429 - (Clarice Blackburn) - 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, Victoria Winters is helpless to alter the tragic events being acted out before her terror-stricken eyes. Josette Collins, she knew, was destined to die a horrible and violent death. And now it has come to pass.
Mausoleum secret room - Barnabas leaves his coffin and finds Ben waiting there. Why have you stopped your work? The vampire demands. I don't want you to come out and see what I'm doing, says Ben. Why should I avoid the sight of an open plot of earth? demands Barnabas. You know it's not an ordinary grave, says Ben hesitantly. Are you afraid I would hate the sight of such an open plot of earth? asks Barnabas, his voice growing harsher--are you afraid I would take hold of such a man?--are you afraid I would grasp his throat and fling him into the earth?--Josette is dead!--how DARE you dig her grave? Barnabas grabs his throat. Ben struggles, gasping for breath. Would you want anyone else to do this work? he asks Barnabas, who finally lets him go and, despairing, orders him to finish. Stay inside, implores Ben. Is there a wind tonight? queries Barnabas--does it blow off the sea, through the trees, down the meadows? Yes, says Ben. Are there stars? Asks Barnabas. It's dark, answers Ben. Darkness will hide what must happen this night, says the vampire, pleased--why should anyone live when she is dead?--they all feared the plague--well, I will visit upon them a pestilence that will leave them nothing but the wish for a sudden and speedy death!--all I want is drestruction, blood, and death!
Don't hurt innocent people, begs Ben. Abruptly, Barnabas announces he wants to see Josette's body. Ben reminds him gently how she died, and pleads with him not to look at her, to instead remember her as she was. Was she wearing my ring? asks Barnabas. Learning she was not, he says he must find it--she must be buried with it. Ben tries to talk him out of this--Joshua saw Josette wearing the ring, and came to check Barnabas' body--and found the coffin empty. So he knows, says Barnabas. He knows nothing, says Ben, he assumed it was graverobbers. Then he came back, explains Ben, and saw you in the coffin--now he thinks he imagined it all. Then the danger is past, says Barnabas. Never! Replies Ben--forget the ring, please! It was my pledge to her, and hers to me, insists Barnabas stubbornly.
Collinwood, drawing room - Trask tells Abigail that the tragedies will continue to befall the Collins family as long as the witch lives. She's angry the judge is prolonging the trial--could he possibly be under Miss Winters' influence? Trask doesn't think so--Bradford is the problem. I have made repeated attempts to indicate his error, says Trask. Make it clear to him that he cannot advance without the influence of our family, says Abigail.
Trask decides to pay Bradford a visit. I wish we could find that book, says Abigail, to save us all, we must bear much. As Trask is exiting, Ben enters with a load of firewood. I want you to testify how Vicki sent you to steal my hair ribbon, she says, but Ben insists Vicki wasn't responsible. You're lying! accuses Abigail--and while you're digging Josette's grave, consider its purpose--and reflect on what a return to the back-breaking labor in prison would do to him. (such a mean, spiteful woman!)
Peter's place - He is reading through the Collins family history book when Trask comes calling. I'm busy! shouts Peter. I won't require more than a moment, says Trask. Peter hides his book under his coat on a chair, and lets Trask in, who immediately launches into the meagerness of Peter's home, the coldness, and the bare furniture. Leave, says Peter. You'll have no future if you defend Miss Winters, warns Trask--do you really want to incur the enmity of the Collins family?--continue living a life of squalor?--eating food barely fit for a swine?--wearing clothes that would disgrace a scarecrow? (nice, Rev, but I think you look more like a scarecrow!) Trask grabs hold of Peter's raunchy coat to emphasize his point, but Peter forces him to let it go. The way I live is no concern of the Collins family, says Peter--you're a hypocrite!--isn't it a waste of one's life to destroy everything you don't understand?
Trask is outraged by what he calls Peter's insolence. Leave! Demands Peter. Trask stalks out, infuriated. Peter picks up the book, wraps it in cloth, and leaves his meager lodgings.
Cemetery - Peter buries the book. Barnabas hears the sounds of digging and quietly calls, "Ben?" Peter, startled, heads toward the mausoleum, asking who's there. Barnabas retreats into the secret room. Peter enters the outside room of the tomb just in time to spot the secret door closing shut. When Ben comes in and Peter relates what happened, Ben assures him he just imagined it--and besides, you're on Collins property and you'd better leave. After Peter leaves, Barnabas joins Ben and is agitated, sure Peter saw him--I must kill him! Insists Barnabas. (the paranoia got an early start, didn't it?) Peter is Vicki's only hope, points out Ben, and no danger to you. Barnabas walks into the cemetery and stares down at the filled-in grave, his face rife with sadness. I do not know what powers are mine or how far they reach into the dark, he says, but I promise I will summon their full force to call her back. No! protests Ben, don't! I have made my own dark conquest of the grave, says Barnabas, hers will be next--that I swear.
NOTES: I guess in his misery, Barnabas wants only to bring Josette back to him, but he has no idea in what form she will return--if he even succeeds. He is being very selfish now, and really should allow her rest after her earthly torment. Ben is right.
Peter has buried the Collins family history book--is that a good thing or a bad thing? Will it hurt or help Vicki?
Love the plotting of Abigail and Trask. Some pretty hot stories have been written in fan fic about these two, believe it or not, presenting them as two randy people. Hard to believe, seeing them in these episodes.
430 - (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, Victoria Winters tried to prevent a tragedy from happening, a tragic death of a young girl. But she could not. Nor can she avert the flood or terror that will follow in its wake, for on this night, there is one who would summon the dead girl from her grave.
After the funeral, the others have departed, and Natalie, with Abigail standing sympathetically by, sobs over Josette's grave. Barnabas watches from the mausoleum, wondering if Josette still hates him, and determined to bring her back to him.
The Countess asks Abigail to leave her alone, and as she places a small bouquet of flowers on the fresh grave, Natalie laments that she had such high hopes for her niece when they first came, but life was unkind to Josette. Now all she has left is despair. She hopes death will at least bring her peace. "Goodbye, my darling," sobs Natalie, and she prays. Ben comes and gently helps her to her feet; he's there to place the headstone. He liked Josette, he tells her, she was kind to him, and it could have been worse. . .Josette chose to die as she did, perhaps that was what she wanted. The church bells mournfully toll for Josette, and Ben escorts Natalie to the carriage.
Ben enters the tomb, where Barnabas sits on a coffin, places his hand on his shoulder and tells him it is done. "No!" cries Barnabas fiercely--I am going to bring her back!
Ben calls this idea crazy, but Barnabas is determined--Angelique brought back Jeremiah, why can't he command the powers of darkness to do the same for Josette? Ben protests, reminding him Josette didn't want to come to him, didn't want to be what he was, she hated him! Let her spirit rest, begs Ben. Barnabas, growing steadily angrier, denies this, and finally tells Ben to shut up or he'll kill him. (he used to treat him so kindly.) He orders him back to Collinwood. "GO!!!" After Ben leaves, Barnabas kneels at Josette's grave and calls her to return to him. The air is filled with the sound of sobbing. He implores her to come back--"I love you. I need you. Return to me!" Josette wants to know why he has disturbed her rest--I cannot return to you!
At Collinwood, Abigail offers Natalie a brandy. She assures her the witch will pay, and laments that if others had listened, they might have prevented Josette's death, which doesn't much comfort Natalie. The wind blows the window open and when Natalie goes to close it, she hears the sound of sobbing--it's Josette, the Countess says, beginning to cry.
Barnabas refuses to let Josette go. They are lost to each other, she sadly tells him. Barnabas insists their love can span time and space, and orders her to come to the Old House, which was to have been their home, to her room, which was to have been their bridal chamber, and meet him there. Josette again begs him to leave her be, but he insists she obey him.
Natalie tells Abigail it was Josette's cries she heard--she sounds as if she's in trouble and needs her. She wants to go to the grave, but Abigail says it's her imagination.
In Josette's room at the Old House, Barnabas tells Josette's portrait that he's waiting for her--"Come to me." The earth over Josette's grave begins to churn and shift. We see a pair of white slippers and the hem of a white gown drifting through the cemetery. Barnabas continues to call to Josette, ordering her to come from the land of the dead. The white slippers ascend the Old House stairs. Barnabas notes how deadly silent the room is--the clock stopped! The door blows open and Josette, her face covered in a bridal veil, enters. He's pathetically happy to see her, but she doesn't feel the same. He forced her to come, and demands he keep his distance. She assures him she doesn't hate him, she's beyond all that. She feels nothing. He wanted them to be forever together, he says. He asks if she forgives him, and she replies there is nothing to forgive--they have gone to their respective fates. They can't be together, she says, and he must allow her to rest. He presses her to stay, relentlessly, and she finally lifts her veil to reveal her torn, tattered, hideously deformed face. Barnabas gasps, "No!"
NOTES: Barnabas was totally selfish in this episode, and while I felt sorry for him, I thought he should have listened to what Josette was saying. The sight of her face must have driven home to him how self-centered he was being to bring her back and insist she stay. Since he became a vampire, he behaves as if the world revolves around him--and I suppose he thought it did--but not anymore.
Love, Robin
