Well, it's all downhill from here. This is my favorite Dark Shadows episode. Granted, I haven't seen all of Dark Shadows that there is to see - but I can't believe that any other episode will give me such joy.
Somehow I had forgotten that this episode contains one of Dave Woodard's attempts to get Julia to tell him something, anything about the Maggie Evans case. That means that today we have Julia juggling three roles: innocent family historian for Vicky, concerned but clueless doctor for Dave Woodard, and serious (not to mention totally infuriating) threat for Barnabas. Will the real Julia Hoffman please stand up?
And there's another moment that I had forgotten: Barnabas staring at Julia as she goes to get her notebook. Vicky addresses him, and it takes him a second or two to adjust his expression from lethal to kindly.
I did, of course, remember Julia telling Barnabas that she understands completely that Barnabas can't meet with her in the morning. Also the moment by the door - with him thinking "I know you know" and her thinking "I know you know I know" and possibly thinking, "Finally we're getting somewhere!"
I've been wondering for the past few days: was this the first night that Julia sat waiting up for Barnabas? Or has she been putting that mound of clothes in her bed every night ever since she met him?
As for the lack of a cross, I'm assuming that the writers just hadn't thought of it. It seems to me that it's quite a long time before anybody flashes one at Barnabas. I can think of a reason why Julia might not want to use one, but to tell it would entail using a spoiler warning, and when I tried it just now, I couldn't get it to work. Maybe Julia had just had an upgrade and couldn't get her cross to work.