The residents of Collinwood are surprised to discover that a previously unknown cousin from England, Barnabas Collins, has arrived in Collinsport to set down roots.

Synopsis

Teaser

My name is Victoria Winters. Night is drawing nearer and nearer to Collinwood, and the man who has disappeared into another night has not been found. But out of the falling dusk, another man has come, a stranger who is not a stranger, a man with a face long familiar to those who live at Collinwood, a man who has come a great distance but who still bears deep within him a soul shaped by the far country from which he came.

Elizabeth meets her new cousin, Barnabas Collins. She has never heard of this long-lost relative and is amazed by how much he resembles the Barnabas Collins whose portrait hangs in the foyer at Collinwood. The living Barnabas even wears the same black signet ring and carries the same wolf's-head cane that the man in the portrait does.

Act I

Barnabas tells Elizabeth that he is a direct descendant of the Barnabas Collins who lived in the 18th century. His family moved to England several generations ago, and as it stands, he is the last of the British branch of the family. He has come to Collinsport to find his roots. Elizabeth is incredibly excited by all of this and is even further amazed when Barnabas demonstrates an uncanny knowledge of the Collins family history. He tells her that he grew up hearing stories about the Collins family history and had intimate knowledge of every detail of his ancestry.

Act II

Victoria and David come downstairs, and David is anxious to go outside and play. He and Victoria talk about Willie, who has not returned, and David hopes he'll come back before heading out. Victoria enters the drawing room and Elizabeth introduces her to Barnabas. Barnabas is instantly enamored with Victoria and begins flirting with her. After talking for a short bit, Barnabas excuses himself and leaves. Victoria, who is quite taken with the courtly new arrival, asks Elizabeth if Jason found Willie. Elizabeth tells her no, and that troubles her. Victoria explains that she saw Willie from her window and that he was carrying his sea bag with him. Elizabeth is certain Willie hasn't left Collinsport as his personal belongings are still in the house. She chides herself for ever letting him set foot in Collinwood.

Act III

Barnabas arrives later at the Old House – the original family mansion. However, the house has not been used in almost a century and is in a shambles. As he enters, he finds David playing on the staircase. When David first notices Barnabas, he thinks that he is seeing a ghost, but is disappointed to discover that his "ghost" is really just his new cousin from England. Barnabas and David speak for a little while, and David shows Barnabas the portrait of Josette Collins, an 18th century ancestor, hanging above the mantle in the living room. They talk about the Old House, and Barnabas becomes wistful when David tells him he likes to watch the sunrise from one of the upstairs rooms. Barnabas admits that he missed his home for a long time, but he doesn't anymore.

Act IV

David returns to Collinwood and asks if Willie returned. Victoria tells him no and that David should stop asking about it. David explains that he met Barnabas at the Old House; he admires the portrait of Barnabas Collins and says that the man in the painting seems angry, while his cousin seems sad and lost - almost haunting the rooms, instead of walking through them. At the Old House, Barnabas begins speaking to the portrait of Josette. It becomes obvious that Barnabas knew this woman very intimately at some point in his past. Shouting to an empty room, Barnabas boldly proclaims himself the new master of the Old House, banishing "whatever power" Josette's spirit has.

Memorable quotes

(Barnabas is waiting in the foyer as Elizabeth comes out onto the landing. As she descends the stairs, he turns to face her; she stops short in disbelief)

Elizabeth: I don't believe it...

Barnabas (innocently): I beg your pardon?

Elizabeth: It's uncanny.

Barnabas: What is?

Elizabeth: That portrait over there. Have you seen it? (They walk to the portrait.)

Barnabas: Yes. It's extraordinary, isn't it?

Elizabeth: Well, if it weren't for the clothes... Well, forgive me for staring, but for the moment, it seems as though I'd seen a...

Barnabas: Ghost?

Elizabeth: Well, the likeness is... is remarkable. I can hardly believe it.

Barnabas: (touching the portrait) The Collins blood always had a certain... persistent strength.

Elizabeth: This is no way to greet a relative. Welcome to Collinwood.

Barnabas: Thank you, cousin. (He kisses her hand; we clearly see his ring.)

---

Barnabas: (about Elizabeth's offer to stay at Collinwood once their guests have gone) Please, even to think of it is sufficient courtesy. But I think you realize when I say that I prefer more... independent quarters.

---

Barnabas: I've always loved Collinwood. It's just as I remembered it.

---

Barnabas: And I wouldn't be a Collins if I didn't recognize in my blood... in my soul... my roots are here... and perhaps - my destiny.

---

Elizabeth: You must be tired after your trip.

Barnabas: Yes, it was a long and difficult journey.

Elizabeth: You must be exhausted.

Barnabas: Like coming from one world to another.

---

Barnabas: And yet so much is so different. But Collinwood hasn't changed - I mean from what I've always heard. And I can't tell you how grateful I am for that - how very grateful.

---

Barnabas: Do you let them call you Vicki when your name is Victoria?

Victoria: Why, yes. We're not very formal with each other.

Barnabas: But the name Victoria is so beautiful to me, I couldn't possibly surrender a syllable of it.

---

David: You mean - you're not the man from the portrait in the foyer?

Barnabas: How could I be?

---

David: (about Barnabas) He doesn't look anything like the portrait.

Victoria: That's ridiculous. He looks exactly like it.

David: No he doesn't. The man in this portrait seems as though he's angry at someone. But Barnabas, my cousin I met at the Old House - he seems more sad than angry, seems as though he's remembering something that he'd lost a long time ago. Maybe that's when I thought he was a ghost. He seems as though he was... haunting the rooms instead of just walking through them.

---

Barnabas: (to Josette's portrait) I was a Collins. Why didn't you protect me? Where were you when I was turned into something that even my own father loathed? If his ghost is here with yours, tell him I've come home. I claim this house as mine, and whatever power you or he may have is ended. I am free now, and alive! The chains with which he bound me are broken, and I've returned to live the life I never had... whatever that may turn out to be.

---

David: What about the passageway that leads to a little room on top of the roof?

Barnabas: A winding staircase and a view of the sea beyond Widow's Hill.

David: And do you know what that room is best for?

Barnabas: Looking at the sea.

David: But at sunrise when the sun comes over the ocean, everything begins to change color right in front of your eyes.

Barnabas (wistfully): Sunrise?

David: I come out here sometimes early in the morning before anyone knows I'm awake. Would you like to come with me sometime?

Barnabas (wistfully): Perhaps sometime -- sunrise?

David: You've never seen anything like it.

Barnabas: I'm sure.

David: What's the matter?

Barnabas: Why, nothing. What makes you ask?

David: For a minute you seemed sort of sad, like you were remembering something that you lost a long, long time ago.

Barnabas: But I haven't lost anything.

David: I was talking about a sunrise. Maybe it was the sunrise that you saw only at your home, and it makes you sad to think about it.

Barnabas: Perhaps.

David: Do you miss your home?

Barnabas: I did for a long time, but I don't anymore.

---

David (about Barnabas): I think he talks funny. The words he uses--he talks the way people do in books.

Elizabeth: Well, speaking correctly is hardly a fault.

David: I wasn't saying it was a fault. I meant that it just sounded funny.

Elizabeth: Well, I hope you start sounding equally funny. Now, hurry up and get ready for dinner.

Dramatis personae

• ← Joan Bennett as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard →
• ← Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins →
• ← David Henesy as David Collins →
• ← Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters →

Background information and notes

Production

Story

• Although it is fairly obvious, it should be noted that Barnabas is lying to Elizabeth about his personal history in this episode. He is not a descendant of the original Barnabas Collins but is the original. There is no extended family living abroad in England, and Barnabas's knowledge of the Collins family history comes from personal experience, not from studying family journals as he claims.
• The opening narration's statement that Barnabas is "a man who has come a great distance but who still bears deep within him a soul shaped by the far country from which he came" is very accurate if it refers to his undead state, a bit like Hamlet's soliloquy describing death as "the undiscovered country from whose bourn/No traveller returns" [Hamlet, Act III Scene 1]. Barnabas has returned from this far/undiscovered country, even if it has been with some difficulty, as he admits to Elizabeth (see Memorable quotes).
• According to the family history related by Elizabeth, Barnabas Collins moved to England and died several years later. During the 1795 storyline, Joshua Collins states that he will conceal Barnabas's death by saying that he moved to England instead of sparking panic by admitting he died of the plague (the doctor's diagnosis, as seen in 409).
• When comparing the similarities between himself and his "ancestor", Barnabas remarks that "the Collins blood always had a certain... persistent strength". This is certainly true, as many members of the family down through the ages carry with them similar physical characteristics. Outside the continuity of the show, the reason behind this is that many of the actors from Dark Shadows portray their own ancestors during various flashback periods, although at this time no one except Kathryn Leigh Scott had played a character from the past (the ghost of Josette).
• While talking to the Portrait of Josette, Barnabas says that now that he has returned, "whatever power" her spirit held over the Old House is broken. This might explain why Josette's ghost does not contact Victoria or David (as she did in the Phoenix storyline) to warn them of danger or to protect them (as she did Victoria from Matthew Morgan).
• Although Barnabas claims to be Elizabeth's cousin from England, he does not have a true English accent; perhaps he is assuming that the family will think that he's been in the country long enough for his accent to change? [Addendum: Regarding the latter, Barnabas is very explicit that he has just arrived from England and agrees with Elizabeth that he is very tired from his journey. No doubt Frid is not trying for a fully English accent, and his more formal, aristocratic accent is sufficient to be taken by a TV audience as "English."]
• Barnabas appears to show great fondness for Collinwood, as though he'd lived there for a very long time. In retrospect, Barnabas had only a scant familiarity with the Great House. As later episodes will show, the house had just finished being built when Barnabas became a vampire. Furthermore, at this time, the official storyline was that the house was built by Jeremiah Collins for his bride, Josette, in 1830 (5, 45), so it would not have even been started when Barnabas was locked up. However, as he lived in the Collinwood estate all his life, witnessed the Great House's construction, and has a clear fondness for anything associated with his family, it is reasonable he would respond in this manner.
• When talking to Elizabeth about the Collins family, Barnabas notes that his father, Joshua, and his family continued to live in the Old House even after the Great House was built (this of course according to the story that the Great House was built by Jeremiah for Josette and himself). This back history will change during the 1795 story line.
• When speaking of Josette, Barnabas refers to her as "our ancestor from over a hundred years ago". Josette Collins died in 1796, making it closer to 200 years ago. In the original continuity, Josette (and other members of the family) lived well into the 1800s, but this fact was retroactively altered in later episodes. And, of course, the 1796 story also revealed Jeremiah and Josette were not the ancestors of the current Collins family.
• No one, not even the audience, has seen Willie since Barnabas' hand grabbed him by the neck. Was it the intent for the audience to think Barnabas had killed Willie?

Bloopers and continuity errors

• In 210, Barnabas's black signet ring is seen on his left hand. In this episode, it is now on his right hand and will remain so fairly consistently throughout the remainder of the series. The portrait of Barnabas shows the ring displayed on his right hand.
• David Henesy stammers over his lines quite a bit in his initial conversation with Barnabas. [It can be excused as showing excitement at meeting a new relative, however.]
• At the Old House, as David moves up a step on the stairway to point out to Barnabas the picture of Josette, the camera angle likewise moves a step to the right to reveal another ABC camera positioned in the drawing room.
• Elizabeth wonders why Barnabas was at the Old House. It shouldn't have been a mystery, as Barnabas mentioned his ancestors Joshua and Naomi lived at the Old House, so it's only natural Barnabas would want to see it.
• When David walks over to look at the portrait of Barnabas, there is a very clear shadow of the boom microphone. It quickly moves out of the way.

End credits announcements

• Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.

External Links 

Dark Shadows - Episode 212 on the IMDb

Dark Shadows Every Day - Episode 212: The Collins Blood

The Dark Shadows Daybook - Episode 212

Dark Shadows Commentary- Episode 212: Haunting the rooms

Dark Shadows Before I Die- Episode 212: 4/19/67