357 - (Nancy Barrett) - The sounds of thunder shake the great walls of Collinwood and echo across the land. But inside, there is a moment's peace as in the eye of a hurricane. But soon to be broken, for Collinwood is a house with many secrets demanding to be known, and the secrets tie enemies together, as well as tear friends apart. While the ancient clock ticks on, knowing that time has its secrets, too.
Seeking Julia's notebook, Carolyn starts opening the grandfather clock. Julia tries to forestall her by remarking that ever since she learned about Barnabas, she's been wishing she had someone to share the secret with. Dr. Woodard knew, Carolyn reminds her--and he's dead. A knock at the door interrupts the tense scene, and Carolyn answers the door to Tony Peterson, a good-looking man who says he's looking for Roger Collins. Carolyn heads upstairs to find Roger and Julia tells the man to wait in the drawing room. Julia starts to take the notebook from the clock, but Roger comes downstairs and interrupts her efforts. Julia giggles, nervous, almost hysterical.
Drawing room - Tony Peterson tells Roger he's a lawyer, representing a cannery employee who was hurt in an accident.
Julia nervously paces the foyer.
Tony makes it clear to Roger that he doesn't like the Collins family and not only wants to seek decent restitution for his client, he wants to make trouble for the family as well.
Carolyn, standing at the top of the stairs, catches Julia removing the notebook from the clock. Tony storms from the drawing room. Outside, a dog howls. Carolyn gazes predatorially at Julia, who, desperate,
begs Tony for a ride into town. Carolyn tries to stop them, with no success, and they leave together. The clock strikes the quarter hour, and Roger comes out and tells Carolyn that Tony is an angry young man. He asks his niece to play a game of chess with him, but Carolyn says she must run an errand for Barnabas. Sourly, Roger comments that Barnabas seems able to get everyone to do anything he wants--"I wish I knew his secret," he says. No you don't, Carolyn assures him--"he just needs more help than anyone." Her face shows tremendous concern, and Roger asks if everything is all right. She tells him everything is fine and leaves.
Tony's office - A dog howls in the distance as Julia paces the floor. Tony tells Julia he doesn't like the Collins family and envies them their wealth. I want what they have, he insists. You wouldn't if you knew, says Julia. "If you've never had money," says Tony, "you never know how it will hit the blood.
His comment, too close to home, rattles Julia. He notices how scared she is and tries to get her to talk, but she's hesitant. She notices he has a safe, takes out the notebook and reveals to Tony that there's a man who wants this notebook very badly. She refuses to give him details, but does say this man will kill her tonight if she leaves this office with the notebook still on her person. Tony guesses the man is Roger, but Julia tells him that's incorrect. She begins to break down, her fear overcoming her. I can't go to the police, she says, trembling--lock it up in the safe. Tony finally agrees, and she makes him swear that he won't read the contents. She locks the book and keeps the key. (flimsy) You'll hear many lies about me and the contents of that notebook, she warns him--if I die, I want that notebook taken to the police. She then leaves, assuring him she'll take a taxi back to Collinwood. Moments after Julia has gone, Carolyn shows up, and notices that Tony is holding the notebook in his hand. I've come to apologize for my Uncle Roger's behavior, she says silkily, but Tony tells her that scene was his own fault. Carolyn flirts with the lawyer outrageously, working to convince him that Julia is paranoid, thinks people are after her, is unhappy and unlucky in love. (strike three, you're out!)
He walks to the safe with the notebook, ready to put it away. He grabs Carolyn and demands to know why she's here.
NOTES: Frankly, I loved Tony Peterson. He was brash, fun and forthright, and I felt he was the best possible boyfriend for Carolyn. Forget the rest, he was the best!
Can you feel Julia's desperation here? She's hunted by both Barnabas and Carolyn, and knows that if she can't hide that notebook overnight, she's doomed. Tony was the only possible ally, so she latched onto him fiercely and begged for his help. It's weird to see Julia, such a normally self-possessed woman, turning to quivering jelly under Barnabas' threats and Carolyn's fervent assistance to her vampire cousin.
What's going to happen to Julia now? Will Carolyn "vamp" the notebook out of his hands, or will he keep his promise to Julia? He seems like a promise-keeper to me, but Carolyn is damned attractive, and who's to say his little head won't be overpowered by the other one?
358 -- (Grayson Hall) - A light still burns in the great house of Collinwood. A light, perhaps, to keep away the fears which destroy the peacefulness of those sleeping there. But all do not sleep. For some, night is as day. For evil keeps no set business hours. And plans devised before dawn can bring horror and death at dusk.
Old House drawing room - Barnabas is not pleased to learn that Julia brought her notebook to Tony Peterson, and advances threateningly on Carolyn when he thinks this young man might know all about him. Carolyn convinces her cousin that the notebook was locked and placed in the safe without being read by Tony. Besides, she told Tony that Julia is crazy. It's nearing dawn, so Barnabas' plan to go to Tony's office to retrieve the notebook must fall completely to Carolyn. He questions her about the young lawyer, whom she describes as violent, rude, and yes, she admits, handsome. That should make the job easier, grins Barnabas.
Then a new possibility hits him--make the world think Julia is paranoid and crazy for real! He comes up with what he says the cheaper tabloids (how does he even know about them?) call macabre mementos--the burnt hypodermic needle and empty serum bottle Julia used to help kill Dr. Woodard.
Carolyn and Tony have a drink together at the Blue Whale. He's having a hard time overcoming his first impression of her, his aversion to her rich girl status.
He suggests she needs a job, that she shouldn't be tracking down strange guys, etc. He does agree that she's really pretty, but when he invites her to join him for a business trip/ride to Deer Point, followed by dinner, she refuses, and he accuses her of stuffing the toy (him) back in the box. He wonders if she'd "play" with him if Julia weren't his client, but she says she has to go hang with her cousin. Call me after 11 PM, she invites, making it apparent she finds him very attractive.
It's 6 PM. Carolyn greets Julia at the door, warns her Barnabas will get her notebook (and her little dog, too?). Julia coldly dismisses Carolyn, who reminds her cocktails are in half an hour.
In her bedroom, Julia is terrified when she finds the hypo and bottle, along with the metal case they came in, on her desk. She clutches her throat and wonders where these macabre mementos came from. She burned the needle, didn't she? Is it Dave? No, decides Julia, it's a trick to scare her--Barnabas retrieved the needle from the fireplace and had Carolyn leave the items in her room! She pushes them back in the metal box and marches out of her room.
Tony calls Carolyn from Deer Point to tell her he won't be calling her at 11--but he would like to see her for dinner the following night. She accepts, but Julia interrupts the call and even grabs the phone from Carolyn and hangs up the receiver. Julia shows the blonde the items she found in her room and accuses her of putting them there. Why do they upset you? Carolyn asks (I don't think she really knows, does she)? Leave me alone, Julia demands, verging in hysteria. It's bad enough that I remember. "Control yourself, Julia!" Carolyn taunts. "You haven't even changed your clothes for dinner. You stay with us, you live by our rules!"
Carolyn goes to the Old House and finds Barnabas engaged in a strange ritual with a tray on the desk. She gleefully reports Julia was too upset to even come down for dinner. He assures Carolyn there will be no rest for Dr. Hoffman the rest of this night, and tells her about an Indian in Barbados he once knew, a man who taught Barnabas the secrets of enormous power. This man spoke to the gods and was jailed and sentenced to death as a warlock ("a male witch, my poor, uneducated child," adds Barnabas). The Indian escaped before they could execute him, but he whispered the secret magic number of the universe (to Barnabas, I guess) before he disappeared. This gives Barnabas the ability to plant a germ in someone's mind, where the disease will spread. Barnabas urges a disbelieving Carolyn to watch and witness the magic. He holds up the tray he was preparing and mutters an incantation in what sounds like gibberish. There's a whooshing sound and, before Carolyn's stunned gaze, Barnabas disappears! Scared, she stares around--where did he go?
Julia tosses in bed, unable to sleep. She hears the same whooshing sound Carolyn did, and sees a dark figure silhouetted in front of her window. She hears Dave Woodard's voice--"Why did you kill me? I thought we were friends, Julia." She denies it, insisting that Barnabas killed him, but the voice continues--he'll never let her forget it!
Julia, kneeling, falls face down on the bed, seemingly in a faint. Outside her window, a bat hovers, squeaking in what is probably triumph.
NOTES: That was so good! What magical powers does Barnabas possess? Does Carolyn actually know that Julia and Barnabas murdered Woodard? I don't think so. Barnabas is going after Julia with all guns blazing. Will she succumb?
Will Carolyn fall in love with Tony? He seems the perfect man to tame her, but there's that poor man/rich girl roadblock. Can they overcome it?
How else is Barnabas going to torture Julia?
Love, Robin
