Today's episode is where Dark Shadows really missed the boat, as far as I'm concerned. As soon as Barnabas heard that the root of the problem was in 1692, he should have grabbed Julia and rushed off to that year by any means possible. I'm imagining Julia sitting on his lap while he frantically I Chings his way there. Think of it: Barnabas and Julia first see the disaster in its final manifestation in 1995, then go back to 1970 and are unable to stop it, then back to 1840 for further frustration, and finally back to 1692 for victory - traveling back in time, step by step, for a total of over 300 years to prevent the disaster. Magnificent! But instead they stopped at 1840. I know that 1692 might have been considered unattractive to viewers because neither Collinwood nor the Old House would be there, but we could have had some amusing scenes with busily ambitious early Collinses.
Instead we have Barnabas persuading Angelique that it's Gerard who is possessed rather than Quentin. I am surprised that it took so little time for Barnabas to convince her that she was wrong. That must have been a serious blow to her vanity, and yet she absorbed it without a tantrum. But then again, Angelique is a changed woman now, lifting Barnabas's curse without requiring any sort of a quid pro quo. I'm not bothered, incidentally, by the fact that she was able to lift the curse in 1840 even though she couldn't do it in 1795. I suggested, in Magnus's topic about 1840 Angelique, a long roundabout route by which circumstances could have changed, but it could simply be that she was able to lift the curse if and only if, of her own free will, she abandoned any thought of quid pro quo. Having assumed that, of course we must then figure out why Angelique changed her tune, but I can think of a couple of possible reasons for that, too.
I hope Louis Edmonds had as much fun playing Daniel's ghost as I'm imagining him having. Meanwhile, Gabriel, having compassed the death of Daniel and being haunted by him, is now working on murdering Gerard so he can be haunted by him. Gabriel's bad, but I didn't think he was stupid.