We see that Ben's memoir was completely accurate--enough bricks have fallen away to reveal the top half of Trask's skeleton, hands still tied above his skull. (The skeleton’s left arm looks misshapen, and the candle on the table is still red, but after the opening credits, it’s blue.) It’s true! Stokes exclaims, the diary was right. Julia recoils at the ghastly outcome of Barnabas’s rough justice: It's terrible, she gasps, even though she knows Barnabas was justified.
Upstairs, David is finally enjoying his chance to play with Lang's tape recorder. [Somehow the script writers have forgotten that it’s long past midnight! Vicki is really falling down on the job! Or else Julia treated Tony, then returned to 13 Arrowhead Road the following morning.] Treating David quite as an equal--and in a lovely echo of Ben and Daniel long ago--Stokes introduces himself as man to man, and the two shake hands.
Julia is in a tight spot, denying to Stokes that she knows anything about Adam, but her very denial gives away the fact that she's protecting someone. Shortly after Julia and Tony leave ahead of Stokes, a camera is seen briefly while Stokes addresses Trask: I can understand a certain reluctance in letting your skeleton be seen (camera at left), but if you had appeared to us we would have given you anything you wanted. Stokes is the last to leave and so the only one to hear a sigh fill the coffin room. Stokes tells Trask, Don’t be despondent. If you appear, you take your revenge on the witch and rest in peace. This is not the most fortunate choice of words, but unlike his ancestor, our professor has greatly underestimated the not-at-all Reverend Trask.
Back at Collinwood at 7:00 a.m. the next morning, Julia waits anxiously for Barnabas. David finds her. You’re up early, he says. I’ve been up all night, Julia admits (she’s still wearing yesterday’s dress). Have you seen Barnabas? Amazed, David tells her, Barnabas was supposed to come back at noon yesterday. That’s what Mrs. Johnson told me. She went into town to do some shopping for him. [And here’s a totally unexplored sidelight: We can only imagine Barnabas’s reacquaintance with the pleasures of food and drink after almost 200 years.]
David tells Julia he didn't tell anyone about seeing anyone at the Old House. Apparently only the youngest family members keep the "word of a Collins."
Barn hears a noise from downstairs, and thinking it's Adam, goes to investigate. Trask! he exclaims, appalled, when he finds that gentleman in the coffin room. Yes! Trask gloats. I’ve been freed--freed for revenge! Barnabas tries to rewind, insisting, It was my ancestor who wronged you. But of course it's too late--Barnabas gave himself away by knowing Trask's name. As Trask moves closer and closer, the now all-too-human Barnabas backs away in real terror, shouting, Don't touch me! Trask only laughs: You touched me when you forced me into that hole. You touched me when you hung me. You touched me when you cut out the light. Trask finally puts his dead hand on Barnabas's shoulder. Instantly Barnabas collapses to the floor.
Julia gives up trying to find Barn at the Old House and leaves, not knowing what is happening in the basement beneath her very feet. Trask has hanged the unconscious Barnabas in the fatal alcove--just as Barnabas hanged him so long ago. Barnabas’s hands are high above his head, which sags onto his left shoulder. . The bricks are up to Barnabas's waist, but this manual labor is apparently not too humble for the Rev., who is laughing triumphantly.
