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Thursday, May 17, 2018

Dark Shadows Episode 494 - 5/16/68

Amazon Prime members can stream today's episode free!

Willie brings Adam his supper, and offers to help him if he forgot how to eat. Adam knocks the tray away, and Willie runs out of his cell.


Julia reminds Willie that he has to be patient. Willie remains scared, and Julia explains they need to remind Adam they won't harm him. Willie suggests that he might feel better at Windcliff. She tells him if they send him back, it will be permanent. She says he'll either learn to work with Adam, or he'll return to Windcliff forever. She goes to get more food, and tells Willie to stay close to Adam.


Willie goes back in and approaches Adam. Adam pulls the buttons off Willie's coat, and Willie says he also likes shiny objects. Adam laughs.


Willie offers to show him something that really shines. He finds a particular brick in the cell that opens a secret door. In it is a chest and a small box of jewelry, which he brings out to show Adam. Willie tells him he has to promise to give them back, because they're friends now.


Willie picks up a set of earrings and says Josette wore them once, and then he corrects himself and says it was Maggie. Willie takes the items back, and holding the earrings, says he could secretly give them to Maggie to make her happy. He closes the secret panel and laughs, staring at the earrings.


Maggie and Joe prepare to leave on a date. Willie watches them from outside the window.


Willie sneaks into the Evans house and puts the earrings in Maggie's purse.


Julia visits Adam, and wonders where Willie wandered off to. Willie returns, and Julia asks where he was. She sees mud on his shoes. He says he went to get fresh air. She reminds him to stay with Adam at all times, and she'll check in on him regularly. If he leaves, she'll send him back to Windcliff. She leaves, and Adam indicates that he wants to see the shiny things that Willie showed him earlier. Willie explains that he can't because Julia might come back at any time.


Maggie is upset that she can't find her keys. Joe asks if she's looked everywhere, and when she says yes, he tells her to check again. She opens her purse and finds the keys, but also a pair of earrings. She asks Joe if he put them in her purse, and he says no. He asks if her father might have done it, and she says he wouldn't have just left them in her purse. Joe says if her father didn't put them there, she can turn them in.


She says they remind her of something. He suggests that she put them in a safe place so they can go on their date. She tries them on, and looking into the mirror almost becomes transfixed.


She says Joe looks worried. He says he didn't know she was the diamonds and emeralds type. She tells him she'll take a good book or a box of candy as a gift any day of the week. She adds that she's never reacted to jewelry this way. Joe gets snippy and suggests she put them away.


Adam scratches at the wall where the jewelry is hidden. Willie is worried when Julia enters. He asks Julia to give him her necklace. She does, and Adam sits down, admiring it. They leave the cell, and Willie says that Adam should be destroyed. Willie says he's too dumb to learn anything, and Julia says it takes intelligence to know intelligence. Willie says he's not going to go back in the cell, and Julia agrees that he's already done too much damage. She has Lang's tape recorder, which she turns on so Adam can listen to music.


In Adam's cell, he hears Lang's voice on the tape. He gets up and goes up to his cell door. He watches the recorder as Lang describes how Adam and Barnabas must both live in order for Barnabas to be free of his affliction. After hearing it several times on Lang's tape, Adam says the word, "Barnabas."



Our thoughts

John: Willie has become the official Dwight Frye of Dark Shadows. We've already seen him in the Renfield role to Barnabas' Dracula, and now he's become the perfect Fritz to Frankenstein's monster in Adam, just like Frye did in the classic Universal horror films of the 30s.

Christine: He seems to have borrowed Frye's crazed expression. Speaking of crazed expressions:


John: So did Barnabas hide Josette's jewelry in the cellar? Or did Willie? And why would there be a secret panel in the locked cell of all places?

Christine: I think the hiding place suggests Willie is responsible for secreting the jewelry away in the cellar. He has a fondness for jewels that borders on obsession. It was fun to watch Willie and Adam enjoy sparkly things together. I seem to remember Barnabas gifting Maggie a necklace and not earrings in Episode 250.

These look a lot like the earrings Naomi wore in Episode 367.

John: Nice that Adam was reunited with the creator he never met. And funny that despite all the time Julia, Barnabas and Willie have spent with him, his first words were learned after listening to a few seconds of a recorded message.

Christine: Adam is maturing rapidly, going from childlike innocence to sullen adolescent, knocking his food to the floor. 


Dark Shadows Before I Die Round Robin Nightmare tracker:
  1. Wide-eyed skull
  2. Guillotine
  3. Lang's Headless creation
  4. Skeletal bride 
  5. Educational Bat-footage

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