No, DarkLady, this was not a Friday cliffhanger. The Watching Project schedules episodes to be watched on the days of the week on which they were originally watched, except during Fest season.
Way back before Judah took the helm in Gerard's body, Gerard tempted Daphne to go on a date with him (a date in 1840, but let it pass) by saying he would tell her all about the exotic places he had visited. I'm figuring today's "wondrous new lands" were intended to be more of same. And I don't recall ever hearing that Judah/Gerard ever intended to kill Daphne. The only people he wanted dead, I thought, were Collinses. Plus the families of the other two judges at his 1692 witchcraft trial, except they were already extinct in 1840. Most disobliging of them.
Oh, dear, another famous Collinwood slap upside the head for a hysterical woman.
I think Gerard's striking of Samantha wasn't intended to be just another slap. I think the violence was intended to shock the viewers, as it did me. My immediate thought was: "That's done it. Samantha won't want Gerard anymore." But instead, Gerard talks her around, and she invites him, apparently not for the first time, to her bed that night (which is sort of surprising on Dark Shadows but, judging from a later event, would probably have become less so if the series had not been canceled so soon after this) and wonders why it was Gerard with whom she had to fall in love. I don't think Virginia Vestoff quite carried it off (which may be attributable to lack of rehearsal time) but I like the attempt on the part of the writers. So much of 1840 is retreads. This was not.
Meanwhile, we learn that it was not all beer and skittles, or wine and roses, back in the days when Quentin and Joanna were together. They fought! Fancy that! And a good thing too, otherwise Quentin would have found it harder to make the choice between the two sisters. But what does his choice matter? Samantha wouldn't give him a divorce before, and I'm assuming she won't give him a divorce now. Of course, if it were Gerard who wanted a divorce from Samantha, he'd just slap her until she gave him one (and reminded him to come to her bed that night) but Quentin's too nice a guy (we wouldn't want to call Quentin a sissy, would we?) to do something like that.
