“The howling of these dogs, that’s what’s wrong.”
So the score, at press time, is Vampires 5, Humans 1.
This month has seen an astonishing comeback for the Vampires, a team that suffered a devastating setback in May when their star player, Barnabas Collins, was benched after being cured by a mad scientist.
But two weeks ago, another rising star came out of nowhere. Angelique, who’d formerly played for the Salem Witches, was traded to the vampires by her manager, and she’s been biting people at a rate that we’ve never seen before in the history of the sport. She’s got Joe as a blood slave, and she’s turned Tom into a vampire, and just in the last week we’ve seen five on-screen vampire bites — seven, if you count reprises. The only human who got away unscathed was the Deputy from a couple weeks ago, and that was with an assist from Nicholas.
We open this week with an injury report from Dr. Julia Hoffman, who was in the basement just minding her own business and tampering in God’s domain, when Tom came in and took a chunk out of her neck.
Willie finds Julia passed out on the floor, next to an overturned stool and a shattered glass beaker of I don’t even want to think about what’s in it.
Willie helps her up, and says, “You better take it easy, you look kinda weak.”
Julia says, “Oh, it’s just stiff — it’s a stiff neck, that’s all,” as if you always find unconscious people with a stiff neck, lying in a heap of smashed stemware.
Julia’s dazed and drained, and she tells Willie that she needs to get home and rest. This is kind of a shame — you’d think Tom would at least drive her home afterwards. I think Angelique is the only vampire who really thinks about the aftermath; when she bites Joe, she likes to cuddle for a while afterwards. Tom didn’t even leave his phone number.
Julia manages to stagger back to Collinwood, and pounds on the front door. It’s the middle of the night, and Mrs. Johnson has to get out of bed and let her into the house.
Mrs. Johnson tries to scold the errant houseguest, to no effect. She says, “I don’t mind saying, Doctor, that it would make things a lot easier if people kept me informed of their comings and goings!”
Julia just walks up the stairs without a word, because Julia is a rock star and that is how people behave. It’s fantastic.
In the morning, Julia shows all the usual signs of a recent vampire encounter — she wakes up late, closes the drapes, ties a scarf around her neck, and starts saying peculiar things.
Julia: I wonder if you could have the room — curtained off.
Mrs. Johnson: Curtained off?
Julia: Yes, I’ve already drawn the draperies, but there’s still too much sunlight in here.
Mrs. Johnson says, “I’ll do what I can,” but it’s not clear what you could possibly do with this request. Your standard bedroom already comes equipped with a set of drapes. Installing upgrades is kind of outside a housekeeper’s sphere of influence.
As a domestic on a soap opera, Mrs. Johnson’s job is mostly information management — observing the crazy lady acting crazy, and then gradually parceling out a description of her behavior to whoever happens to stop by. Soap opera housekeepers start a lot of sentences with “All I know is…” and then they issue a full report.
Barnabas comes over, a bit agitated, because he and Julia are working on creating a mate for the local Frankenstein monster, and Julia is the only one who actually has any skills in that area. Barnabas is more of a middle manager type, and if the rest of the team doesn’t show, he can’t make a lot of progress.
Mrs. Johnson tells him that Julia isn’t feeling well, and that she insisted on not seeing anyone today. Barnabas asks if she’ll take up a note for him.
“Well, all right,” Mrs. Johnson shrugs. “I mean, she didn’t say anything about not accepting notes.”
This is a brilliant loophole for Barnabas to exploit. If this doesn’t work, I want him to come back with a cake that says, “Julia, I need to speak to you,” in red frosting. I mean, she didn’t say anything about not accepting cakes. Handled correctly, we could keep this up all week.
So Mrs. Johnson climbs the stairs again, wakes Julia up and hands her the note. Julia reads the note, tears it into pieces, and says, “Thank you, Mrs. Johnson,” which is just fierce.
But that’s enough hanging around the house; we’ve got a sexy vampire boy out in the woods who wants a second date.
Back when Barnabas was a vampire, we only saw him feed once in a while, and he’d go long stretches where he apparently wasn’t eating at all. The new roster of vampires expect a more regular diet — Angelique snacked on Joe three times in three consecutive episodes, and now Tom’s back for his second meal of the day. It’s kind of like slow zombies and fast zombies, I guess; times change.
I am entirely in favor of this development. This vampire show went far too long between vampire bites. It’s about time they got their average up.
Now, a regular reader might expect at this point that I’m going to start talking about fantasy-metaphor rape, and how troubling it is that the audience is expected to enjoy the spectacle of non-consensual physical assault. I am not going to do this. Tom gets a pass, because I’m a hypocrite and he’s really cute.
Meanwhile, at the Old House, Barnabas and Willie are talking things over. Julia looked weak when Willie found her last night, she’s been cooped up in her bedroom with the shades down, and now the dogs are howling up a storm outside.
Barnabas figures out what’s going on, of course, because if there’s one guy who knows how vampires operate, it’s him. But it’s interesting to see just how much the pace of the storytelling has picked up as we’ve been going along.
Back in the day, a story point like this would be dragged out for weeks, with various characters noticing that something’s wrong, and then meeting up to review the case. Now we’re going from first bite to vampire hunt in twenty-two minutes, and if you happen to miss an episode, then that’s your problem. You knew this was a vampire show; try to keep up.
Or maybe it’s just that the Barnabas/Julia dynamic is so important to the show right now that we can’t bear to have them split apart for more than half an episode. There’s no secondary plotline going on today; they’re just hurrying through two bites and some confused-housekeeper scenes, and then Barnabas rips off the scarf, and the vampire hunt begins.
Tomorrow: The Show Goes On.
Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:
In act 1, Barnabas is surprised to find that Julia has left the Old House; he tells Willie, “I thought she was going to be working late tonight.” Actually, at the end of the last episode, Julia told Barnabas that she was going to finish up her work and head home.
Barnabas forgets a line, checks the teleprompter, and starts to say Willie’s line again:
Willie: Look, Barnabas, she made me promise not to tell you anything.
Barnabas: Look… (long pause) She… About what?
There’s something wrong with one of the studio’s three cameras this week — it’s always out of focus, and the color balance is wrong. It’s going to take them a minute to get it fixed.
Tomorrow: The Show Goes On.
— Danny Horn
Dark Shadows Every Day 
What’s Julia’s problem with the drapes – last time she had an issue she wanted Mrs Johnson to take them DOWN since Woodard’s ghost (Barnabas) was appearing to her at the window. Now she wants them back plus another layer. Just get venetian blinds already – stop annoying the Collins housekeeper – Julia keeps forgetting she’s still there as a guest – also what’s with banging on the door in the middle of the night – luckily it was Mrs Johnson and not Roger that answered the door. Julia is really the ‘houseguest from hell’ – she should just move into the Old House with her ‘family’ (Willie and Barnabas) and give the Collins family some peace.
Well, Mrs. Johnson thinks all of them are crazy and foolish. She cracked me up trying to figure out what has gone wrong in the house with weird shit going on.
Yes, Joanne and Renee!! I just wish the writers had allowed Mrs. Johnson such a funny line, there, for continuity and as a shout-out to the viewers who instantly recollected her and Julia’s exchange about the curtains during the “Woodward ghost” episode.
This turned up in my feed today and I just had to share. http://laphamsquarterly.org/magic-shows/charts-graphs/so-youve-been-accused-witchcraft?
The 1968 edition of Dark Shadows is all about portraying the gleeful joys of vampirism and you’ll hear no mournful Shakespearean soliloquies from Tom Jennings, who seems delighted at having been forced to trade in his wire cutters for neck biters.
But isn’t this presenting a problem for Nicholas? Barnabas and Julia are on a strict timeline to create a mate for Adam, and thus a master race for Nicholas, which isn’t being helped when Julia is being distracted from her work on a nightly basis to answer the summons of Tom Jennings. Nicholas puts Angelique under strict control, to keep her from getting to Barnabas, yet Tom is allowed to roam and take hours of work away from the laboratory, when Julia is the main technician.
If this is any indication of how Nicholas intends to run his corpsoration, it would seem that his master race plan is doomed from the start.
Yeah, Tom is having an awesome time. Barnabas was tortured (more or less) and Angelique is on a short leash, but Tom’s afterlife is basically just a series of fang-based booty calls. He might be my favorite character of all time.
I think he’s kind of a ‘clunky’ vampire who doesn’t really possess the sense of elegance and graceful movements of the ‘elite’ vampire Barnabas – although when he first started going the docks for his blue plate specials he got sloppy and gross enough to scare the cap off his young sister. And when Don opens his mouth, shows his supersize fangs and says ‘JUULIAA’ in his most easysounding drawl JULIA is mesmerized and thinking ‘Hey let Barnabas keep his spoiled, whiny Josette – this new guy is pretty hot!
…lol Joann Julia need love too. Too bad her and Tom could not become an item. It’s not exactly right though.
So sorry I am late to this party. Tom Jennings reminds me of the vampires on True Blood, just having a great time.
Tom is enjoying getting some mature love from Julia. Seems like Barnabas would get smart.
One supposes Tom had been a werewolf like Chris, but maybe this life is preferable to him.
If Amy grows up and has a son, will he be a wolf too? (fan fiction please)
Amy does have a son in Bloodlust…
I think only the firstborn son has the curse, so I guess Tom is the younger twin. Yes, Amy’s son would also become a werewolf.
The name Tom literally means twin, so it makes sense the younger one would be named that, whether it was intentional or not.
Julia seems quite pleased also. But it’s great to see someone on the show crushing on Julia at last.
I am sure Tom’s biting Julia has arisen some feelings in Julia that had been dormant and was a new sensation. What was Barnabas’s problem? Maybe he will get a hint.
Agree, Coda! And I love how this all impacts Barnabas, who has always turned up his … fangs at Julia, even when she has willingly offered up her blood to him.
(Yes, he explained at that time that he couldn’t afford to have her under his power or influence; and yes, I am sure we are meant to assign a deeper meaning to his refusal [e.g. he really does care about Julia far more than he does the various younger girls he pursues]. Nonetheless, Tom’s instant, focused, lustful, insatiably determined pursuit of Julia clearly gives Barnabas pause … as it should.
Btw, when he emphatically asks Julia “and why are you wearing that scarf,” I had to giggle this time around (rewatching this episode) since a male friend asked that very question of me not too long ago in nearly the exact same tone. Alas, my reality is so dull compared to DS. I have no doubt the query was posed so I would be forced to consider my questionable fashion choice (or, rather, my decision to keep wearing a scarf-like facial-covering post COVID vaccine). 😏 😷 😔
P.S.: oh my gosh! I totally forgot that in ep 567, Barnabas is even impelled (by ??? protectivenes, jealousy, possessiveness, “don’t miss your water ’til your well runs dry” regretful love ???) to finally urge Julia to stay in his original form a lover’s nest– Josette’s room– where he has sought to bring his previous romantic interests.
…
Otis: In the beginning you really loved me. I was too blind and I could not see. Now that you’ve left me, oh how I’ve cried. You don’t miss your water ’til your well runs dry. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3dHaMV_eXko
Barnabas: Well, I’m going to go out and find Jennings and destroy him… Well, I’ll do everything possible to keep him away from you.
Julia: That will be very dangerous for you!
Barnabas: What other choice do I have? … Well, you must try to get some work done tomorrow. … Now I’ll take you upstairs to Josette’s room, Well. (Wraps his arm protectively of around the back of Julia’s waist, then grips her arm gently and affectionately). I’ll keep you locked up there.
….
Notice how B even keeps calling J his “Well”?
(okay okay, that last one was “we’ll”).
so, so funny, is our Danny Horn.
I can’t be the only one that noticed the cameraman giving us ample opportunity to check out Willie. Starting about 4:30, first we get a nice look at his backside, then a profile and a few seconds later, a lingering pan from boots to head, as Willie poses with hands on hips. Mmmm!
…lol DS. I love Willie in this episode and the next.
Oh yes! I noticed that too – mmm mmm! John got a pretty long opening narration as well. It was a Willie extravaganza episode for those of us who dig him!
See, this is why Mrs. Johnson is always worn out – there are idiots pounding on the door at all hours.
The scene where Willie sneaks into Julia’s room is indescribably weird. And that big sloppy grin he’s wearing…as if he’s been fantasizing about this for months.
Briscoe sounds like an AM radio news reader when he does the voiceover of Tom calling Julia to come out and play. I was waiting for him to go to the traffic report.
Julia becoming a vampire is so unexpected and awesome!!
I also noticed a camera angle that I don’t think they’ve used before. One of Barnabas’ entrances into Collinwood the camera is just inside the door so that we can see the hooks where he hangs his cloak and dagger, I mean, cane. I thought it was pretty cool.
I admit those hooks made me a little sad. I miss the episodes where they would come in from what was supposed to be a rainstorm and throw their coats on a polished table.
Kind of depressing how much Willie Loomis has been nerfed by this point. If there’s anyone who should be able to pick up on the signs of being snacked on by a vampire, it’s him…
Some things I noticed or was reminded of by Danny and fellow commenters:
In the previous episode, Julia hears clomping footsteps not once but twice, and other than sort of acknowledging them, does nothing! But I guess, as Danny says, she’s a rock star.
I thought Julia’s knocking at the door in today’s episode was mighty robust for someone who’d just been bitten by a vampire. But then, she’s a rock star.
When Tom is about to go for Julia’s neck, he’s fang blocked by her scarf, which is covering up the neck section he was going for. So he has to do a quick pivot and sink his teeth into her jaw bone. Ouch!
Once again, Julia is a rock star.