SPOILER
Had they already decided to reform Barnabas's character, when writing and shooting this thing that's going to happen to Woodard? They had clearly intended to keep Barnabas around longer, but were they planning to make him a protagonist, and not just in 1795, but the present day, after he came back? I mean, they could have shown him innocent in 1795 to show his origins, without making him reform once they came back from the past.
If Woodard was done in so that his killer could become a hero soon, that's an awfully twisted decision. More and more, the Woodard thing is coloring my impressions of Barnabas in all later storylines.