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788 |
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| Recorded |
July 8, 1969 |
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| We have 14 images of Dark Shadows 797 | |
Barnabas, Magda, and Quentin hold a seance to contact Julianka.
Synopsis
- Collinwood at the turn of the century. Tonight, a gypsy girl gathers herbs in the woods outside the Old House, preparing to end the werewolf curse. And two people anxiously scan the night sky, fearful she may not return until it is too late to perform the ceremony. Soon they will learn, to their horror, that it is far later than they think.
Quentin and Magda wait impatiently for Julianka to return. Quentin regrets letting Angelique leave and worries that someone may have spotted Barnabas. Magda is confident that both will soon return. A moment later Barnabas arrives and informs them that Julianka is dead.
Barnabas locates the History of the Collins family, which Victoria had left in the past, and looks up Quentin Collins. He is disappointed to find no date for Quentin's death, only a note that he left Collinsport in 1897 and sailed around the world. Barnabas tells Magda that means that something terrible happened, so terrible that the family didn't want it published.
Barnabas recounts to Magda a dream that Jamison had a few weeks ago, in which three events are foretold to trigger Quentin's death. First, a silver bullet was found; second, the one person who could save him died, and finally Quentin will be rejected by the one person he loves. Barnabas thinks it might be Jamison who will reject Quentin.
When Beth comes to Quentin in the drawing room, she's wearing the pentagram necklace which she believes will protect her. Quentin claims to see the mark on her, which means that she will die at the werewolf's hands. Quentin's impulse is to start drinking, while Beth remains blindly loyal. Quentin muses that perhaps they will put, "Loyal unto the end" on her tombstone.
Magda retrieves the book from the closed up courthouse. Before 1875 ended, Magda says, Quentin left on a voyage around the world. Julianka's great grandmother used to scare them with stories of séance. Magda does not want to go through with it.
A séance is held at the Old House, and the ghost of Julianka appears, but refuses to help Quentin, who runs out upon hearing this. The ghost places the curse of loneliness upon Magda, in vengeance for Julianka's own murder and for dishonoring the nine slaughtered young gypsies, when three knocks are heard it will be the beginning but not the end; the first but not the last. All love will die for Magda. Julianka tells Barnabas she does not care about the two young gypsy children, they are not her kin but Magda’s. After the ghost leaves, there are three knocks at the door.
Memorable quotes
- Barnabas: Do not concern yourself with them, Magda. They are shadows...shadows of my past and your future.
- Quentin: All you're gonna get at Collinwood are dreams... and one last nightmare.
- Quentin: Barnabas, please spare me your rosy optimism. It's completely unappreciated. Perhaps you can bear your particular burden bravely. I'm sorry, I find mine intolerably heavy.
- Beth: Where are you going?
- Quentin: To my room. It seems like a more comfortable place to get drunk...to get absolutely deaf-blind drunk.
- Quentin: Good girl, Beth. A good girl and always faithful. Loyal unto the end. Maybe they'll put that on your tombstone.
- Barnabas: We have no time for your gypsy temper.
- Magda: Barnabas, I got , I got this terrible feeling....
- Barnabas: And we have no time for your gypsy feelings!
- Beth: Quentin, perhaps when all of this is over, we can take a trip somewhere.
- Quentin (drunk): The only trip we're ever going to take is to hell.
- Beth: Now, you've got to stop thinking like that.
Dramatis personae
- Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins
- Grayson Hall as Magda
- David Selby as Quentin Collins
- Terry Crawford as Beth
- Diana Davila as Julianka
Background information and notes
Production
- The original color version of this episode is lost, but a black-and-white kinescope copy exists.
- This is the sixteenth episode and the third of three consecutive episodes with no pre-Barnabas cast members.
Story
- In the scene in the drawing room, when Quentin sees the pentagram on Beth's forehead and shouts "No!", something flies out of David Selby's mouth [Actually, it is a piece of the glass that Quentin dropped that bounced up from the floor. It didn't come out of his mouth.]
- This episode features an interesting take on how the mechanics of time travel work within the Dark Shadows universe. Victoria Winters took the Collins family history book with her when she was sent back in time to 1795. The book was then retrieved by Eve when she travelled back to 1796 from 1968. Barnabas theorizes that Eve has yet to travel in time and take the book as the future date she travelled from, 1968, hasn't happened yet. This would suggest that Eve's travelling in time changed the timeline in a small way and that the version of 1897 that Barnabas is living through is one unaffected, or at least yet to be unaffected, by Eve's meddling. [Addendum: This concept is difficult to reconcile with Victoria's trip to 1795 as the future date she came from hasn't happened yet either, but her meddling has affected the 1897 timeline or the book wouldn't be there in the first place.]
- The Collins family history book was printed in 1965.
- Part of the old colonial courthouse collapsed a few years ago. It was never fixed; a new one was built.
- The Collins family history book states that before 1897 ended, Quentin left Collinsport for a voyage around the world. Barnabas suspects this is a cover story for something terrible having happened to Quentin.
- Julianka's grandmother was scary and used to scare Magda when she was a child.
- Beth has always wanted to go to Vienna and wear a silk gown and diamond earrings.
- GHOSTWATCH: Quentin, Magda, and Barnabas hold a seance to contact Julianka, causing her ghost to appear.
- TIMELINE: It was a few weeks ago when Jamison had the dream prophesizing Quentin's death (as recounted in 767). From Barnabas' perspective, it was "not too long ago" when Eve time-travelled to the past from 1968 (occurred in 623). The seance to contact Julianka must take place before dawn.
Bloopers and continuity errors
- Several shadows pass over Magda's forehead just as Quentin is leaving the Old House.
- When Quentin and Beth are in Quentin's room and Beth is waltzing to "Shadows of the Night," Quentin (who is drunk) starts to get out of his chair, and the chair arm seems to break as he pushes down on it.
- Jonathan Frid flubs a line when he's talking to Magda about what may happen in the future: “Of course there’s a future! Because the future for me — or for you — is the present for me!”
- When Magda reads from the Collins family history book, she says, "Before the year 1875 ended, Quentin Collins left Collinsport for a voyage around the world.” Grayson Hall should have said "1897" (she does so a sentence or two later). Quentin would have been only a young child in 1875.
- After Barnabas and Magda have looked at the Collins family history book and are discussing Quentin's history, Grayson Hall coughs.
- In past seances on the show, the person conducting it always said that the circle of hands must not be broken. Presumably, if that happens, the spirit will not come or will disappear. In the seance in this episode, Quentin breaks the circle and runs out of the house, but Julianka's ghost remains.
External Links
Dark Shadows - Episode 797 on the IMDb
Dark Shadows Everyday - Episode 797 - Meanwhile, in the Present
Dark Shadows Commentary- Episode 797: I do not like death at all