Monday, October 3, 2011

The 1795 Flashback

The 1795 flashback is my favorite storyline on Dark Shadows for a number of reasons (and not just because of the debut of my favorite character during its course), but the biggest of these is the strength of its storyline.

 "Inside the great house at Collinwood, a seance has been held in an effort to establish contact with the supernatural.  But at this moment, life for the six members of the seance has suddenly come to a standstill.  For one of their members has mysteriously disappeared and been transported back through time and space.  Victoria Winters has begun a terrifying journey into the past ..." (Joan Bennett)


Moving through the darkness, Vicki finds herself ...

... at the Old House, which suddenly doesn't really look that old.



Barnabas:  "Forgive me young lady, but I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting before."



Vicki agrees to be governess to Barnabas' nine year old sister Sarah, the very ghost she and the others at the seance were trying to contact ...

...while Barnabas' fanatical Aunt Abigail seeks to make Vicki's life as miserable as possible.  From the moment they first meet, Abigail is convinced she is a witch.  Fortunately for Vicki, Barnabas' mother, Naomi Collins, is on her side.




Barnabas is waiting for Josette to arrive for their wedding; instead, he is shocked to find her maidservant, Angelique Bouchard, at the door instead.

ANGELIQUE:  Your roads, monsieur!  Pig sties, the Countess calls them!"




The Countess in question is Natalie DuPres, Josette's overbearing aunt, who's fondness for the Tarot cards convinces her that there is an evil woman in the house ... and that Victoria Winters might be that woman.


Angelique resumes her pursuit of Barnabas, who wooed her secretly in Martinique while falling in love subsequently with Josette.

BARNABAS:  Any relationship with you would be quite wrong.

Josette finally arrives ...


... revealing that she is still deeply in love with Barnabas.

But the jealous Angelique uses her powers of witchcraft to cause Barnabas to choke.  Only when she realizes that he is near death does she lift the spell.





Angelique enslaves Collins servant Ben Stokes to assist her with her schemes.  First on her list ...


... is causing Josette to fall in love with Barnabas' best friend and uncle, Jeremiah Collins.


Barnabas challenges Jeremiah to a duel.

BARNABAS:  You must have hated me all your life.







Jeremiah is killed during the duel.  His ghastly apparition manifests in Josette's bedchamber.


Abigail and the Countess DuPres have summoned the fantatical Reverend Trask from Salem.  His persecution of Vicki ...


... leads him to tie her to a tree, "a living creature of God."  Vicki escapes, but Angelique's witchcraft burns the tree to a smoldering stump. 


Barnabas succumbs to Angelique's charms ...





... prompted by the ghost of Jeremiah to marry her immediately.





But the ghost has plans for Angelique as well, appearing to her on her wedding night ...





... eventually kidnapping her and burying her alive.

JEREMIAH:  "In a moment you will know what you did to me.  You will learn what it is like to be one of the living dead!"


But Ben rescues Angelique, and she becomes Mrs. Barnabas Collins at last.


The ghost continues to torment her.

JEREMIAH:  You will have no rest until I have my eternal rest.  That is your fate!


Feeling threatened by Vicki's presence in her house, Angelique casts a deadly spell ...


... that drives Vicki into the waiting arms of Reverend Trask.

TRASK:  I have the witch!  I have the witch!


But Barnabas has overheard Angelique's incantation, and receives the final incriminating testimony of Ben Stokes.  Angelique's fate is sealed.


Barnabas tries to warn Josette that her life is in danger.  He gives her a music box as a testament to his love for her.

BARNABAS:  I was going to give it to you as a wedding present, but I'd like you to keep it as a constant reminder that I'll be with you again very soon.


Angelique goes too far, and threatens to kill Sarah.  In a rage, Barnabas aims his pistol and fires ...


... wounding Angelique.

ANGELIQUE:  Oh Barnabas, what have you done?


ANGELIQUE:  I set a curse on you, Barnabas Collins!  You wanted your Josette so much ... well, you shall have her!  But not in the way you would have chosen.  You will never rest, Barnabas, and you will never be able to love anyone ... for whoever loves you ... shall die.  That is my curse, and you will live with it ... for all eternity!"


Invoked by her witchery, a bat swoops into the room ...


... and Barnabas becomes its victim.  Eventually he dies in Josette's arms.


Aware of what will become of him, Angelique visits the secret room where Barnabas' father has interred him.  But before she can drive a stake through his heart ...



 .... Barnabas rises, unaware of what he has become.

BARNABAS:  You knew you'd be the first victim of your own curse!


BARNABAS:  Yes, my dear Angelique, and all your powers of witchcraft won't save you now!


Barnabas murders Angelique, and Ben Stokes buries her body in the woods.  Later, it will vanish.


Barnabas attacks Ruby Tate, the first in a long line of "doxies" who will become his victims.


The curse takes hold immediately, and Sarah Collins is the first of Barnabas' loved ones to succumb.

SARAH:  I love you, Barnabas ... I always will ...


Clued by Vicki, Josette and Natalie discover the Collins family history book Vicki brought from the present, and learn of the prophecy that Josette will die on Widow's Hill.


Despite himself, Barnabas cannot stay away from Josette.


He continues his reign of terror, making Suki Forbes, the wife of wicked Nathan Forbes, his victim.  She dies whispering his name.


Josette hears the music box and believes that Barnabas is summoning her to Widow's Hill ...


... when it is actually a scheme of Angelique's, returned from the grave.  





The witch shows Josette a vision of herself "after Barnabas has made you his."

JOSETTE:  Take it away!  I don't want to look at it!


When Barnabas comes for her, she runs ... and falls to her death.


But Barnabas cannot let her rest.

JOSETTE:  Why did you disturb my rest?  Force me to come back against my will?


She knows that, when he sees her true distorted visage, he will allow her to return to her grave. 


Joshua discovers that his son is alive ...


JOSHUA:  I must do this.  I must.  Forgive me ... dear son.


But Barnabas cannot be killed by ordinary bullets.  When a ghostly picture of Angelique mysteriously appears at the Old House, Joshua turns to the Countess DuPres for help. 


With Natalie's help, they summon Bathia Mapes, a white witch who may be able to help Barnabas ...


... who has already made his cousin Millicent his victim.


Bathia pleads for the power to end Angelique's villainy, but the wicked witch sends her up in flames. 


Millicent has been driven mad by Barnabas' bite.  She has already married Nathan Forbes, who is dismayed to discover that she has left her fortune to ...


... Daniel Collins, her younger brother.


The villainous Nathan vows to kill him.  It will be up to Victoria to save the boy, but she is on trial for witchcraft ...


Nathan's evil scheme has an unintended victim when Naomi discovers her son's secret ... and takes poison in the tower room.


Though Ben Stokes attempts to help her with his testimony, Angelique's appearance in the court is the final nail in her coffin, and Vicki is condemned to hang by the neck.


Vicki escapes with the help of young lawyer Peter Bradford, who has fallen in love with her.  She is wounded in the skirmish. 


As punishment for his villainy, Barnabas walls up Reverend Trask alive in the basement of the Old House.

BARNABAS:  Look at the light, Trask.  Let it burn itself in your mind so you will always remember what the light was like long after I have consigned you to eternal darkness. 


Barnabas kills Nathan in retaliation for Naomi's death.  He convinces Joshua to fire silver bullets into his coffin to end his suffering, but Joshua finds he cannot kill his only son.  He chains the coffin instead, trapping Barnabas for two hundred years. 


Meanwhile, Vicki has been captured again, and as the noose is tied around her neck, the clock in 1968 begins to tick again, and the seance continues to move forward ...

"The great house of Collinwood stands in the twentieth century as it did in the eighteenth, a silent witness to the tragedies of the Collins family then ... and now.  For time has been suspended here, and the clock's hands have stopped as a result of a seance.  And the girl who is missing, whose journey to the year 1795 began in this room at this table ... that girl is about to die ... convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to hang.  And now two minutes in time are parallel.  During one tick of the clock in 1968, months have passed in 1795.  Now, only seconds remain ... one woman still stands at the gallows, her death nearer and nearer .. and two minutes in time are parallel ... and the great clock suddenly starts again.  The members of the seance stare in horror and disbelief, for where Victoria Winters sat there is a stranger who was on her way to this estate 170 years ago ... a stranger to all except one man, who lived then as well as now ..." (Nancy Barrett)

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