Julia gives Adam shots to prevent him from decomposing. Barnabas asks how long the body will remain intact, and Julia estimates 24 hours.
Barnabas says they must proceed with the experiment now. She loses control. When Barnabas asks her what's wrong, she says she's part of a dream curse.
Barnabas says Angelique came to him in a dream and warned him. Julia says she's avoided Mrs. Johnson, but the dream has prevented her from concentrating on the experiment. They review Lang's last words. Julia said he repeated the word listen several times. She points out Lang's recorder, which had been moved.
She turns it on and music plays. Barnabas says Lang obviously didn't intend for her to listen to that. Leaving the music playing, Julia prepares to leave the room. Barnabas stares at Adam, and says he's handsome. He points out Jeff Clark is younger than him, and Julia says to some women, that wouldn't make a difference. He thanks Julia for all he's done for him. After they leave, the excerpt of Lang's final message plays.
Professor Stokes visits Maggie. He asks her about the dream she had. He mentions Julia told him that she had it first. Maggie says she doesn't want to remember it. He asks her to remember it, as it's a matter of life and death. He describes how a dream curse works, and says that someone will die if they don't stop it. He claims to be an expert in the occult, and says only he can stop the curse. Maggie describes her dream to Stokes. By the end of it, she was nearly hysterical. She says when she woke up, she could think of nothing but the dream until she told Jeff Clark. Stokes asks if she's had the dream again since then, and she says no.
Barnabas is at Lang's when Professor Stokes arrives looking for Julia. Barnabas says she's not there, and Stokes points out that the folks at Collinwood told him she was, and he saw her car out front. Barnabas admits that she is there. Stokes says that he'd prefer to talk to Barnabas anyway. He says he knows he's hiding something, and he thinks he knows what it is. Stokes says Barnabas knows witchcraft is being practiced at Collinwood, and he thinks he knows who the witch is. He asks who it is, and Barnabas asks what gain he would have by telling him. Stokes says someone, possibly Barnabas, is the focus of a dream curse, and needs his help. He says that Barnabas must tell him who the witch is. Barnabas tells him it's Cassandra, and Stokes leaves abruptly.
Julia asks Barnabas who was at the door. He says it was Stokes, and he told him Cassandra was the witch, and he's not sure he should have. Julia reminds him that Roger met Cassandra at Stokes' place. He suddenly realizes that Stokes looks a lot like Ben Stokes, who was under Angelique's spell a few hundred years ago. He's convinced that he needs to escape her curse as soon as possible.
Our thoughts
John: Director Leila Swift (or the camera operators) must have been bored - she used a lot of odd and artsy shots today...
Christine: Artsy shots are not new to Dark Shadows, and are part of what make the show so special, but there are an inordinate number of them in today's episode. I don't believe it was due to boredom, but may have been an attempt to convey the madness taking hold of Julia as she tries to prevent the propagation of the dream curse. Here are a few artsy shots from the past:
John: So the music on Lang's recorder wasn't an accident after all. Of course that doesn't explain why he'd have it set up with a microphone to record his notes if he was using it to listen to classical music...
Christine: Yes, but if he hadn't then we wouldn't have had the pleasure of seeing Barnabas and Julia miss out on hearing Lang's final words cut into the classical music. I don't understand how his experiment went from transferring Barnabas' life force to Adam's body, to now having the curse transferred to Adam, which he will contain as long as he lives, or why Lang didn't put that crucial information into his notes. I wonder if Julia will figure that out, or if it will even make a difference if the dream curse plays out to its final conclusion.
John: Did Stokes get a haircut? Was that so Barnabas would finally recognize he looked like Ben Stokes? The Professor was getting a little too excited by Maggie's description of her nightmare today. And then he needed Barnabas to tell him that Cassandra was the witch? As if the similarity to Angelique's portrait wasn't enough?
Christine: It was an interesting suggestion that Stokes might be under Cassandra's power, though it doesn't seem likely, since he provided Barnabas with a pretty effective talisman against her. I hope we'll get to see our expert on the occult confront Collinwood's resident witch.
Dark Shadows Before I Die Round Robin Nightmare tracker:
- Wide-eyed skull
- Guillotine
- Lang's Headless creation
- Skeletal bride
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