spoiler
I was disappointed by the end of 1795 though, and it seemed to be coming apart a bit. Suddenly Natalie can summon a witch or witchy personage to the front door. They can't be faulted for the fact that so many characters were dead by this point... but with fewer characters, less happens.
Mainly... was this an altered timeline set in motion (knowingly or unknowingly) by Sarah's ghost, where Barnabas, even as a newly-minted vampire, was a nicer one than he would have been, because of Victoria's presence, and his concern for her? Was he "originally" simply bloodthirsty, overwhelmed by the effects of the curse and bitterness? Was the pivotal moment when he announced an impending bloodbath, then immediately changed his mind? Did he not change his mind "the first time"?
I was very surprised to find Barnabas actually agreeing to be destroyed, though I need to keep reminding myself that he never agreed to be chained in the coffin... which I was going to say he'd never agree to do, since it's unequivocally a fate worse than death.... but when he popped back to 1796.... that was an impossible mess though, and I'm not getting tangled in that today.
Anyway, before seeing the end of 1795, I pictured Barnabas somehow being dragged off kicking and screaming to be chained up, which no one would have the power to do, granted, but I had thought the whole point was that he'd become an all-out monster, who then stewed in his maniacal juices till 1967.
Maybe they thought that showing Barnabas coming full-circle, becoming his 1967 self again in late 1795, would defeat the purpose of preparing viewers for him to become the protagonist.... it's good storytelling though. It demands memory from the viewers, and those who have memory would have been rewarded. What a moment it would have been, that torturous moment of out-of-control monstrous Barnabas being forced into the coffin, after his being so decent early in 1795, then we see him in 1968, but very differently.