Episode #208 - Liz has heard about the fight between Burke and Willie at the Blue Whale, and orders Jason to get him out of not just Collinwood, but Collinsport. Aha, but you can't send the boy away without funds, so Jason puts the screws to Liz once again and, after verbally sparring with him in their usual Blackmail Threat of the Day, gets her to agree to give Willie $500 to get him out of Collinsport.
That isn't enough to suit Mr. Loomis, but once he spots Liz' pin on the coffee table, he is amenable to leaving--but pockets the pin for some extra pin money, one assumes. Liz knows damn well who stole it and sends Jason to retrieve it. He finds Willie in the kitchen adding four spoons of sugar into his coffee and demands back the pin. The scene between them grew tense and very interesting as Jason counted to five and Willie finally gave it up
--but wanted to touch it one more time first. It's so pretty, Willie says dreamily, and he LOVES pretty jewels! If he treated women with the reverence he treated that pin, he might not be in such hot water with Vicki, Carolyn and Maggie! It's as if the touch of that brooch is a religious experience!
With Liz ready (again) to call the cops, Jason (again) reminds her of all she has to lose by doing so. He doesn't, after all, want to see anything "unsettling" happening to Liz.
Sounded like a threat to me!
David and Willie pored over old photos of the ancestors, but the only thing that really interested Loomis was the jewels
--especially Naomi Collins, who was supposedly buried with hers. Abigail Collins was a four-great grandmother to David, but we know the 1795 Abigail never had kids.
On a typical Friday, we saw a typical ending--Willie gazing raptly at Barnabas' portrait, touching the jewels painted thereon.
This time, he stuck around long enough to hear the heartbeat and see the eyes staring back at him.
NOTES: Oh, Willie, wise up--forget the Collins family jewels and protect your own!
Episode #209 - Jason tells Willie that it's time he was leaving, but Willie wants to stick around just a bit longer. Jason, puzzled, wants to know why, and Willie explains that he plans to steal something untraceable, like he suggested.
In the drawing room, Jason assures Vicki that Willie will shortly be on his way, and when she expresses curiosity about when Jason himself will leave, he tells her he'll be around a long, long time.
(planning to really sap Liz' money.)
Mrs. Johnson enters the study to find Willie looking through Collins family history books.
He shmoozes her up and learns the location of the family mausoleum in Eagle Hill Cemetery.
Willie is skulking through the cemetery when the old caretaker finds him and asks what he's doing there. When Willie questions him, the caretaker warns him that this tomb is a frightening, evil place, according to legends. Willie, wanting only those jewels, ignores what the caretaker tells him.
Mrs. Johnson enters the drawing room and tells Jason and Vicki about Willie's many questions about Collins ancestors.
This lets Jason know what Willie might be after.
Willie tries to enter the mausoleum, but finds the outer door padlocked. When the caretaker shows up again, wanting to know why he's still there after all his warnings, Willie says that those stories made him even more curious and he wants to check it out himself. The caretaker strongly urges Willie to go, that this place is eeeeevilll. The sound of the heartbeat starts up again, and Willie wonders if the caretaker hears it as well. The caretaker insists he hears nothing, and passes it off as leaves rustling.
After Willie and the caretaker depart the mausoleum, the heartbeat starts up once more, clearly emanating from the inside of the Collins tomb.
NOTES: You would think Willie would be afraid, given the caretaker's repeated warnings and those terrifying sounds coming from the tomb, but his greed is greater than fear, and he knows that all he wants is those jewels, so he can leave Collinsport and live in style. Those of us who have seen the series know that Willie won't be going anywhere anytime soon, and that he--and we--are in for a tremendous shock in the next episode. I remember it--do you?
Love, Robin
