you.
And then they have a calm, thoughtful and unbearably painful conversation about how they’re going to make that happen.
Joshua says it won’t be a stake through the heart — “I couldn’t bring myself to do that.” But he’s learned about another way — a silver bullet fired directly into Barnabas’ heart will destroy him.
I think that’s werewolves, but never mind; there’s no stopping these people once they get an idea in their heads.
So Joshua says the kind of line that you only get on Dark Shadows.
Joshua: I have sent Riggs into town with a silver candelabra. I have instructed him to go to a silversmith, and have six bullets made. I will fire those bullets into your heart.
It’s a deeply peculiar thing for a person to say, but bless his heart, he says it with complete conviction.
Ben interrupts with a news bulletin — Vicki, who was on the run from the law and hiding in the study, has been taken away. Barnabas and Joshua realize that Nathan must have turned her in for the reward money.
So Barnabas comes up with a plan, and guess what, it’s the same plan that he always comes up with.
Barnabas: He must die.
Yeah, no kidding. This is what we always do on this show when there’s rough justice to be meted out — we call the bat/man.
Nathan is down at the Eagle drinking and bragging about leaving his wife, now that he’s got the reward money for turning Vicki in. A flapping bat casts a shadow at the window.
And then we switch genres again. Barnabas enters the saloon, and he squares off with Nathan like two gunslingers in a Western.
They go through another one of those pre-murder career retrospectives, where Barnabas runs through a list of Nathan’s crimes: Naomi is dead, Millicent has been driven mad, and Daniel is still in danger.
So I reckon the marshal has this dastardly hombre dead to rights. But they’re going to settle this cowboy style, with hot lead.
Dan is still committed to the close-ups today, which is kind of a mixed bag. It’s nice to see everyone emoting away like crazy, but this is a showdown. At one point, Barnabas smashes some glasses with his cane, and you don’t really get a good look at it. You want to see the guys facing off.
Anyway, Nathan shoots, somewhere more or less off-camera, with the predictable effect. This gives Barnabas the chance to deliver one of his killer lines.
Barnabas: I cannot die… because I am already dead.
Then Barnabas does something strange.
Barnabas: I do not plan to kill you… at least, not here and now. Later, Forbes. After you’ve had time to think about it. Nine o’clock. When the clock strikes nine… you will die.
That doesn’t mean a great deal to us, so we zoom in on the clock, to see that It’s eight-thirty.
There’s a big dramatic tension sting to close the act: Eight-thirty!!!
So it turns out we’re doing High Noon, another unexpected narrative collision. With a killer on his trail, Nathan spends the next ten minutes running around Collinwood, trying to talk Joshua into helping him.
Joshua isn’t thrilled about this situation — he really doesn’t want Barnabas to kill anyone, even Forbes — but he knows that he can’t do anything. Nathan is going to have to face this on his own. We’re going to have that final showdown after all.
So Nathan does what anybody in this situation would do: he grabs something from the wall of loaded weapons in the study. I’ve had several occasions lately to wonder about why the Collins family scatters murder weapons around the house, but here’s a situation where it really comes in handy.
So this is it — we’ve got one more episode in 1795, before we hightail it back to the present day. And this is how we’re going to end things, with poison and bullets and crossbows and clocks.
If we have to go, at least we’re going down fighting. Is there any other way?
Tomorrow: Eats, Shoots and Leaves.
Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:
Barnabas skips a line in his conversation with Joshua in act 1, and then steps on another line a moment later.
Joshua: She said something to me before she died. Something I didn’t expect her to say.
Barnabas: You didn’t know that?… What was that?
Joshua: She said that she loved me.
Barnabas: And you didn’t know.
Joshua: No… I thought she had stopped loving me long ago.
Barnabas: Because you stopped loving her!
Joshua: Perhaps. I wanted to love her.
Barnabas: But you di–
Joshua: She was my wife!
Barnabas: But you didn’t.
The last time that we saw Barnabas’ cane, in episode 445, it was in Nathan’s possession; he showed it to Joshua. Nathan also bragged to Noah in episode 454 that he could show the cane to the authorities, as evidence that Noah attacked Millicent. In today’s episode, Barnabas has it again, and he smashes some glasses with it.
In the Eagle confrontation scene, Dan is so busy playing with his close-up gimmicks that he misses the two physical actions in the scene — Barnabas smashing the glasses with his cane, and Nathan pulling the trigger.
When Nathan begs for help, Joshua isn’t sure how to react:
Nathan: He threatened to kill me.
Joshua: I’m surprised. (pause) I’m surprised he didn’t.
Kicking off the big climax, the clock on the mantelpiece chimes nine — but the hands show 8:58.
Behind the Scenes:
The barmaid at the Eagle is played by Rebecca Shaw, who also appeared two weeks ago as a streetwalker on the docks. This is Shaw’s only television credit.
I’ve found some references to Shaw being married to Jerry Lacy, who plays Reverend Trask, but I’m not sure when they were married. An item in a 1970 newspaper from Anderson, Indiana notes that Lacy and Shaw were both appearing in productions of Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam, but in different cities — Lacy was in the Broadway production, and Shaw appeared at the Cocoanut Grove Theatre in Miami.
Shaw and Lacy had apparently divorced by 1972, when he met actress Julia Duffy on the set of the CBS soap Love of Life. Lacy and Duffy lived together for many years, and married in 1984. That’s all the information I can find on Shaw.
Tomorrow: Eats, Shoots and Leaves.
— Danny Horn
Dark Shadows Every Day 
Fans love the Barnabas going to get revenge on Nathan here.
So, is Barnabas faking here? I mean, a wooden stake is a little different from a metal tipped arrow, right? Obviously, Barnabas lives, so he’s faking, right?
“You cannot kill me because I am already dead. Do I frighten you, Forbes?”
Joshua has my other favorite line:
“I wouldn’t be any protection! And I don’t want to see what he plans to do to you.”
How true
I love “I almost feel sorry for you”
Delicious dialogue, indeed, Stephen!
I laughed out loud, and I think I rubbed my hands together in anticipation!
Actually, the feeling talk works here because Frid and Edmonds have a good rapport and it makes Joshua more sympathetic that he actually cares about how he had felt.
Is there only one more 1795 episode? I thought they dragged out the Vicki hanging grand finale for several more days. Sorry I just don’t look forward to what’s awaiting us in 1968..
Well, the Vickie hanging is not that great dramatically but I do like the Barnabas Joshua interaction.
“I thought they dragged out the Vicki hanging grand finale for several more days.” When Barnabas returns to 1796, when Alexandra Moltke has turned into Carolyn Groves as Vicki, we go back to Vicki lingering in jail shortly before her hanging, so perhaps that’s what you’re thinking of.
Another example of how great JF was.
True
Agreed. Apart from his two minor “walking over lines” errors today, Frid was at the top of his game in this episode.
You see, there was a point to hanging a crossbow, after all…
Too bad that he did not try to use the flail…
True
I found myself wondering whether DS accepts the notion that a vampire can be killed by beheading. Of course, nobody told Joshua or Nathan about that. Forbes often has a sword, but I think it might have mysteriously disappeared during this episode.
Nathan gets from the bar in the village to Collinwood in around 15 minutes. It would take about that long to walk from the entranceway to the front door of an estate like Collinwood.
“Nathan gets from the bar in the village to Collinwood in around 15 minutes.” He might have had a horse.
On the other hand, if Nathan has now money, isn’t about time he got a second epaulette for his jacket?
True
You’ve got to love the Ben Stokes character in this episode, in the scene where Nathan arrives at Collinwood just before the stroke of nine to plead for Joshua to talk Barnabas out of killing him. Amidst the emotional weight of Joshua and the anxious mortal fear of Nathan, Ben’s amusement over Nathan’s impending doom provides some humorous levity and reflects the viewer’s satisfaction over the scoundrel schemer finally getting his comeuppance. As Nathan decides to flee from Collinwood just moments before the appointed hour, he is stopped at the threshold to ask about that ominous sound coming from outside, and the viewer revels through Ben’s obvious enjoyment of Nathan’s predicament as he provides Nathan with the explanation the viewer already knows and would gladly explain as well. “Dogs howlin’,” Ben cheerfully informs the unnerved Nathan. “It means he’s nearby.”
Yes, I loved the “Dogs howlin'” bit too.
And that’s why Ben Stokes is my favorite 1795 character.
I couldn’t said that better myself, Prisoner of the Night.
Where is the video from 454-459?
Do you mean, how can you watch those episodes? Hulu’s streaming only goes up to episode 452, but all of the episodes are avaiilable to buy on YouTube, and on DVD.
The crossbow shooting illusions, both the practice shot and the Barnabas-piercing shot, are nicely done. Frid gets that arrow placed in his mid-section in the couple seconds that it takes to cut to the crossbow and then back again. Nice work for a show shot in real time!
Lots of really good stuff today! The Joshua/Barnabas scene has some gorgeous moments, particularly Joshua’s bemusement at his wife’s continued feeling, and the pair’s refusal to acknowledge his blatant love for his son. The idea that he can’t bring himself to poke Barnabas with a stick but it willing to send the servant on a day trip to melt an old silver candelabra they’re no longer using into a full complement of bullets his can fire into his kid’s heart is hilarious.
The showdown in the inn is oddly shot – I thought the glass-smashing came off quite well, but there is a lengthy undramatic pause beforehand, and the decision to stick to closeup reaction shots means we don’t actually see Nathan pull the gun, instead having to rely on Barnabas’s reaction to tell us what’s happened (even when they cut back to Forbes, the tight shot makes the gun less noticeable than it should be).
Also much love for Joshua’s cold reaction to Nathan’s fate – “I can’t protect you, and I don’t want to see what happens”, and Ben’s obvious delight in the background of the whole scene, culminating in his taunting of Nathan when he reveals the only way to kill Barnabas – “But by the morning, you’ll be dead!”
Joel Crothers is also fairly consistently excellent, running through a gamut of emotions – the full Greatest Hits of Nathan Forbes, with b-sides and exclusive Japan-only bonus tracks; a charmer with the barmaid, a snake with Barnabas, a wide-eyed bargainer with Joshua; he’s cocky, vicious, terrified, incredulous, dangerous, defeated, demented and determined, all in just three scenes, and all while looking Harry Sullivan-dashing, dressed like the Beast and acting like Gaston.
Which is a shame, since I gather we’re heading back to good ol’ reliable Joe in a bit – and he just won’t be as much fun this time around, now we know what Crothers is capable of.
Absolutely! Crothers himself said in an interview that he loved playing Nathan Forbes because it was such a change of pace from bland good guy Joe Haskell. As somebody else had mentioned earlier, he does have some good moments when Joe is bitten by witch-turned vampire Angelique later in 1968, reminding one of a hopeless junkie who is, in a sense, now addicted to Angelique’s control. He also later convincingly portrays madness when his cousin, Chris Jennings, turn into a werewolf right before his eyes.. Otherwise, it’s back to Joe, All American Boy again..
Why multiple silver bullets fired into the heart? Wouldn’t one do it? Does that strike anyone else, too, as a waste of a precious metal?
very nice, Clay, very nice indeed.
The glass-smashing was startling as hell and highly effective. Joshua’s raw honesty and honor in taking on this horrifying duty was wonderfully done. Best of all was the pain and resignation in Barnabus’ eyes in his close-ups as he’s accepting the death his father plans for him. There is a superb glint of viciousness when Barnabus decides he’ll kill Nathan before dying himself. As far as the silver bullets, I think it was meant to be incorrect info in the book Joshua read — it is increasing the tension for the viewer because we know silver bullets won’t work, even if Joshua and Barnabus think they will. Really great episode.
Btw the part about emptying all 6 bullets into Barnabus was like, “Damn! Joshua’s going to make sure this time!”
“As far as the silver bullets, I think it was meant to be incorrect info in the book Joshua read — it is increasing the tension for the viewer because we know silver bullets won’t work, even if Joshua and Barnabus think they will.” I don’t think this is true. I think the writers intended for the silver bullet method to be legit. (And, although much traditional vampire lore didn’t say so, more recent lore does allow for silver bullets to kill vampires.)
Here’s the problem. Joshua says he is going to use a “revolver,” but they haven’t been invented yet.
To get in the weeds, there were gun designers who were experimenting with multi-shot pistols by 1795, but they were only producing prototypes, and they hadn’t caught on yet.
When we see Joshua take out his gun in tomorrow’s episode, it’s an old flintlock pistol, a single-shot handgun. Joshua would either have to reload his one gun five times or else load and reload two or more pistols in order to shoot his son six times.
This is another of my all-time favorite DARK SHADOWS episodes. It certainly illustrates again Danny’s comparing Barnabas to a destructive kaiju that you root for when it’s enemy is, arguably, an even worse kaiju.Did Barnabas do bad things? Sure, but the pathos that the writers had allowed viewers to see in the character (first occasionally, and then, gradually more often) had won them over.LIke Jason McGuire before him, Nathan Forbes is a scoundrel who has met his match in Barnabas–and we, as viewers love it!.
I always listen carefully to the introductory narration to try to figure out which actress is speaking, which also tells me who one of the typically four characters in the episode will be.
As in “Oh crap Vicki the momentum killing speedbump is in this one.”
But I was quite surprised at the beginning of this episode to hear a male voice. I didn’t know the male actors ever did the introductory narration. Either way, this was an unexpected first for me.
Once I stopped doing the surprised cartoon head shake, I was momentarily puzzled trying to figure out who was speaking and then I realized holy cow that’s Thayer David speaking in his non Ben Stokes voice!
Pretty fun bonus to start the episode for me
I am baffled as to why in the world will anyone risk going back to the house of a man who just survived getting shot, then admitting he can’t die because he is already dead and adding insult to injury, promising you will die at 9pm then vanished into thin air. Greed was the motivation why Forbes returned thinking he can blackmail his way out of this mess instead of using his common sense and immediately leave the bar and try escaping in a ship to a far away place etc.
It’s like the Geico ad explains, “When you’re in a horror movie (or DS) you might make poor decisions.”
I noticed the practice bolt fired at the door of the study wasn’t pulled out cleanly, the arrowhead was left in the door but the shaft snapped off. A low hit to begin with and with the stock to the shoulder, would have sighted better the second time. And a collection of what are medieval weapons..every colonial house should have one.;)
Ditto to all the comments here today! Excellent episode! I was on the edge of my seat!
And, I want Barnabas’ really cool boots!! Has anyone ever noticed, he walks like a cat!
With the past couple of episodes, I can totally understand the talk about Joel Crothers being considered for Quentin; he looks positively lupine in those closeups, with those sideburns; that wild look in his eyes! He would have been wonderful. All that talk about Selby being the only actor who could possibly do justice to Quentin is just hindsight, fur-covered glasses. Not sorry to see you go, Nathan, and it’s always a pleasure to watch you leave (or do anything else).