Maggie is still teetering on the window ledge as Hoffman watches. I want to die! Maggie sobs. You don't mean that, Hoffman replies as if she's talking about the weather. Elizabeth rushes in, orders Hoffman out (she doesn't obey), and eventually talks Maggie down by telling her how bad Quentin would feel about it if she jumped. Hoffman finally walks out after watching Elizabeth bring Maggie back into the room and shut the window. Elizabeth seats Maggie on the davenport. I have nothing to live for--nothing, Maggie says despondently. Everything that she said was true! It was all true! She bursts into tears.

Angelique (now in a multicolored pastel robe) is still talking through her portrait, still urging Maggie to jump but not realizing that her signal has been disrupted, when Hoffman arrives to report that Maggie didn't jump after all. Hoffman opines that it's better this way because Quentin would have felt guilty for the rest of his life. I could handle his guilt, Angelique huffs. You wanted Quentin and Maggie to separate of their own free will, Hoffman points out. Maggie will never stay with Quentin after what he did to her tonight. You’ve won, she tells Angelique. You just don’t realize it yet. Angelique is somewhat disappointed that Maggie didn’t go through with it; she was quite looking forward to seeing Maggie reduced to chunky salsa on the pavement below her window, but she agrees with Hoffman that she’s won: That’s what’s important, isn’t it? she says.

Elizabeth takes Maggie to the still untidy drawing room, probably figuring that Maggie wouldn't hurt herself if she still felt like jumping. Barn arrives (still in his 18th-century outfit), wondering about Quentin. Elizabeth takes him to the drawing room, where Maggie basically in shock after her near-death experience. Barnabas asks Elizabeth about Quentin, but Maggie replies, He will never come back--as long as I am here. Barnabas gently asks Maggie if she’s all right. Of course she isn’t, Elizabeth says shortly. Pouring a brandy for Maggie, Elizabeth fumes, I will never forgive Quentin for running out like that! He was only thinking of Angelique, Maggie says morosely. I don’t care what he’s thinking about! Elizabeth snaps and tries to get Maggie to drink the brandy. Barnabas has better luck and persuades her to drink just a little. She takes the glass, looking up at him like a lost child. Of course he’s only TOO happy to look after Maggie while Elizabeth goes upstairs to make up a bed for her in her own room--just as RT Naomi had Vicky bunk with her long ago. I don’t want to leave Maggie alone tonight, Elizabeth says. (I get the feeling that the writers started out by having Elizabeth just always be Quentin's abject dependent, but lately she seems to have developed some backbone--and a real fondness for Maggie.)

Maggie suddenly shudders with reaction, and Barnabas stirs the fire to make it warmer for her. (Well, actually he turns his back to us and pretends to, anyway.) He is utterly shocked when Maggie suddenly remarks, Angelique promised she would return. Unaware of his reaction, Maggie continues, She has kept her promise: I heard her voice tonight, but that wasn’t necessary. For a long time I knew that she had come back. Maggie now has Barnabas’s entire attention, and he asks for details. At first she's discouraged, fearing that he'll only say what Elizabeth said, but eventually she tells him about hearing the voice apparently emanating from the portrait. She starts crying when she says that Angelique vowed never to give Quentin up. Angelique is dead, Barnabas reminds her. Then why is she still here? Maggie asks in despair. She is in every corner of this house. These rooms are filled with her presence. Barnabas is sure Maggie only means that Angelique’s spirit is here, but Maggie, now shaking from her ordeal, replies, I don't know what I mean. But I know that this house is hers and all of these rooms--and Quentin, even Quentin is hers. She will never let me have Quentin--never! Moving toward the door, Barnabas tells Maggie, In a way, I believe you’re right--more right than you know.

Elizabeth's room (the same room as RT Elizabeth's) is furnished comfortably, if not luxuriously. She gently brushes Maggie's hair as if Maggie were a little girl. Maggie feels calmer--but only because she has accepted defeat. She reminds Elizabeth that she wore Angelique's dress tonight--and that Quentin compared her with Angelique. Elizabeth tries to encourage her, but as she lies down wearily on the bed, Maggie sighs, I don't want to fight anymore.

Downstairs, Barn asks Hoffman about Angelique's promise to return after death. Mrs. Collins had a wide variety of interests, Hoffman replies. (She should have said "the first Mrs. Collins," but we know how she feels about Maggie.) She adds, Angelique had a wide variety of interests. She didn't mean that she would literally return. She just meant that her love for Quentin was so great that it would survive even after her death.  At this point “Alexis” comes in and comments, Angelique was something of a romantic. Hoffman sidles over to Angelique and mentions, Mr. Collins was just looking at one of Angelique’s books on witchcraft. “Alexis” gives Barnabas a keen look and says, I hope you don’t think Angelique’s promise to return has anything to do with witchcraft. Then she sends Hoffman out of the room on a fake pretext and fences with Barnabas a little bit. I have no interest in the occult, “Alexis” says--that was Angelique’s great hobby. A really fertile imagination, she declares, wouldn’t have to resort to witchcraft for stimulation. What if the purpose was of a more concrete nature? Barnabas wonders. You’ve gone back to Angelique’s promise to return, “Alexis” says impatiently. This conversation is positively ludicrous. Some portions of the book might interest you, Barnabas observes. You do seem to like fire. According to the book, fire is one of the elements used in witchcraft. When I found you looking at the fire, you seemed to have more than a merely aesthetic interest. “Alexis” says, It’s too bad you never knew my sister. She had an appreciation for the preposterous. I know exactly what you mean, Barnabas replies and gets in a dig by saying pointedly, Good night, _Mrs. Collins_, leaving the room and leaving Angelique with the realization that he is her adversary.

Later, in Angelique’s room, Hoffman wonders if Barnabas knows. He definitely suspects, Angelique replies. What if he talks to Quentin? Hoffman frets. Angelique reminds her, Quentin’s doubts about me were destroyed with Alexis’s body. Hoffman is still worried, but Angelique tells her, Just sit back and enjoy the spectacle of Barnabas Collins trying to prove anything. She adds: Even it Mr. Collins does get a little too close to the truth, I have the means to deal with him. After all, he is only human. How could I have forgotten that? Hoffman comments.

Barnabas visits Maggie to say goodnight (yes, it’s still the same night) but has to tell her (in answer to her question) that Quentin STILL hasn’t returned. (A mic casts a giant silhouette on the wall behind them.) I will help you, he promises her. Whatever difficulties there are, we will find a way of handling them. After he leaves, Elizabeth pronounces him a fine man. When Maggie doesn’t reply, Elizabeth reminds her, You have many friends who love you.

Barnabas very cleverly turns Angelique's powers against her. He already has experience of one Angelique (the one who made him a vampire back in 1795 in our time band) and decides to put his knowledge to the test. He thinks to himself, I also have a few useful powers of my own. He goes to Angelique’s room, shuts the window that Maggie nearly jumped out of (yup, it was open again), and fixes his gaze on the portrait. With anger and determination, he says, Let me look into the eyes of Angelique and know the truth. As he gazes at the portrait intently, his expression changes, then he turns away.

Meanwhile, Angelique and Hoffman are still gloating over her apparent victory. Angelique dismisses Hoffman for the night. She declares, Tomorrow will be the morning of my new-- Someone is watching me, looking into me eyes, she suddenly realizes. I feel as though my eyes are on fire! she says, actually afraid.

In Angelique’s room, Barnabas is still staring at the gigantic portrait as he says, It is the eyes of Angelique I am looking into. It is the truth of Angelique that I must know. Closer to me... closer... CLOSER! Angelique rushes into her old room. Covering her eyes with her hands, she screams, My eyes! Stop looking at me! Barnabas turns around, and she looks at him with shocked surprise. You know! she gasps. Gazing at her with anger and loathing, he answers, Yes--I know!.........

Ooooo , me too!

Directed by Lela Swift. I love the very effective, upward-looking diagonal camera angle as Maggie teeters on the windowsill.

Roger still isn't finished sniping at Maggie. She's so distraught that she almost misses Ange's latest slip-up about how Quentin probably is walking on the beach.

Hoffman was wise to leave when Maggie was choosing a dress. She knows that Maggie has even more reason now to demand that Quentin fire her. She congratulates Ange, but Ange is too busy complaining about having to be a guest in her own home at "that fiasco of a party." She brightens up when she looks forward to hosting it herself next year. They hear footsteps in the hallway as someone goes to Ange's old room and wonder who it is.

It's Roger, who pours himself some Champagne and toasts the big portrait. Ange finds him there, and he continues taunting the absent Maggie until even Ange says he's being cruel.

Maggie returns to the drawing room, but Roger finds her and mocks her even further.

Ange tells Hoffman that she has a new plan for Maggie. Hoffman thinks Plan A is going fine, since Quentin and Maggie are separated, but Ange threatens her. However, Ange doesn't seem to need Hoffman's help. She makes the phone ring in Maggie's room. Maggie picks it up immediately, thinking it’s Quentin, but she hears hideous laughter in a voice that sounds like Alexis’s. She slams the phone down but it happens again, so she leaves the phone off the hook. She goes to "Alexis"'s room but finds her apparently sound asleep. "Alexis" explains it away by saying that she and Angelique had the same voice.

At midnight--the ball ended VERY early!--Hoffman is starting to clean up the drawing room when Roger comes in and demands to know what The Secret is. Since you returned to Collinwood, something has happened to you. Hoffman claims not to know what he’s  talking about. Something is going on in the house, Roger insists, and if it’s a secret I want in. I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mr. Collins, Hoffman says one last time. He says, Fear, I think--fear! Hoffman excuses herself to continue cleaning, but Roger is thoughtful.

Maggie returns to the master bedroom and hangs up the phone. A loud rushing wind blows the door open, and then she hears Bruno’s Ode to Angelique playing on the piano. She follows the sound to Angelique’s room, where the music plays on, even though the piano’s fallboard is down. A echoing voice calls her: Maggie! Maggie! Completely unsurprised by now that the portrait should speak to her, Maggie turns toward it as the voice laughs mockingly. I watched you all the time! the voice (well, we know who really) says. Maggie starts to run from the room, but the voice says, You can’t run away from me! Maggie sets her jaw and turns back to the portrait, declaring, Then I will stay, and I will fight you! Fight me? the voice answers with a laugh. When I have already won? No, you haven’t, Maggie says determinedly. Angelique answers, Yes, I have. Quentin loves me, not you. Maggie screams back, No! That’s not true! Angelique answers, Yes, it is. Look into the mirror! Look at what you are! Look! Maggie can’t help looking in the mirror, which reflects the oversize portrait in the background. Even at a distance, it’s far larger than Maggie’s reflection. Angelique continues: You are a poor substitute. Such a gauche, clumsy little girl that no one wants around here, even Quentin. Broken, Maggie covers her face and starts to cry. Now, look at me! Angelique commands her. Compelled, Maggie slowly lowers her hands and turns to look at the portrait, which dominates the whole room. Angelique continues to speak as we see her own face superimposed over the portrait: You saw the disgust on Quentin's face when you came down the stairs in my dress! He doesn't love you anymore. He can't bear the sight of you! That's why he ran out of the house! Maggie turns to run out again, but the door slams shut. Stop it! Stop this now! she screams, but Angelique is pitiless: Now he knows what a mistake he made! Without his love, there is nothing left for you to live for, is there? Maggie covers her ears but it doesn’t help. Go to the window, Angelique orders her. The window flies open, and Angelique orders her to go to it again. As if in a stupor, Maggie climbs onto the window seat and then onto the outside ledge as Angelique delivers her final, crushing order: Look down. It would be so easy, wouldn't it ... to end everything. Quentin and all of your suffering ... Go on, Maggie. Let go. Let go and fall. There is nothing for you to live for anymore without Quentin's love. Nothing to live for when he has shut you out of his heart. Let go, Maggie, let go! As the camera shows us a tilted view from below, Maggie’s despair overwhelms her, and she leans out farther and farther--into empty space......

 

The huge emphasis on Buffy's TV seems like a product placement for Admiral, but more likely a statement that only low class people watch TV in Collinsport PT.

Hmm, usually they have covered up name brands (as on the box of rice that Elizabeth is holding after Carolyn marries Jeb). Maybe only low-class people in PT Collinsport still have black-and-white TVs.

I don't think Ange wants to off Maggie. She'd much rather enjoy watching Maggie crawl away from Collinwood, utterly destroyed, while she--Ange, that is--has Quentin in a vise-like grip.

 

Louis Edmonds seems to be enjoying himself as PT Roger, all snipy and snippy.

Elizabeth Eis is great as Buffie rescues Maggie from Yaeger's clutches. He's not at all put out, though, and is sure he'll see both of them again. In fact, when he gets back to the lab, he gloats about his success and aims his sword cane at the camera just to show he means it. But someon knocks at the door upstairs. The police, he thinks, I must have underestimated her. He has no choice but to drink the antidote and become Cyrus again.

[When Yaeger changes very quickly into Cyrus, his clothes change too, and Yaeger's coat disappears from the chair on which he put it.] The visitor is Maggie, who pleads with him to get rid of Yaeger. Too ashamed to tell Quentin, she tells Cyrus about how Yaeger molested her. Do you _know_ what Yaeger almost did? Maggie goes on, unaware that Cyrus knows all too hideously well. If Buffie hadn’t heard me scream-- It was horrible! He was holding me and touching me--and laughing! Because Maggie is crying now, she doesn’t see Cyrus’s reaction, and in any event he is completely incapable of looking at her. He pulls himself together to declare, I give you my solemn word that you will never see John Yaeger again--never! I can’t believe that! she says, still terrified as she puts her hand on his chest. He puts his arms around her as he begs her, Please trust me. Fortunately she can’t see his reaction to actually touching her. I do, she says, I trust you almost more than anybody I know. She steps back from him and thanks him. They say goodnight, and she leaves.

Cyrus's remorse doesn't last for long. He imagines that Yaeger would go after her now! He mixes a new batch of Yaegerade but stops himself at the last minute. No! I’m not going to do it! He tries to pretend he can master Yaeger: Maggie! I won't let Yeager hurt you! I remember how you looked when he tried to force you to-- No, he is evil! Maggie! I am not going to let him touch you again! He begins to acknowledge the truth as he thinks to himself, But I am Yeager. I have turned myself into Yeager because I want to be Yeager. There is no distinction between us. What Yeager does is done by Cyrus Longworth. He looks in the mirror with self-loathing and says aloud, I was the one who was so cruel to Buffie! I was the one who killed Horace Gladstone! I was the one who walked those streets of Collinsport! And Î almost-- He smashes the mirror and picks up the stainless steel tray, bringing it down again and again on the test-tube setup as he screams, I have got to destroy John Yeager! I have got to destroy John Yeager! Forever! Then he realizes that the job isn’t finished yet. He takes all his notes and puts them on the tray, sprinkles some gasoline over them (no lab should be without it), and sets them ablaze. Looking relieved and almost peaceful for the first time in a long while, he thinks, Now John Yaeger is destroyed--forever!

Maggie's awful day isn't over yet. Roger is pleased to tell her that he thinks the costume ball is in questionable taste. He's even more pleased to tell her that Quentin is in one of his "moods." She calls him out on his cruelty but he says, Interpret it as you wish. It's one of your prerogatives as the new Mistress of Collinwood. "Alexis" arrives just in time to commiserate with Maggie about how mean Roger is. Maggie asks if her sister ever wrote to her. Not often, "Alexis" replies, but when she did, she wrote all about how loving and happy Quentin was. She talked about all the wonderful things that Quentin did for her. Thank you, Angelique, says Maggie (definitely a blooper, though some would call it a Freudian slip), that’s what I wanted to know. Angelique follows her out into the foyer to say, Maggie, you know how happy she and Quentin were. Maggie replies, You know, I could bear almost anything in this world but that one thing--to be left out of Quentin’s life. And I am shut out. She goes upstairs to cry some more. Downstairs, Angelique drops her pose of concern and resumes her usual malicious enjoyment: You will learn more about your precious Quentin tonight, dear Maggie--all that I choose to reveal. But none of what you learn will help you--quite the opposite!

Sometime later “Alexis” comes back to the drawing room, where Roger has turned the lights down so he can drink in the dark. Startled, he addresses her as Angelique. “Alexis” attributes the mistake to the darkness and possibly too much brandy. Maggie comes back downstairs because she couldn’t sleep--and Quentin still isn’t home. Finally Roger explains, That today would have been Quentin and Angelique’s wedding anniversary, so you might as well realize that he won’t be home at all tonight. Oh yes, and sweet dreams. After he leaves, Maggie says Roger does things like that because he enjoys it. “Alexis” tells Maggie she does look tired and should try to get some rest. I’m more tired than I can tell you, Maggie replies. And no wonder she is--she was very nearly raped by Yaeger, then comforted by Cyrus and taunted by Roger (twice) all in the space of a few short hours. As she leaves, Angelique says, Roger was being sarcastic--but I really do wish Maggie pleasant dreams.

At midnight, Maggie is finally asleep when Angelique speaks to her in a dream. You won’t recognize my voice, she intones. Go to my room and open the secret compartment of a certain table. You will find the secret of Quentin’s happiness. When Maggie awakens right after, she hears the piano version of Ode to Angelique. She goes to Angelique’s room, finds the compartment in the table, and takes out what appears to be a bundle of letters....