Dark Shadows Episode 1088 8/26/70

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At the stroke of midnight, Quentin goes to Daphne's room. He looks for her, bu doesn't see her. He calls for her to appear. Gerard sneaks up behind him with a rope.

Outside the door, Julia hears Quentin and comes into the room. He's alone. He accuses her of following him. He explains that as he was going to his bedroom, he heard a noise inside the room. Julia senses evil in the room. He asks Quentin if it was the man's room, and he asks her if he was a servant. She asks how he knows it's a servants room. He says they should go, and she says that since he heard a noise, she thinks they should stay. They argue, and Julia tries to convince him how insidious Gerard is. Quentin asks if Gerard was in love with the woman he's enthralled with. Julia asks him why he's asking. He says so he'll know for the future, and leaves. Neither of them notice Gerard's rope on the floor.

The next morning, Elizabeth reviews her horoscope, which says an enemy becomes a friend today. Julia tells her that might be important. Elizabeth says it might turn out like a loved one meeting a stranger. She calls Shaw and asks him to come over to clarify her chart. He tells her that he's booked for the day. She presses him, and he offers to make time later that evening. She hangs up and tells Julia she can't believe his waiting room is so jammed with people that he can't come until tonight.

Shaw dreads returning to Collinwood.

Quentin returns to Daphne's room. He finds the rope on the floor, and wonders if it was there before. He wonders about Daphne and Gerard. He calls to her, but decides Gerard won't let her come to him.

Roxanne tells Shaw he has 15 minutes to get to Collinwood. He points out that she wants him to go. He says his instincts are to stay there with her, and she says that would be foolish. He says everything they have done is foolish. He wonders why he lied to Elizabeth, and create a fictitious horoscope. Roxanne says he can't stop what's going to happen there. He says he can warn them, and she points out that Barnabas already has. He says that Elizabeth will listen to him. Roxanne offers to go with him, to help him if she can. He says it's always easier when she's around.

Elizabeth points out that Quentin seems depressed. He bristles at her claim and goes upstairs. Shaw And Roxanne arrive. Julia lets them in and tells Roxanne how much she looks like the Roxanne she knew. Shaw introduces her as his assistant, and Elizabeth asks them to let her meet with Shaw alone. Roxanne tells Julia that Barnabas had her confused with that Roxanne.

Shaw says he can't tell her the name of the enemy mentioned in her horoscope. He admits to having a second sight, and sits down and tells her not to interrupt him.

Julia asks Roxanne if she thinks something wrong, and she says Shaw just gives too much of himself sometimes.

Shaw tells Elizabeth he sees a room that hasn't been used in over a century. He says there's a figurine of a woman and a child on a desk. He says she's a teacher. He then says, "Don't ever go in that room." Elizabeth asks him about the enemy, and Shaw warns her that the enemy might not be among the living.

Julia tells Elizabeth that it's the room in the West Wing that she and Quentin were in. He tells them that Shaw said they are not to enter that room. Quentin says that Julia and Barnabas are so anxious to have the disaster happen — and they shouldn't go where they're told not to. Julia says Elizabeth shouldn't go, but they can. Quentin asks Elizabeth to promise not to go into the room. Julia tells her that she will not go into the room, and Elizabeth says she sounds like her when she's talking to David. She goes upstairs. Julia tells Quentin that he must go to Shaw and find out everything that he knows.

Elizabeth goes to the room in the West Wing and stands outside the door. She steps inside and gasps when she sees the figurine that Shaw described. She smells lilacs, and is overcome by cold. She doesn't notice the ghost of Gerard standing behind her.

Shaw says he never should have told Elizabeth about the room. He says he'll never go back to Collinwood, or return any of her calls. Roxanne admonishes him, saying Collinwood seemed so perfect. He says that a disaster is coming and he can see it coming, but the people there don't know.

Elizabeth calls to anyone in the room, and Quentin interrupts her. He tells her to come with him, and she says that she smells lilacs, felt a chill, and knows that someone is watching them now. She says that her horoscope is wrong and something terrible is going to happen. She goes downstairs to find Julia. Before leaving, Quentin says to the room, "I told you we had very little time."

Elizabeth comes downstairs, calling to Julia that they must get the children out of Collinwood tonight. When she swings the drawing room doors open, she comes face to face with the ghost of Gerard.

Our thoughts: 

John: Poor Julia is left to do all the heavy lifting with Quentin while Barnabas is off vacationing somewhere. I can't even understand why Quentin refuses to fess up about Daphne and her room, considering it's well established that he's infatuated with her.

Christine: I think we're supposed to believe that, like the children, he is being manipulated by Daphne, and is unable to tell anyone about her.

John: I'm a bit torn about Shaw's having developed a conscience since arriving on the scene. It's hard to believe that a grifter would suddenly feel bad about the people he's taking advantage of. And since we've gotten no indication that Roxanne has some unearthly powers over him, she just comes across as a manipulative woman. In which case she'd actually be better off setting her sights on Barnabas, so she could have an honest-to-goodness vampire under her alluring spell.

Christine: You make it sound as though being a manipulative woman is somehow worse than having supernatural powers that enable her to manipulate him. Poor Sebastian does not seem to have much going on in his datebook.

John: You go Elizabeth! Taking the bull by the horns, ignoring all warnings, and now she's going to face off with Gerard. Will this be the event that finally leads him to speak? And where is Julia?

Christine: I'm guessing that Julia went to check on Barnabas to see if his coffin lid is jammed.  I'm going to be very surprised if we hear Gerard's ghost speak. Ghosts who speak on this show are less menacing.

Dark Shadows Before I Die Catastro-tracker

❎ The picnic

❎ The night of the sun and moon

 ▢ The murder

❎ The unfinished horoscope

 ▢ The night Carolyn sang her song

❎ Rose Cottage