I guess the writers had Yaeger crash through the drawing room windows to make a spectacular exit from a completely irretrievable situation. Elizabeth locks the front door, terrified that Yaeger will return and kill her, but Hoffman doesn’t think so. With remarkable sang froid, Hoffman confirms that Sabrina is dead, the drawing room and foyer telephones likewise. She decides to go to Loomis House to phone the police. Elizabeth is also terrified to be left alone, but Hoffman reminds her that the [unseen by us] children are at home and she must stay in the house for their sakes.
In her underground seaside prison, Maggie is trying to free her hands by working her wrists back and forth to gain any possible increment of slack in the rope.
At Loomis House, Hoffman phones the police to report Sabrina’s murder and Yaeger’s escape. (This is the first time we see a telephone in what we know as the Old House.) Her civic duty fulfilled, she decides to do a little detective work of her own. She opens the secret panel behind the bookcase and finds the room with the coffin. Since it’s night, the coffin is of course empty. Why would Barnabas keep a coffin? she wonders, closing the panel. Nonetheless, she knows Angelique will be pleased at the news. Just as she’s about to leave the house, Barnabas walks in. What are you doing here? he demands, none too happy at the intrusion. She tells him that John Yaeger has just murdered Sabrina. They both go back to Collinwood to await the police.
It turns out that Yaeger lied to Sabrina--he still has one more dose of the antidote left and gulps it down just as the police arrive. Without time to change into Cyrus's clothes, he throws his lab coat on--strangely, it doesn't have a pocket protector.
Cyrus weeps when the inspector (played by one Philip R. Allen in his only appearance on the show) tells him that Sabrina is dead--and that Yaeger killed her. If he didn't realize it before, Cyrus now knows that he has no memory of what Yaeger does. The policeman says, Time is our only weapon now. You do want to see him caught? Yes! Cyrus answers with sudden anger. He tells the detective as much as he dares about Yaeger: He lived (occasionally) at Minnie Du Val’s boarding house. He was a brilliant man, but no one could tie him down. Whenever he was in town he would work for me here as a chemist. But the lab was the closest thing he had to a permanent address. Suddenly he finds his courage and says, Officer! But as the policeman looks up, Cyrus loses his nerve and says, I just wanted to know where the murder took place. Collinwood, the officer replies, but no one knows why they were there. Cyrus promises to phone the police if Yaeger turns up. Be careful, the detective warns him, Yaeger is a madman. Yes, he is mad, Cyrus agrees, still weeping. The officer departs, and Cyrus is overwhelmed by guilt and grief--and terror that he will change back into Yaeger. Sabrina! he sobs. What am I going to do?
Elizabeth and Barnabas watch as the [offstage] ambulance takes poor Sabrina’s body away from Collinwood. Elizabeth tells Barnabas, Cyrus is out of town, but the police are sending someone to the lab. Shivering, she adds, I wonder if I’ll ever be able to go into the drawing room again. Barnabas coaxes her in with a brandy and the promise that talking will do her good. He theorizes, Maggie may be in danger now. Yaeger was very fond of her. (This is a strange choice of words, even for the discreet Barnabas; “obsessed with perverted lust for her” would be closer to the mark). I heard in town about how Yaeger threatened Maggie. I have a lot of questions about Maggie, but most of all I want to know where she is. Elizabeth says, The house frightens me (even though the children are still supposedly upstairs in bed). Barnabas invites her to Loomis House, where he plans to call the police and tell them about Yaeger’s obsession with Maggie. (Why didn’t he tell them before??? And doesn’t he realize that they’ll be leaving the children alone???)
Maggie manages to roll off the bed but gives herself only a moment's rest. She kneels her way to a corner of the roughly plastered wall. Sitting with her back to it, she begins the laborious task of sawing at the ropes around her wrists. (Kudos to KLS for giving this her all!)
At the lab, devoured with grief and remorse, Cyrus contemplates the empty antidote bottle. As long I’m still Cyrus, he decides, I must call someone and tell them about Maggie. She must be found! he tells himself. He stares at his reflection in the large oval mirror as he continues, Before you feel the pain again--because you will! You can’t stop turning into him now! But Yaeger saw to it that I can’t call Collinwood. He phones Barnabas at Loomis House. Barnabas has just hung up the phone after talking to the police when he gets Cyrus’s call. Barnabas offers his and Elizabeth’s condolences. Cyrus thanks him hastily, but urgently tells him, Yaeger is holding Maggie prisoner at the old Wicks farm. She’s in the basement, and sick. How do you know all about it? Barnabas asks sharply. Cyrus says, Just don’t ask me because-- I can’t tell you, Barnabas. Will you just go? he adds urgently. Go--and be very careful. Be very, very careful, because Yaeger may get there before you. His voice scaling up with panic and desperation, he adds, I may not be able to stop him, do you understand? Barnabas, I'm warning you, and now there is nothing more I can do! he finishes and hangs up. Barnabas immediately springs into action, pausing only long enough to ask Elizabeth the quickest way to the Wicks farm.
Cyrus knows he has no possible way to explain how he knew where Maggie is. Slowly walking back to the mirror, he tells his reflection bitterly, It's over! You couldn't resist being Yaeger. There is only one way to manage him now. Nothing touches him--nothing! He lied, he killed! You thought you could keep him a secret and could become him when you wanted to. Only now you become him even when you _don't_ want to. And you hate the idea so much that you could kill him. Slowly he walks away from the mirror to the desk, takes a gun (like the armoire, an apparently essential piece of lab equipment) and holds it in front of his face. Goodbye--goodbye, John Yaeger, he says, putting the pistol to his temple in the received manner. But before he can pull the trigger, he screams with pain and despair as the convulsive transformation begins one more time.
Back at Collinwood, Elizabeth tells Hoffman that Yaeger is holding Maggie prisoner; for once Hoffman’s surprise isn’t entirely pretended. How did Cyrus know? Elizabeth wonders. What is this curious hold Yaeger has over him? Obviously he’s terrified of Yaeger--he kept warning Barnabas. Hoffman reassures Elizabeth that “Mr. Barnabas Collins” is well able to take care of himself. Barnabas has been gone for over half an hour, Elizabeth frets. Since everything happened so fast, the police don’t know about Cyrus’s phone call, so Elizabeth decides to go to the squad car at the gate and tell them. Once alone, Hoffman frets privately that so much has happened that Angelique doesn’t know. (Presumably “Alexis” recovered enough to go to Bangor with Quentin).
Maggie’s perseverance pays off once more; minus a shoe but now free of the ropes, she opens the door (which Yaeger had left unlocked in his haste to follow Sabrina) and makes for the stairs. But she instantly flies back into the room when she hears a sound from upstairs. Thinking it’s Yaeger, she hides in the wardrobe. Barnabas enters silently (maybe he thinks Yaeger is already there) and sees the cot, then finds Maggie’s hairbrush. So he knows she _was_ here at least, and goes upstairs to continue his search. (Maggie couldn’t see into the room because she pulled the wardrobe door shut, so she thought Barnabas was Yaeger.) Maggie opens the door and starts for the stairs again--only to cry out in horror and despair as she sees Yaeger waiting on the landing, laughing. Did you think I forgot about you, darlin’? he asks, laughing even harder. Christopher Pennock must have eaten his Wheaties that morning, because Yaeger springs down the few steps and seizes Maggie once more. She screams again before he wraps his arm around her neck. She struggles to pull his arm away, but she can’t possibly match his insane strength....
