Dark Shadows Episode 471 - 4/15/68

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Dr. Lang asks Barnabas if he could get Vicki to change her mind, would he still work with him. Barnabas says he doesn't want him talking to Vicki. Jeff enters with a box, and Lang introduces him to Barnabas. He escorts Barnabas out, and returns to open the box. He tells Jeff he has brought him a perfect specimen, and unveils a human arm.

Mrs. Johnson comes downstairs and notices the portrait isn't on the easel in the drawing room. Liz returns home and asks her to hang the portrait over the desk in the drawing room. She explains that the painting is gone. Liz tells her to ask Mr. Collins. She explains that she just made up his room and it hadn't been slept in. She says he's nowhere in the house, and asks if they should call the police. Liz says they can do that if he doesn't return home tonight. Mrs. Johnson says that her son is coming to town to visit her, and asks if he can stay in the house during his stay. Liz allows it.

Barnabas arrives to visit, and Liz asks him if Roger seemed remote when they visited him in the hospital. Barnabas agrees. She explains that Roger is missing, She says that his personality had changed since Vicki bought the painting. She goes on to say that he called her Naomi. Barnabas suggests that she have the portrait removed from the house at once. She tells him that it's missing. 

Vicki enters and says that she knows what happened to it. She was present when Roger took it from the easel and left. She says he wasn't himself. He claimed to be Joshua Collins. Vicki says she tried to stop him from leaving, but he wouldn't come to his senses. Liz goes to have the grounds searched and if he isn't found, she says she'll call the police. Barnabas asks Vicki if she knows why he thinks he's Joshua Collins. She says she doesn't know, but Joshua was one of the few family members to escape Angelique's curse, and perhaps she's trying to rectify that. Barnabas seems transfixed by Vicki's neck.

She notices something's wrong, and suggests he may have left the hospital too soon. He agrees to see Dr. Lang and rushes off.

Liz returns and asks what happened to Barnabas. Vicki explains he wasn't feeling well, and went to see Dr. Lang. There's a knock at the door, and when Vicki answers it, she screams, seeing a man who resembles Noah.

Liz asks her what's the matter. Liz asks who the man is, and he introduces himself as Harry Johnson, Mrs. Johnson's son. He apologizes for startling Vicki. She explains that he looks exactly like the man she shot in 1795. Mrs. Johnson comes in and asks her son what happened. Liz takes Vicki upstairs and Mrs. Johnson takes her son into the drawing room and closes the door. She asks her son what he did. He tells her he didn't do anything. She tells him she'll wait until Mrs. Stoddard comes down and tells her what happened. He tells her that he's changed, and she reminds him he's on trial here until he proves it to her. She tells him he should have come to the back entrance. She says if he makes another mistake, they'll send him back to prison and throw away the key.

Mrs. Johnson checks in with Liz to ensure Vicki is alright. She shows Liz the doctor's head mirror, and says she found it in Roger's room. Liz sees it has Eric Lang's name - the doctor who treated Barnabas.

Barnabas tells Lang he was tempted to harm Vicki, and the doctor says he'll start an immediate transfusion. He also says he hopes that Barnabas will take him up on his offer. He says he plans to free Barnabas of his curse. He says he can give him the physical appearance of Jeff Clark. He suggests it would help him win Vicki back. Barnabas doesn't know what to make of Lang's proposal, and says he cannot consign his future to him without understanding his plan. Lang assures him he will learn of his plan very soon.

Harry Johnson sneaks downstairs into the drawing room, and closes the doors behind him. He starts looking through desk drawers, but doesn't appear to find what he's looking for.

Our thoughts

John: It took me a minute to realize those were creepy awkward neck zooms as Barnabas stands over Vicki, and not just bad camerawork we've grown accustomed to.

Christine: Those of us with a fine eye for detail may have noticed that the brandy cabinet was curiously missing in the scene where Mrs. Johnson is framed by the empty portrait stand in the drawing room, but later reappeared behind Barnabas and Vicki after he'd been drooling over her neck. Welcome back to Mrs. Johnson, who we haven't seen since Episode 359. She's already snooping around and finding stolen objects in Roger's room. Great to have her back!

John: I almost screamed when I saw Noah, too. I certainly didn't expect him to show up on the scene. I was wondering if Mrs. Johnson's son would be familiar, so I probably shouldn't have been surprised.

Christine: Dr. Lang offers to give Barnabas the appearance of Jeff Clark. How is that a good deal for him? He may get Vicki, but he'll end up a gravedigger and lose out on his Collinwood estate.

John: Harry has that Willie Loomis vibe. It will be interesting to find out if he's come to Collinwood looking for something in particular, or like Willie, if he just hopes to make a quick score and then skip town.

Christine: Exactly what I was thinking. Carolyn better start packing heat again. Did Elizabeth actually tell Mrs. Johnson to hang a non-ancestral portrait among the family portraits in the drawing room? Unheard of! Perhaps she is also being possessed by the portrait.