417 - (KLS) - A seance has been held in the great house at Collinwood, a seance which has suspended time and space and sent one girl on an uncertain and frightening journey into the past, back to the year 1795. There, each of the Collins ancestors resembles a present-day member of the Collins family, but the names and relationships have changed, and Victoria Winters finds herself a stranger in a sea of familiar faces. One member of the Collins family has been cursed and must walk the earth as one of the living dead. He seeks to end the curse, and after this night, perhaps he will.
Ben tells Barnabas he's afraid to destroy him, but Barnabas reminds him it would be giving him the gift of peace, which he longs for, and would be his only salvation. Ben promises, and also swears he'll help Vicki. Barnabas has told him where to find money and asks him to keep the rest, start a new life for himself and forget all the horror that has transpired. He also, heartbreakingly, asks Ben to remember the good about him. Barnabas wonders how it will be, to know no more sun or moonlight, but Ben advises him to think of nothing. When Ben mentions that Josette will only remember the good about him, Barnabas decides he must see her once more before the end. Ben tries to discourage this--what if Barnabas does something to her, as he did to the woman murdered the night before? That won't happen, promises Barn, but Ben continues to make his case against seeing Josette again, and Barnabas curtly sends him away. Josette sleeps. Barnabas enters her room, first as a bat, then transforms into himself. He gazes at her, says goodbye, and even as he's cautioning himself, moves closer. The door opens and before he can take action, Natalie, gasping, has spotted him!
He immediately dematerializes before her eyes. Josette awakens to find her flustered aunt standing there. Natalie insists they must immediately leave Collinwood, but Josette insists she's going to wait--her lifetime, if necessary--for Barnabas to fulfill his promise to return to her. If Natalie wants to return to Martinique, fine, but Josette is staying!
Natalie changes tactics and comes up with another idea--isn't Josette afraid of the prophecy of her death, especially after Sarah? Yes, but she's willing to wait and die, says Josette. Natalie comes up with yet another story: she's scared--she read the Tarot and she, the Countess, is going to die! So that means BOTH of them are in danger!
Natalie is going to die if she remains at Collinwood and she refuses to leave without Josette. Josette reluctantly agrees to leave as soon as possible, but it's apparent she doesn't want to and is only doing so to save her aunt. Natalie is relieved. So is Ben, later, when Josette meets him on the terrace and she tells him they're going back to Martinique. Ben is staring at her (probably checking for signs of vampire attack), which she notices, but he says he's just worried about her. They discuss the women who were attacked in town and he reminds her the house is an unhappy place. She doesn't want to leave, she says, citing Barnabas' promise to return to her and her feeling that he's very close by, but he says Barnabas is dead, and that's all there is to it, and her feelings of closeness to the man she loves are all in her imagination. Leaving Collinwood is the best thing for her, and she says she knows she has to.
Josette, heading up to get some sleep as dawn approaches, hears soft laughter, but Ben doesn't. It's time for his grisly task of destroying his good friend.
Ben enters the secret room and opens the casket in which Barnabas slumbers. After a false start in which he has to get his courage up, he places the stake over the vampire's heart and is about to hammer it home when he hears a woman's cackling laughter. "Stop it!" demands Ben, and after a few moments, it does. Angelique's face suddenly appears, growing larger. She's laughing. She tells Ben she isn't going to allow him to end her curse, and to prove it, causes his stake to disappear.
She still has power over him, she declares, and orders him to go. The secret door opens by itself, and Ben runs in out, terror-stricken, from the laughing visage. Angelique's head hovers over Barnabas as she warns him that her curse will be carried out. "You'll never escape the curse," she says with glee, "nor shall your Josette!" Her head grows larger and her triumphant laughter fills the room, growing louder and more maniacal.
NOTES: Although Angelique did try to prevent Barnabas from rising as a vampire, I would assume she's pissed enough over being murdered by him to insists that her curse remain in place. Poor Ben, he wants nothing more than to be free of her, but she won't let him go, not now, and one assumes, not ever.
418 - (KLS) - A seance has been held in the great house at Collinwood, a seance which has suspended time and space and sent one girl on an uncertain and frightening journey into the past, back to the year 1795. There, each of the Collins ancestors resembles a present-day member of the Collins family, but the names and relationships have changed, and Victoria Winters finds herself a stranger in a sea of familiar faces, swept along with the entire Collins ancestry in a terrifying tide of inhuman horror--the effects of which will haunt even the present.
Barnabas awakens in his coffin, and upon realizing he was not destroyed, grabs Ben's throat in fury. He attempts to strangle him more than once before poor Ben can explain that Angelique appeared and prevented him from destroying him as he'd requested. Realizing that, even dead, his witch-wife will continue to torment him, Barnabas is despondent. Ben tells him that Angelique is determined that the curse be carried out, and Sarah's death is the first sign of it. Barnabas wars with himself over seeing Josette again; as much as he realizes that he can't trust himself, he still wants to be with her. Ben tells him that Josette remembers Barnabas' promise to return to her, and when he saw her earlier, she said she feels his presence.
This immediately resurrects Barnabas' passion for his beloved Josette, and he decides he MUST see her again--he craves her love. Ben tells him Josette is returning to Martinique, for her own safety, and hopefully, to prevent the curse from coming true. Though the human Barnabas agrees this would be best, the other part of him disagrees. Barnabas says he's going out to wherever the night takes him (not Josette), and closes Ben in the secret room. Angelique's head appears again, laughing at Ben. Her curse will be fulfilled, she assures him; if Barnabas won't go to Josette, Josette will come to him! She speaks Josette's name, first in her own voice, then it changes over to Barnabas'. Angelique's floating head appears over Josette's bed, where the young woman is sleeping. "Surrender yourself to me," intones Angelique, "and you'll have your greatest wish." In her sleep, Josette hears Barn calling to her and responds by calling his name.
Josette dreams a dream conjured up by Angelique, who beckons and taunts her; she is led by the witch (only in shadow, so she doesn't know who it is) to the mausoleum. This is where she will find her beloved Barnabas! "See and remember," chants Angelique, and Josette awakens with a scream.
Josette hears Barnabas' voice calling her and hurries out of bed. She meets Ben in the woods, who at first tries to offer to take her home, and discourages, then begs, her from going to the cemetery, where he tells her she is now headed. Angelique's laughing head appears again when Ben is about to tell Josette whose voice she is REALLY hearing,
but what comes from his mouth is, "The wind in the woods." Josette asks him to come with her, but, under Angelique's power again, he refuses, and tells her to just go on where she was going. Angelique smirks as Josette complains of the chill in the air and Ben leaves her alone. Josette wonders why she's following a dream, but keeps going, into the mausoleum. She reads Sarah's plaque, hears a noise, wheels around, and finds herself face to face with Barnabas!
Josette is stunned and happy to find him, but Barnabas is not; when she tells him she heard his voice, calling her, he denies it. He begs her to leave, go far away. He walks away, to the other side of the tomb; she pursues him. She's in danger, she must leave, he implores. She's puzzled, she knows he loves her, they both have suffered so, he promised to return to her, and now he has! He says there are powers over them they can't control; she agrees--their love for each other! He backs away from her, but she assures him she isn't afraid--take me and hold me in you arms, Josette pleads. She reaches out to him, and Barnabas, overcome, gathers her in his embrace and, as she murmurs that she is, at last, safe, he moves her hair away from her throat and prepares to sink in his fangs. . .
NOTES: POWERFUL STUFF!
Love, Robin
