Peter and Vicki seem to be doing everything they can to ensure that Vicki will hang.

Nice, cold Josette by KLS here.

MT, interesting question about how witches were kept prisoner. If the good people of Collinsport followed the old belief that cold iron could stop a spell caster, just the bars on Vicki's cell would have been enough.

JL is really enjoying being Trask, I think. But when I was a kid, we were taught that only the Creator could be in two places at once. He's certainly willing to lie in a good cause, but I'll bet Josette isn't.

What can I add? This is one of THE best episodes ever, in some ways the grand climax of the entire series. The scene with Barn and Angelique is absolutely riveting, first as he acts with horrifying strength and speed to seize her. Then, with relentless and implacable logic, he works out for himself almost everything that has happened to him--and the ultimate result for Angelique, whose pitiless creation strangles her quickly with only one hand. I was truly jolted the first time I saw this, and the later scene where Ben finds her in Barn's coffin, her eyes staring up sightlessly.

Fantastic job by JF, who, yes, clearly thought ahead about these scenes. Once the 1795 storyline got started, he must have known that some moment like this would come, even if he didn't know the details. Fabulous new-vampire voice indeed, and I can well believe that he now exudes a new, feral odor  as well.

Outside the room, Ben hears everything--and stands his ground when Barnabas emerges. Ben is a veteran of the Revolutionary War, so we already know he is a brave man. I love the massive understatement of Barnabas's comment, Everyone thinks I’m dead. Your presence here constitutes a problem for me. But Ben promises to be loyal, and somehow Barnabas knows Ben is willing to risk his life to prove it.

Joshua is actually (for once) abashed when Ben insists he was saying a prayer for Mr. Barnabas. You may stay, Joshua says grudgingly, but report to me in the morning. And don’t try to run away again, he warns. [And so begins the long tradition of insomniac servants at Collinwood.]

I haven't been able to watch these eps., but I remember that this was the best materialization ever as Barn suddenly appears in front of Ben. JF does a great job with Barnabas's shock, bitterness--and shame.

Again, absolutely outstanding work by all concerned.

Loved your comments, dom, especially about Joshua's jacket! Also interesting about the passbook Joshua left for Angelique--he did it with enough carelessness to infer that it's just pocket change to him. I think it would have been hard for Barn in 1967/68 to go to a bank (or send Willie) and present a passbook from 1795 for a bank that might or might not even still exist. But Barn seems to have sent Willie into town with Naomi's jewels instead.

I'm thinking about your description of Ben. He did ID Angelique as the witch, thanks to his own and Barn's cleverness, so maybe that somehow loosened the bonds of Angelique's spell on him, at least a little. I don't think he would have been able to lock Angelique in the secret room before.

Very sad and touching about Josette too.

Edmonds, David and Parker act up a storm in this fantastic, cliff-hanger episode!

Barnabas must weigh next to nothing, because only one man besides the faithful Riggs is needed to carry his coffin out of the Old House.

Angelique tells Joshua that she will employ Ben from now on. Do you feel safe with Ben in the house? Joshua asks. Remember, we were once servants together, Angelique reminds him. That, madam, I will never forget, he replies stiffly, and goes out without taking his leave of her.

Joshua offers Angelique $10,000 to leave Collinwood, but she reminds him that's what he offered her BEFORE she married Barnabas. She makes him up the offer to $20,000. To prove that he has that much, he shows her a passbook, payable to "the bearer," for a bank in Boston. But first she must sign a paper stating that he will let her have whatever there is when Barnabas's estate is settled--and that she must agree never to return to Collinwood for the rest of her life. I need time to think about it, Angelique says. You must decide here and now, Joshua insists. Leave the paper and passbook with me, Angelique says. When he refuses, she asks, Would you trust Josette in similar circumstances? Yes, he concedes. She retorts triumphantly, I always knew you would treat me like a lady one day. He hands the two items to her without looking at her, then leaves. Angelique glances at the paper, then signs it, apparently on impulse, and leaves the paper and the passbook on the desk (but the contract and its consequences are never mentioned again).

Angelique FINALLY explains her curse to Ben. You told Barnabas that I was the witch! she accuses him. No doubt appreciating the irony, he answers with the literal truth: I never said a word. The icing on the cake is that he realizes she's afraid of the approaching night.

Once they're at the mausoluem, Angelique orders Ben to open Barnabas's coffin, but he refuses, suspecting her of wanting to dishonor even his master's corpse. Even when she explains that she has to stake Barnabas so he won't wake up a vampire (a word new to Ben), he refuses to open the coffin. No! he exclaims and backs up the stairs. If he comes to life you won’t be safe, Angelique pleads. But he answers with grim relish, If he does come back, he'll settle you! Before Angelique can stop him, he locks her in and walks out of the mausoleum into the fog.

With a kind of grim determination, Angelique opens the coffin herself to reveal Barnabas lying within, wearing his black suit and red brocade vest. Fearfully she places the point of the stake above his heart and raises the hammer to strike….

Naomi is wearing her pretty pearl-gray gown again.

Creepy moment when Naomi finds Angelique on the floor, trying to scrub away the stains of her own blood.

More nudity: Barn is barefoot, in a nightshirt and the cumbersome blue dressing gown

Angelique tries to cure Barnabas. None of this would have happened if you hadn't tried to betray me, she chides him in a sweet voice. Help me, he moans feebly, bewildered and still delirious. I feel some kind of change coming over me. I plan to cure you, she tells him. I’ve prepared a special potion, and you must drink it in order to feel better. The greatly weakened Barnabas isn't interested at first but manages to get it down (a neat trick, since the transparent-bottomed tankard is actually empty). Close your eyes, she orders him, and don’t open them until I tell you to. I don't ever want to open them, he moans. Angelique throws open the curtain, then orders Barnabas, Open your eyes--now! He does--then howls with anguish and turns his head away, no longer able to tolerate daylight. The medicine should have helped! Angelique sobs as she lets the curtain fall. Why did you betray me? She adds in a chill voice, It’s too late. What’s done cannot be undone. She knows full well what will happen to Barnabas, and there’s nothing else she can do to stop it.

Joshua is doing some first-class sniping to Naomi when they hear a knock at the door. Joshua heads upstairs, leaving Naomi to get it, but he stops at the landing when he sees that the countess and Josette have returned. He fixes Josette with his best glare. Of course it looked bad when Josette left, but it looks even worse when she explains, Barnabas told me to leave Collinwood. He said I was in great danger. He was going to meet us--but he never did. He was going to do something even worse than what he had already done, Joshua sneers--though married himself, he was going to run off with the widow of the man he shot. The countess doesn't improve the situation when she says, I sense danger here at Collinwood. Suddenly it dawns on her: It’s Barnabas! Barnabas is in danger! she exclaims. She and Josette rush to the Old House over Joshua's protestations that Barnabas isn’t there. After they leave, Naomi asks Joshua, Aren’t you worried now about where Barnabas is? Affecting airy indifference, Joshua says, I couldn’t care less about Barnabas and Angelique. Naomi starts upstairs, hesitates halfway up, then keeps going. She misses the sight of Joshua's mask slipping for the first time to reveal his real anxiety and even fear for his son.

Natalie did do something helpful when she stopped Angelique from stopping Josette from going upstairs to see Barnabas. But poor Barn doesn't even recognize his beloved.

Yes, great screaming indeed! That can't be easy.

I sort of like Angelique's stripey dress, although I have no idea whether it is historically accurate. I wonder how she suddenly acquired a lady's wardrobe. Did she have a whole trousseau ready? And how did she get it from Martinique to Collinsport without anyone--like the countess--noticing?

And yes, what is Corsican love? And why indeed is Josette having sympathetic bleeding neck wounds? Are we supposed to infer that she and Barn are that close in spite of everything? Or does Angelique's curse have repercussions that she is unaware of? Or maybe the inn bat is the one that bit Barnabas?