Death Works Overtime

EPISODES 416-430

-There's been none to little mourning for poor Sarah, no wonder she's haunting the grounds in 1968. Her father Joshua frowned a bit more than usual and her mother Naomi hit the booze. If none of the supernatural happenings won't kill her, cirrhosis will.

-Angelique's body may be dead but her spirit lives on in the form of a floating head that was previously used in action by Laura Collins. Must be a thing about blonde ambition.

-Barnabas for some reason can't bring himself to stake himself so he tries to get Ben to do it for him, which he can't cause of the floating head (see above).

-Just when Nathan and Millicent are planning their rather untimely and totally inappropriate marriage (what is this, "Four Weddings and Four Funerals"?) Suki Forbes, Nathan's long lost wife (or more like abandoned) shows up in town and pretends to be his sister so she can blackmail him better. I was like woo new character new mystery when BANG Barnabas kills the woman two episodes later. Is it his second, third victim? Should I count Angelique? It was pretty hilarious though when Millicent found out the whole truth and declared herself dirtied/ruined/soiled, just what Collinwood needs one more weeping widow. However, she's positively my favorite character in this timeline.

*

-Barnabas obviously never learnt his lesson with happened to Sarah so he went on to show himself to Josette. They fell in love again yada yada, love beyond grave and all that and Barnabas was getting ready to turn Josette into a vampire when the ever restless witch interfered and in a form of a vision showed Josette what kind of a monster she'll be turning into if she goes on with Barnabas' romantic plans. There rest we know: Josette. Widow's Hill. Body smashed against the rocks with entrails out in display. Barnabas going JOSEEEEETTE.

-Dark Shadows is many things: gothic, supernatural, soap opera and now court room drama. Vicki's witch trial has begun with Peter trying to defend her against Trask putting on some theatrics. Abigail and Natalie also testify against her. That Abigail knows how to make an entrance!! Things don't look so good for Victoria Winters I'm afraid.

-Barnabas' secret may also be in jeopardy with many people hanging around the Tomb: Millicent, Joshua, Peter..one of them is bound to find out the truth! But who? Whooo?

-Trying to test the limits of his powers, our hopeless vampire literally tries to convince Josette to crawl out of her grave but she just wants to be left alone (what a lame scene, really). Josette eventully comes back but  supporting a hammerhead shark eye. Similar thing had also happened to Jeremiah which makes me wonder if there's something in town's soil.

-I just can't wait to go back to 1968.

The Collinsport Gazette Vol 2

(EPISODES 401-415 cont'd)

BREAKING NEWS!!

     Victoria Winters, the mysterious new governess of the Collins Family, has recently been arrested with the allegations of being a practitioner of witchcraft. Ms. Winters has been placed at the Collinsport Gaol where she met guard and lawyer-in-training Peter Bradford, who will be defending Ms. Winters at the upcoming trial. Various sources have reported that Ms. Winters denied the charges against her and asserted a strange claim of being "from the future where she worked for the descendents of the Collins Family". Majority of the Collins Family members hold Ms Winters responsible for the recent tragedies that have befallen on the family. However, Barnabas Collins was reported to be ready to defend the young woman just before his sudden departure to England. Victoria Winters was apprehanded by a Reverand Trask, who also served at the Salem Trials...More on Page 13

 *

Damsel & Prince Charming

So what did I tell ya Vickster? You got yourself in some serious bull. Thank god now you have a Ken doll by your side to protect you. What an unsuspected minx, isn't she? I mean people search all their lives to find a proper partner and there she got herself one in a friggin' prison in another friggin' century. Let's see how she deals with Burke's death now! But I think Peter here is way better for our Vicki; least he's not 20 years her senior. Go camp Peter!!! Oh and I think he must be this century's Frank Garner. We always knew she had a thing for lawyers but this one is also a guard too. Think they're using the handcuffs yet?

Bad vs Good

She's now in a position where every situation works against her. All of Angelique's biddings have been associated with her. If that's not enough, whenever she tries to make things right by outing herself as a future-comer (and showing them the Collins Family history book from the future that she happened to bring with her for some reason), people get all the more convinced that she is indeed a witch. Thanks to Reverand Trask, every sensible thing that she says to prove her innocence (the very existence of the book for example) is passed off as "the way of the witch.." There's nothing more frustrating than fanatism. But I shall chillax; this is just a show and Vicki surely can't be hung as a witch here... Right?

Josette sees her portrait in the book

So we have almost every member of the family against her; with Abigail leading the mob (It's pretty hilarious when she is referred as the least wealthy member of the family or not mentioned at all. This is the eventual path to Sarah Johnson the maid.)

Josette (and her aunt Natalie) is pretty sure too after begging Vicki to spare Barnabas' life but he dies anyway. Poor Vicki even at that point tries to warn Josette about her death but that also comes out as more witchery. (However, Josette gets pretty terrified to learn her death will be by her own hand. Will she be a case of self-fulfilling prophecy remains to be seen)

Vicki tries to convince Naomi

Then something happens and Vicki remembers about little Sarah impending death. She gets Naomi down to the gaol and warns her about not letting Sarah out for the next two days as she'll die of fever caused by exposure. Naomi isn't sure whether to believe or slap her but as she has the gentle genes that will be carried down to Liz Collins for the next 150 years, she decides to listen to her and protect Sarah. However, Sarah has already left the house that night before her mother gets home. 

Let me stop here for a bit and elaborate something that I kinda skipped in the previous post. When Barnabas' body was sealed in the Collins Mausoleum, only the family members was to know about it. The rest of the town and little Sarah was told he left for England on an indefinite business trip. So one night when Barnabas (who's so far been sleeping in the coffin at the Mausoleum during the day and secretly drifting the streets at night) decides to hang around Collinwood, Sarah sees him from the window. This is why she runs after him at night and follows him to the cemetery where she gets locked up inside the Tomb (sigh ~ first David now her..or wait chronologically it'd be first her then David). When she's finally found, she is already seriously sick and unable to speak -once again Barnabas' secret is safe. 

Sarah tragically dies

Later, Barnabas secretly enters her room to check on her situation (he's blaming himself for what's happened and he should!!) and she dies in his arms, right after she says her farewell. So, now we know why Barnabas will be so obsessed with her ghost in the future. I also thought it'd be Angelique's voodoo that'll kill Sarah but it's actually pneumonia. Although we can say Angelique is sorta responsible as she was the one who put the curse on Barnabas that caused him to be at that place at that time and Sarah to follow him. That bitch messed up the whole family and died just like that!

So we have Barnabas' vampirism on one hand and a more pressing matter of Vicki's trial. Every finger is pointing at her as the witch; even her warning Naomi about Sarah is likely to look like a fake sympathy attempt while secretly casting a spell to kill the girl..at least that's what cousin Millicent thinks. Naomi is sorta pro Vicki but she can change her mind now that her son and daughter are dead. Let's see how they'll get out of this one.

*

Here are quick notes from the episodes before I finish:

• There's still no counterpart of David in this timeline. A brother of Millicent was mentioned earlier but I think they're waiting for this mess to be solved before introducing him into the already crowded cast.
• Josette's famous portait finally made its debut when it was sent to the Old House as a late wedding gift to the Barnabas & Josette couple. However, it arrived right after Barnabas married Angelique; but he had it put up over its famous position over the fireplace anyway which angered Angelique all the more. Oh well, she's dead now.
• And speaking of it, I wonder when the rest of the people will notice her absence. After Barnabas killed her, Ben dug a grave for her and hid the body.
• There's a side storyline going on about Millicent and Nathan's flirting. I took them as a comic relief at first but now they're suddenly talking about marriage. Nathan is definetly in it for the money and poor naive giggley Millicent is clueless.
• I feel a weird sense of familiarity with Vicki's character as she witnesses history happen in front of her, knowing about the future and all that. But I feel this about watching the show itself, knowing some of the actors are gonna die in the next 40 years or how they'll look when they get older. It's a bit surreal and just a tad depressing.
  

I have been ignoring the show and the blog for so long, I thought I was gonna give up on both, latter first and eventually the former. But I guess here I am again ~

Tschüss til the next one!

The Collinsport Gazette vol 1

 (EPISODES 401-415)

EXTRA! EXTRA!

    Barnabas Collins of the Collins Family has finally discovered his newly wedded wife Angelique is the witch. According to the sources, the Collins Family handyman Ben Stokes played an important role identifying the "witch" when he drew the letter "A" as the inital of the witch's name. It's been rumoured that Ben Stokes had a curse on him that prevented him from uttering her name, so that's why such a peculiar method was used.  

     Upon learning this rather unnerving news, Barnabas Collins confronted his wife who in turn mercilessly threatened to kill Josette Collins (formally known as Josette duPres) aka Mr. Collins' would-have-been-wife if Angelique the witch hadn't intervened.  So Mr. Collins rightfully resorted to murder by stabbing and poisoning but each time his plans backfired... Then one night, a gunshot from the Collins House was heard.....More on page 2

 *

Attack of the rubber bat

So here's how it went down: Having had enough of her threats and probably her weird accent too, Barnabas shot Angelique..but on the shoulder. Angelique the drama queen, however thought she was dying and right there on the spot cast a spell on Barnabas that would kill whoever Barnabas loved and vice versa  (I actually don't get why Barnabas just didn't blow her head off before she could finish the spell but anyway). Then, out of nowhere a bat entered the room and bit him on the neck. And this is where vampires come from!!

Josette watches on as yet another
one of her lovers dies in front of her

Realizing that she wasn't dead, Angelique tried to help Barnabas get well cause she still luuuvs him. Actually at first she tried to hide Barnabas away from the others but eventually they discovered him in the sickbed. (That scene was pretty cool, where Natalie grabbed Angelique's arm to stop her from stopping Josette from finding Barnabas. I was gonna High 5 the screen)

Anyways Barnabas suffered for a while before he could tell anyone about Angelique. Doctors couldn't help him, Angelique's spells certainly couldn't help him. Then he died. Aww~

Angelique's gravely demise

His father Joshua, to prevent rumours of plague, had him secretly placed in a coffin in the backroom of infamous Collins Tomb and nobody outside the Collins & duPres families was to know about it. However Angelique knew what was about to happen to Barnabas and went there to stake him once and for all. <<DING DING DING ~ This is the first instance where the word "vampire" is uttered and it's by Angelique>> I'd have offered to give her a special prize but then she kinda died two minutes later when Barnabas rose from the coffin for the first time and snapped her neck, so..
This is also important cause it's first time Barnabas uses his signature move of grabbing someone by the throat when they open his coffin. Remember Willie? Or Jason? Or Julia? We're witnessing the history making here~

An-ney-ways after Angelique's poetic justicesy death (afterall she cast the spell to curse whoever loved Barnabas), Barnabas uses Ben to do his dirty work, just like he will do with Willie a century and a half later. However he's not a psychopath yet, not that he ever really was, but he's just beginning to grasp the situation and all. Too bad there ain't a vampire bar like Fangtasia in Collinsport where he could hang out with homie vampires.

Opening a parenthesis here, this is what I learnt about vampires watching Dark Shadows:

a)Barnabas was turned by a bat under a spell. I think it's also possible in this universe for another vampire to make a vampire (remember how he was gonna try it on Maggie)

b)They can turn into a bat or teleport.

c)They can influence someone's free will if they're feeding from them. (We should note that is not the case with Ben Stokes' character. He's helping him willingly due to his friendship with him)

d)They aren't vicious animals..least Barnabas isn't. Ok he can't stop himself from drinking blood but at least feels guilty about it afterwards.

Julia Hoffman v. 2.0

^ That brings me to Ruby Tate. She was the prostitute that Barnabas ran into at the docks while looking for fresh blood, whom he flirted with until he bit her and caused her to fall into the sea and presumably drown. Normally I wouldn't care about such a character but she looked and talked extremely like Grayson Hall (aka Julia Hoffman & Natalie du Pres) that I thought she would be her sister or something. I couldn't find any info on it though.

UP NEXT: Vicki is arrested but will she find love in prison?
  And another tragedy strikes the Collins Family!