Adam visits Sam in the hospital. Sam begins to tell Victoria the dream, but he dies before he can finish.

Synopsis

There is one woman who lives at Collinwood who will not sleep this night. Cassandra Collins will lie awake, thinking about the evil plans she has set in motion, thinking about the events that will soon take place in the hospital not far away. There, Victoria Winters has answered the summons of an old and dear friend who believes he is dying.

Sam starts to tell Victoria the dream, however Professor Stokes interrupts him. Adam visits Sam in the hospital. Later Sam tries to tell Victoria the dream again, however he dies before he can finish. Stokes finds Adam and tries to befriend him.

Memorable quotes

Victoria: I think it's inhuman for one person not to respond to another's suffering.

Dramatis personae

• Thayer David as Timothy Eliot Stokes
• Robert Rodan as Adam
• Kathryn Leigh Scott as Maggie Evans
• David Ford as Sam Evans
• Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters

Background information and notes

Production

• This episode was recorded out of broadcast sequence. The previous episode to be recorded was 512.
• Final episode of Sam Evans as a living person. He later appears in one episode as a ghost.

Story

• INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: Professor Stokes: Adam can't be far away.
• SEDATIVE: Victoria gives Maggie some pills to calm her down.
• TIMELINE: Professor Stokes says that Sam only knew Adam for a very short time. 3:35pm: Stokes tells Victoria not to go in Sam's hospital room.

Bloopers and continuity errors

• Sam doesn't take off his sunglasses when he goes to sleep.
• David Ford, while lying in the hospital bed after Maggie and Professor Stokes leave the room, motions to someone off stage, possibly to move aside so that he can see the teleprompter. [This is unlikely as he didn't have any more lines in this scene; maybe it was so he could see his cue from off-stage.] [I agree with the original post as David Ford does turn his head several times to the far right even though his character mentions he 'just wants to sleep' as if he doesn't know his lines and needs to make sure he doesn't have another line/other actors are blocking the teleprompter at the foot of his bed. Also, he does have lines in the next scene, so his dialog in the episode is not finished.]
• When Professor Stokes is telling Sam that if the next person has the dream it may prove fatal, there is off-stage noise followed by a loud bang. Kathryn Leigh Scott tells this story in My Scrapbook Memories of Dark Shadows: “Both actors who played Pop had difficulty remembering lines and therefore relied heavily on the Teleprompter. Toward the end of his days, the second Pop became blind which necessitated wearing dark glasses, the better for the actor to read the Teleprompter undetected. Finally the episode came when Maggie stood at Pop’s hospital bedside, his death at hand. Ross Skipper, the big red-headed camera man, wheeled in closer and struck his camera base on the end of the hospital bed causing the Teleprompter to fall off and crash to the floor. Pop sat bolt upright in bed and hollered, ‘Where is it?’ Maggie just reached out a firm hand, gripped his shoulder and shoved him back against the pillows saying, ‘Never mind, Pop. It’s going to be OK.’ Pop expired without saying another word.” Looking at the scene itself, we know that this memory is not entirely accurate, but it is likely that the loud noise could be the teleprompter falling off. When the noise happens, David Ford does seem to look around in a bit of a panic and often looks to his side (not at the end of the bed), and his lines that follow are somewhat rambling (though somewhat convincing for a man who is ill and about to die).
• Professor Stokes states that nine people have suffered the Dream Curse; the number is ten (though perhaps Stokes does not count himself, since he broke the rules and did not open the doors to see the horrors within).
• As Victoria Winters hears Sam calling from his hospital bed to her, she approaches his door, and there is a wall/window to her left. But later in the episode she runs out the door and calls in that direction for doctors or nurse to help Sam. Her character would have been yelling at the wall for help. [Overall, the hospital room set does not match the hospital hallway set. From the open door of the room, we see a wall on the other side that is only a few feet away. From the exterior, it seems Sam's room exits out into a long, open area with the nurses' station and waiting area.]
• When Professor Stokes drops his stickpin in the Evans cottage, it lands face down. In the next close-up, it is face up.

External Links 

Dark Shadows - Episode 518 on the IMDb

Dark Shadows Every Day - Episode 518 - In Memoriam

Dark Shadows Commentary- Episode 518: How to speak to people

Dark Shadows Before I Die- Episode 518: 6/20/68