Kudos to both Jerry Lacy and Nancy Barrett for their bravura performances in this episode! Both are absolutely pitch perfect.
Trask gives us another of his slimy, fulsome prayers, this time asking for divine help in returning the "poor, lost lamb." If I were the Almighty, I would smite him on the spot. What will you do with Jamison when you _get_ him? Barnabas asks. Make him see the error of his ways, Trask answers promptly. Creepy! Quentin joins them, and Trask goes upstairs to meditate. While Trask is still in hearing range, Quentin remarks to Barnabas, If Worthington Hall is as joyous as its master, Jamison and Nora are in for a joyous winter.
Quentin is so desperate to find out how he became dezombified that he actually asks Barnabas for an explanation. Barnabas is vague in his replies and remarks on how calm Quentin is in the face of Jamison's disappearance. Quentin answers, It’s only my manner. We Collinses are taught not to give way to panic. That’s easy when you know where the boy is, Barnabas observes. You said it--I didn’t, Quentin points out. Barnabas declares, I would have protected Jamison myself if the boy had come to me. Are you expecting a confession? Quentin asks. I don't trust you enough to give you one. If you keep on, I shall be forced to search the woods, and in my delicate condition, that wouldn't be wise. Barnabas agrees dryly and opines, It’s comforting to know that Jamison isn’t lost somewhere and will show up at the appropriate time. I still can’t believe Cousin Edward would allow his son to go to that man. I will find out everything about him and the school. Do you need to ask anything about it? Quentin returns. Bread, gruel, and a switch every time you fail to learn your lesson? Again we agree, Barnabas replies. But we mustn’t make a habit of it, Quentin warns. Barnabas takes the hint and leaves.
Rachel enters the drawing room, and Quentin just can't resist doing his zombie shtick. She screams and backs away, but Quentin can’t take more than three zombie steps before cracking up. Rachel wonders how he can joke about it. He replies seriously, Because I was frightened that every time you looked at me it would be with fear in your eyes--your lovely eyes, he adds as he turns his own big blue ones on full blast. But then he actually sees Rachel’s discomfort and explains, I had a spell put on me. He actually apologizes for carrying her off. Rachel lets slip that someone lives in the Tower Room. Quentin suddenly bounds up the stairs in pursuit of his lawful wedded wife.
Rachel is extremely dismayed when she opens the front door and finds Charity Trask standing there, but that's nothing to the horror she feels when she learns that Trask himself is in the house. Barnabas comes to the rescue and looks back and forth at both young ladies, sensing the tension between them--and clearly seeing Rachel’s distress. With his usual courtly gravity he takes Charity’s bag and tells her, I’ll take you to your room and tell your father that you’re here. Father will look forward so to his reunion with you, Charity tells Rachel, rudely turning her back on the governess as she marches upstairs. Rachel covers her face with her hands--and Barnabas notices that too.
Alone with her thoughts, Rachel decides she can't run away again but must face both the Trasks. Quentin finds her and reports that he found nothing in the Tower Room but a doll with one eye missing. Rachel tells Quentin, You aren't like the others--you do believe someone was in the room! [Has she forgotten already that Barnabas believed her?]
Trask has joined Charity in her room. She tells him, The lost lamb has been found, the lamb so in need of saving! I saw Rachel, not just in Collinsport, but here--as the governess! Here in this house? Now, this minute? says Trask in amazement. We must pray! We must give thanks that she has been delivered back to us! He turns his eyes up, and then father and daughter sink to their knees in prayer. [And kudos to both actors--this is really, really creepy!]
Quentin uncharacteristically leaves the lovely Rachel alone in the drawing room. Barnabas finds her there and she relates the sad story of her truly awful years at Worthington Hall. This is the first time we hear about her special friend, Tim. We used to meet secretly, she says. He would help me with my ... my schoolwork. [And yes, the guileless Rachel does mean her schoolwork!] Barnabas is appalled, especially when Rachel describes the indentured servitude Trask forces on her by making her continue working to pay off her tuition. She has just burst into tears when Trask arrives and demands to speak to her. Barnabas refuses to leave her alone with him, but he hints that she might not want Barn to hear their conversation. Rachel suggests he leave. I suggest you do as she says, Trask adds--it is not wise to know her too well. Softly Barnabas tells Rachel, I will be in the study if you want me. [As if she doesn’t!] Trask orders her to come to him. Looking beaten, she obeys.
After the commercial, Trask walks around Rachel, looking her up and down as if she were a newly acquired-- Bible, perhaps? It turns out that Rachel and Tim took their wages and ran away together. He taunts her by telling her that Tim is back and the school and that she soon will be. He leaves her in despair.
Charity is up in her room, dressed for bed, alone with-- her Bible. Her father comes to tell her, You needn’t worry--the lamb will return. This news seems to give Charity a thrill--a purely spiritual one, of course. She embraces-- her Bible and gazes upward with almost as much rapture as her father.
Barnabas offers to help Rachel, but she bursts into tears and runs away from him. His face full of anger, Barnabas gets his coat and cane. As he puts his cape on and steps outside the house, he apparently determines to do something. As he gazes up toward Charity’s bedroom window, he seems to decide what that something will be. (Nice moment from Mr. Frid!)
Later that night, Charity is asleep in bed when we hear a familiar squeaking and then see a bat at the window. On some level Charity hears it too, and stirs in her sleep. A moment later, Barnabas is in the room. Silently he approaches the bed and gazes down at his next meal. Perhaps the fact that Charity is a reverend’s daughter--and he another hated Reverend Trask--adds extra spice to the dish. Charity wakes up and gasps when she sees Barnabas staring down at her. But before she can even draw breath to scream, she seems to fall under his vampiric control. Willingly she turns toward his gleaming fangs, and he strikes....
