If the brainwashing of Maggie doesn't work, it's Barnabas's own fault. When he comes into Josette's room after Sam and Joe leave, he should be all sympathy and understanding: "Oh, my dear, you were frightened, you didn't understand," and so on, and so on, ad nauseam. Instead he scolded her. One gets the feeling that back in the days when Barnabas and Josette were alive, she had very good reason to reject him. Well, we know that in fact that's not what the rejection was about, but it occurred to me today that I'd be interested in seeing or reading alternative versions of the Barnabas/Josette story based on the misleading clues we get from the pre-Barnabas period. And if I were watching this for first time, in 1967, I'd be wondering: "At what point is Barnabas going to lose his grip entirely? It's sort of shaky right now. This could get interesting."
Meanwhile, I see no sign of Willie's crush (or whatever one may wish to call it) on Maggie. I don't think I ever did, in his pre-Windcliff days. It makes for good plot-pushers later on, but it's not there now.
I don't drink - at age 51, I have yet to acquire the grown-up taste for alchohol - so I have to ask others who do: when Sam says he can't get drunk no matter how much he drinks, does that make sense? Is that a known phenomenon when people are under stress? It sounds great in terms of drama, but I thought intoxication was a physical thing. But why am I inquiring about reality as it relates to Dark Shadows?