The most interesting thing about this episode (for me at least) is how far Willie has come from the thuggish brute who arrived in Collinsport with Jason McGuire. He does his best to comfort Julia, even though he is just as sorrowful.
Both Barnabas and Adam are in desperate straits, despite Julia's frantic efforts to save Barnabas. Willie tells her that a week before, Barnabas gave him a hammer and a stake.
At the root cellar, Adam tells Carolyn, Carolyn, go! Adam says. Carolyn promises to come back with a doctor. Lifting his head so he can look into her eyes, Adam declares, Carolyn--good. Then he lapses into unconsciousness. Carolyn is even more frightened.
Professor Stokes arrives, wearing a resplendent red vest. But he can no more help Adam than Julia can help Barnabas. Stokes and Carolyn watch helplessly as Adam's heartbeat grows fainter and fainter. Eventually it stops altogether--
--at exactly the moment when Barnabas's heart apparently also stops. Julia and Willie are distracted with grief. Willie admits, I know I shouldn't have unchained the coffin, but Barnabas was always nice to me. (I suppose that in this crisis, he is willing to overlook Barnabas’s terrible abuse of him in their early days.) Unconsciously rocking back and forth to console herself, Julia orders Willie to bring the necessary tools. She tries, but simply cannot bring herself to carry out Barnabas’s last request. (Lucky thing too, because the hammer has TWO points!) Eventually Julia decides they will bury Barnabas in the woods without staking him.
Carolyn is beside herself with grief, recalling that Adam saved her life. With Zen-like calm, Stokes opines, I think there’s more going on than we know about. Somehow I can’t believe Adam is dead. I will await further developments. But the moments tick relentlessly by, and nothing happens.
Willie has dug the grave, and somehow he and Julia have gotten the coffin into it. Julia forgives Barnabas, knowing he couldn't help doing the terrible things he did. With awkward but sincere sympathy, Willie tells her, You’d feel better if you cried. I'm past crying, Willie, Julia replies, looking beaten and exhausted. If I could imagine life without him, I could cry. But I can't. I can't. Can this really be the end?
