Note to self: Include "call me Excellency" in plan for world domination. Also "charred and blackened star," I guess, since everyone else who's evil says it.

I think you're right about poor Maggie--the Devil chokes her just because he can. If you say that RR was the stand-in for the Devil's voice, I'll take your word for it. Sadly, I have no access to the shows.

What an interesting thought, joey! There must be a clause about that somewhere in the child labor laws.

The teaser is a much more elaborate recap of the end of the last episode. Barnabas (what's he still doing at Collinwood?) hears Vicki's screams and rushes to her room just in time to see Tom take her in his arms, ready to strike. Barnabas calls out Tom's name. Tom drops Vicki and escapes the same way he came in. Barnabas checks Vicki's throat and relieved to find she is unharmed. When Vicki comes to, she exclaims, I know who it was! It was Tom Jennings--but he’s dead! Barnabas says Tom isn’t dead. How can someone be alive and dead? Vicki exclaims. With what ambivalent feelings we can only guess, Barnabas explains to the horrified Vicki, A few people are among the living dead. Unable to live by day, in the dark of night they cannot die. They drink the blood of the living--and are called vampires. Vicki makes the connection between her visit to Nicholas and tonight’s attack because she remembers that Tom’s last job was at Nicholas’s house. That leads her to concern for Maggie, but Barnabas assures her that Maggie will be safe.

Harry reports to Nicholas that he followed the sheriff's men and saw where they buried Eve's body. When they hear a knock on the door, Nicholas orders Harry to go downstairs, get a lantern and a shovel, and wait.

The visitor is Barnabas, who angrily confronts Nicholas. Barnabas warns him, If you attempt to harm Vicki again, I’ll stop the experiment--even though I know it might cost me my own life. Nicholas again grants Barnabas the backhanded compliment of saying, If I were an ordinary man, you would make a good enemy. I would even be afraid of you, if I were an ordinary man: But I am not an ordinary man, as you know, he finishes. Barnabas warns Nicholas again to stay away from Vicki, and from Maggie Evans too. Nicholas practically snarls good-night.

Nicholas also gets a visit from Chris Jennings, and actually does a double take at the sight of him. Chris explains, I’m investigating Tom’s death. I want to speak with you because you were Tom’s last employer. Nicholas professes ignorance, but Chris is momentarily startled when he sees Tom looking in through the window. Nicholas assures him he must be imagining things (out of grief, one supposes) and tells Chris, I went to the hospital, but I wasn’t allowed to see Tom before he died. Chris leaves not much wiser than he came.

Nicholas calls Harry back upstairs and orders him to go to the cemetery and dig up Eve’s body. Harry protests, but Nicholas tells him, It’s the last thing I’ll ever ask you to do. After it’s done, you’ll never see me again. They go to the cemetery, where Nicholas supervises Harry's excavation. Harry turns away in revulsion when Nicholas IDs Eve. Refusing to answer any of Harry's questions, Nicholas orders him to help carry the coffin back to the House by the Sea.

Unaware that Tom is following him, Barnabas watches as Nicholas and Harry leave the house, then enters it himself, determined to wait until Tom returns. Tom suddenly grabs him from behind, but Barn breaks free and holds two candlesticks together to form a cross. Despite Tom's pleas and threats, Barnabas stands firm. Tom is too dazed by the sight of the cross to escape the daylight that suddenly comes in through the window. In a brief moment in chromakey, he screams, Let me live! Let me live! Barnabas watches in pity and horror, then uncrosses the candlesticks as Tom disappears forever.... (This was a great scene!)
 

FAREWELL, ALEXANDRA MOLTKE!

At last, Vicki has met Eve. Jeff denies killing her, and of course Vicki believes him. Of course he tries to send her away first, and of course she is determined to see it through with him and persuades him to call the police. Jeff picks up the phone to call the police on what was to have been their wedding night.

Meanwhile, Adam wanders disconsolately through the woods. Angelique materializes and tells him that the police consider Jeff Clark the prime suspect and that Nicholas has been using him (A.) all along. She tells Adam to go back to the House by the Sea and act grief-stricken when he supposedly learns that Eve is dead. I'll think about it, Adam replies. Don't take too long, Angelique warns him.

Meanwhile, Joe (still in the hospital) has a visitor. Joe takes one horrified look at him and screams, You’re dead! You’re dead! (Joe has a particular reason for being horrified.) However, the newcomer (who seems oblivious to his wet hair and suede-jacketed shoulders) chides Joe. Don’t you recognize me? I’m Chris Jennings, Tom’s twin brother (also Joe’s own cousin too, though no one seems to remember this). I’m-- hard to reach, so I didn’t get word of Tom’s death till recently, he explains. I want to investigate how my brother died. The report of those bite marks seems suspicious to me. Joe asks, Have you seen your sister, Molly? (whose name will soon change to Amy). She’s at Windcliff--she took Tom’s death very hard. Chris admits he hasn’t seen Molly yet.

Julia arrives and has the same reaction as Joe when she sees Chris. When Chris learns that she is a doctor, he has some questions for her. Julia accepts his offer of a lift back to Collinwood but wants to speak to Joe alone first. Joe gives Julia (and us) a little deep background on Chris: We were in high school together, then Chris went to college to study architecture. But shortly after he started college he started behaving strangely, missing classes and going on trips through the woods that kept getting longer and longer. Eventually he dropped out of college altogether. When his parents died a couple of years back, he didn’t even show up for the funeral. Later on he wrote to me, saying that he didn’t find out about it till after it was all over. No one knows the reason for this strange behavior. Joe also tells Julia about Chris’s investigation of Tom’s death, so at least she can prepare herself to answer Chris’s questions. Unknown to either of them, Chris is watching again through the window.

At Collinwood, Chris asks Julia if she can help him learn what happened to Tom--especially those bite marks. Julia insists she has no idea what caused them, then turns the conversation back to Chris. Why is he here now, when Tom has been dead for two months? Chris answers (again), I’m hard to reach. I’m constantly on the move, never staying long in one place. Under Julia’s prodding, he admits that he’s also come to see his sister Molly (again). Julia says, She’s at Windcliff and doing well, but I think you should take responsibility for her now. Chris answers somewhat desperately, My lifestyle is all wrong for her--I’m always traveling. Are you a salesman? Julia asks. He replies, Let’s just say I make a living the best way I can. But he promises to go see his sister tomorrow.

A moment after Chris leaves, Vicki bursts in, frantic to find Roger. He must bail Jeff out, since he’s in jail now under suspicion of murder. Julia is stunned to hear who the victim was, but reassures Vicki that Roger will be glad to help. Vicki hurries off to find Roger. Julia pauses on the stairs for a moment, then hurries out again. [And this was the last appearance of Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters.]

Evidently Adam has decided (off screen) to help Angelique, because she's back in her underground lair. Lighting a candle, she calls upon her master, the Prince of Darkness, to appear to her. But Angelique’s master seems to be even more powerful than she counted on, because as the episode ends it looks as though she is about to be engulfed by the very flames she has summoned....

Elizabeth is so nice when she pleads with Julia to let Barnabas come home and stay at Collinwood: "He could recover here, in familiar surroundings and with the people who love him--and where you could look after him personally." But Julia is not convinced that Barnabas is well enough yet.

Another great Doctor-Devil scene, but this time Nicholas has come to Collinwood. He reminds her that whatever happens to Adam happens to Barnabas--and since Adam is now mateless, he might as well kill him. Eve’s body will have started to deteriorate, Julia points out. Why is the experiment so important? I see that instead of summoning me, you’ve come to Collinwood yourself. You even seem afraid, despite your attempts to conceal it. Nicholas denies it but is desperate enough that he actually explains the Master’s plan to Julia: The original Adam and Eve were tempted by my Master. You mean Satan! Julia exclaims as she recoils in horror. I know him by another name, Nicholas replies calmly, silhouetted against the window just in time for a flash of lightning. He reminds her, Although the original Adam and Eve sinned, they were still their Father’s children. The new Adam and Eve are to be the parents of a new race loyal to my Master. That’s monstrous! Julia exclaims. That is the intention, Nicholas assures her calmly. Julia says she'll have to look over her journals; Nicholas warns her not to take too long. After he leaves, Julia picks up the receiver on the rotary-dial phone and tells the operator she wants to make a person-to-person call to Windcliff.

Nicholas awaits the Master’s summons at a table draped like an altar. Right on time, the Master announces, Instead of coming to your world, I will bring you to mine. (I don’t get that--isn’t it Nicholas’s world too?) Nicholas cries out as he is engulfed by white-hot flames.

When Nicholas is able to look about him again, he finds himself in the same executive office as Angelique visited, with the Master once again seated behind his desk. [Whether by accident or design, the wrought-iron gate at the back of the scene has a large “S” monogram! Maybe "S" for Satan?] The Master reproaches him for falling in love with a human, but Nicholas defends Maggie. Maggie Evans is innocent and blameless, he insists. I take complete responsibility. But the Master is still furious at having been deprived of innumerable potential worshipers and is prepared to reward Angelique and punish Nicholas severely. Nicholas manages to transfer at least some of the blame onto Angelique. He persuades his Master to give him one more chance. But you have only forty-eight hours to complete the experiment, the Master warns. Nicholas asks, If I succeed, will I be allowed to remain in the human world with Maggie? Do you love her enough to give up your powers to stay with her? the Master asks. Nicholas admits he does. The Master apparently agrees to his condition, but Nicholas’s relief turns to horror when the Master qualifies his statement: You can be with Maggie Evans, but only here below. In other words, Nicholas gasps, she must-- die! Yes, the Master replies. The only way you can be together is for you to celebrate the Black Mass, with Maggie as the sacrificial offering....

Thanks, MB! A lot of those people have come up in the world too, like Jessica Chastain.

Of course, MB! I hadn't considered the pre-emptions when I was trying to work it out. But Ep. 619 has its own feature of interest--at the end, Julia realizes that Angelique is the vampire.

The Vicki Era and the Quentin Era--I confess I hadn't thought of it that way, but you're right. [spoiler]I guess originally the defining story line was supposed to be Vicki's search for her roots, and the vampire story was supposed to end after 13 weeks (or whatever). But it is safe to say that with Barnabas un-vamped (at least for now), Quentin's story will become the main one.[/spoiler]

Actually, I don't know if that's a spoiler for anyone at this point....