In the teaser for this ep., they got the set correct at least: We see Barnabas walking through the neat and clean parallel time hallway to Angelique’s room, so evidently they realized their blooper and reshot it.
I love Barn's habit of saying things like, How can we save her? HOW?? Somehow JF always pulls it off.
Julia offers to go to PT with Barn, but he gently tells her no. He tells her to get the key to this room and lock him in, lest someone else be trapped with him. Julia reaches out and touches his chest lightly, indulges herself in one longing look at him, then reluctantly leaves.
Evidently Hoffman met Yaeger in town, and he gave her Maggie's letter to Quentin. She and Ange realize that Barn must have been searching Ange's room. Julia watches, desperate to get into PT herself.
Some time later, Barnabas has returned to Angelique’s room to search further, but this time Hoffman catches him at it. He tells her he left a book here, which is nothing more than the truth. She turns to leave, but Barnabas tells her, You’re fighting a losing battle--you’re on the wrong side. Then he adds, You know, one time I knew a woman who looked remarkably like you. She was a doctor. She was a kind person and a true friend--one who would never stand by and watch an innocent woman like Maggie Collins get hurt. I have never been anything but considerate to the second Mrs. Collins, Hoffman insists coldly. Do you know where Maggie is? he asks. I have no idea, she answers, which is almost certainly true. He tries to use his mesmeric bat powers on her but runs out of time, because Angelique walks in on them and orders Hoffman to come with her downstairs. This time, they apparently have no worries about leaving Barnabas to do more prowling around, maybe because Angelique took the diary with her.
Apparently, Yaeger's underground lair hasn't been good for Maggie's health. When Yaeger returns, Maggie says, You have to let me out--I’m sick with a high fever. Yaeger lays Cyrus’s professional hand on her forehead and discovers to his surprise that she’s right. Well, who wouldn’t be sick here, it’s so damp and cold, she retorts. With a mad smile, he reminds her, I was an associate of Cyrus Longworth’s, and I still have access to Cyrus’s lab. I’ll be back soon with some medicine. I have to get out of here, Maggie insists. Where would you go? he gloats. Back to Collinwood, she replies promptly. You might not find a warm welcome there now, Yaeger observes, since you wrote a letter to your little darling Quentin, telling him goodbye forever. You made me write it! Maggie sobs. He knows I wouldn’t leave like that! That’s where you’re wrong, Yaeger says. I have an answer from your darling little Quentin. He waves Quentin’s letter under her nose. She reaches for it, but he says, You’re much too weak to read it, so I’ll read it to you. “Maggie,” it starts. Notice that it’s not “Dearest Maggie,” or “My darling Maggie,” he taunts her. "I might know where to begin, Maggie, if your behavior at Collinwood had not been so totally incomprehensible to me. You obviously know what you're doing and what you want, but it has been and still is a mystery to me. I have tried to understand but find that I cannot. You must believe that what you have done is for the best." Every sentence is like a knife in the heart to Maggie, who finally screams, I don’t want to hear any more! She doesn’t want to read it herself, but Yaeger shows her the letter and she is forced to admit that it is Quentin’s handwriting. Where did you it from she asks. Pocketing the letter, he replies, What difference does it make? The only difference is that soon Quentin is going to forget you ever existed. Then you are going to find a love ... a love that you never dreamed was possible. With a leer he adds, Now, you think about that, Maggie. I'm going to go now. I'm going to get something to make you better. You think about it, Maggie. After he locks her in, Maggie once more tries unsuccessfully to find a way out. If only I wasn’t so weak, she laments--then thinks, I may know a way after all.
Barn proves that he's read Ange's diary when he asks her, Who is the man who can circumvent death? Now she's really frightened.
After Barnabas leaves, Hoffman comes back. (She knocks, which no proper housekeeper would do.) She and Angelique agree that they are not safe as long as Barnabas is around. Now Angelique agrees to destroy the diary. We will find out what Barnabas’s curse is and destroy him, Angelique declares. (This is a blooper by the writers--the two women know only that Barnabas has a secret, not that he is cursed.) We will watch him very carefully--follow him. Sooner or later he will have to do something that will betray his secret to us. Then we will know what to do.
Maggie is pacing fretfully when she hears the sounds of Yaeger’s return. Hastily she sits on the cot. Yaeger has the antibiotics and almost gently (for him) helps Maggie stand up. He leaves momentarily to get her a glass of water but she doesn’t take the chance to escape. A faint trace of Cyrus lingers when he coaxes her to take two of the pills now and two more in four hours. In four hours, she tells him, I hope I’m not here. I’ve decided to go away with you, she declares, but Yaeger is extremely skeptical. You’ll have to do better, he warns. She tells him, You can think and do what you want, but I’ve reread Quentin’s letter (even though Yaeger had pocketed it earlier), and I’ve decided that you were right. There’s nothing for me at Collinwood. I don’t love you, but perhaps I can learn to in time. Yaeger is convinced that Stockholm syndrome has truly set in. Beside himself with joy, he grabs her by the shoulders. We’ll go to New York, he declares, we’ll _fly_ there! I’ll need some clothes, she points out. I have all the money we’ll ever need, he replies. I’ll buy you clothes, furs, jewels! As Maggie turns away, pretending to be happy, we can see that the only thing keeping her going is the hope that she has stopped Yaeger from killing Quentin. Oblivious, Yaeger exclaims, Maggie, you’re going to love me! I only said that I would try, Maggie reminds him wryly. That’s all I need, he says. She gets upset when he says he has to leave for a half hour, but he tells her, I’m going to get us money--all the money that we need! As Maggie ponders the success of her strategy--so far--she is actually smiling faintly with hope.
Barnabas comes down the stairs at Collinwood and leaves. (We see the vampire’s reflection for a moment as he passes the mirror at the bottom of the stairs.) The door to the servants’ quarters immediately opens. Follow him, Angelique orders the faithful Hoffman. Watch where he goes and tell me everything he does. We see Barnabas return to Loomis House and call to Will (who is not there). He opens the secret panel under the stairs and enters the hidden room. All the while, Hoffman watches through the window....
