467 - (Discontinuity note: Barnabas is in a different robe in this episode than the one he was in the previous episode. He climbs out from the opposite side of the bed and the scene between him and Lang is totally different. Most of the scene is played with Barnabas standing, rather than lying in bed, as in the previous episode.)
Barnabas cowers in a corner of the room and orders Lang to close the drapes before he kills him. Look at the sun, says Lang, don't be afraid--look into the light! Lang supports Barnabas, who, hoping, fearful, turns and looks at the sun from the terrace of his room (fancy hospital). How warm the sun is, he exults, he'd forgotten. He lifts his hands, sure his flesh will wither. No, says Lang, you've--I know what you WERE. Barn asks if this is a monstrous joke, but Lang smiles and assures him it's true--he isn't sure how, but checks the former vampire's pulse. Can it all be over? asks Barnabas, hardly daring to hope--is the curse finished?--Angelique won't let it happen, it will end as it did with Dr. Hoffman's attempt at a cure. Lang says he's given him an injection to avoid a repeat of what happened with Julia. Barnabas asks if he can live as any other man. For now, says Lang. Barnabas, acting like a delighted little boy, tells Lang how often he wanted to step into the light--he'd forgotten the beauty of the day, the colors and light, the green of grass, trees, leaves, the blue of the sky.
Barnabas' childlike grin is a lovely thing to behold. "I am alive again!" he says, then asks Lang how long will it last. They did it by chance, explains his doctor, and he knows what he did if there's a regression--he might go back--he's giving Julia his notes so she can treat him--she has his best interests at heart. Barnabas asks if Julia told him about his being a vampire, but Lang assures him she refused to tell him and he guessed on his own. Barnabas explains that he's been this way almost 200 years, chained in a coffin until last year. Who else knows? queries Lang. No one, says Barnabas. What about Angelique? persists the doctor. Barnabas hastens back into the room, reluctant to tell him, but finally says she was a witch he married before he realized what she was--her curse turned him into this creature, and he wishes he could hide from her still. In modern medicine he might find his best hiding place, suggests Lang, and he will defend him. Barnabas fears Ang will fight him, but thanks him wholeheartedly and ask what he can do to express his gratitude. Barnabas vows to do whatever Lang wants, without question. Lang says he'll remember that, and tells him to lie down now. He's having the curtains removed; Barnabas will begin a new, exciting life. Lang is learning that, too.
The phone rings long at Collinwood, and no one answers. Roger is too busy staring raptly at Angelique's portrait, ignoring the phone. Liz answers, but the caller has hung up. She's annoyed with Roger for not answering--it might have been the hospital. She realizes Roger can't hear her; he calls her Naomi and says she's speaking senseless prattle--she must stop the senseless drinking, he adds, sounding very Joshua-like. She's concerned about his behavior, but he sourly says he's never given her cause to worry in all their married years. She orders him to turn around and look at her; when he does, he sees Liz dressed as Naomi. Your hands are shaking and your hair is a mess, he accuses her. She tells him she's angry and he tries to send her to her room, shaking a finger at her and calling her Naomi.
Do as he says or he'll--and Liz smacks his face to bring him back to the present. She apologizes for hitting him, but says he wasn't himself at all. He remembers nothing. Both of them are puzzled. Liz describes his failure to answer the phone. You're making it up, he says. She asks him to see a doctor when they go to the hospital, but he insists he's all right. He gazes at the portrait and tells her that he has other things to do at the hospital besides seeing a doctor. What? Liz quizzes--why are you staring at the portrait so much? It fascinates me, he says--who is she really? Liz insists it's an antique and whoever posed for it is dead. Roger says she's wrong, sometimes, he hears the voice of the woman in the portrait. (creepy, brrrr!)
At the hospital, Liz presents a grateful Barnabas with a pretty bouquet. He happily says he wants to start working on the gardens at the Old House. To a faraway, unheeding, cold Roger, Liz comments that Barnabas looks well. Liz and Barnabas sit down and she tells him how scared they were to get the news of the accident. We're lucky, says Barnabas, and explains about the man on the side of the road and Vicki's losing control of the car. Vicki's a wonderful driver, says Liz, so the accident is odd. Roger looks around angrily. Liz says they came to see Barnabas first, and will be seeing Vicki next. Barnabas suggests Roger sit down, but Roger walks away and stares out the window. Barn asks Liz what's wrong and she says Roger isn't feeling well--she's trying to get him to see a doctor. Lang enters and Barnabas introduces Liz and Roger to him. Roger looks downright hostile, refusing to shake Lang's hand at first. Lang drops off some medicine, accidentally leaving his headpiece on the dresser. Liz wants to know when he and Vicki will be released, and he says Vicki tomorrow and Barnabas in a couple of days. While the others are engaged in conversation, Roger steals Lang's headpiece. Barnabas comments to Liz about all the plans he has, and she is surprised to hear her reclusive cousin is talking with such enthusiasm. She congratulates Lang for his treatment of Barnabas. Lang says goodbye to Liz; Barnabas and is puzzled by Roger's cold response. Barnabas tells Liz Lang is brilliant and he's deeply indebted to him. Liz is annoyed with her brother for his rudeness towards Lang, but Roger says he must get back to Collinwood. He looks icily at Barnabas and says, "It is not this easy." Barnabas begs his pardon, but Roger simply leaves. Barnabas notes Roger's remoteness to Liz, who assures him hes very fond of his cousin, she doesn't know what's going on with her brother. Outside the room, Roger pulls Lang's headpiece from his pocket and stalks off.
Later that night, Roger stands before Angelique's portrait.
He brings out the headpiece and reverently says, "I brought it. It's his--his name is on it. I don't know if I can do what you put in my mind. There's no reason for me to think of it myself--but I will try!" Roger takes the headpiece and begins to twist it. Lang, in Barnabas' room, feels pain shooting through his head, but continues his questions about Angelique. She came from the West Indies? he asks. Yes, says Barn, she came to his father's house as a servant. Lang feels another pain as Roger twists the headpiece harder, and Barnabas rushes to find someone to help. Roger releases the tension on the headpiece and Lang tells Barnabas the pain stopped--very peculiar--he never experiences anything like that before. Barnabas thinks he may know the cause of the pain.
It happens again as Roger violently twists the headpiece, causing Lang's vision to go dark. Barnabas calls for the nurse. Roger asks the portrait. "Why should I put it in the fire--what is he doing?" He doesn't care what happens to him (Lang or Barnabas?) Roger is about to toss the headpiece in the fire, then says he can't, not even for her! Lang is all right again, able to see, pain-free. Although the doctor is confused, Barnabas knows Angelique is responsible. She wouldn't come after me, protests Lang--she'd go after you. Perhaps she can't, suggests Barnabas. He tells Lang he wants him to stop treating him, let him revert to what he was. Lang refuses, but Barnabas fears she will destroy Lang--her revenge on both of them for curing him--Lang's payment will be death unless he stops it. Roger kneels before the fire, staring at the flames. The camera focuses on Angelique's portrait.
NOTES: The portrait has gotten its claws into Roger, but good, and Angelique apparently wants to ensure that her husband, former vampire, reverts back to being what she made him--even if she has to use Roger to make it happen! Angelique never hesitates to use someone to do her dirty work, and right now Roger is in Ben's position, being influenced to hate Lang as much as Angelique herself must right now. He is foiling her plans!
How touching is it to see the glow on Barnabas' face when he realizes he can look at the sun, stand in it, enjoy its warmth? That he can plan a garden and actually tend it himself, see the blossoms open in the sunlight? That scene on the terrace is such a good one, and I always tear up for Barnabas' joy.
468 - Vicki is in the hospital bed, her throat bandaged. Lang takes her pulse. She asks if he's releasing her, she wants to go home and stop lying there with nothing to do but think. She asks if she can leave this morning; she has something to do. He checks her shoulder and the marks on her neck, which she doesn't remember getting--and they're gone! How can that be? wonders Vicki. Because the cause of them has been eliminated, says Lang--a miracle, and only the first miracle. We focus on Barnabas' portrait, then Angelique's.
Hospital - Vicki looks at herself in the mirror and runs her hand over her unmarked throat. She's packing to leave the hospital. Jeff Clark enters her room. She greets him unenthusiastically. "I'm not Peter Bradford today?" he asks.
She's embarrassed at her misidentification of him--she couldn't believe he wasn't Peter. Maybe I am Peter Bradford, says Jeff, but if I were, I'd remember. He lifts her suitcase and asks to drive her home. Lang comes in. Jeff looks uncomfortable and Lang seems to know him. Lang tells her Barnabas was asking for her, and she leaves to go to see him. Annoyed, Lang asks Jeff what he's doing here--he doesn't want him hanging around the hospital--get back to work. Jeff insists that he's taking her home. No you aren't, says Lang. Jeff says the doctor can't control who he sees, but Lang reminds Jeff he's forgetting something. Jeff complains he's more of a prisoner with him than he was. . .
Than when you were where? queries Lang, and Jeff walks away. He tells Lang he wants to drive Vicki home; she thinks he's someone named Peter Bradford. Lang asks if that name means anything to Jeff. No, but he wants to find out something, if possible. Not from her, says Lang. Why? asks Jeff, and Lang gets pissed off--he asks too many question. Lang reminds Jeff he agreed to come work for him willingly. "But I didn't know then. . ." begins Jeff. Did you care what his duties were, then? asks Lang pointedly. No, answers Jeff. Don't develop a conscience, advises Lang. Jeff wants to have friends, but Lang says all he needs is someone who doesn't think he's Jeff Clark. She might know something about him, says Jeff, but Lang says to stay away from her--he might have plans of his own. Jeff demands to know what plans, but Lang refuses to respond. Lang tells him to leave, but Jeff refuses. Lang pointedly asks Jeff, if you weren't working for me, what would he be doing--and where would you be? Jeff touches his forehead and quickly leaves the room. Lang leans on Vicki's suitcase looking satisfied.
Vicki returns to the room and tells Lang Barnabas really has changed for the better. Lang tells her Jeff had to leave, which startles her. Vicki says she will take a taxi home, but Lang offers to drive her himself--a pretty girl like her can't be left alone. Lang asks Vicki about herself. She tells him she's got no family; she was raised in a foundling home--she's got the Collinses now, but not forever--David will eventually go away to school. (or prison) What will she do then? He asks. Vicki doesn't know. You're the kind of girl who interests people, he says--I have a feeling that you're destined for a very unusual, significant life. She seems to find this comment peculiar, but they leave together.
Carolyn, standing in the foyer, checks her scarf, wondering why she always wears it. Julia says that's a curious question to be asking HER; what game are they playing? None, says Carolyn--she saw Barnabas at the hospital, and he's changed in a good way--he was so unhappy, and made those close to him unhappy--as he did Julia. Julia is awed--this is the way Carolyn used to talk to her before she became so "close" with Barnabas. Carolyn says she's been too involved with Barnabas, she needs a life of her own. She pulls off the scarf and Julia sees the marks are gone.
"They're gone!" Carolyn says exultantly, and asks what it means. "He's as free as you are," says Julia, and determinedly says that it must last.
Foyer, Collinwood - Vicki tells Carolyn about Jeff. Perhaps Jeff is Peter, suggests Carolyn, perhaps he's a ghost, like Sarah. This guy isn't a ghost, says Vicki, and Carolyn apologizes for getting carried away. Vicki wishes she could pretend her trip to the past never happened, but she can't. Carolyn assures her she didn't dream it--she saw her in the ancient dress. She's got to find out where she was and what happened, frets Vicki. Call Jeff, encourages Carolyn, perhaps Jeff is Peter and doesn't know it. Vicki agrees to call him at the Collinsport Inn, but in consternation learns told that no one named Jeff Clark registered there--and never was. Vicki laments that nothing is simple and Carolyn suggests there's a logical explanation. He's gone and she'll never see him again, says Vicki. Julia comes in, and Vicki desperately asks her what she's going to do--what? Try to be sensible, advises Julia. Vicki looks out at the stormy night (it's really raining). Vicki tells them she has to go prove the secret room exists. Carolyn says she'll go with her, but Vicki reminds her she and David are going away early the next morning. Julia volunteers to accompany Vicki to the tomb, but Vicki says she must go there alone to remember everything that happened. Julia insists on joining her--she might need her--and promises to stay silent. After they leave, Carolyn stares out at the rain.
In the cemetery, a man walks into the mausoleum. He hears Julia chiding Vicki, "You're going much too fast." The secret room is inside, says Vicki, she doesn't remember how she knows it, but she does--Ben took her there, he was Barnabas' friend. How would this friend know, asks Julia, but Vicki doesn't recall. There was something terrible in here, recalls Vicki. Julia tries to discourage her from going in, but Vicki is insistent. Both carrying flashlights, they enter, and find Jeff standing huddled in one corner of the tomb! Vicki covers her mouth and screams "Peter!" Jeff introduces himself to Julia, explaining that he was taking a walk and it started to storm, so he came in there. Vicki nearly faints and they help her sit on a coffin. The last time she saw Peter safe was in the tomb. She asks Jeff if he remembers--they were in the secret room, he was going to Collinwood to warn them Daniel was in danger--he gave her a gun.
Jeff is clueless, and yells for her to stop talking about his being Bradford. She apologizes, then he does. He doesn't understand any of it, he wants to help her, but all her talk of secret rooms and guns bothers him. Julia asks where the secret room is, but she doesn't remember. Jeff touches his head. Vicki remembers one of the panels moves, but can't remember which. Peter walks to the middle panel and reaches up to pull on the ring in the lion's mouth. The door swings open, shocking Vicki. Julia stares at him in surprise.
NOTES: So, is this Peter Bradford, reincarnated as Jeff Clark? How did he know the way to open the panel if he wasn't there with Vicki?
Now both Vicki and Carolyn are free from Barnabas' control (not that either of them ever really seemed to change under the vampire thrall, not nearly as much as Willie or Maggie), they can pursue their own lives. Barnabas' hope when Julia was working to cure him was to be with Vicki as a normal man. Now he is one, assuming Angelique can't stop it, and he will probably return to romancing her. Now that Jeff/Peter is in the picture, who knows what will transpire?
Real rain is highly unusual on this show. I wonder why they used actual water.
Love, Robin
