Roger gets his way, and proceeds to give Victoria the third-degree on Burke Devlin. She finally has enough, and excuses herself, threatening to take the morning train back to New York.
Back in her bedroom, she hears the haunting sobs of a woman echo through the halls. She goes out to investigate, and finds no one in the parlor as the sobbing stops.
We then meet David, who creeps down the stairs and states his hatred for Victoria.
I have great news for those of you who are following along on this journey. After several days worth of comments whose quality exceeded my own ramblings about the first few episodes, I was able to convince my sister Christine to participate in the blog in a more formal fashion. She's in large part to blame for it existing, having sent subtle hints over the last few months that the 50th anniversary was approaching. You see, she knew I already had the entire series on DVD. Years ago, she made me feel better about having bought them all by borrowing and actually watching them. And when the deluxe coffin box set was released, she acquired a set of her own. I can't think of a better way to experience Dark Shadows than with someone coming in relatively cold (me) alongside someone already well versed in the history of the Collins clan. I hope you'll agree!
John's thoughts
Louis Edmonds' Roger clearly has some interesting secrets—secrets that Burke Devlin is privy to (or responsible for)—and they somehow involve his sister, too.
I loved it when Carolyn joked (referring to her uncle Roger), "At the stroke of 12, he turns into Dracula." I wonder if anyone at the time would have given a second thought to a vampire showing up on the scene.
For the first time, the entire episode takes place in the Collins home.
And while it wasn't quite as I had predicted, Victoria did technically meet David in this episode.
Christine's thoughts
"The fear of darkness is only for children." -Victoria Winters
A
loud boom. Unknown feet ascend the staircase and make their way to
Vicki's room. A hand reaches out to grasp the doorknob and...the camera
pans up to Roger's face as we hear Liz castigate him. Something about
hearing Elizabeth's muffled voice behind the door as Vicki listens to
them argue reminds me of Madame Blanc from Suspiria and makes the scene more chilling than it otherwise would be.
Although
some of us began viewing Dark Shadows at Episode 210 with the first
volume issued on DVD, Collinsport was actually a thriving fishing
village with well developed characters and mysterious goings on long
before that, so don't be fooled into thinking that you have to wait
until April 17th before anything interesting happens at Collinwood.
When
Liz gets Roger downstairs, she lays into him:
"Roger, that girl was brought here to care for your son. Your son,
Roger, not you." He
replies, "What's coming now, a lesson on morals?" Despite this exchange,
Liz leaves poor Vicki in her jammies and robe alone with Roger in the drawing room
even after he says, "Miss Winters, you wouldn't mind keeping a lonely
man company for a little while, would you?" He then proceeds to hit up
his favorite brandy bottle before informing her that "Pain sometimes
proceeds pleasure, Miss Winters, or are you too young to have discovered
that?"
So the theme of today's episode is that
Roger Collins is a creep. We are assured of that fact because it is
stated several times that he is really a nice fellow. Roger's pet name
for Carolyn is Kitten. We should not read too much into that, right?
Carolyn lets slip to Vicki that Roger's wife is still among the
living and the less said about her the better. More intrigue.
David's entrance makes us hope he will live up to our expectations of being delightfully demonic. He's really hitting it off with Vicki.
