“I already know how and where. What I want to know most of all is when.”
That — creature! I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s a vicious animal — but it wears clothes, like a man! It also runs like a man, wears shoes like a man, and uses doorknobs like a man. Somebody get me a man, so I can double-check. Get one for yourself too, if you want one. I mean, as long as you’re out.
So, yeah, vicious animal on the loose, and vampire playboy Barnabas Collins decides that all of a sudden he’s the wolf whisperer, and he needs to take charge of the situation. He’s a few weeks behind on the werewolf storyline, so he grabs Beth and vampire-bites her, and presto! She makes with the intel.
Under his hypnotic thrall, Beth gives Barnabas a full briefing: Quentin killed Jenny, Magda avenged Jenny’s death by hitting Quentin with a werewolf curse, and now they’re all worried about the effects of the curse on Quentin’s twin babies. The baby thing is a bonus, by the way; even Quentin doesn’t know about the twins. Biting Beth is clearly the FastPass to full storyline access. She’s like a plot-point piñata.
Now, clearly this is cheating. Barnabas didn’t have to do any work to get this information; he just bit Beth on the neck, and now he’s fully up to date on other people’s secrets. But it’s like the psychic paper on Doctor Who — it’s a shortcut that makes the story move faster. We already know all of these facts, so there’s zero dramatic value in Barnabas learning it all the slow way.
It’s not easy to tell exactly what Barnabas is planning to do about all this, but that’s the joy of having Barnabas on the show — he blurs the line between rational thought and blithering madness every time he opens his mouth.
“I lie awake nights,” Beth shudders, “wondering how and where it will all end.”
Barnabas frowns. “I already know how and where. What I want to know most of all is when.” And then he gives her a look, and leaves the room.
It’s okay if you don’t happen to understand that line; it’s one of those moments where even if you know what he’s talking about, you don’t know what he’s talking about. It’s another fastball special from the mind of Barnabas Collins; all you can do is watch it whiz by.
Beth and Barnabas stop and have another little briefing in the foyer, before he heads outside to wrangle werewolves. There’s not a ton of new content; they’re basically just recapping in Collinwood’s transportation hub to make sure that nearby eavesdroppers can catch up on the latest news. This is a feature that soap opera characters provide as part of their basic service package. Every time they walk into a room, they take another lap through the day planner, in case anybody’s interested.
Beth: Do you think you’ll find him?
Barnabas: I must.
Beth: He’ll demand to know how you learned the secret.
Barnabas: I know I’m going to have a difficult time with him, but I’ll do my best to convince him that I’m only trying to help him.
Beth: How can you do that?
Barnabas: I have no idea yet.
And I swear to god, I think Jonathan Frid is the only actor who can get away with this kind of nonsense. It’s the deep voice, I think, and the cape. He just has this air of absolute certainty, like he has full situational awareness. I think Maggie Smith could pull this off, and maybe Cookie from Empire, but that’s all. It’s a very specialized field.
As soon as Barnabas exits through the front doors, Magda emerges from the drawing room. She climbed in through the drawing room windows, and she was hiding behind the doors, eavesdropping, because Dark Shadows is a door-slamming bedroom farce about gypsies who live in a haunted house.
Magda says that she’s the only one who can help Quentin, which perks up Beth’s spirits. She asks, “Have you found a way to end the curse?”
Magda looks away. “The only way,” she frowns.
Beth is alarmed. “You’re not going to harm him, are you?”
“I cannot harm him anymore than I already have,” Magda says, so that’s a yes on the harming.
So Magda heads outside, pausing on the front porch to load silver bullets into her pearl-handled revolver. I don’t know exactly where she got the equipment from, but this is Collinwood; it was probably in the junk drawer in the pantry, or sitting out on the mantelpiece. Gun control means nothing to these people.
So a-hunting we shall go! From this point, it’s basically an episode of Gilligan’s Island, with three characters clambering around the tiny little outdoors set, trying to stay out of each other’s shots. At one point, Magda hears Barnabas coming and ducks behind a tree, just seconds before Barnabas walks by, looking directly at her. And this is Magda, by the way, who’s not exactly dressed in full camo.
But this is what we want to see — a vampire, a werewolf and a gypsy witch under the light of the full moon, with the best intentions and the worst ideas. As Chekhov said, if you’ve got a gun with silver bullets on the wall in the first act, then you need to shoot the werewolf in act three. He never said what you’re supposed to do after that. I expect it’s mostly paperwork.
Monday: You Have to Admit She’s Got a Point.
Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:
When Magda is listening to Barnabas and Beth’s conversation, Beth says, “I’ll — I’ll wait — I’ll wait up for you to bring him back, Barnabas.” Then Beth and Barnabas both speak at the same time.
When Magda talks to Beth in the foyer, there’s a shot of the two of them taken through the drawing room doors. But the camera isn’t quite in the right place, so we see a blurry bit of the door on the right side of the screen.
When the wolf is stumbling around in the woods, he falls to the ground — and you can see the square base under one of the little shrubs. It looks just like Charlie Brown’s sad little Christmas tree.
Behind the Scenes:
The werewolf rips Beth’s room apart, and you can see the colorful afghan among the shambles. We just saw the afghan at the Old House last week, covering Jamison on the couch.
Monday: You Have to Admit She’s Got a Point.
— Danny Horn
Dark Shadows Every Day 
Another mightily impressive moment for werewolf/stuntman Alex Stevens in the scene in the foyer where he attacks Judith. So, it’s 11 steps up from the foyer floor to the landing; some episodes back, David Selby bumped his head on the top of the doorway under the landing while heading out of the foyer because he forgot to duck, so, let’s say, 8 feet from the foyer floor to the landing above. But Stevens hoists himself up and swings his legs over the railing on the way down, which adds another 3 feet of airborne height before his feet land down below. So that’s a very daunting stunt even for someone who’s young and fit. Alex Stevens was certainly worth his weight in fur!
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/darkshadows/images/8/82/765kzc.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/960?cb=20121001113125
Agree – quite a feat for what is essentially live TV
Ask yourself who really benefits from the werewolf curse. Werewolf protection requires lots of silver and the Braithwaites are the ‘Hunt Brothers’ of Collinsport. Follow the money.
Wasn’t Magda, a few episodes ago, supposed to get silver bullets for Laura? I always assumed that’s where these bullets, as well as the mystery one to come, came from.
I think what Barnabas meant when he said he already knew “how and where” is that he figures Quentin is going to be dispatched (but when?) by somebody locking him up to die of thirst (more likely that than starvation) in the room where David and Amy would eventually find his skeleton — or (SPOILER ALERT!) at least what was his skeleton before our friendly neighborhood vampire could change history.
Yeah, that’s absolutely what he’s talking about, but it’s not clear how knowing “when” helps in any way. He’s acting like he’s doing a surgical strike on the exact moment when he can change history, while he also runs around hitting people with a cane.
I suspect Barnabas is worrying (or at least the writers are suggesting he’s worrying) that Quentin may die before he can do or learn something that might save David in the present. From his perspective, he’s racing against the clock — or, in this case, the calendar. But he doesn’t know when the endpoint will come since the family history didn’t record Quentin’s date of death.
There is another blooper. When Quinten runs out the drawing room window, it had just been closed. I was full on waiting for a glass break that, sadly, didn’t happen.
‘plot-point pinata’ !! HA HA HA!!!
Really, isn’t it priceless? I want to know where to go vote for Danny to win the Best Blogger Oscar.
Right here.
ALL IN FAVOR?
“AYE!!!!”
“It’s not easy to tell exactly what Barnabas is planning to do about all this”
You’re slipping Danny. Most likely, Barnabas is planning to kill someone. Isn’t that his usual Plan A?
Mind you, he probably hasn’t figured out who to kill just yet, but once he does, he’ll plan to kill them. 😉
Judith, sucking down some tea after her encounter with the werewolf, says that she’s frightened but not blind. She insists on knowing why the creature was afraid of Beth.
Okay, Judy – so why didn’t you see Beth brandishing that shiny new necklace, the silver one in the shape of a star? The one you’ve never seen her wearing until tonight?
And why is Beth hemming and hawing and making up some lie instead of just out and saying that it’s the necklace that scared the monster away? That maybe the whole family should order the jewelry from the Braithwaites, and maybe save their lives?
And finally, didn’t Judith CLOSE the window before she left the drawing room and came into the foyer to find the werewolf growling at her? Yet when Beth scares him away, he runs into the drawing room and jumps out the OPEN window.
Questions, questions.
Also it would seem that anyone who lives in Collinwood with Quentin over the years seeing the werewolf would recognize the werewolf’s clothes as Quentin’s clothes and yet the werewolf’s identity is such a big mystery. It would be more realistic if the clothes became more torn and shredded during or soon after the transformation.
That would involve having hair where there was no clothing, the budget won’t allow it.
Otherwise I would want the clothes to be OFF the werewolf so Quentin could have to find his nude way back into Collinwood without being seen… but I’m sure that’s just me thinking that. 🙃
It’s most certainly not just you! Now, why can’t remakes use THIS kind of imagination, huh? or at least we need a porno, like “Dick Shadows” maybe? which to my knowledge does not yet exist but feel free…
Right. I wanted to see any epic glass break moment.
At least Barnabas is tactful enough not to tell Beth, “It ends with you and your boyfriend locked in a room for 70 years. You get to wear a really nice dress, though.”
I’m no gun expert but those bullets Magda was loading into the revolver don’t look like silver.
There’s a weird moment when Judith is talking on the phone and then continues to hold the earpiece for several seconds after the conversation seems to have ended. At first I thought it was a blooper but now I’m wondering if Lela Swift might’ve told Joan Bennett to stall a bit because Alex Stevens wasn’t ready for the next scene where the werewolf confronts Judith in the foyer.
This whole storyline is so much fun that it doesn’t bother me that it isn’t the least bit scary. I mean really, the werewolf looks so cute in his vest that you just want to scratch him behind the ears and give him a biscuit.
Poor Beth. Caught between a vampire and a werewolf. I love when Magda reaches up to pull Beth’s collar down a bit, revealing the bite marks, and then says, “I cannot tell you,” indicating to her without saying as much that she knows Barnabas is a vampire and that Beth is in his thrall. Such a cool scene.
I loved Judith not putting up with Julia/Magda’s shit at the door…and I say Julia/Magda because GH is playing Magda more like Julia now, who I cannot stand.
Plot point pinata!
Excellent!
Thanks for the buckshot of Beth’s hairdo.
One of the best on the show I think. I love what is either her favorite outfit or her maidswear but she’s really not employed anymore is she?
The striped number with what I assume is a blue velvet bustle!
Great costumes! Kudos to Moselle!
And Judith is looking stunning and feeling it too! Girls got some chops and she’s not afraid to let anyone know it these days!
At first I was concerned about the fact she was playing Quentin’s sister but her spunky character has made me forget how farfetched it all is.
Back shot not buckshot!
And Most Mostoller!
Superb job with 1897 in general, except maybe for Laura who must have been unpleasant or something.
And Beth no longer works at Collinwood but still there. Odd lol. Kudos to wardrobe for Joan Bennett’s absolutely stunning dark red robe with ruffled insert and sleeve hems. Magnificent.