I remember the opening scene as being very realistic, given the topic of conversation. Julia tells Barnabas, You know what will happen when Joe hears the vampire’s call. Yes, I know only too well, replies Barnabas in an understatement of ambiguity.
I like the cross-cutting (I think that's the term) in this episode between Barnabas and Julia, Barnabas, Julia, Harry, and Angelique. It could have been really complicated, but the writing and editing are really very good.
Angelique meets Barnabas in the woods after amusing herself for a moment by watching him call to her. She is angry that he didn’t kill Joe as she had commanded. He pleads that he couldn’t bring himself to do it, but to no avail. Angelique takes great pleasure in ordering him to kill Joe tonight. She explains, I want you to be responsible for it and have the guilt on your conscience for all eternity. (If she knew how Joe’s death would fit right in with Nicholas’s plans, she probably would not be so insistent.) Barnabas refuses to obey her.
Harry finds Barnabas in the woods and brings him back to Collinwood. For once you've done something right, Mrs. Johnson snaps to her offspring. But Barnabas refuses all help and goes back to the Old House.
Julia is relieved to see Barnabas when he returns to the Old House, but she is already so exhausted and anxious that she doesn’t really notice that he keeps his overcoat on with the collar turned up. She is in for a terrible shock.
