I haven't really found anything to say about the action going on in the present but I'll try in here.
First the past: We see the family attending Jeremiah's funeral, a grief-stricken Josette breaks down....Barnabas tries to either calm her or comfort her but she lashes out at him, once again accusing him of murdering her 'only love'. I think at this point Joshua would well have been within his rights to kick her and the rest of her clan out of Collinwood. At the very least SOMEONE needed to remind Josette that it was JEREMIAH who called for the duel...(I'm still at a loss at what made the writers think he had more right to call for and get satisfaction than the brother he had wronged). And that if Barnabas had gotten shot and died instead, Joshua very likely would have disowned Jeremiah forever and tossed him and Josette out of the house on their ears and out of the estate forever.
Angelique is smirking at this display...and then we see Reverend Trask interrupt the funeral so he can have Vicki arrested and tossed into the local jail. Joshua is outraged at Trask's nerve, but is helpless to prevent her arrest.
Barnabas goes to the jail to see Vicki and to reassure her that the family is behind her (except Abigail of course) and that Joshua, Peter and he will do everything they can to secure her release. Vicki fears she'll be convicted as a witch and hanged but Barnabas assures her that they will see that will not happen.
Angelique visits Barnabas alone in his room. She tries to 'comfort' him (more likely get in his pants) and thinks he'll be more than willing to respond to her advances now that Josette has betrayed him and hates him. However, he tells her the very opposite...he still loves Josette and will never love another woman as long as she is alive. Unfortunately this sets Angelique on the one course she feels is left open to her in order to win Barnabas....by getting rid of Josette.
Natalie reads the cards and sees the wicked woman. She tells Josette that she was indeed being bewitched, but Josette refuses to believe it. So Josette would rather believe she willing betrayed her fiancé with his brother then had the hypocrisy to accuse Barnabas of killing Jeremiah in a duel that Jeremiah asked for....not to mention that in the previous episode Josette herself said she felt she was being bewitched....her disbelief in here makes no sense.
Natalie leaves her alone. Angelique uses her voodoo to make Jeremiah rises. We see Josette playing the music box Barnabas has given her, so maybe she has started to believe again that she was under a spell when she ran off and married Jeremiah.
She is horrified to see Jeremiah in the doorway in her room. She struggles with him, but he overpowers her and grabs her off.
The men go out searching for her and find Jeremiah holding Josette over the cliff at Widows' Hill, preparing to drop her to her death. Barnabas pleads with Jeremiah to not allow the evil force that has destroyed him destroy Josette too. Jeremiah says the name Angelique and then jumps to his death...for good this time.
Josette is brought safely home. Angelique puts on a show of being so concerned over Josette in front of the family, but later in the privacy of her room, she vows that next time Josette won't be so lucky.
However while she was attending to Josette, Barnabas had broken into her room and found the two figures in bondage of each other...figures that he guesses correctly are figures of Jeremiah and Josette. Later, he shows Natalie what he has found and tells her where he has found it....in Angelique's room. Natalie admits that she was aware that Angelique knew the ways of voodoo, as well as her mother...which makes one wonder why the DuPres would have wanted be around such people in the first place, let alone have the daughter be a maid to their daughter.
Barnabas decides to confront Angelique, but Natalie advises him against it, warning him how powerful Angelique must be. Barnabas asks how much more can Angelique can do than she's already done....um, HELLO!!!! Barnabas, she's a witch...she can do anything....he's making a huge mistake underestimating what more damage she can do.
Barnabas barges into Angelique's room and demands that she remove the love spell that she placed on Josette. Angelique warns him that if she does that, she'll see to it that Josette dies once the spell is removed. Barnabas flat out tells her that he will take the voodoo dolls to the authorities (something that he should have done first thing instead of letting her know he was on to her) and will personally see to it that she hangs and that he and Josette will dance on her grave. Enraged, Angelique attempts to stab him with a knife....they struggle and she falls on the floor....and onto the knife. She dies, but not before she curses Barnabas for eternity.
The spell on Josette is broken. Natalie tells her that it was Angelique who bewitched her. Barnabas goes to Josette's room and sees she is all right....and that she is no longer under Angelique's spell. Natalie leaves to tell the rest of the family. Josette begs Barnabas' forgiveness...but he gently and lovingly tells her that there is nothing to forgive. She falls into his arms. Sweet scene that I enjoyed very much I must say.
Now to the present....Barnabas tells Willie he knows of Vicki's predictament in the past because of what Sarah wrote in her diary. He insists they must try and bring her back to the present. The family decides to hold another séance and Roger jokingly says that if he ends up getting sent back in time he would want to go to 16th century Floreance. They start the séance. Maggie calls for Sarah and asks her to help Vicki get back to the present. Sarah speaks through Maggie this time and warns the family they must stop because something evil is trying to get to the present. The window bursts open and Julia feels something trying to get inside of her, as she tells the family once the séance is over. She goes to her room and we see that indeed something or rather someone HAS taken hold of her...Angelique. Which places the still gravely ill Phyllis Wick in greater danger.
Reverend Trask confronts Vicki in her cell and taunts her over 'her' spells and incantations. Fortunately Peter arrives and gets the balliff to kick Trask out. The two of them alone, Vicki confesses to Peter who she really is and where she really comes from....from the 20th century, 1991. Peter is startled with disbelief over her story, but Vicki tells him where he can find the proof...her notes that she had written when she had first came to Collinwood in 1790, still safely tucked away in her room.
Barnabas and Ben bury Angelique's body in the woods. Barnabas informs the family back at the house and goes to his room. 'Josette' comes to him and starts kissing him...he responds at first, but she comes on stronger and he pulls away...and sees to his horror that this Josette is a vampire and she bites him rather violently....he falls to the floor as 'she' continues to bite him and drink from him....finally we see it was never Josette at all...a vampire bat that had taken the form of Josette thanks to...yep, you guess it, none other than Angelique...whose ghostly, floating apparition appears and gloats to him how she tricked him with the image of his beloved Josette.
The real Josette senses what's up and rushes to Barnabas' room. Angelique's ghost is gone now, but sees Barnabas lying on the floor dying. She rushes toward him and begs him not to die now that they have each other again. I wonder, had things not happen as they did, how much time would have passed before she and Barnabas could have gotten married without it causing a scandal. The town knew of her marriage to Jeremiah and the duel....well, maybe it wouldn't have caused THAT much of a scandal since the residents seem to believe it was witchcraft that drove her and Jeremiah to fall in love and get married. Still, I think Joshua would have insisted that Barnabas and Josette wait until enough time has passed over the shock of Jeremiah's passing in respect for his memory.
Anyway, with his dying woods, Barnabas declares his unending love for Josette, then dies in a sobbing Josette's arms. I must admit it was sad to see Barnabas and Josette once again separated for good thanks to Angelique's evil treachery, this time seemingly for good....or so it would seem.
Satisfying episode, yet also sad. Can't wait for more....
