A truly heartbreaking finale to the week....
Quentin taunts Charity (on the strange, three-part settee thing) by pretending to be on the point of seducing her and then producing Dear Old Dad's signed murder confession. Quentin is interested to learn that Gregory and Evan set up Tim Shaw to do the actual murder. ou must give me that, Charity says, reaching for the confession. No, no, not a chance, Quentin says,holding it out of her reach. If you don’t, you’ll be doing the devil’s work, Charity insists. Then it’s the devil’s work I’ll do, Quentin answers grimly, if it means keeping you quiet. Charity starts, If I tell Father about you-- Then I’ll tell the police about Father, Quentin finishes with a grin. It’s sweet and simple. I may hang for murder, but your father will be dancing at the end of a rope too. He’s innocent! Charity insists. Tim Shaw murdered my mother! I know it! Try telling the police that when they have this confession in their hands, Quentin suggests, waving it around once more. Now, Charity, what are we going to do? Shall we both keep quiet? Or both tell our stories? he asks. If I keep quiet, I’ll be guilty of murder too, Charity says miserably. When the next full moon rises and you become what you are, you’ll kill again, won’t you? I don’t know that I will, he answers soberly. But you don’t know that you won’t, Charity points out, and if there’s a poor girls in the woods, or another Dorcas Trilling, I will have helped you murder by keeping quiet. Quentin answers, If you talk, then Evan Hanley and your father and I myself will die. If you keep quiet, there’s a small chance of a cure by the next full moon, and this nightmare will be over. I don’t know what to do, Charity sighs. There will be no more victims, Quentin says. I want to go and pray for guidance, Charity decides. Go pray, Quentin says, unlocking the doors, but if you feel “guided” to go to your father, remember this paper. Charity leaves.
At the Old Mill, Aristede is admiring his reflection when Magda arrives, apparently in answer to his summons. Did you send for me so there would be two of us to admire you? she asks in the genuine Magda manner. He tells her that when Barnabas awakes for the night, she should do nothing out of the ordinary--except use her gypsy cunning to lull him into a false sense of security. What do you have to protect yourself? she asks. He shows her the medallion around his neck. This protected me once before against “Mister” Barnabas (but actually it didn’t). She's about to leave when he asks her where the hand is. Tim Shaw has it, she reminds him. Find Tim Shaw, Aristede orders her. He hasn’t just vanished from the earth. Maybe he’s got a different face now, Magda suggests sarcastically, stepping within spitting distance of Aristede’s face. Maybe something worse has happened to him. Maybe the hand has done more evil by now. If you think you know anything about the hand, you flatter yourself, Aristede says. If _you_ understand it so well, you should go find it, she retorts. He snaps angrily, Right now, WE-- I cannot. That’s why I have to rely on _people_ like you! Why? Magda asks. That’s none of your business, Aristede answers. You’d better find the hand before time runs out-- He realizes his mistake just after the words have left his mouth. Magda pounces: Before time runs out for who? For me? For Quentin? Then she gasps as the light dawns. You mean when Petofi comes back! she says triumphantly. When will that be? Don’t ask me questions, Aristede warns her. Ask someone who can help you find Tim Shaw! She leaves.
Someone knocks frantically at the front doors of Collinwood. Quentin opens them to admit Mrs. Fillmore (Mary Farrell), a middle-aged, somberly dressed woman. What are you doing here? he asks. You must come! Mrs. Fillmore tells him. It’s Lenore! This morning she was fine, but she developed a high fever, similar to when your little boy fell sick. [Poor babies! We never do learn the little boy’s name.] What did the doctor say? Quentin asks. He’s with her now. Quentin is upset but tells Mrs. Fillmore, Go back--I’m going to try and find someone who can help. Hurry! She leaves quickly.
Charity knocks back a whole snifter of brandy and pours out more just before Magda arrives. Charity admits that once she wanted to get married and live in a big house like Collinwood, but not any more. Some changes are very strange, Magda comments gently. You wanted to be in a big house and now you don't. You wanted a man, and now he's far away. What man? Charity asks in surprise. Tim Shaw, Magda replies--you were supposed to marry him. Interested (though not romantically), Charity asks, Could you bring Tim Shaw back here, if I wanted him? Could you find out from the cards? I can try, Magda replies, but you must answer some questions. Does he have a family? No, he was an orphan, Charity says. My parents are the only family he ever had (agh!). Was there a place he mentioned wanting to visit? Asks Magda. Yes, Charity says, San Francisco. He and Steve Simmons discussed going there. Steve was Tim's best friend. Now he's working in a bank in Worcester. I received a Christmas card from him--I'll go get it. She starts to leave, then stops to ask Magda, Why do you need the address to read the cards? Magda replies, If you want him back, go get the address, and leave the gypsy magic to me. Charity observes, If Tim does come back, he'll have to tell the truth, won't he? Magda nods.
Charity goes to get Steve's address, and Quentin hurries downstairs. How did you hear? he asks Magda as he hurries into the drawing room. Hear what? Magda asks back. The news about my daughter, Quentin replies. Horrified, Magda gasps, She's dead? She's dying, Quentin says grimly--of the same thing as my boy. It's because she's got gypsy blood, Magda says mournfully, because Magda Rakosi loves her. Another realization hits her, and she tells Quentin, She cannot die, because if she does, Barnabas says the future is dead, too. I don't care about the future, Quentin says, just my daughter. The doctor is with her now. The doctor can't do anything, Magda says, but maybe there is something. She tells Quentin about Aristede's medallion. It protects him from Barnabas and Angelique, she tells Quentin--perhaps it could protect the baby from Julianka! I don't know where Aristede is, Quentin points out. I do, Magda says instantly--the old abandoned building at the end of North Road. The pendant may work--it must! Quentin exclaims. Be careful with Aristede, Magda warns, he's very dangerous. Heedless of nothing but his daughter’s life, Quentin vows to get the medallion and hurries out. Magda picks up Charity's glass of brandy and drinks it off.
We get a closeup of a beautiful detail of musical instruments ornamenting a music stand in Petofi’s lair. [This is our very first hint of Petofi’s special interest in music.] Aristede is napping on the sofa when Quentin arrives, but he wakes up instantly. No, Mr. Collins, you can’t surprise me, even when I’m sleeping, he boasts. Give me the pendant, Quentin orders him. No, Aristede says promptly. It protects me from witches, warlocks and unnatural spirits. How does it do against flesh and blood? Quentin wonders. For that, I have the Dancing Lady, Aristede reminds him, whipping out the knife. Then let her dance, Quentin says, let her dance! They close for the struggle, knocking over various objects around the room as they fight. Quentin very easily knocks Aristede out by pushing him against a chair. Quentin’s collar has come undone in the fight but otherwise he is unharmed. Tearing the medallion off Aristede’s neck, he whispers, Pray God there’s still time.
Magda is at Mrs. Fillmore’s house. She and Mrs. Fillmore are sitting beside the cradle, which rests on a kind of platform covered by the migrating multicolor granny-square afghan. A three-branched candelabrum stands on a table nearby, its candles lit. Quentin bursts in, frantic to see his daughter. How is she? he asks. The doctor has come and gone, Mrs. Fillmore tells him gently. He says there is nothing more he or anyone can do. Mrs. Fillmore can see that Quentin has been in a struggle of some kind. Are you all right? I am, he says--please go. She leaves him and Magda alone with the baby.
Quentin is about to put the medallion on the baby, but Magda stops him, suddenly wondering, What if it harms her? Perhaps it will hurt her--maybe it’s evil. We have no choice, Quentin replies. We must do it, no matter what happens. _Do_ it, Magda urges him, go on! He places the medallion on the (invisible) baby’s chest. They wait tensely, but nothing changes. No change in color or breathing, Quentin notes wearily. She will die because of Julianka's curse, Magda laments, and there's no way of stopping it! If only-- Wait, Quentin says, I have an idea. If Julianka put on the curse, she might be able to take it off. Do you want me to summon her again? Magda asks. Do you think you can? he asks, hardly daring to hope. I don't know, she admits. Try, Quentin pleads. But if she does come, Magda points out, how do we know Julianka won't make the curse even worse? Quentin reminds her, Magda, you have nothing to lose--except your life. I would gladly give up my life for this child, if it would do any good, Magda says passionately, but Julianka is so angry because she died before her time. Call her, Quentin practically orders her--we have very little time. All right, Magda says. I will pray nothing gets worse. Magda takes the three-candle candelabra and intones, I call upon Julianka of the Romano tribe. I beseech her to come. I implore her to hear me. I know I’m guilty, she pleads, and I know I deserve punishment. I ask not for myself, but for the baby, Lenore. Magda’s voice is filled with heartbreak as she continues, She is too young, too tender to walk down the path of death alone. Let her live, Julianka! Magda pleads. Let her know life! Outside, thunder rumbles and lightning flashes. Suddenly they notice that the cradle is rocking, as if moved by an invisible hand. Julianka has come, Quentin says with relief. Let us hope she has come with pity for the child, Magda says. No, not with pity, Magda, a voice answers--but the voice is gentle. A shadowy figure appears before them. As the figure materializes, they can see that it’s Jenny, healed of her madness forever and radiantly beautiful, as she must have been in the first, happy days of her marriage. Her sister and her husband regard her with wonder....
