An action-packed episode!
As Barnabas continues to choke, Josette continues to scream in terror until Jeremiah and Vicki hurry in. (In fact, Josette is so terrified that she is wearing a completely different dress from the one she wore in the previous episode, even though this episode continues directly from the last one.)
Somewhere, the writers jumped the tracks with Vicki. The young girl who got off the train at Collinsport was able to “stand on her own two feet,” as she put it, holding her own with a rich and very persuasive suitor, not to mention a house full of Collinses.
Vicki foolishly tells Jeremiah that she's surprised at his concern for Barnabas. Jeremiah is outraged and insulted but explains that although he is Barnabas's uncle, they are age mates and as close as brothers. (Presumably he was the baby, born long after Abigail and Joshua, just as Sarah was born long after Barnabas. What's going on here?)
We get our first nudity on the show as the top two buttons on Barnabas's shirt are undone. Angelique secretly enjoys Josette's distress and Barnabas's suffering. When she is alone with Barn, she allows him to speak, but instead of telling her he loves her, he pleads, Help me. I can’t, she replies coldly. Even the doctor is at a loss. She adds ironically, Besides, I’m only a servant, not worthy of you. I feel I’m on the point of death, he gasps. In tears, Angelique rises from his bedside. She is truly frightened now: If he dies, she thinks to herself, I’ll have no one. I won’t lose him! [This exchange raises the interesting question of whether Barnabas knew Angelique was a witch before she came to Collinsport. He doesn’t seem surprised that she caused his attack.]
Angelique is flattered that a doctor was called and takes it as a compliment to her powers, but she is beginning to see that her spell--her first one?--is working all too well.
Realizing that she would have had nothing if Barnabas had died, Angelique finally gets the hanky off the little Continental's neck, but she has learned nothing. She still thinks that cruelty will drive Barnabas into her arms.
