Barnabas makes an abrupt exit from 1897, returning to the night in 1795/6/7 when Josette killed herself. He convinces Ben Stokes to somehow wrangle Angelique -- now appearing in the flesh and sporting one of her pre-Collinsing servant dresses instead of in floating head form as she did the last time DS tried to tell this particular version of Collins history -- and send her to meet Barnabas at the Old House. This must be an especially disconcerting moment for Our Vampire Hero; only hours before, in 1897, he and Angelique were working together to defeat Count Petofi and Angelique was bummed out because Quentin -- her, oh yeah, fiance -- was leaving her to go searching for Amanda Harris. And just think of the poor viewers! Jerked out of the 1897 storyline they'd been enjoying for nine months, wherein Our Favorite Witch had some major epiphanies, decided to finally stop chasing after Barnabas, and made a whole new deal with the devil. Well, forget that! This is 1795, with Angelique Classic: the one who has all kinds of huge ringlets and is determined to make Barnabas' life a hell (and enjoys getting her sarcasm all over Barnabas' 18th century scion tights: She calls him "The Great Barnabas Collins" and taunts him with her seeming inability to fight fate). It's so weird, such a bizarre choice for the writers to make!
And I love it.
For whatever reason -- and mostly I think it's because of how interesting this scene looks with its play of light and shadows -- I always enjoy this scene between Barnabas and Angelique. Even if it makes no sense in the grand scheme of things, or how it flies in the face of already established continuity (and, after all, how often did DS do that?!?) ... doesn't matter. Angelique and Barnabas squaring off is always Dark Shadows gold.
Poor Barnabas, having to go through 1795 again..
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