This episode is the start of a very bold night for Willie and a very bad night for Barnabas.
Willie is afraid that Barnabas wants to hurt Vicki. Barnabas insists he has no plans to harm her and reminds him that he should be "filled with joy that Maggie Evans is alive--a though that doesn't fill me with joy," he adds sourly.
For the moment Barnabas will allow Julia to conduct her experiments. In these early days, he calls her "Hoffman," as if she were a servant--which is exactly how he thinks of her. And in his day, servants were easily dispsable.
Score one for Willie! As Barnabas puts on his coat, we get a wonderful JF moment. Barnabas ruminates rather smugly, It’s strange how people cling to life as if it were better to grow old, ugly and humiliated than to remain young and beautiful forever--untouched by time, untouched by _anything_. But as he goes out the door, for once Willie has the last word: Except loneliness. Unseen by Willie, a look of sadness flickers across Barnabas’s face as he pauses.
At Collinwood, Burke and Vicki seem to have forgotten about Sarah's little cap. Burke listens indulgently, not to say patronizingly, as Vicki rhapsodizes about her dream house, which she entered despite a big No Tresspassing sign. Burke turns up his nose at the house's lack of heating or electricity, but Barnabas comments snidely, Most people enjoy their creature comforts. Somehow Vicki has invited him along to see the house--much to Burke's displeasure. Burke asks how Barnabas knew about the sign. All empty old houses have them, Barnabas replies smoothly. (Maybe he flew over it one night!)
Vicki remembers that the house was chilly and goes upstairs to change into a warmer dress. (The concept of pants never crosses her mind.) And I want to look in on David, she adds. He was very upset before about his imaginary friend. We forget, and we get out of touch with how children think, she muses, since childhood was such a long time ago. Yes, it was a long, long time ago, agrees Barnabas, turning away from her to gaze sadly at what only his eyes can see.
While Vicki changes, the temperature plummets as Burke and Barnabas try to find out about each other--equally without success. Burke is typically impatient at the time Vicki is taking, but Barnabas says, A man should be prepared tow ait for a beautiful woman--through all eternity if necessary. Just as they agree that they have blank pasts, Vicki comes in, wearing a long-sleeved Mondrian-type tent dress. Utterly unaware of the duel that she missed, she announces that she’s ready for the house tour. You were well worth waiting for, Barnabas tells her admiringly as Burke glares at him.
