Sunday, September 18, 2011

1968: Cassandra vs. Reverend Trask


EPISODE 516
Air Date:  6/18/68
Writer:  Ron Sproat
Director:  Lela Swift

(Cassandra has been torturing Elizabeth Collins Stoddard by placing her under a curse wherein she will think only of her own death.  Tonight, she begins to convince Elizabeth that she is actually her ancestor, the suicidal Naomi Collins.  Now the witch leads the entranced mistress of Collinwood into the Collins mausoleum at Eagle Hill Cemetery …)

CASSANDRA:  Come … enter.

LIZ:  No.

CASSANDRA:  Why are you frightened?  Soon, very soon, this will be your home!

LIZ:  My … my home?

CASSANDRA:  It’s your final resting place, and you will rest here throughout eternity – with the rest of your family.

LIZ:  My family?

CASSANDRA:  Your husband Joshua built this place so that you and your children could be together after death.  You do remember that, don’t you?

LIZ:  Joshua.  My husband.

CASSANDRA:  Yes.  He wanted you and your children to be together.  And soon you will join them.

LIZ:  Join them?

CASSANDRA:  Joshua and your children are already dead.

LIZ:  Dead?

CASSANDRA:  Yes.  Only you remain.  But soon you will join them.  You sensed tonight that there would be a death, and there will be.  It will be your own.

LIZ:  It isn’t true, none of this is true!

CASSANDRA:  Isn’t it?

LIZ:  No!  Joshua and the children are still alive!

CASSANDRA:  Come and look at these plaques, Naomi.

LIZ:  I don’t want to.

CASSANDRA:  But you must!  (She beckons at the plaques on the wall, Joshua and Sarah Collins.)  These are the plaques commemorating the deaths of your husband and daughter.  The dates of their deaths are inscribed on these stones.

LIZ:  It can’t be true!

CASSANDRA:  Look at your plaque, Naomi.  Nothing is inscribed on the stone because you haven’t died yet.  But you will soon, very soon.  Why are you so frightened?  Death is inevitable; it comes to everyone.  And why should you want to go on living?  Your husband and children have already died.  They are waiting for you to join them.

LIZ:  No … it isn’t true, none of it is true.  I have no husband!  I am not Naomi Collins!

CASSANDRA (with mock pity):  Then who are you?

LIZ:  I … I don’t know.  This must be a nightmare!  Some kind of terrible nightmare!

CASSANDRA:  Unfortunately, it isn’t.  Everything that is happening is quite real, Naomi.

LIZ:  I am not Naomi!  Naomi Collins died centuries ago!

(CASSANDRA points at the tomb before them.)

CASSANDRA:  If that were true, then her remains would be in here.

LIZ:  Yes …

CASSANDRA:  Look in the casket.

LIZ:  No … I don’t want to look!

CASSANDRA:  But you must.  And you will.  I want you to tell me what you see here.

(LIZ looks inside.)

LIZ:  It’s … it’s completely empty.

CASSANDRA (ferocious):  Because it’s waiting for you … for the day of your death!  And that day is not far off!

(LIZ flees, screaming, while Cassandra shrieks with wicked laughter.  Suddenly:)

TRASK:  Witch!

(CASSANDRA turns and looks to find the ghost of Reverend Trask in the corner of the tomb.  He holds a burning torch in one hand.)

CASSANDRA:  You!

TRASK:  You are the witch I have been seeking and you must be destroyed!

CASSANDRA:  Go!  Return to your grave!

TRASK:  Not until I have destroyed you, the only way you can be destroyed … by fire!

CASSANDRA:  I command you to return to your grave!

TRASK:  You have no power over me!  I shall return to my grave only after you have been destroyed … and your destruction is at hand!  (He holds the torch out to her, and after a moment she is screaming, consumed in flames.)  Burn, witch, burn!

CASSANDRA:  No!  No!  Your flames will not work, Reverend Trask.  My power is stronger than yours, and I will summon all the power at my command to put them out!  (CASSANDRA holds out her hand, and the flames fall back … for a moment.  She moans as they begin to rise again.  Finally, she triumphs.)  There, you see?  They’re getting lower now, Reverend.  Soon they will be out!  In a moment, your flames will be nothing but harmless smoke.  (The flames are gone now, and CASSANDRA sinks onto a tomb.  Her eyes blaze and her lips tremble as she snarls:)  I’m free again, and I shall finish what I set out to do.  We shall meet again, Reverend, and when we do meet again, Barnabas Collins will be destroyed!

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