Happy birthday indeed. Thanks for the reminder, Gothick!

Vicki is wearing the giant voluminous yellow robe thing when Jeff comes to see her. He tells her that he's moved to the Evans cottage--even though she's already been to see him there. They both puzzle over Julia's unusual behavior, but then Vicki gives him the really important news that Dr. Lang is dead. After his initial shock, Jeff doesn’t bother to hide his apparently unseemly joy and relief.

Julia visits Professor Stokes at his house, 13 Arrowhead Road. This is their first meeting. (His living room used to be Trask's room at the Collinsport Inn, and before that Angelique's room. The peripatetic convex mirror has landed above his mantel after making the trip from the Evans cottage. He has the same sofa as the Evanses do, but without the multicolor granny-square afghan.) She tells him about her dream. Conveniently enough, Stokes has written a paper on what he calls a dream curse. He tells Julia that not everyone who has had a dream like this is necessarily the object of the curse. But Julia says that even though she desperately wants to tell the dream, she's afraid to because it will eventually find the intended victim. Stokes quietly but shrewdly observes, You’re obviously trying to save someone. You must care a great deal about the person you’re trying to save. Julia gazes into the convex mirror as she answers, Yes--I will admit that I do. But I don’t know if I can save him--I don’t know!

Barnabas is miserable, wondering why Julia isn't at Lang's house studying his notes so she can do the experiment before Barn reverts. It doesn't seem to occur to him that Julia has troubles of her own. The reel-to-reel tape recorder is an entirely different model.

Jeff reads Lang's file on him and finds out that his past is not homicidal after all. Barnabas addresses him as Clark (no Mister for the Hated Rival). Barnabas can't help being jealous, because of course this means that Jeff is now free to tell Vicki that he loves her, and Barn already knows that she loves Jeff.

Of course Jeff makes a beeline to the Great House and shares his news with Vicki (still in the ginormous yellow robe). Jeff explains to Vicki that he had been in a mental institution for amnesia, and that just before he was found wandering the streets of Portsmouth, three women had recently been strangled with a rope. (We never find out who the real killer was.) Lang told me that I had had pieces of rope in my pocket, Jeff finishes, but now I know he only needed to have a hold on me. [spoiler][A long time from now, Peter Bradford will reappear with a rope.][/spoiler] I can't tell you why, he adds, but I can finally tell you that I love you. Since she loves him too, you can guess what happens next.

And so can Barnabas, because the shot of Jeff and Vicki kissing dissolves into a closeup of his unhappy face. Julia arrives at Lang's house and tells Barnabas that in order to do the experiment, she has to study ALL of Lang's notes and papers before daring to perform the experiment. Now Barnabas confesses, Julia, I’m afraid the experiment will fail. He predicts his bleak future: I will roam the earth alone, killing, destroying--and it will go on forever. I have only a few moments, a few minutes to be a human being. You know how precious those few moments are, Julia--you really know. Julia answers gently, I know. As Barnabas watches the minutes tick by before he thinks he'll revert, the episode ends....

Fritz Lang???!!!! Wow, that's AWESOME!

Julia still looks great in this episode. Although she and Barnabas are antagonists at the moment, he consistently addresses her as Julia, rather than Dr. Hoffman.

Jeff goes to the House by the Sea to tell Lang the dream. Let's forget our differences, Lang proposes, perhaps hoping that Jeff will forget that he (Lang) tried to cut his head off. Jeff is more adamant than ever about never returning to Lang's clutches. He takes a certain perverse enjoyment and a measure of revenge in telling the dream to Lang, even though he was quite upset by the guillotine. He finds that he feels strangely free and much more comfortable afterward. The third door will be yours, he tells Lang with some relish.

In the dream, Lang's special treat is is a headless figure swathed in white bandages that laughs mockingly at him. It is, in fact, his creation. But why should he be frightened of it in the dream? In waking life it's his BFF.

I think that quilted thing that Maggie is wearing is actually hostess pants, as they were called back then. And no, I didn't have any (luckily).

Smoke/fog/mist/whatever from the Room of Doors drifts into the Evans living room. No wonder Jeff is startled when he wakes up.

Awesome! Thanks, MB!

We get one of the great line fluffs of the series when Barnabas tells Julia through the study door, Remember someone. Addison Powell saves his bacon here as Lang murmurs, Dave Woodard. Finally Barnabas gets it right: Julia, remember Dave Woodard.

GH is a real trouper and stays in character. That terrible reminder is more than enough to make Julia hang up the phone, defeated.

Later, Barnabas and Julia meet by the fountain to continue their argument. The practical Julia asks him, Have you thought about where you’ll go once you stop looking like the portrait in the foyer? No one will recognize you. I’m sure I can solve that problem, Barnabas replies a little impatiently. In another unwitting but tremendous step forward, he tells Julia, I will entrust whatever wealth I have to you. You will keep it for me, he says, sure that she will.

Immediately after, we have a fun scene where Barnabas grabs the eavesdropping Cassangelique. Later she summons poor Tony, which gives Jerry Lacy another chance to wear his Bogart trench coat (which I do like). And speaking of clothes, when Barnabas is at home later he is wearing a shorter and less cumbersome dark red brocade dressing gown.

Meanwhile, under Cassangelique's spell, Tony makes a beeline for the House by the Sea and finds the door unlocked. For somebody with such a whopping big secret, Eric Lang is notably lax about security--unless Cassange has smoothed the way for Tony.