WELCOME, GORDON RUSSELL! According to one trivia page, this was his first script. I do like the voiceover he gave AM, which concerns "those at Collinwood who wear many masks."

Julia and Dave Woodard all but get into a shouting match because Julia won't give him a good reason for her what he refers to as her "unmedical activities." Julia tells him she's on the verge of a great discovery, and whoever helps her will share in the glory. But she is trying to protect not just Dave but also Sam, Joe, and Maggie herself. Please trust me just a little longer, Julia pleads. Lately she seems to be asking a lot of people to do that.

Poor Sarah is crying because she's lost her friend Maggie. Maggie Evans is dead, David tells her. No, she isn't, Sarah insists. I just don't know where she is. David asks her home for supper, but she says, People don't like it when I come. One wonders how many people at Collinwood she's tried to approach in her unique loneliness over the years--and how many of them she unintentionally frightened. With utter matter-of-factness, she tells David, You know all about leaves. I know when people are alive or dead.

Burke and Julia meet for the first time, and he's just as skeptical as Elizabeth was, especially given the yarn that Julia spins for him. She's saved from further questioning by Vicki, who burst in announcing that she's fallen in love--with a house by the sea.

Although she's uneasy, Sarah comes home with David, who leaves her in the foyer to tell everyone he's brought a friend home. But when everyone follows him out to the foyer, Sarah has gone. But Vicki finds her little cap lying on the floor.....

I also wonder if Julia went out and bought herself some special nightwear for this occasion.

Knowing our Julia, I'll bet she did! 

What an absolutely electrifying episode! The other all-time best one!

Despite the risk she's taking, Julia disdains to protect herself; as she steps out of the shadows, we can see that not a single cross or crucifix is in evidence, now or anytime in the entire scene. But when she tells Barnabas she knows what he is, she gets his complete and undivided attention. As Barnabas moves to box her in against a bedpost, she doesn't waste a word but talks fast and to the purpose. Her hypothesis about why he needs to keep replenishing his blood supply isn't a bad one. Barnabas can't help being intrigued.

At the Old House, Barnabas (a gentleman even now) takes Julia’s coat. There are too many things I don’t understand, he explains. Your room was not the place to discuss them. [I wonder what he did while she was getting dressed!] He asks menacingly if anyone else knows the truth about her He isn’t satisfied until he chokes Dave Woodard's name out of her, but she insists (rubbing her throat again) that he doesn't know anything specific. [As a professional woman, she is so far outside his frame of reference that it apparently never occurs to him to use his vampiric powers on her.]

Barnabas summons Willie, who now has yet another person to worry over. Why not give her a chance? urges Willie. Because that chance may be my last mistake, Barnabas answers. I can’t risk everything. My existence may not be what it should be [LOL!]. But at least I have permanence. No--I cannot trust Dr. Hoffman, I can’t take that chance. I will do away with her--now. [During this fraught scene, a persistent fly is determined to play a starring role and keeps landing on Jonathan’s forehead, even remaining there for almost a minute before he brushes it away, but he gamely continues.]

As Julia prepares to leave, Barnabas blocks her way, telling her, It’s not possible for me to trust anyone. You’re wrong, Julia answers. I’m the one person you _can_ trust. I cannot permit your existence to continue, Barnabas says, coming closer. Barnabas, Julia answers, you’ll have to learn to trust me--I represent your entire future. [From the first, she always calls him by his first name, just as Willie does.] As long as I’m alive, you have a chance at life. Dead, I will be your downfall. How? asks the vampire. You will be named, Julia answers, and everything you have done will be told. Everyone will know what you are. Who? Barnabas asks, going for her throat again. To kill me is to find out, Julia answers. As he starts to choke her, she can’t hold out. Maggie Evans is alive! she cries out. Barnabas lets her go out of sheer surprise, but Julia (rubbing her abused throat yet again) adds, I assure you she is well hidden. Right now she’s suffering from traumatic amnesia, but eventually she will recover and will tell everything. I can see to it that her amnesia is permanent. Looking Barnabas in the eye, she repeats, My life guarantees your security. Destroy me and you destroy yourself.

And so the parameters of the most enduring relationships in DS history are set....

*bows low in awe* Wow, MB! I also have a VCR-DVD player, but neither the software nor the smarts to do frame grabs!

Best line in this episode is from Carolyn: "Just call me Miss Jitters of 1967." 

This time, Barnabas visits Vicki in her own room at Collinwood--but he still can't bring himself to bite her. Instead he settles for the long haul and sets the music box playing.

Julia is now an officially established houseguest at Collinwood. While Carolyn goes to the kitchen for coffee, Julia quizzes Vicki on Barnabas. Vicki plays the music box and praises the music's "tinkling" quality. Once again, Julia is instantly alert. But Vicki departs in a huff when Julia insinuates that Barnabas is trying to recreate Josette.

The music box, Vicki's mention of Josette's jasmine perfume and even Vicki's huffy departure have enabled Julia to put everything together. Now she knows beyond a doubt what Barnabas was trying to do to Maggie--and what he plans for Vicki. She needs just one more piece of evidence to have the complete picture. Still fully dressed past 1:30 a.m., she puts on her raincoat and leaves for the Old House without even a thermos of coffee to sustain her.

With massive understatement, Barnabas tells Willie, And now it's time for me to go downstairs. Conveniently for Julia, Willie has to go to Bangor for supplies.

 I love Julia's determination to wait for as long as necessary to gather the final evidence. I also love, love LOVE her climbing in a window! At least she is smart enough to close it behind her.

For the first time, Julia descends the stairs to the basement. Downstairs, she finds the coffin resting on its plinth. Even though she told Vicki that she is afraid of nothing, she takes a deep breath before she opens it. With a mixture of fear and triumph, she gazes into the coffin. Her eyes widen as she sees-- exactly what she expected to see....

What fun to watch a smart, older woman applying her keen intelligence in the successful solution of a major mystery! I've always thought Julia Hoffman was a character ahead of her time.

  But Josette would have used a chamber pot, I suppose--unless off camera, Willie has discovered he has a hitherto unsuspected talent for installing plumbing.

Yes, Lydia, JF really shines in this episode. The depth of his portrayal in what might have become a campy, over-the-top role really made me love this show. JK also is brilliant.

And I'll bet Barnabas knows that Sarah has come back. I like the idea of Barn going down to the basement, hoping and dreading to see her. I'm sure she was trying to warn Vicki--or at least befriend her so that she could warn her. But Vicki is too taken with spending the night in Josette's room to be receptive. It was easier for Sarah to reach Maggie because Maggie was on the edge of madness and maybe readier to believe.

Willie really takes some big chances in this episode. I think that at heart he's still as incorrigible as he was up to the moment when he broke into the secret room. That incorrigibility was his weakness before, but now, along with his hard-won compassion, it's his greatest strength, because that's where his will to defy Barnabas resides.

I suspect Vicki's gown is white or pale cream. Barnabas says it's the one that Josette is wearing in the portrait, and that one is white. However, the portrait gown has long sleeves and Vicki's has little puffy ones. That shimmer is from the satin weave. Very nice.