the Exorcism of Cassandra Collins

EPISODES 516-530

Barnabas recovers as Nurse Doctor
Hoffman watches on

Willie and Julia find Barnabas barely alive behind the brick wall but hey, the guy's been deader before. Miss Hoffman once again shows off her amazing pulse-checking skills as an MD. Luckily, they don't get a spanking from Barnabas concerning the whole we-let-out-your-former-nemesis-from-his-eternal-rest thing. Speaking of whom, apparently all Trask needed was some sweet convincing from our favorite she-doctor to forget his grudge against Barnabas and pursue the real witch instead. Seriously though, the guy's been dead for over a century and he still believes himself to be an instrument of God? Hasn't God told him otherwise when he died?

Liz looks like she's about to crack

Meanwhile Cassandra is mentally torturing Liz, pushing her to believe she is Naomi Collins and make a total fool of herself. She even addresses Julia as the Countess which even though confusing, she secretly found pretty flattering (you could tell from her rapid blinking). The curious thing about Liz's situation is that she doesn't act out things she read from the family history and pretend to be Naomi; she knows things. Things that were understandably left out the family books, like what's the best sherry to drink or how dull their sex life with Joshua was and even how her son Barnabas is/was one of the living-dead (luckily the last one is passed off as mere crazy talk). It's not the case of Naomi's ghost inhabiting Liz's body either cause then she'd be more like "where am I, who are you, where's my family and why the hell is Abigail dressed as a maid even though she had it comin' that bitch". It's more like an isolated universe which Liz is trapped in (and attempted to kill herself in, reliving the final moments of Naomi) and that's why she is sent to the Windcliff Sanitarium. History sure loves to repeat itself in Collinwood and not only figuratively I'm afraid, first Laura and now Cassandra have managed to eliminate Liz by having her institutionalized (I think the secret is in the name. If Roger is to marry again in the future, I'd advice him to stay from Angela, Diana, Lisa, Maria, Theresa and so on). Let's wait and see how long it'll be before our dear Liz comes back. I just hope it won't be as long as the last time; I need my weekly matriarchal fix.

Death of the artist &
the mourning daughter

Aaaand of course, The Dream Curse. Cassandra visits Sam Evans at the hospital in an attempt to jump-start the curse which was blocked by Prof. Stokes after his astral showdown with Angelique (Btw I've decided to address the witch according to her appearance: Black hair = Cassandra; Blonde hair = Angelique). Cassandra puts some potion in Sam's water that makes him have the dream and rather neurotically, which makes Carolyn's reactions look serene (and remember, she was quite neurotic during her turn). Sam's door opens to Maggie mourning over a coffin and he has a feeling that it is his. He turns out to be correct cause before he can properly tell the dream to Vicki, who's his beckoner, Sam Evans dies. Maggie is devastated (going "it's all my fault" just like I predicted) and I, well.. I don't really care. I've always found Sam boring like a sloth minus the hugability. And that is quite boring!
But let's give him some cool points for not taking off his sunglasses in the hospital.

Trask's overjoyed by the exorcism

Trask doesn't waste time carrying out his new mission and tries to eliminate the witch, first by trying to burn her in eternal flames (quite like a signal flare actually) which Cassandra was able to dodge and secondly, in a more fruitful effort he brings back the oldschool tying-the-witch-to-a-tree method. We find out the crucifix works against witches as well and with the help of some chanting shouting, Cassandra vanishes from existence!

Enter Mr Blair

Roger is worried about his wife's disappearance; Barnabas, Julia and Vicki sing Kum-Ba-Yah while trying to look concerned; even Angelique's portrait has faded.. Things look too good to be true when a mysterious man appears at the door (I LOVE it when they appear at the door) and introduces himself as Nicholas Blair aka Cassandra's brother to everyone's jaw-droppage. Of course people who are aware that Cassandra is actually Angelique don't buy that story and instantly dislike the man. And they're not wrong! 

Nicholas shows his powers to us without wasting time. He makes Willie casually recite whatever he knows about Cassandra & Barnabas; then awakens Trask's once again resting spirit to find out what he did to his "sister". Once he's certain it was an exorcism, he makes Vicki sleepwalk to the tree to which she too was tied to during her stay in 1795. Then just as easily eradicated, Cassandra is brought back good as new.

One happy family?

Here, we get to find out a little bit about the duo's past: Nicholas is apparently Angelique's superior and she made a bargain with him sometime in the past. I am not sure whether it was before she first came to Collinwood in 1795 or this time around but latter seems more likely. He thinks she's gone soft and is in luuuv with Barnabas, which she secretly admits. He tells her rather firmly to get her act together and be all vengeancy, reminding me of Anyanka the vengeance demon and her boss D'Hoffryn from Buffy. Nothing has been said about them being siblings but we don't need a big neon sign that says "Puh-leaze this is a soap opera". Back at the house, Cassandra has to say a half-arsed lie about being intimidated by people's hostility and having wanted to get away from all that. With Liz out of the way and Roger being a gullible fool, she is welcomed back along with Nicholas. And the portrait is once again multicolor.

With him breathing down her neck, Cassandra is forced to go on with the Dream Curse, making me wonder why the hell she resorted to such a long process in the first place when she could simply get Barnabas bitten by a bat again. Once bitten twice shy I guess.

Angelique crashes the PJ party

Anywhore, when Prof Stokes finds out about Cassandra's return he tells Vicki to run away from Collinsport as far as possible to avoid the dream. However, Vicki thinks Maggie's cottage is far enough and throws a slumber party instead. When two of them are done talking about boys and stuff, Angelique appears in Vicki's room and leaves a bottle of magic cologne that'll make her have the dream when used. However, Angelique is busted when Maggie comes in. Vicki identifies Maggie's description as Angelique but that doesn't stop her from almost putting the cologne on, if it weren't for Maggie-to-the-rescue again. Vicki tells Maggie to get rid off the bottle, which I hope she did because it's rose water and Josette used to get massaged by rose water and since Maggie is being all Josettey again.. well, do the math.

Sam's last show. Adios!

When it doesn't work, Cassandra goes all the way and awakens Sam's ghost only to put another curse that prevents him from going back to his grave unless he tells Vicki about the dream. We knew by now that the bodies of the dead would rise from their graves and go back in (Jeremiah and Josette) but we didn't know their spirits were also in there. It's kinda claustrophobic, don't you think? Anyway, Sam finds Vicki and tells her the dream before she can say no. Actually she says no but he doesn't listen. Oh well.

Almost everybody in town knows that the curse is put on Barnabas (they just dunno why) and he'd be dead when the dream finally finds him. They also know that he comes right after Vicki (another twisted irony on Cassandra's part, death by his loved one), so Vicki runs into the night to get away from Barnabas.

Last but not least, Prof Stokes found Adam at the Evans cottage right after Sam's accident and took him in, thinking he's a curious creature. For days now he has been secretly teaching him to be civilized, making him study, read, write and more. He even finds out how Dr. Lang created Adam and Barnabas & Julia's involvement in it. 

But Joe, being bright even though sometimes a little too skeptical, connects the dots and finds Adam in Stokes' house. Adam runs away, Joe follows with a rifle into the woods but before he can shoot him, Adam knocks him out cold with the handle of the rifle and I go "Ouch"!

Joe vs Adam Round I: Joe's down

Later at the Old House, Barnabas finds Joe's lifeless body in a closet as Adam laughs outside like a maniac!! Is Joe dead? Will Maggie be able to stand another tragedy? We shall watch and see~

*

Notes..notes..notes..

• Jeff Clark IS Peter Bradford. He remembers Trask and has dreams about the past. His memory is finally coming back but we still don't know how he ended up almost 200 hundred years in the future. But ever since the discovery, he's been acting like an impotent man, totally killing Vicki's buzz.

• During Adam's training under Prof. Stokes, we learn that Adam hates Willie but wants to kill Barnabas, probably because he loves Barnabas. That explains his cat-like behaviour when he placed Joe's body for him to see.

• I like Nicholas Blair so far. His witty sense of humour is very appealing and besides, the show totally needed a warlock. I hope he doesn't turn into an asshole like Jason McGuire.