"...Dr. Hoffman mused that it was quite fascinating that...the Old House door knocker so closely resembled the lion's head and ring over the secret panel in the mausoleum!!"

...Patty likes to rock-n-roll; a hot dog makes her lose control!!"

...start a neighborhood watch program in Collinsport."

Barn insists Julia kill Woodard. She says: “I can’t!” He says: “You must!” Add an extremely urgent phone call by Woodard to the sheriff and a visit by Sam Evans to Woodard’s office for a script to refill Maggie’s sleeping pills and you’ve got yourself an episode. See ya on Monday.

Emotionally hated the character of Barnabas in this episode. We get plenty of sympathetic opportunities re: Julia. But I’m not sure I fully understand this wavering of the Barnabas character. Perhaps my perception of him in the latter years of the series is leaking into my current perception of the character? I feel like Barn’s attitude toward Woodard’s death and his insistence upon Julia’s participation is unnecessarily cruel. I thought he was displaying a fair amount of conscience and reluctance at this point in the storyline. Why the calculated cruelty? Perhaps the writers want us to take the same emotional rollercoaster ride as Julia? And is the storyline going in this direction because the writers don’t think Julia’s love for Barn is enough to keep her bound to him? I’d’ve loved to’ve seen Julia haul off and smack the cockiness off of Barn’s face and tell him: “Now go ahead and kill me and see where it gets you, you bastard!”

Sam notices and questions Woodard about his excited nature. The sheriff’s not in to receive Woodard’s call.  This prompts Woodard to stress that the sheriff must return to the office immediately to meet him on an extremely urgent matter. Sam’s visit and Woodard’s call will bring future moments of suspense when Woodard’s death is investigated. Otherwise, I didn’t see the point of even having Sam written into the script. Maybe David Ford knows how to maneuver a camera or control the chroma key device.

Some corny stuff – Woodard reads the notes cover to cover and I really doubt the notebook would be full but I know that is a silly point on my part.

Julia appears to have metal flourishments on her flats – fancy shmancy. And like Dr. Woodard, she has no respect for antique chairs.

Barnabas’ chroma key appearance in Woodard’s office – Barn was too small. That made me giggle, which broke my concentration. He should have been physically present in the room once he fully materialized – I expected it after the cutaway. Maybe it’s just supposed to be a vision and not Barn in the flesh. I guess we will know come Monday. Still, a downscaled Barnabas threatening Woodard with sleep from which he’ll never awaken didn’t pack its intended punch. Helium anyone?

Julia tells Barnabas that she had to tell Dave Woodard that she was treating him (B.).

On one hand, I thought to myself, that's a brilliant excuse, and it's the truth really, but on the other, it doesn't really fit into the flow of things. Woodard was past the point of excuses when yesterday's ep ended. So I am wondering if that bit referred to a tossed scene and was just left in today's dialogue or maybe a last minute rewrite-- considering the difficulty they had with their lines and the inordinate amount of looks toward the telepromter.

So I guess now we know for sure that Julia has fallen for Barnabas--hard.

Anyone think this is a revelation for Julia? I feel like her having to actually say it "out loud" to Woodard and now Barn, she's awakened something inside herself that she didn't realize was there, and shrugged off as silly when Woodard first brought it up to her several episodes ago. I was going to challenge the notion that she's "fallen hard", but I realized that I was thinking more about how long she's felt this way, as opposed to what degree she's feeling it.

Dave Woodard goes to Collinwood on the pretext of seeing David and giving him--what else?--a sedative. But why and where did he waste his first half hour in the house? Did he really give David a sedative after all?.

I was thinking about this too. I kept thinking that David would reveal that the Doc never saw him if he infact hadn't. I decided for myself that he must have visited David first and then gone off to search Julia's room for the notes. I can't see the character drugging a child but what a perfect solution for keeping the kid quiet for an half hour.

I guess that Julia's falling for Barnabas was needed to explain why she hung around and helped in all those later years. Did they have to have it happen at this point though, when Barnabas is a strangling conscience-less maniac?   It seems impossible and shoehorned-in, as if they stopped for a moment and remembered "This is a soap opera", and dropped a random surprise unrequited romance into things.

These are (in part) the issues that led me to wonder if this "love" (that dare not speak it's name, lol) is a revelation to Julia. I can't imagine a long slow process of falling for Barn under the circumstances.

Julia's attraction to a killer, who threatens her every day, is awfully twisted and self-destructive.   She must have a death wish. Maybe she associates love with brutality because some earlier figure in her life claimed to love her while threatening her.   Anyway, it's not the kind of thing I'd expect to last through the "nicening" of both characters. The attraction becomes something more straightforward and healthy in later years, though. I wouldn't think that the masochistic attraction could become the better kind we see later.

A variant of Stockholm syndrome, perhaps?

And the real winner is....

I wonder if a lot of those 200,000 viewers regained had no power to be able to watch TV the previous Thursday?

I'm still lovin' the show - no complaints here - I guess I am getting used to the accent, lol..

On my MPI vhs tape the Dark Shadows main title theme & Joan Bennett’s opening voiceover sound distorted. I checked the DS music library Cds for a possible alternate version of the DS theme to match what I am hearing but had no luck, so it must be a tech issue – maybe due to the strike, lol.

I’ve been thinking heavily about Mrs. Johnson for the last 24 hours and she suddenly pops up in this episode. I keep making myself laugh with thoughts of how Mrs. J. would handle the news of having to ready the west wing for human habitation.

For once, Julia doesn’t sugarcoat her panic. Barnabas wants Julia’s notes destroyed and they go to Collinwood to retrieve them. Neither Grayson nor Frid were fully prepared for this scene and it shows. I would guess that they are working with rewrites, as they both stumble and use the teleprompter quite bit.

Over the course of the episode, Woodard sneaks into Julia’s room and steals the notebook. We get to see Julia’s bedroom. This is my first recent good look at it. I don’t remember it from my original viewing. Her bed would give me nightmares. It’s reminiscent of a piece of equipment from Frankenstein’s laboratory as I imagine an electric current rising between the helical bedposts. There doesn’t appear to be a window but they don’t show a fourth wall. It also looks like the drawing room desk chair is in there but I could be totally wrong about that, though I know I’ve seen that chair before in all it’s rococo glory. And I like the tri-portrait on the wall. I know I’ve seen that before too but it may be from an old forgotten memory of this episode. The room lacks the warmth of most of the other room sets we generally see, it has that hastily thrown together look in my opinion. But, still a fun viewing experience for me. And to be silly -- How dare Dr. Woodard stand on an antique chair and have the audacity to not wipe off his shoe prints.

An obstinate Liz & an exasperated Roger argue over her offering of the west wing to Burke & Vicki. Liz wins as per usual but not without being first subjected to Roger’s typical grandiose objections. I always enjoy a good Liz & Roger brawl, lol. I’ll take a “best of” DVD/Video of "Liz & Roger Arguments" over any other DS compilation you could offer me, any day!

Sidetracked by Roger, who is hoping to secure an ally in Barnabas by asking his thoughts on Liz’s latest offer to the future Mr. & Mrs. Devlin, Barn & Jules are delayed long enough to let Dr. Woodard find and whisk his prize out of Collinwood, leaving Julia & Barn to discover that her notebook’s been stolen. (Do I get the prize for the longest run-on sentence in DS Boards history?) Fade to Black. Grayson’s fiddling with the strongbox and finding that the lock has been jimmied might have worked better in a long shot than a close-up. It’s obvious that they will suspect Woodard as the thief. His minutes must surely be numbered.

There is some very sloppy camera work and delayed music cues in this episode. Perhaps due to the fill-in crew due to the strike (Yes, I am going to blame all technical difficulties on the strike now, lol)

I always enjoy experiencing Mrs. Johnson. I didn’t know she wore lipstick. Her smock/apron is lovely, lol. There’s not much for her to do but answer doors and dusting. She’s still saying in five sentences what should be said in one. (No wonder I adore her, lol.) But how can you answer a question and slyly pass judgment on others in just one sentence?

Barn pretty much laughs in Julia’s face at the suggestion that Woodard bought her explanation of them as being romantically involved. It’s a little tough to watch thanx to Grayson and no thanks to Frid who screwed up the poignancy of the scene by forgetting his lines.

...Josette's Theme, a capella, snidely at the top of her lungs."

Well, we'll have to reverse the quote to make that happen, lol.