My first viewing started with the arrival of Barnabas, so I knew about Paul, but was completely surprised to learn that this was him--although of course I was amused at his resemblance to the late, unlamented Jason McGuire. 

Women walked around with a vial of poison?

Well, yes, if they were in Dark Shadows. 

Welcome, Patti!

A reticule was a small, drawstring bag, usually made of fabric, where a woman could carry a handkerchief and a small bottle of perfume--or poison, if she's on Dark Shadows. Of course, a gentlewoman was not expected to have to handle something so vulgar as money.

Thanks, MT, for your kind words, and thanks too for updating the story. I like the idea of a whole different DS continuing on another screen scomewhere--maybe in a parallel universe? 

Since we've more or less officially left 1897, this is as good a spot as any for my guesses as to what happened to at least some of the characters.

Judith has made Tim an accessory to murder. She also knows that he murdered Minerva, however unwittingly. And of course Tim was all too happy to help Judith murder Gregory Trask. Each has a huge something on the other but their deeds have bound them together. No doubt Judith has ample means to reward Tim for helping her and to keep him quiet. She also invited Pansity to live at Collinwood as her guest; maybe even then she was planning to get rid of Charity's father but hadn't yet figured out how. If Judith merely gave Tim a stack of money, he could just leave at any time and she would live in fear of exposure. BUT if she gave him a gentle nudge toward Pansity--who, as we've seen, is a far nicer person that Charity--and gave Pansity a gentle nudge toward Tim....

Anyway, I suspect that she suggested Tim marry Pansity and added the sweetener of a handsome marriage settlement on them. Perhaps Tim grew fond of Pansity, and perhaps she helped him recover the gentleness that he lost when Rachel died. [spoiler]Perhaps they had a son who inherited the Shaw name and his mother's gift. And perhaps he in turn passed both on to a son of his own, who turned out to be Sebastian Shaw, the gifted but tormented psychic in thrall to Roxanne Drew in 1970. [/spoiler]

Thanks for all your comments, MT. Great one about that bodyswap business! I guess those forehead-slapping moments are why shows need script editors to keep the writers in line.

I'm so intrigued that you were a drawing/painting major. I only heard about gesso because a coworker did paintings and if one didn't turn out to her liking, she would cover it up with gesso and try again.

Years before I ever saw an episode of DS, I read the very, very scary original Dracula by Bram Stoker, and I guess it became my authoritative source for vampire behavior. When the narrator arrives at the count's castle after a strange and frightening journey, the count very hospitably serves him a delicious dinner--but neither eats nor drinks any of it himself. The narrator also quickly discovers that the count (1) never appears during the day and in fact can't abide sunlight; (2) has no reflection in the mirror; (3) can take the form of a monstrous bat or even a cloud of dust; (4) sleeps in a coffin filled with his native earth; and (5) can't cross running water--although he solves that problem by traveling to England in a coffin aboard ship.

LOL, MB!!! And also Uncle Roger!!!

This one of the most dreamlike and nightmarish episodes ever, of course by Violet Welles.

At the burned-out studio, Barnabas finds a length of Blackwood's chain and Petofi's blue-tinted glasses, but no other trace of them. Charles tells him to come back later for Quentin's portrait.

In Quentin’s former room, Gregory Trask shuts the door to his prison to hide the bricks from his terrified eyes. He is haggard and very cold, and he is down to his last candle. When it goes, he realizes, there will be everlasting darkness. Is it day or night? I wish I could see. He recalls, I used to punish students by putting them in a dark closet. Some of them were afraid of the dark and would scream. Now he screams, Let me out! Please, let me out! I’ll be good, I promise! As if in answer to his plea, the phone rings. He grabs it and begs Judith, Please don’t hang up! You can’t commit murder! It’s evil! Smiling serenely, she replies, It was wrong for you to kill Minerva and Mrs. Curry. I didn’t kill them! he insists, unable to face his misdeeds even now. I’m not going to kill you either, or even come near you, Judith replies. Please let me out! he cries. Whatever I did to you wasn’t bad enough for you to do this to me! Thoroughly enjoying herself, she agrees and adds, Since you’re always right, I’ve left a surprise for you in the alcove behind the drapes, something that will brighten up your dark room. Then she hangs up. Trask checks the alcove--and finds the portrait of Amanda Harris. With an enraged scream, he smashes it to bits and stomps on it (though [spoiler]it will be whole again when Gerard Stiles’s zombies destroy Collinwood in 1970[/spoiler]).

I think that without actually having the portrait, Quentin has no way of knowing whether he might werewolf out at the next full moon. So he does have to look for it, and since the last place he saw it was in Collinsport, he does have to go back. So the only reason he goes to NYC is to say goodbye to Amanda in person. But I guess he has the money to make quick trips like that.

Judith's note to Tim--and her satisfaction in writing it--are equally chilling: At 4:20 p.m., Judith is in her room writing a note: Dear Tim Shaw: The plan I have been working on is coming along most satisfactorily and should be completed soon. Tomorrow I want you to come here, take down the bricks, and panel the anteroom so that it is completely cut off from prying eyes forever. She smiles with satisfaction.

Barnabas finds Kitty in Josette's room and tells her to stay there, promising that no harm will come to her. Oh yeah.

Trask’s final candle is just a stub. Soon it will be dark, he says. I don’t want to be alone in the dark. Minerva! Please come to me! I can’t come to you--I have no gun, no rope, no knife. _She_ took everything from me. When the phone rings again, he gasps, Minerva! Is that you? Let me come to you! Judith doesn’t bother to correct him. She says, You can come to me. All you have to do is go to the desk. Open the top right-hand drawer. There is something in it that is very valuable for you. Go find it, Gregory. Do what every you want with it. It is all yours. She hangs up. Nearly mad, Trask opens the drawer and finds a revolver. He takes it out and stares at it.

Judith is surprised but takes it in stride when Barn announces that he's going to marry Kitty, who is struggling not to let Josette take hold of her.

Barnabas has kept his ten o’clock appointment with Charles--but Charles has not. As Barnabas searches the ruins of the studio, he finds Charles has left a note: By the time you read this, Barnabas, I will be far from Collinsport. My work has not been going well here, and I suppose it is time to move on, to find new scenes and subjects. Sorry about Quentin's portrait. I know you will understand. I do understand, Barnabas mutters angrily as he crumples the note and throws it to the floor: You hated Quentin, and this is your revenge.

Judith makes one last phone call, but the phone in Quentin’s room rings and rings. Trask is slumped in the chair at the desk, the gun still clutched in his hand. At last he has made Judith a widow. No living eyes will see him again until 1969, when David and Amy find his skeleton. (Perhaps the ghostly Quentin only wanted them to clear away the clutter.)

Josette’s music box continues to play as Kitty paces around the room. [The last view of Josette's music box reveals that it is not the same as the music box we’ve seen before.] In Josette mode, she thinks of Barnabas as a stranger she’s about to marry. Why isn’t he back? she wonders. I must find a more suitable dress. She opens the trunk at the foot of the bed and takes out Josette’s wedding gown. She holds it up to herself, then becomes Kitty again. No! she screams. If I put this on, it will make me Josette duPres forever. Practically in tears, she calls to Barnabas once more. Walking in the woods toward the Old House, Barnabas hears Josette’s voice in his mind and hurries. We see that Kitty is now wearing Josette’s dress, but she is still fighting. As she tries to concentrate, she steps closer to the portrait, unaware of the danger. What’s happening? she asks, but it’s too late. Before she can say or do anything more, she is floating up and back, fading into the portrait. Barnabas hurries into the room, calling, Kitty! Kitty! He reaches up to take her hand, but she is already dissolving into the portrait. She reaches down to him, but he cannot stop her. He watches as she fades until only Josette’s portrait remains........

Pansity is wearing the pretty yellow dress she wore in her happy dream of dancing with Quentin. Using all her wits and strength, she manages to keep him awake until Barnabas arrives, and then Angelique.

I suppose the Devil is betting that Angelique will never get any man to fall in love with her--at least not until, um, say, hell freezes over. 

Angelique tells Quentin, It must be wonderful to be loved the way you love Amanda. It happens only once in a lifetime, Quentin agrees. (Beth who?) To ordinary people, yes, Angelique says, but I imagine you will fall in love again. We both have a very long life ahead. But I won’t have any lifetime unless you help me, Quentin points out. Angelique says, Suppose I don't ask you to pay the price now. Suppose I agree to wait. And then someday... somewhere... long after Amanda Harris has ceased to exist, you and I would meet again. You could pay your debt to me then. [As far as I know, Angelique never collects the debt.]

After shooing Pansity out, Angelique sits by the now-lit fire and tries to put a spell on Petofi. C/P starts to go upstairs but returns to listen at the doors just when Angelique tells Barnabas that Petofi is at Charles Delaware Tate’s studio. Count Petofi, she orders, turn your thoughts away from Quentin and scatter them as the wind scatters the ashes of the dead! But Barnabas senses that something is wrong. Angelique says, My powers don’t seem to be affecting Petofi at all--his trance is so deep that I can’t reach his mind. C/P listens as they wake Quentin up again. Is there any way to reach Petofi? Barnabas asks in frustration. Angelique recalls, Petofi captured me at the mill by forcing me to fight two enemies at once--his Hand and fire. If I can divert his thoughts while doing him some personal harm, I could break his concentration. You’ll need some personal item, Barnabas points out. Angelique agrees, but it would be impossible to get one. Outside the doors, C/P sniffs, Nothing is impossible if you want it badly enough. Angelique decides, instead of waiting for the train at Collinsport, we must get Quentin to Bangor and put him on a train to Boston and from there to New York. I will get the carriage, Barnabas says, and I’ll bring Charity back to help with Quentin. Angelique shakes Quentin awake yet again. Barnabas goes out, sees that the foyer is empty, and thinks C/P must be in her room--but C/P has already sacrificed her chance to say goodbye to Quentin. Angelique runs out to get the carriage. I’ll never make it to New York, Quentin says in despair. Go to New York and search for Amanda, Barnabas tells him. I’ll stay and search for the portrait. They arrange to meet in New York at the Enfield Hotel (where Amanda told Quentin she stayed when she met Tim). Barnabas swears that all of them will do everything they can to make sure that it is all right.

In the woods near Charles’s studio, C/P carries on an internal argument, then reminds herself sternly, Pansy Faye never missed a show in her life! She opens the door and finds Petofi still in his trance. She moves toward him quietly, thinking to undo his tie. But he wakes up instantly and grabs her hands. You have interfered in my plans once too often, Miss Trask, he tells her. This time you will be sorry for it!....