Welcome back, ILB!

Poor Barn. Things won't get better for him any time soon, if I remember.

The writers commit a major blooper by having Angelique admire herself in a mirror. Sheesh.

Julia tells Barnabas about her terrible dream. He doesn't believe it at first, even though he and everyone else were victims of the dream curse. But when the redoutable Julia is close to tears, finally he recognizes her distress and tries to comfort her. Despite her pleas, he refuses to change his plans and tells her that even now, Professor Stokes is casing the House by the Sea.

Let me offer you some sherry, Nicholas says, letting Stokes in for his first look at the House by the Sea. I think you’ll find it interesting. Stokes has a taste and agrees, Yes, it is-- interesting. (Later he changes his mind and pronounces it excellent. He is wearing the ring--gold with a large, flat, carved carnelian--that Count Petofi will use a long time from now to begin the mind switch.) He adds, And given that we barely know each other, how do you know that sherry is my drink? Nicholas blandly explains, Oh, Carolyn told me all about you. Stokes relays Barnabas's invitation to dinner and easily flatters Nicholas into showing him around the whole house.

Stokes is late returning to the Old House, but he explains, My dear Barnabas [I believe this is the first time he uses BC’s given name], the man may have supernatural powers, but he is also an insufferable egotist. I don’t think he believes that _ordinary_ people like us would dare to plot against him. I’ve seen the whole house from top to bottom, including the cellar. You don’t have to worry about the attic, since Nicholas uses it only for storage. I’ve made a rough floor plan of the house, he says, unfolding a sheet of paper. This is Nicholas’s bedroom--hideously overdecorated, he comments as he indicates it. He IDed Eve's room from the strong scene of perfume. The conspirators finalize their plans. While Nicholas watches everything via his magical mirror, Julia tells Barnabas, I hate to think of what will happen if we are _wrong_.

Nicholas arrives punctually at the Old House. The professor entertains him while Barnabas fetches the sherry. (Where's Willie?) Stokes tells Nicholas, My ancestor, Ben, worked for Joshua Collins as an indentured servant. When Barnabas comes in with the tray, he can’t help making a very private joke. He asks Nicholas, Is Professor Stokes is going on about his tiresome ancestor? The professor is the one to tell you about my family. He knows more about the Collinses than I do myself. Julia arrives, and Barnabas excuses himself.

It falls to Stokes to entertain Barnabas's guest. It's close to midnight when he embarks on the story of the Collins business interests. Meanwhile, Barnabas reaches Eve’s (also hideously overdecorated) room and checks the hypo one last time. The room is dark, but he sees a shape on the bed, covered with blankets. But when he pulls the blankets aside, all he finds is a dressmaker’s dummy and a bolster. He stares at it, stunned, but worse awaits him. To his horror, a familiar voice comes out of the darkness: Hello, Barnabas. He turns around. Angelique! he gasps. She smiles at him--but this time, her fangs are bared.....

Julia is up in her room with Barnabas, but before you get any ideas, I must tell you that they’ve merely finalized their plans to kill Eve by their usual method. (Julia is wearing the same dress as when she was missing at Tom Jennings’s hands--personally I would have burned it, but I blame it on Wardrobe.) Julia will somehow distract Nicholas (they don’t know about Angelique, remember) while Barnabas sticks Eve with a hypo. Death will occur within ten seconds, and all trace of the poison will dissipate within two minutes, so it will look like a heart attack. (Strangely, the prospect of murder doesn’t seem to faze Julia. The chosen method seems to trigger no unpleasant memories of her role in the death of her friend Dave Woodard.

The family doctor comes to check up on Elizabeth, but survives by wisely remaining off camera. We only hear a knock on the door that signals his/her arrival.

Vicki decides that Jeff’s noble behavior (in helping Elizabeth upstairs, that is) is grounds for reconciliation, and they enthusiastically seal their reunion in time-honored fashion. Unfortunately for Barnabas, he comes downstairs just at this moment. Although the lovers are oblivious to all but one another, we can see that Barnabas is stunned for a moment before his face is suffused with pain. He quickly leaves without their noticing.

I think Barn and Julia have always assumed that Nicholas is some kind of devil because when he first arrived, he introduced himself as Cassandra's brother. "Brother devil," Barn comments dryly when discussing him with Julia later in that episode--although it's true that they have never seen him actually engage in any sort of demonic activity. He seems careful to avoid having that happen.

I'll bet that was Abigail's tree--and yes, Barn did look really dead, as I remember.

I miss dom and Lydia too.

In trying to talk Elizabeth out of her depression, Vicki tells what may be the last foundling-home story. She looks pretty with her hair loose.

The mausoleum model is beautiful. Too bad Roger has to smash it. But the whole scene with Elizabeth, Roger, and Vicki was well written and convincingly acted.

So Peter Bradford kills Elizabeth??? WTF? Would have made more sense for Angelique to be somewhere nearby, flapping her sleeves menacingly.

I guess what matters is that Philippe Cordier certainly believes that you can threaten a ghost with hell. Thinking about it provides about the only interest in this episode.

I keep noticing the changes in how silver his [Stokes's] hair is from episode to episode.

Today Julia is wearing a pretty gray jacket with wide lapels and a cream-colored blouse with a neck ruffle and bow, with a gray plaid skirt. For once, Stokes is still wearing the same shirt and necktie as we last saw him.

Priceless scenes at the House by the Sea, first with Eve and Adam. After she orders him off to bed, Nicholas arrives. The part when Eve comes on to Nicholas is one of the best things in the whole series.

Stokes arrives at the Old House and reports that Adam is no longer in the place where he'd been hiding. But Stokes doesn't say where that was, nor does he mention David. Stokes agrees that Nicholas must be behind recent events but is more concerned with the whereabouts of Leona Eltridge/Danielle Roget. At the mention of that name, once again a mysterious gust of wind pushes the doors open and rattles the chandelier (we get a good view of its structure), this time with thunder and lightning obbligato. The wind also happens to knock a book off the bookcase atop the writing desk in the corner. When the wind dies down, Stokes picks it up and reveals it to be a memoir of the French Revolution by one Philippe Cordier. [It was published in 1798, but how it got to the Old House when no one lived there after Barnabas’s “demise” and Angelique’s disappearance in 1796 is one of those great unsolved mysteries of Collinwood, I guess. Perhaps the antique book collection of some later Collins was consigned to the Old House for storage.]

Well, if your front door suddenly flew open, your chandelier swayed, and your books started flying off the shelves, what would you do? Apparently the writers forgot that Barnabas and Julia know all about how to conduct a séance because Stokes has to explain it to them (of all people) all over again.

For the one and only time, Barnabas becomes the medium as Philippe Cordier speaks through him, vowing to kill his Hated Rival. In the House by the Sea, Nicholas is sitting with Eve and Adam, who at least appear to have reconciled their differences a little. (Nicholas and Eve get to sit in chairs, but Adam must squat on the floor beside her.) Suddenly Eve senses a Presence. She starts to her feet, screaming, Someone in this house will die tonight! She runs to the stairs. But just as Adam is about to follow her, he clutches his throat as if he is choking.

At the Old House and at the same moment, Barnabas clutches his throat as if he is choking. Julia and Stokes realize that Philippe Cordier is making good on his threat....