Is there such a thing as a reformed character who is still in denial over what he did in the past? Barnabas is at least partly reformed, then has his relapses such as when he [spoiler]killed Carl,[/spoiler] at which point he just presses on with his wonderful plans to "save" his family. Maybe when he became human again, he was able to perceive how far he'd gone before, couldn't take it, and went on to go to greater and greater lengths to "save" everyone, to blot out of his mind the shame of the blood-sucking, murdering lunatic who thought he had to stalk, kidnap and brainwash a young woman to be his "wife".
I can imagine that when it sank in what he had done, it was profoundly embarrassing for a "gentleman", and rather than do more ordinary sorts of good deeds to atone, contritely, he might instead try to act as everyone's "savior", concocting extreme, elaborate master plans to become the family hero of all time. He wouldn't be able to tell the family much, so no credit, but he'd be redefining himself as someone SO heroic that he never could have done those horrible things in the past, not someone as heroic as Barnabas Collins.
Emotionally I mean. Unconsciously he's out to deny his past, not atone. Of course this is a negatively-biased scenario I'm spinning here, but it's possible. A contrite person who's received the memo that he's capable of horrible acts does not ignore all advice and press on with his master plan despite great risks to others. He probably doesn't concoct "master plans" at all, but asks for input from others.
It's interesting to think about Barnabas suddenly finding he's a vampire again, looked at this way. His denial would have to go into overdrive. The triumphant gentleman who'd put that unfortunate abberation into the past is suddenly the monster again. So his new self-image goes into overdrive too, and he throws himself into his spy/puppet-master role to save everybody everywhere, nobly. and then how much of an egoboost it must have been, when he found he wasn't totally controlled by vampirism, that now his pure noble heroic self was still functioning. He could plan to help others, not just attack people. That would only have intensified the egotistic master-plan-forming, string-pulling, etc.. He would assume he was in total control, and stop second-guessing himself, leading to incidents such as [spoiler]killing Carl,[/spoiler] which he rationalizes, and he just moves on.
Of course a certain amount of well-meaning empathy is part of this too, making it all frustratingly complicated, as human beings always are.
