Monday, April 20, 2020

Dark Shadows Episode 996 4/20/70

You can stream today's episode free on TubiTV.com!

Cyrus returns to the lab and pours himself a glass of his concoction. He raises the drink to his lips and downs it. He drops the glass and chokes. He stumbles around the lab and groans before changing into a dark-haird man with a moustache: John Yaeger! He gets up, examines his hairy hands, and says he remembers who he is.



He knocks things around the lab, asking where Cyrus is now, mocking his desire to rid man of evil. He gets a key and opens the bureau to look at himself in the mirror. He jokes that human kindness doesn't flow through his veins. He grabs a suit and says it's too bad they never caught the man who broke into the clothing store. He welcomes himself back, and says this night belongs to him.



Trask locks the door at Collinwood when Alexis comes downstairs and asks him who he is. He explains that he's the butler, and he has been away. She apologizes, and asks if he knows who she is. He says he knows that she is Alexis, Angelique's twin sister. She asks about Quentin, and he tells her that he took Amy to stay at the old house with Carolyn and Will. She asks him why he locked the door if Quentin is coming right back. She says she wants to know what led to Quentin taking Amy out of the house in the middle of the night. He tells her they all need to leave the house. There's a knock at the door, and she asks him to get it. He says he can't. She demands that he open it, saying it's Quentin. He opens it, and it is in fact Quentin, who comes in and picks up the phone to call Cyrus.


Yaeger hears the phone ring and wonders who's calling Cyrus. He doesn't answer. He's dressed in a suit. He opens a safe and looks inside to find a jar of Cyrus' concoction. He says there's something else, and then picks up a cane from which he can extend a knife blade from the end. He goes out.


A waitress, Buffie Harrington, tells a man in the Eagle that she won't go out with him. He continues to puts his moves on her, and she says she has to work. Yaeger comes in and tells the man that he'll do what the lady asks, without being forced. She tells Yaeger that she doesn't want any trouble like the last time.


Yaeger throws the man through a table. A fight ensues as the waitress screams. She threatens to call the police. Yaeger throws the man out of the bar, and goes back inside. He apologizes to the waitress. She says he's no different than the other man, and shows him the mess he made. He tells her he'll be back with a big check, and she says she'll be there cleaning up the mess.



Quentin describes to Trask what happened in the drawing room—with Bruno's bloody music showing up and disappearing. He asks Trask to tell him everything he knows. He points out that Trask disappeared the way Dameon disappeared. He asks him what Bruno knows about Dameon's murder. Trask denies knowing anything. Quentin asks him why he ran to Bruno's cottage as soon as he heard Dameon's name. He demands that Trask tell him what he knows about Dameon's murder. He asks if Angelique was involved, and why Dameon led Amy to the basement. Trask tells him that he has no answers. Quentin says he's going to see Cyrus to get to the bottom of this, and tells Trask to stay put.


Yaeger returns to the Eagle with a check, which he gives to the waitress. She points out that it's signed by Cyrus, and that she knows who he is. She explains that she used to work for the Collins family, and she knew him. Yaeger suggests that she not imply that he's a liar or forger. He says she had better not mention who delivered the check, as Cyrus won't want his name mixed up in the events of that night.


Yaeger runs into the man from the bar on the dock, and proceeds to beat him with his cane. Quentin arrives and Yaeger runs off. Quentin helps the man up, and they go into the Eagle.


Quentin and the man come into the bar. He tells Quentin that she knows who the man is. The man leaves to go find the man who attacked him. Quentin asks her who it was, and she says the man has only been in a few times. She says that she knows someone who does know the man's name. She explains how the man made a mess and then returned with a check signed by Cyrus. Quentin thanks her, and bids her goodnight.


After he leaves, Yaeger enters and reminds her that she wasn't supposed to mention where the check came from. He says he'll have to teach her, and begins choking her.



Our thoughts

John: If not for his voice, I could have been fooled that the same actor who had played Jeb and Cyrus was also John Yaeger. But the voice definitely gives him away, and his make-up is certainly accentuated under magnification in Cyrus' lab!


Christine: The transformation would have been much more effective had he changed his voice or style of speaking for the character of John Yaeger. He ended up sounding like Jeb with a bad nose job and terrible wig. I love how Cyrus labeled his Dr. Jekyll potion bottle with "Do not touch!"


John: It's almost funny that Yaeger seems to go to the Eagle with the intent of starting a fight. Of course it's not exactly the trait of a man with no 'human kindness flowing through his veins' to immediately apologize and return with a check to pay for the damages. Of course then he returns to theoretically kill Buffie. If only Cyrus could see that his experiment isn't as completely evil as his hypothesis would suggest.

Christine: I don't think he offered to pay for damages out of kindness, though his motivation for doing it is not very clear. I suspect he did it because he enjoyed the idea of having good guy Cyrus pay for damage he caused. John Yaeger's nose did not seem to come through the fight so well.


John: I'm very interested in Trask. Unlike his predecessors across time, he seems like a nice guy, but he's clearly got a shady past. If he's been a butler in Collinwood, how could Quentin NOT be aware of it?

Christine: I am not getting the impression that he's a nice guy, though in comparison to other Trasks we've met, he's certainly much more mild mannered. I wonder now if Quentin was feeling the walls in the basement, after Amy told him Dameon led her there, because he was looking to see if there was some place the body could have been hidden.


Second Down for the Count:
Barnabas was chained in his coffin 14 episodes ago.

Another day, another coffin shot.

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