I'm in the mood for a bit of speculation. Any takers?
In 1897...
[spoiler]Count Petofi took away Barnabas' power to disappear at will. Barnabas was later locked in a cell and left there to await imminent doom at sunrise. This always bothered me a bit. Couldn't Barnabas have turned into a bat and flown out? For that matter, couldn't he have simply bent the bars or busted through the door? After all, Barnabas displayed remarkable supernatural strength at times (bending the bars in Dave Woodard's office, for example). So what was the deal? Why couldn't he get out of there despite losing his ability to vanish?
The real answer, obviously, was that the writers decided to do it that way to build suspense, and to show what a threat Petofi was. However, what kind of explanation can we offer within the confines of the Dark Shadows plot?
I have two possible answers. A.) Petofi took away some of Barnabas' other powers (strength and ability to transform), in addition to his ability to disappear. B.) There's an unknown story behind that cell. Maybe something happened in there, and it was somehow enchanted or proteced against any kind of supernatural power? I tend to go with B since it's kind of fun to think there might be some untold story about the cell. However, I suppose A is more likely.[/spoiler]
What do you cousins think? Does anyone have other possible explanations for this little inconsistency?
~Penny Dreadful~