I would say that the decision to team Vickie up with the Peter Bradford character and his apparent(but puzzling) popularity with some of the veiwing audience led to Burke's not returning.  I remember reading somewhere that they had planned to bring him at a later time.

Barnabas has in a sense replaced Vickie as the heroine/savior of the Collins family.  How about Lara Parker as Evan's wife now that would have been fun.

Magda and Sandor sure got the old house cleaned up fast after apparently living in squalor for the length of their stay.
I wonder from where the character of Carl was adapted?  He certainly is odd.  We learn that Edith never could keep a secret according to her mother.  It's too bad they didn't keep Edith around longer.

Magda called Barnabas a vampire (!) in the previous ep, but when the scene was restaged, her line was changed to, "I know what you are."  I wonder why.

I also wondered about the changed line. Grayson's delivery seemes more subdued also.It seems they are playing up the more menacing side of Barnabas.  I just love Magda.  One of my Grandmother's many interests was fortune telling with cards, tea leaves and sometimes the crystal ball.  It recalls many fond memories.

(edited to include quote)

Barnabas seemed to enjoy being a vampire again as there was no hand wringing about his condition and he  seemed to relish attacking Sandor with dripping blood about the mouth and threatening Magda. 
The revelation that Quentin and Judith always hated each other and the games they play make one wonder how they grew up.  And just how is Quentin ruining Jamison?   The way that  Grayson Hall  said Vampire was very intense, actually the whole episode has and intense feeling about it.  Except for some excerpts here and there, I have not seen anything beyond  1968 except in the original viewing.  I remember that 1897 seemed to last forever and that I wanted to find out what was happening to the  present day family. [spoiler]Now I know that the story never really focuses on the present day family again[/spoiler]

Julia wasn't any different than the real doctors of the 60's and early 70's  They used to dish out Sleeping and Pep or Diet pills like candy to the adults and I can remember taking them when I was 12 or 13 on doctors advise.  I'm guessing Julia doesn't give out the uppers because the Collinses seem to have no trouble staying awake at all hours of the night.

It was fun to see Grayson Hall go up in close up and Jonathan Frid be the one who feeds her line.  Also enjoyed that Maggie was staying in Josette's room to further reinforce her former occupation of that room.

Was Ned suppossed to be sympathetic?  It would have been much more interesting had he played it that way instead of thrusing his sister about in a wheelchair, groping her like he owned her, and leaving her hair in a state resembling a rat's nest.   So it has turned grey overnight, it could still be cut, and how expensive was a bottle of dye in the 1960's.   Frankly, I don't find Sabrina that sympathetic either. 
It was again nice to her Maggie say, "He called me by another name."  and then announce that he wanted to erase Maggie Evans.   What a good time it would be for her to remember the past when Barnabas tried that with her and throw that into the storyline mix.