Thanks to Midnite I can now illustrate the principal of parallel time regarding Victoria Winter's trip to the past. Please refer to diagram 1.
Vicki jumps from point A to point B which causes a split in the original timeline. Vicki does not proceed to points C-E, otherwise she would find Phyllis Wick there, as in the original timeline; or else if she had switched places w/Phyllis Wick at point B and proceeded to points C-E, upon returning to point A she would find history changed, at least to the extent that Barnabas would now remember Vicki from 1795. (If this was the case, Barnabas would have recognized Vicki upon meeting her in 1967, and likely would not have allowed Vicki to participate in the seance in the first place, knowing what would happen.)
Instead, Vicki proceeds from point B to points F-H. She then switches places with Phyllis at point A again, and returns to point A. This is the "parallel time" Phyllis; the original Phyllis goes from point B to point E. Parallel time Phyllis goes from B to point A, then switches places with Vicki at point H.
Vicki does not go from point H to point I. We do not know how different Collinwood would be at point I; it may be as different as 1970 RT is from 1970 PT. What we do know is that between points H and I, some people in Collinsport remember the incident of Vicki hanging and turning into another woman once the hood is removed from her head. At the very least, the Barnabas at point I would remember Vicki from points F-H. Barnabas at point A only remembers Phyllis Wick from the original timeline.
It is important to note that it is
parallel time Angelique and Peter from points F-H that follow Vicki back to point A. The Angelique and Peter of the original timeline have no knowledge of Victoria Winters.
When "Eve" is sent back in time she goes to the parallel timeline. The Peter Bradford she finds there knows Victoria Winters, as does the jailer.
After Vicki returns to 1967 RT and the spirit of Peter Bradford from point H draws her back in time, she creates yet another parallel timeline. Please refer to diagram 2.
We do not know at what point Vicki is returned to 1795/6 parallel time; does she return to point B and have to relive points F-H all over again? Or does she return somewhere between points F, G or H? However, at whatever point she returns, she splits
this parallel timeline once more. Since she does not switch places with anyone, if she returned to point F or G she would find another Vicki already there. (Otherwise, she would have had to switch places with herself, hence when she disappears from her bedroom in 1968 she would be replaced with an earlier version of herself at a time when she was somewhere between points B and H, and had no knowledge of eventually returning to point A after the hanging.)
For the sake of the argument, Vicki returns somewhere between point F and point G and creates yet another timeline at this point. Barnabas travels back to point J to meet her. He does not go to the original parallel timeline, or else the Vicki there would perceive him to be Barnabas of 1795, rather than recognize him as Barnabas from 1968 and fully aware of her predicament.
This accounts for the "discrepencies" when Barnabas travels back to 1796 to save Vicki - i.e. the Countess DuPres finds out about Barnabas at a different time and in a different way. It's possible this time around Vicki behaved differently, perhaps withholding the future knowledge from the Collins family history book from Natalie and Josette, thus keeping them in the dark about Barnabas' fate.
When Barnabas travels back to 1796 from 1897, we do not know if he returns to the original timeline or the initial parallel timeline, but we know that it's either point E or point H rather than point K since Natalie is still alive.
Thanks again to Midnite for helping me get these diagrams posted!
