“No, they do make sense! I don’t know why, but they do!”
So apparently it’s written in the book that the Leviathans only have one weakness, which is werewolves.
Now, I get why the Dark Shadows writers have suddenly come to this surprising decision, because they currently have two monster storylines that have nothing to do with each other. The primary storyline is about ancient blasphemies from outer space, who are attempting to rig the presidential election and install Carolyn Stoddard as a teratologically fabulous first lady. The other storyline is about a guy who turns into a werewolf on a regular schedule, and refuses to take even the most basic precautions to avoid bloodshed.
They want to connect these two storylines somehow, so now the Leviathans and the werewolves have a brand-new long-standing feud that dates back to a time before man existed, when there was only essence and intelligence, and none of these shapes that human beings wear today. That’s not me saying that, mind you, that’s dialogue from Dark Shadows. “Before man existed,” the Leviathan guy said, “when there was only essence and intelligence [and werewolves].”
Therefore: Jeb Hawkes, the teen gang leader who can turn into a giant slime-wrapped tentacle monster with glittering eyes and a thousand razor-sharp teeth, is vulnerable to werewolves. Well, I suppose everybody’s vulnerable to werewolves.
Although the other day, we saw Quentin Collins knock Jeb unconscious by hitting him over the head with a vase, so apparently he’s also vulnerable to antiques. And he lives in a place that’s full of antiques! Collinwood has a lot of antiques too, and so does the Old House. Jeb must fear for his life pretty much 24/7.
But that’s not the problem right now. The problem is Sabrina Stuart, who shows up uninvited at people’s homes with impossible botany.
Sabrina used to be Chris Jennings’ girlfriend, once upon a time, but then he turned into the big bad wolf, completely ruining the surprise birthday party that she thought she was throwing for him. The experience turned Sabrina’s wig gray and rendered her essentially inert for several years, and the only reason she’s walking around on her own is that everybody else in her storyline has either left the show or forgotten that she exists.
When Sabrina was introduced — Christ, it was a year ago, in February ’69 — she was a third wheel in the Chris/Carolyn story, a warning of what would happen to Carolyn if she continued to date this animal who walks like a man. Then the show put her story on hold while they went back in time to the 19th century for eight months, and when they came back, they had other things to attend to.
Sabrina did come to the surface about six weeks ago to yell at Carolyn about death and the moon and unheralded pronouns, but by that time, Carolyn had quietly broken up with Chris off-screen, in order to make herself available for the upcoming apocalypse. So now Sabrina’s just kind of hanging around loose, and she’s taken the opportunity to read up on the latest gypsy journals.
Now here she is at Chris’ cottage, for what I believe is the first non-flashback scene that she’s ever had with the other character in her storyline. She’s been on the show for a year, and if she didn’t have the gray wig, I’m not sure her moon-cursed lover would be able to pick her out of a lineup.
Naturally, the only thing Chris wants her to do is go home. That’s what he said in the flashback, too. “Get away from me” is practically the only thing he’s ever said to her.
But it’s the night of the full moon, and she’s brought him a present, which you’d think she’d be over the idea of surprise parties by now.
It is the moon poppy, she says, and I don’t have a gift receipt.
“You must take the flower, and eat it,” she explains. “I found a journal, a new one, published in England. A study of lycanthropy. The author told of someone being cured. I wrote to him, and he sent me this flower. He’d raised it himself! It’s the only one left that he knows about!”
So that’s great, Sabrina’s been doing some research in the approximately eight minutes since her recovery, but there’s a catch; there usually is.
“If you eat this flower when it blooms,” she says, “you will never become that thing again. But you must eat the flower while the moon is shining! At dawn — the flower will die.”
“If I try,” Chris says, “will you promise to go?”
So that continues this couple’s unbroken streak of scenes about Chris telling Sabrina to go away, and in my opinion, that makes this a difficult couple to ship. This is the first moment that they’ve ever been close to each other — their romance is mainly conjectural — and I’m sorry, but I don’t really care about this girl.
As we know, there are three rules to getting the audience to like a new character — make a friend, make a joke, and make a plot point happen. Up until now, she hasn’t done much in the way of making friends, because we didn’t know her pre-trauma, and since then, she’s mostly been sitting down and staring into space. Chris cares about her, presumably, but the only thing he ever says to her is leave me alone, which doesn’t improve her favorability ratings. She’s also not big with the jokes, unless this moon poppy thing is some kind of April Fool’s gag, which maybe it is. And she’s got a plot point, finally, but it dies at dawn.
So I don’t know, I just find it hard to connect to Sabrina. She was introduced as a spoiler for Chris and Carolyn — and a mute paperweight-style spoiler, at that — and the only reason she’s in the girlfriend role now is that Carolyn is otherwise occupied.
But Chris and Sabrina do have a nice moment, where they look into each other’s eyes and talk about hope, and he promises to try the flower thing. She smiles — her first light moment ever — and says that after moonrise, he’ll come to her, looking the way he does now, and it’ll be all over. And then she takes off, obviously, because that is how romance works.
Still, it’s not a great plan — in fact, it’s so bad that even Barnabas can point out the major flaws, and he’s terrible at plans. If Chris has to eat the flower once the moon is shining, then he’ll already be in his werewolf form, and at that point, he’ll lose interest in gardening.
Barnabas urges Chris to bring the flower to Windcliff where they can keep him in a cell, just in case this biology experiment goes awry. But Chris insists on staying here.
“There’s only one way I can remember,” he says. “That’s to stay here, knowing that I’m going to change unless I do it!” This isn’t particularly logical, but they need him to cross over with the Leviathan storyline, and he’s not going to do that all locked up at Windcliff.
“There’s a werewolf out there,” Jeb says, “the most dangerous of creatures! They were the only creatures we couldn’t tame, the only ones that were more ruthless and cunning than we were! We tried to drive them out; we tried to kill as many as we could! But there was always one left — and it was always howling!”
So behold, ladies and gentlemen, as the moon poppy blooms: the only creature more cunning than a space octopus. It’s currently struggling to remember why it should eat vegetables. Humanity is doomed.
Tomorrow: My Sweet, Sweet Moves.
Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:
In the teaser, the werewolf is reaching for the flower, but he looks to the side for his cue twice.
When Jeb is on the phone with Maggie, you can see Bruno’s jacket through the glass on the door, as he waits for his cue to enter the shop.
Jeb hears the wolf howl, and he says to Bruno, “I was just remembering a poem.” Then he recites the werewolf poem. Jeb is, what, seven weeks old at this point? When did anybody mention this poem to him?
Barnabas tells Sabrina, “I’m trying to help Car — Chris — Chris as well.”
When Bruno pushes the werewolf down, you can see the studio floor, well past where the green burlap of the woods set ends. You can see the floor a couple more times during the scene, and when Sabrina kneels down, the burlap moves.
Angelique covers for messing up a line: “Oh, Barnabas, if something does happen here — if — there’s nothing more I can say!”
The credits spell Violet Welles’ name as “Violet Wells”.
Behind the Scenes:
The poem that Jeb refers to is from the 1941 Universal Monsters film The Wolf Man. Jeb completely botches the poem, which goes like this:
“Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms, and the autumn moon is bright.”
Jeb’s version:
“Even if a man is pure at heart and says his prayers at night, he can become a werewolf when the wolfblane blooms, and the moon is full and bright.”
Megan will recite a similar version a few weeks from now, in episode 961.
Tomorrow: My Sweet, Sweet Moves.
— Danny Horn
Dark Shadows Every Day 
I laughed out loud at this one, kinda awkward since I am at work, but no major harm done! This entire post was marvelous !
This is one of my favorite episodes. i always yell at Chris to eat the flower, but he never does. If any of them had any sense, they’d have chained Chris up and force-fed him the flower. And it should have been Quentin, since he started the whole mess. You’d think he’d be trying to help Chris.
I thought it was Magda that started it.
Yeah, that’s the one thing that always kept me from buying Quentin as a completely reformed character – his indifference to the suffering of his grandchildren.
There is a lot to confirm that the only Collins Quentin really loved was Jamison.
Absolutely! At least in Werewolf of London, where they wholesale stole this plot from, the werewolves retained the knowledge of the moon flower and kept it handy for when they started to transform. Sabrina is setting Chris up for failure, and he eagerly expands on said failure. When even Barnabas “Trust Me” Collins can point out all the ways your plan can go wrong, IT’S NOT A GOOD PLAN.
In Werewolf Of London, the flower had a really cool name. They called it the Marifasa Lupina Lumina.
Moon poppies are GREAT!
Are you tired of eating the same boring �� green salad mix �� every day? Just add �� moon poppy blossoms �� to your salad bowl for some colorful piz-zazz!
The flower is in high demand among the townsfolk. So the local florist in Collinsport located on Main Street — just steps from Todd Antiques and the Collinsport Inn — always keeps PLENTY of moon poppy plants in stock, and will therefore NOT need to “Special Order” the plant from afar. So, remember: If you need �� a unique gift idea �� for that �� special someone �� in your life … or you’re shopping for a cheap wedding centerpiece for your �� reception table �� that will “wow” the guests when it opens at �� midnight … or if you’re a gardener �� planning your spring or fall garden �� but have grown weary of planting the same old “four o’clocks” and night-blooming nicotiana … Then call or visit your local Collinsport Florist shop* to order a moon poppy now. ��
= member F.T.D. (Florists Transylvania Delivery)
P.S. I attempted to include some emojis with this comment. But after seeing the comment preview, I suspect the emojis selected may not appear as intended, or may display incorrectly as blank gray diamonds. My apologies.
Whether or not one likes Sabrina as a character, if these episodes were being broadcast today she would be the most fashionable cast member with the gray wig, because as of 2016 faux gray is hap’nin’.
Dang! And here I am, stuck with this ‘real grey’.
Two and a half words, Sabrina — Nice ‘n’ Easy!
“The closer he gets, the better you look.”
I mean really, the girl can’t cop a box of Miss Clairol? Is she THAT incapacitated?
SPOILER ALERT
(I know, she gets a makeover in 15 episodes – 959 – donning a wig from the Olivia Corey collection.)
It’s 15 more episodes before the makeover#! Thank God she’s not in every episode till then, she is super shouty annoying.
Yeah but – Chris & Sabrina never, ever do nuthin’ nice…&easy.
They always do it nice…&rough.
That’s the way they do Proud Were-y…
I would suggest to Ms. Sabrina use “Shimmer.” Shimmer highlights blonde, silver and gray. I use it on my gray hair and my gray hair shines!!
I wouldn’t eat the flower either. Last time someone told me to eat a flower it was a datura flower, and that turned out to be a really, really bad idea.
What I don’t get is the idea that werewolves existed before time began. The world was all thought and essence and… Werewolves? Do they exist as a stand-alone breed apart from humans with lycanthropy? Really one of the lamest plot contrivances on the show. Counting the days until Barnabas stumbles on that room in the East Wing…
Yeah, that makes no sense at all. I mean, there’s wolves, who are full-time wolves, and then there’s werewolves who are humans who turn into wolves. Now, if they hadn’t brought in the whole “from the beginning of time” nonsense, they could have done something like, “But the combination of the human essence and wolf essence–human intelligence and wolf fierceness–is terrifying to Leviathans…who have pretty much the same thing. Oh, well, it’s not good but it would still make more sense than stand-alone werewolfness.
Evidently the ESSENCE of the werewolf existed before time;
and mumbly-mumble Lovecraft double talk trailoff…
Dark cosmic horror jack off hand motion
Some of the later Universal movies with the Wolf Man do change the last line of the poem to “and the moon is full and bright.” But not the rest of Jeb’s gobbledygood, either. (Oh, and it’s wolf’s bane, not wolfbane.)
So Bruno’s back from Portland, where he apparently got a new Al Pacino-style coiff. Did he even say he was going to Portland?
And Sabrina; gad, what an annoyance. This actress is a poor man’s Margaret O’Brien. (For rich man’s Marg. O’B., please see “Meet Me in St. Louis.”)
thank you, Carose59 and John E Comelately for “stand alone werewolfness” and “mumbly-mumble Lovecraft double talk trailoff….” you two are on a roll.
Sorry, but what is up with Angelique’s hair style? The pigtails!
I’m sure I’m not the only one who chuckled at the title “Essence and Intelligence and Werewolves,” with its reference to “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.”
Sure, Quentin knocks Jabe out with a vase, but that doesn’t mean that Jabe has an additional vulnerability. Quentin is still a latent werewolf. Come to it, Count Petofi would be a fine adversary for Jabe, too bad they don’t bring him back.
“We tried to drive them out; we tried to kill as many as we could!” Jesus, how many were there? Were they like buffalo in the 19th century, massive herds covering the land? And if the Leviathans killed most of them, does that mean they’re now an endangered species? Poor Chris could find himself in a zoo exhibit.
Well, if Briscoe does end up eating the flower something tells me it won’t be the first – or the last – strange plant he’s consumed.
I think I caught another blooper not mentioned. In reference to Barnabas and Maggie, Jeb says to Bruno, “She wouldn’t tell him where Carolyn is.” He means He (i.e., Barnabas) wouldn’t tell her (Maggie) where Carolyn is.
Oh. My. God. Jeb is such a whiny brat!! I wish Werewolf Chris would get him!
Sabrina’s hair and the hair band look very similar to Sabrina Spellman’s from “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.”
I agree that they should’ve chained Chris up and force fed him the flower. Why would they think he could do this on his own?!
Angelique’s hairdo is so strange! But kinda cool…
This same evening ABC aired Bewitched episode #190: “Super Arthur” where Uncle Arthur’s powers have started acting up and after a “cure” from Dr. Bombay, Arthur starts becoming whatever he says he feels like, including the Man of Steel. One of the campiest and funniest episodes of the series!
It was a bit shocking to hear a doorbell at the Rumson place on Little Windward Island when Barnabas goes to see Angelique. Apparently doorbells are illegal in the greater Collinsport area, in order to encourage dramatically ominous, insistent or angry door knocking.
I have to agree with the comments above, Angelique’s pigtail coif is dreadful. Lara Parker is such a beautiful woman, why don’t they just let her wear her hair long and natural, I think it would be quite an improvement.