After the original build (which Barn describes so graphically to Vicki) was finished, some later Collinses could have added wings and annexes and so on that we never see.

Maggie is wearing a red skirt and vest with a yellow blouse and red “mod” necktie. This outfit would have been the height of fashion--in 1964. I guess the Summer of Love didn't happen in Collinsport.

When Maggie and Vicki get to the hospital, they find Joe wearing a picturesque bandage on his forehead. He assures Maggie that he’ll be all right. I guess I owe my life to Barnabas, he muses, little suspecting how right he is.

Barnabas and Cassangelique have their big scene (nice job by JF). At least she isn't wearing the awful butterfly-print robe. With great dignity he tells her, Just give me a chance to speak, and then I will leave quietly. You probably know that Vicki has had the dream. But you don’t know her as I do. She won’t come running to me and tell me the dream. Her strength of character and her feeling for me will not allow it. [Here Cassandra lowers her eyes in disappointment.] Therefore she will probably go on suffering the effects of the dream day after day and night after night--and I will not allow that to happen to her. Cassandra draws near as he continues with even greater dignity: So I am willing to submit to you. It is I you have always wanted: You may have me. I give you my solemn word that I will always try to be what I was to you in the beginning, in Martinique. If you stop Vicki’s suffering, I will do everything in my power to love you and to be faithful to you for all time. Cassandra finds it necessary to walk away and turn away from him as he finishes: Now please give every consideration to what I have said. If and when you’ve reached a decision, you will find me at the Old House. [Jonathan actually says, You will find me at Collinwood--at the Old House.] Without waiting for her to answer, he leaves. Cassandra is taken completely by surprise. She begins to smile--perhaps at memories of Martinique? Could you every really love me, Barnabas? she asks, her eyes bright with tears (!). I wish I could believe that. You don’t know how much I wish I could believe that!

Maggie brings the terrified Vicki back to Collinwood. Nicholas comes from the back of the house (via the door under the stairs) to find them both (nice work by HAA). Vicki rushes upstairs immediately, but Nicholas is struck motionless--and quite uncharacteristically speechless--when he sees Maggie for the first time. Her innate sweetness and innocence are impossible for him to resist. He stares at her so intently--though not actually boldly or rudely--that she looks away. He introduces himself and says, Cassandra told me about you, but I expected to find you just an average, though attractive, young woman. I hope you aren’t disappointed by what you see, Maggie replies modestly. You’re far more beautiful than I could have imagined, he replies gravely. Utterly unable to tear himself from her presence, he offers her coffee or even a drink. She turns him down gently, explaining, I have to leave right away to go to the hospital to see my fiancé. Nicholas almost certainly did not include a fiancé in his calculations, but he takes the news in stride, offering to drive Maggie back to the hospital.

When Nicholas returns, though, he's furious with Cassange for not speaking to Vicki. Cass is still starry-eyed with hope and sullenly agrees to obey. But when she does, Vicki gives her the dressing-down of several lifetimes, declaring she would rather die than tell Barnabas the dream.

But Nicholas has a way around this roadblock too....

At the end of the previous episode, Barnabas was wearing his red velvet smoking jacket. But now, Joe tumbles out of the wardrobe, and Julia arrives a moment later. But somehow Barnabas has managed to stop the flow of time long enough for him to change into a suit jacket.

Barnabas tells Julia that he would rather die than see Angelique win with the dream curse. And I suppose he would rather die, because then he wouldn't become a vampire again. Julia kneels by his chair and puts her hands on his arm as she pleads with him to go far away so that Vicki can't tell him the dream. Julia even offers to go with him. But Barnabas gets out of the chair and walks away from her.

At the cottage, Vicki finally yields to her exhaustion. She falls asleep and has the dream. At the beginning, she spends a long time in the dark. Then, Barnabas is her beckoner and recites the poem, even though she keeps begging him to stop so that she can warn him. Her door turns out to be the Point of Return. When she opens it, a “blazing light” appears. As Barnabas’s voice echoes, “The point of return ... the point of return...,” she follows the sound through nondescript darkness back to the Old House, seen in a still that lasts 18 seconds. There she finds Barnabas lying picturesquely on the floor with the wolf's-head cane. We can see bloody bite marks on his throat. Presumably he is dead--close to the very spot where he was attacked by a bat almost two hundred years ago. Poor Vicki wakes up screaming, but as Dom says, fortunately she isn't wearing the ultravoluminous yellow nightgown.

Magnus, I meant Tate's house in Cornith Bend, apparently far from Collinsport, where [spoiler]Julia and Chris Jennings go to see him in the hope of getting him to paint a portrait for Chris that would have the same Dorian Grey–type powers that Quentin's portrait does. At that point, Tate is an extremely old man.[/spoiler]

Great topic, Bob--thanks for starting this thread!

I think I'd like Seaview. I've always loved the sound of waves, and I think that once the place was cleaned up a bit, and modern appliances and electricity installed, I could be very content there.

It seemed to me that Stokes lived in a house--13 Arrowhead Road seems more private than an apartment building.

Joe's room (which bore a remarkable resemblance to Paul Stoddard's room) was, I believe, in a boardinghouse, which would have been much more respectable than a flophouse. And anyway, Elizabeth would never let the hand-picked fiancé of Carolyn Collins Stoddard live in a flophouse. But I suspect that Buffie Harrington's room was just a step above the flophouse level, poor thing.

The idea of a lair is appealing, but all that stonework would make for a lot of damp.

I think Nicholas probably arranged to resume his residence at the House by the Sea, maybe by making an offer the current tenant couldn't refuse--not a horse's head but lots of cash.

What about the studio of Charles Delaware Tate in Cornith Bend? Or the underground lair where John Yaeger hid Maggie Collins in PT?

Magnus, I should have guessed you'd also be a fan of Delgado!    He was the best Whovian adversary ever.

Good thoughts about Adam's idea of who is at the door.

Interesting business with Vicki and Stokes when he comes to Collinwood. Vicki is waiting anxiously when Stokes arrives and explains that Jeff doesn’t know who he is. With great courtesy and gentleness, Stokes rebukes her in the mildest possible way for putting pressure on Jeff, whatever his past might be. In any event, Stokes really came to see Julia. Vicki inadvertently gives him the shock of his life by casually mentioning that Cassandra told her earlier that Julia had gone out. To Stokes's dismay, Vicki tells him Cassandra’s "Philadelphia story." While Stokes is still recovering from this staggering news, Nicholas walks into the drawing room, and Vicki makes the introductions. The two men fence carefully. We’ve met before, Stokes says. I was at the antique shop when you sold Angelique’s portrait to the owner. Nicholas denies it and leaves shortly after. The portrait of Angelique is in its original state again, isn’t it? Stokes comments rather than asks. He doesn’t even need to see it. Surprised, Vicki says it is.

Congratulations! Interesting and well written too!