Once again, on the replay-plus, I loved the chase through the underground passages. Of course, if I were Barnabas, I'd be saying to myself, "Hmm, gotta come back here when I'm not so busy. This is just the place to hide my coffin!" But we know from later events that he wasn't that smart.
Shakespeare never does much for me; I find the language too contrived. But I always enjoy seeing plots re-hashed. It was Friar Lawrence who came up with the idea of pretending that Juliet was dead, right? I kept thinking of the Apothecary, because Robert Gerringer looks a little bit like Tom Wilkinson, who played the guy who played the apothecary in Shakespeare in Love - but a quick google tells me it was the Friar who came up with the feigning-death idea for Juliet. Anyway, I was waiting for Dr. Woodard to break out into blank verse, there in the hospital.
By the way, why did Dr. Woodard, Sam, and Joe leave Maggie alone in the hospital room? Don't they remember what happened the last time Maggie was left alone in a hospital room? I'm trying very hard to believe that there was a nurse lurking in the corner - but Dark Shadows isn't usually that subtle.
Barnabas had an interesting expression on his face when he learned of Maggie's death. What was he thinking? Her death had to be a relief, since now nobody would learn the truth from her - although he should have been worrying that Maggie's ghost would tell the tale. There did, however, seem to be dismay in Barnabas's expression as well - and not just pretended dismay. (Thank you, Jonathan Frid, for muddying the waters.) After all, Barnabas could have killed Maggie on the beach with a quick blow of the cane to her head. (I did not hear the cane begging "Please, master, let me take care of her for you!" but perhaps the cane speaks on a frequency that only bats can hear.) Alternatively, if Barnabas didn't have time to kill Maggie before Sam arrived on the scene, he could have knocked off both Maggie and Sam after that without any trouble. But he didn't. A conscience is an inconvenient thing to have.
