Friday, April 27, 2018

Dark Shadows Episode 480 - 4/26/68

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Barnabas picks up the phone to call Julia. Lang draws a gun from a drawer and points it at him. He tells him to hang up the phone. Barnabas asks what he thinks a bullet will do to him. Lang reminds him that thanks to his treatment, Barnabas is susceptible to death. Barnabas puts the phone down. He says he won't call her, but implores Lang that they contact Julia. Barnabas says Julia will keep the secret because she cares for him. Barnabas returns to the phone, saying that Julia will hypnotize Jeff to forget everything that happened tonight. He adds that Lang won't kill him, as he needs him for his experiment.


Cassandra tells Julia she hopes they can be friends. As they come downstairs to go visit Professor Stokes, the phone rings. Cassandra answers, and when Barnabas asks to speak to Julia she hands her the phone. Barnabas says he needs her and her medallion at Doctor Lang's as soon as possible. She apologizes to Cassandra, saying she has to leave to take care of an emergency.


Julia arrives at Lang's, and Barnabas says they need her help to hypnotize Jeff Clark so he forgets the last several hours. Lang describes Jeff as paranoid and dangerous. He says he became violent, and attacked Lang. He tells her that Barnabas arrived and prevented Jeff from harming him. Together, they restrained him. Lang says if she can hypnotize Jeff, it can prevent him from going insane. He takes her upstairs to see him.


Jeff is in bed unconscious, his hands tied. Julia asks why they tied him up, and how strong the sedative was. He says he might wake up any time now. She tells Lang to leave the room, and he agrees to wait downstairs.


Lang comes downstairs and tells Barnabas he doesn't like the idea of them being alone together. Barnabas assures him that she won't believe anything Jeff says.


Jeff wakes up and asks Julia who she is. She describes herself as Vicki's friend. Jeff realizes where he is, and tells her that Lang tried to cut off his head. Julia tells him she's there to help him because she's Vicki's friend. He tells her that he'll do what she says if she listens to him first. He tells her Lang wanted to cut off his head to complete his experiment to create human life. He adds that Lang made him rob graves and dig up dead bodies for the experiment. He says that all Lang needed was a face, and he wanted his. He tells her to go to the laboratory and she can verify he's telling the truth. She tells him that she listened to him, and now he needs to listen to her. She takes out her medallion and proceeds to hypnotize him. She tells him he will sleep when she snaps her fingers, and when he wakes, he will not remember anything that happened tonight. She snaps her fingers and he passes out.



Lang impatiently waits for Julia. Barnabas tells him to relax. He begins to head upstairs to find her.

Julia enters Lang's laboratory and snoops around. She sees an empty operating table, and gasps when she sees the occupied table.


She screams at the sight of the stitched-together body.









Lang and Barnabas enter, and she cries out that everything Jeff said was true. Barnabas assures her that no harm will come to Jeff. Julia describes the experiment as madness. Lang tells her that if he succeeds, Barnabas will be free forever.  Barnabas tells her that with one more life, he will be saved forever. He begs her to remain silent. She says she can't stay any longer, and she makes her way out of the lab. Lang says he doesn't trust her. He says he's going to follow her to see where she's going.


Julia goes into Lang's study and locks the door behind her. Lang and Barnabas find the door closed, and listen in. When they hear her calling the police, Lang draws his pistol.




Our thoughts

John: I wonder if Barnabas noticed that Lang's gun was not even loaded. It sure looked like there were no bullets visible in the revolver.

Christine: It's strange that he keeps a gun in his operating room.

John: Wow. Several bouts of spastic screaming Julia today. Just when it seemed like we had seen new heights in over-acting from Lang, we have a new champion!

Christine: Hardly the reaction I'd expect from a physician who has a vampire for a patient. I nearly choked when she told Cassandra that honesty is a quality she admires in people. I wonder if Cassandra will succeed at hooking her up with Professor Stokes.

John: I sure thought Julia would have been more willing to go along with Lang's plan to save her lover-boy Barnabas. Does she not realize what could happen to him if the police arrive?

Christine: Julia's treatment did not involve sacrificing an innocent person or stealing body parts, so it wouldn't make sense for her to support Lang's lame plan. Ultimately she is saving Barnabas from participating in an atrocity he would later regret supporting.

Try to find the center of the lights.

Can you see the center?


1 comment:

Paul Haney said...

Grayson Hall was a tremendous actress and I love the Julia Hoffman character, but even her husband (DS writer Sam Hall) admitted that she could really overdo it on the reaction shots. That fact is on full display in this episode. We had plenty of histrionics with Lang and Clark and now we have Julia howling like a wounded animal. Thank goodness we have Jonathan Frid around to balance things out a bit.