Yes, as wonderful as 1897 (and its prelude in the present time) is, what a mess from Barnabas going back in time.
SPOILER HERE!
In 1968, Quentin is haunting Collinwood (plus his body, having been shot by Beth, was found in the sealed-off room by David and Amy), so obviously he was dead. But then Barnabas goes back in time to change things. What really changed things wasn't so much his going back in time, but Petofi showing up and having Tate make that portrait which basically makes Quentin immortal. He can't be harmed, because whatever harm comes to him goes to the portrait. So if he was shot by Beth, he'd have a momentary "heart burn" and then the fatal wound would appear on the portrait, so he ain't dead. So how could he have croaked and ended up haunting Collinwood? Did Barnabas' arrival change it all? If Barnabas hadn't've showed up, would Petofi? Well, maybe, maybe not. Magda was all out of sorts when she found out that by cursing Quentin she had cursed her own descendents, so she went to get Petofi's hand in order to cure Quentin. But would she have done so if Barnabas had not been there? Maybe he cajoled her more into trying to repair things; if he had not shown up, Magda might've just bemoaned what she did and let it go at that, so she would not have gone to get Petofi's hand and Petofi would not have shown up and had Tate make that portrait. But Petofi did show up and made Quentin immortal, so he was more responsible for stopping the haunting than Barnabas was. And yet a body showed up in Quentin's room - Trask's. Is that what the kids found in 1968? Or was history changed in a paradox that skeletons were switched? Now that would've been an interesting haunting: Quentin's spook is banished, but now there's a really angry Gregory Trask. So here we go again. Like I said, what a mess.
Gerard