Roger picks Victoria up to drive her home from Bangor, and, due to a missing pen, she tells him that she believes Burke murdered Bill.

Synopsis

My name is Victoria Winters. Collinwood seems a thousand miles away tonight. Yet my only hope is that someone is driving from there to pick me up in Bangor and rescue me.

While a storm rages Victoria gives Roger the rundown on the pen and her belief that Burke lost it while murdering Bill Malloy. Roger also gets a secure statement that he can waste the evidence sans suspicion. He offers alternative explanations for Burke's pen-ownership and why they shouldn't go to the police.

Sheriff Patterson's car has stalled and its radio is dead, so he goes to Collinwood and makes calls. The road's washed out. Elizabeth and the Sheriff talk about fighting Burke and his Logansport deal. The back road to Bangor is totally washed out; Elizabeth says nobody in their right mind would use it.

Roger and Victoria take shelter in a shack after the car stalls from the battery short-circuiting due to the flash flood that has forced them to stop in the middle of the road. They joke about being married, and she reminds him he already is. She tells him about David's tales of Roger and Laura's tumultuous marriage. As they are chatting, Roger pleads with her to leave Collinwood. She's in personal danger despite the pen not being strong evidence. Roger tells Victoria that Malloy hated him and would have found a false witness to testify against him who must have backed out and so Burke lost it and killed Malloy. Roger tries to get Victoria to clam up; she says that would be withholding evidence. He manhandles her and says, "then withhold it, you little idiot!" He is covering his tracks when the Sheriff comes to the rescue.

Memorable quotes

Vicki: Roger, I know so little about you. You know everything about me, not that there's so very much to know. Tell me, what do you want out of life?

Roger: Well, right now there are only two things I want very much.

Vicki: What are they?

Roger: I want someone to come through that door and rescue us from this dank and ill-smelling shack.

Vicki: There I agree with you. And what's the other one?

Roger: I want you to leave Collinwood.

Dramatis personae

• ← Joan Bennett as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard →
• ← Louis Edmonds as Roger Collins →
• ← Dana Elcar as George Patterson →
• ← Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters →

Background information and notes

Production

• The wood stove that Roger fires up in the abandoned shack is also seen in Matthew's cottage (13, 108, 111, 112). The crates and barrels about the floor are also seen in the Collinwood basement (6, 37, 38).
• During the end credits, viewers are treated to a nice touch as thunder continues to crash and boom.

Story

• Elizabeth hasn't driven a car in 18 years.
• Elizabeth's father was disappointed when she came along as he wanted a boy to run the Collins businesses. He did eventually get a boy, but ironically, the daughter turned out to be a better manager of the family fortune than the son.
• Bill Malloy was entirely in charge of the Collins family business enterprises, but to make room for Roger's return to Collinsport, he had to be demoted.
• Turning on one lamp in the drawing room seems to turn on many lamps simultaneously.
• TIMELINE: Day 12 begins, and will end in episode 97. 12:10am: Sheriff Patterson leaves Collinwood.

Bloopers and continuity errors

• At the beginning of the episode Alexandra Moltke is no longer wearing the earrings she was wearing in yesterday's episode. Did Vicki take them off while waiting for Roger to arrive, or did wardrobe forget to give them to Alexandra?
• Prior episodes established that people in Collinsport only need to dial four numbers on the phone. In this episode, Sheriff Patterson dials 5 numbers to reach people.
• After telling Elizabeth that the road up the hill is washed out and no one would be able to get through, George calls his deputy and tells him to send a car to him (presumably up that same hill).
• In the abandoned shack, as Vicki and Roger seat themselves on wooden crates, a second camera slips into view.

End credits announcements

• Stay tuned for "Where the Action Is," next on ABC.

• Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.

External Links 

Dark Shadows - Episode 96 on the IMDb

Dark Shadows Commentary- Episode 96: I should have carried you over the threshold

Dark Shadows Before I Die- Episode 96: 11/7/66