491 - Barnabas runs to the door and orders Julia to come quickly, gulping as he watches his very large son break the bonds of the straps. Adam stumbles forward and Barnabas helps him to sit down. When Barnabas says, "I can't believe it," Adam looks puzzled, and reaches up to touch his own mouth, then Barnabas' lips. Barnabas asks him to speak. Julia gasps when she enters and sees their "baby". Barn breathlessly tells her it partly worked--he's alive--I went over to him after you left the room and he opened his eyes. Julia is scared. What will they do? Barnabas wonders what HE will do--he's alive, too! Yes, agrees, Julia (can't get anything past this medico!)--perhaps only part of Barn's life force went into the creature. Adam gazes back and forth at them as Barn explains that Adam can't talk, or move properly--what if he's some kind of monster?
Julia reminds him they took that chance. Adam stands and tries to walk. Julia thinks he understands them, and showed them he could walk. Barnabas asks Adam if he can understand them--do you know what we're saying? Adam smiles a bit, staring at Barn's mouth, and Julia advises him to move away from Adam--it will show if he trusts them. Barnabas walks away and Adam gazes at him, but doesn't move. Then, balancing himself like a toddler taking his few steps, Adam walks to Daddy, knocking over a stool. That's exactly the way a child learns to walk, says Julia, shaking her shiny bracelet in front of him. He takes it, smiling, and listens happily to it jingle. Barn tells Julia to check Lang's books, but Julia insists she didn't miss THIS possibility--he's alive, Julia says, and we are responsible for him. We can't stay here constantly, Barnabas objects, but Julia reminds him harshly that he knew this experiment could have any result, and what has happened is something they didn't consider. Adam listens to them argue, growing scared. They have to decide what to do with him, insists Barn, admitting that Julia is right, if that pleases her (such condescending BS!) Adam grunts, and Julia says he knows they're talking about him, understanding the tone of their voices. Barnabas tells her to calm the agitated Adam, so she, of course, reaches for a sedative to make him sleep. She fills a syringe, but Barn suggests a tablet instead. She doesn't know how to make Adam swallow one (like a dog--just rub his throat), so she tells Adam she's giving him something to make him sleep, and when he wakes up, food. She swabs his arm and jabs him with the needle. This angers Adam, and he begins to chase Julia as Barnabas screams Adam!?
Adam is throttling Julia (he's inherited one bad trait from Daddy), and Barnabas has difficulty pulling the huge man off her. Julia holds her throat and Barnabas leads him back to the table, encouraging him to lie down, helping him to do so with gentle hands. Adam lies down. Julia points out that Barn has enormous power over him. Barn tells her he was staring down at Adam's lifeless body, thinking the experiment had failed. Now, he's alive--why? Julia doesn't know. She tells him he has an hour left before dawn. He wonders if he's a vampire--he feels no bloodlust. Now he must make a choice--whether to go back to the coffin before sunrise. Julia says there may be no need. Barnabas says if he waits there for the dawn, and dies, what will happen to Adam? She observes that he's prepared to die. Yes, rather than go back to being a vampire, he says sadly. There's a knock at the door. It's Liz. Barnabas leads her into Lang's living room. She thought him out of town--that note. . .He was delayed, he explained. Liz is looking for Julia--David is ill. He goes to get Julia, then stops to ask if David is seriously ill. No, says Liz, asking what they are doing there. We've been working on Lang's notes, explains Barnabas, and there's enough there for a fascinating book. (that same tired excuse!) Julia enters as Liz inquires about the business he mentioned in his note--and what about that cousin of theirs, Adam? Liz tells Julia David lost his voice, but their regular doctor could find nothing wrong. It happened this evening, says Liz, and he can't even whisper. David is frightened. What about his new mommy, Cassandra, is SHE terribly frightened? queries Barnabas sarcastically. Liz says David panics when either Cass or Roger is around, but Barn says he knows--he once had a servant named Ben, and the same thing happened to him, but he got over it and so will David. Liz asks Julia to check David over, but even though Barnabas reminds her about the experiment, and that it will soon be dawn, she curtly assures him she will be back in plenty of time. What if you aren't? asks Barnabas. She promises she will be, and Liz notes this bizarre exchange with confusion. I have half an hour, says Julia. Barnabas apologizes to Liz for his attitude, but this experiment is very important. Liz finds his interest in science very strange, with his obsession with the past.
No more, says Barn, the future, the immediate future, is what's important to him, and he goes to stare out the window at the approaching dawn.
Five AM. Barnabas is alone, trying to think of himself, not Adam. He has only 5 or 10 minutes left at the most. To die alone, he ponders, but he's lived alone so long. Why should dying frighten him after all he's been through? What does dying mean to him? A scandal, because of Adam? Yes, he will be discovered, Jeff Clark will tell Vicki about Lang's experiment, then the public will know. What of Adam? What will become of him?
Adam awakens down in the lab, looking dejected. He walks around, examining everything, touching things. He sees his reflection and hides from himself. He accidentally turns on the equipment and fluids of different colors begin to move, fascinating him as they once fascinated his "daddy." He smiles with glee, as a child would.
Barnabas realizes it's getting light. Be calm, he tells himself, if I die, it's better than he if I live--Cassandra will turn me back into what I was as surely as she made David mute. Julia enters. Why are the lights out? she asks. Better to see the sunrise, he replies quietly--how often you and I have looked at each other for what could be the last time, he tells her? Yes, she says--how do you feel? All right, he says. What will happen to Adam if I die? He asks. You won't die, she assures him. Will you protect Adam? he asks. How can I? Asks Julia. We have to make arrangements, he insists, but she points to the window, ecstatic--there's no need--look! It's dawn! "I am cured!" says Barnabas. "Cured now!--how?" She doesn't know, but she's smiling radiantly at him. "Last night I knew it was all coming back, what happened, Julia? Has it gone to Adam? Is he now the vampire?" They hear the sound of smashing glass; their bouncing baby boy is trashing the lab. He finds a nice scalpel to play with and cuts himself. Enraged at the unexpected pain, he begins to destroy the lab in earnest, flinging his wounded hand around and grunting with agony. Julia and Barnabas enter and he immediately tries to attack her. Barnabas grabs him, stops him, but Adam chases Julia, pulling down the curtains. He chases the two of them out of the lab and they close the door on him. His hand is stuck in the door, and he flails it, moaning and grunting, as they press on the door, trying to force him back inside.
NOTES: I think Barnabas and Julia need some serious parenting classes, but they didn't know THIS was going to happen. Adam's birth was about the closest we ever saw to someone having a baby born on DS (although, spoiler, there will be a pregnancy)!
492 - Adam struggles to get out, but Barnabas and Julia push the door closed on him, then Barnabas locks him in. Adam, infuriated, continues to destroy the lab. Barnabas tells Julia they must kill Adam before he kills them, and he heads to Lang's desk to get his gun. Sounds of destruction continue, as Adam strives to destroy the place where he was born.
Julia and Barn return to the lab. They listen at the door and hear only silence. Barnabas decides to go in, despite Julia's objections, but all they find is the lab, completely wrecked in a short time. Julia says Adam must be strong. Barnabas brandishes a gun and insists Julia stay by the door, just in case. "Do as I say," he demands. Barnabas walks around the lab, searching for Adam, stepping on broken glass. He finds his "son" under a sheet. Julia pulls it back while Barnabas covers her with the gun. Adam, curled in a fetal position, is alive--and sound asleep.
He really is like a child, muses Julia"he had a tantrum and fell asleep. Barn says he's made it easy for them--they can put him out of his misery now. Julia pushes the gun away. Barnabas compares Adam to an animal, but Julia says he's more like a small child who came into the world, fully grown--we must find a way to communicate with him, she insists, although Barnabas argues against this--Adam is capable of destruction. Julia reminds Barnabas he's a living human being and they are responsible for him. Counters Barnabas, if he murders someone, they will be to blame. Treat him properly and he won't do anything like that, says Julia. Barn fears another rampage, but Julia says Adam is acting out of fear--fear they caused. They must gain his trust. They gave him life, she says, and now that they've done it, they don't have the right to take his life away. (you're right, Julia. Barnabas is so cavalier about life, which is odd, considering what's happened to him)
Julia injects Adam with a stronger dosage of sedative. They must move him to the Old House, she says. He can't think of a worse place, but she says they can lock him in the cellar until he begins to learn. If, amends Barnabas. He will, says Julia, he needs a chance. Barnabas is afraid this will be disastrous, but Julia says they made that decision when they went through the with experiment after Lang's death. Barnabas sighs and agrees. Julia tells him to get Willie to help move Adam. At Collinwood, David is still under Cassandra's muteness spell. Mrs. Johnson sits in a chair across from him, almost nods out, then remembers she isn't supposed to sleep. She asks David if he wants anything and he shakes his head. She sympathizes with him not being able to say anything. Cassandra enters the room and David jumps up, looking fearful. Cassandra tells Mrs. J to go to sleep, but the housekeeper says David is more accustomed to her looking after him. She goes to get David some broth, leaving him alone with Mama Cass, who sits beside him and tells David how terrible it was that Mrs. Johnson had to stay up all night with him--she needs Mrs. J to sleep so she can have her dream, and thus she must end David's silence. Cassandra is dressed very smartly today, in a navy blue skirt, red, white and blue horizontally-striped shirt and pretty red blazer. She takes a candle, lights it in the fireplace and orders David to look deeper and deeper into the flame (shades of Laura). The flame will go out and he will close his eyes, lean back and fall asleep. He'll sleep until he hears Mrs. Johnson's voice, awaken, and call her name.
When she begins asking questions, he will not remember what he saw in the gazebo. He will be as he was, but without that particular memory. David's eyes close, and when she blows out the candle, he leans against the arm of the sofa, asleep. She stands and watches him, laughing her evil Angelique laugh.
David sleeps, Cassandra watching over him. Mrs. Johnson enters with the tray and is surprised to see David asleep. He wakes up and speaks her name, delighting her that he can talk. He's puzzled when Mrs. J tells him he lost his voice; he doesn't remember it. Cassandra questions him about when he went out to play and came in unable to speak. He thinks they're playing a joke on him, and Cassandra seems pleased that this went so smoothly. Mrs. J suggests David bumped his head and now suffers from amnesia. David remembers Roger telling him to go outside and play, but that's all he remembers. He has lost a day in-between, too. Cassandra sends him up to see his father, who will surely be pleased by his recovery. Mrs. Johnson asks if David feels all right, and he assures her he's never felt better. Mrs. J says it's really strange, but Cassandra points out that he's himself again, and that's what matters. Mrs. Johnson admits to being very fond of David, and Cassandra praises the way Mrs. Johnson took care of him. She tries to send Mrs. J to bed, but the housekeeper is afraid to go to sleep. Of what, asks Cass, and Mrs. Johnson says she fears a terrible dream--she's going to have one soon. Cassandra says Mrs. J is too tired, she's imagining things, and leads the housekeeper to the sofa to rest. She encourages her to have some broth and relax, but Mrs. J doesn't want to. Cassandra orders her to get the rest she deserves, and hands Mrs. J the broth with a smile. (have an apple, little girl!)
Sarah Johnson falls asleep sitting up on the sofa. Cassandra puts some pillows behind her head and strokes her forehead to make her more comfortable. Don't fight the dream anymore, murmurs Cassandra, and closes the double doors so Mrs. Johnson is alone in the drawing room. David is her beckoner; and her special door contains a bunch of nasty, squirmy bats, making all sorts of ugly chirping sounds.
She emits an award winning scream, then awakens and clutches her throat. (I was expecting a headless mop as her greatest terror.)
NOTES: Lara Parker seems even more evil in this go-round as Cassandra, doesn't she. Not a redeeming quality in the bunch! Why didn't she just make David forget what he'd seen instead of striking him mute? Perhaps the latter spell was all she had time for.
Love that Sarah Johnson! It's hard to believe she came to Collinwood as Burke's spy, but that storyline was dropped and never mentioned again. I'd have loved to see her confessing to Liz why she'd really come to work at Collinwood, and how she was taking money from both Burke and the Collinses!
Odd that Barnabas seemed so intent on killing his newborn, full-grown son. All Adam did was trash a lab and chase Julia around, look at all the killing Barnabas himself did, and no one put him out of HIS misery! This is an interesting dynamic--Barnabas and Julia as parents--but they seem to do much better in the future with Amy than with Adam.
Love, Robin
