Dark Shadows Episode 236 - 5/22/67

Maggie lies in a hospital bed, gasping, before passing out. A nurse checks her vitals and goes to get the doctor. She explains she has no heartbeat and has stopped breathing. When they re-enter the room, the door to outside is open and Maggie is gone. The nurse tells the doctor that there was every indication that she was dead.

The doctor tells Sam and Joe that Maggie is gone. Joe asks if she's dead, and he says that she's disappeared. The doctor says the sheriff and state troopers are looking for her. Joe tells Sam to stay, and that he'll check the cemetery at Eagle Hill. The doctor doesn't think they'll find her there. He says that he told them she's gone, suggesting that someone may have taken her body. Joe leaves to go look for Maggie, hoping to find her alive. Sam asks the doctor if he thinks Maggie is dead. He tells Sam that Maggie didn't have a heartbeat when the nurse checked.

In a trance, Maggie wanders through the forest.

The doctor tries to give Sam some pills to help him relax. Burke arrives at the hospital, and the doctor asks to speak to him outside. Before he can, Joe returns and says he didn't find Maggie at Eagle Hill cemetery. Burke says that someone probably knows where she is—whoever called Vicki the last time she went missing. Burke suggests that it might have been Willie Loomis. Joe tells Sam to stay at the hospital, and that he and Burke will go find Willie.

Burke and Joe arrive at the Old House. They knock on the door, and Barnabas answers and invites them in. Joe asks to speak to Willie. Barnabas says he sent him to Bangor to do some business overnight. Burke tells him that Maggie Evans has disappeared from the hospital. Barnabas asks what they think Willie would know. Joe says that when they found Maggie at Eagle Hill cemetery, Vicki thinks Willie made the call to Vicki telling her to look there. Barnabas says that Willie was with him that night, and he wouldn't have had the time to call Vicki. Barnabas asks how Burke thinks Willie was involved; if he thinks Willie abducted Maggie. Joe and Burke agree that seems unlikely. As they start to leave, Burke says he hears something in the house. Barnabas confirms that he's the only one there.

After Joe and Burke leave, Barnabas comes back inside and calls out, "It's all right. They're gone. You're safe. Safe here with me," as Maggie comes out of a room to join him.

The portrait of Josette hangs in a furnished bedroom. Barnabas leads Maggie in, and describes it as just as she left it.

Maggie walks to a mirror. Barnabas calls her Josette, and says from now on that will be her name. Maggie repeats the name as she looks into the mirror.

Barnabas says they will experience all the joy that was denied them for so many years. He says he forgives Josette for leaping from the cliffs. Barnabas promises her life, so that the two of them will never be separated again. Maggie says, "Eagle Hill," and Barnabas tells her to forget all that. He then presents her with her wedding gown, and says that she will soon be his bride. He then winds a music box, and presents it to her.

Our thoughts

John: Josette's Music Box! I was surprised to hear that the music isn't the exact theme that we'll come to know as Josette's music box theme, but the basic melody is there.

Christine: It is a momentous occasion. The only music cue I could find for Josette's Music Box (cue 285) on the Dark Shadows Complete Soundtrack is the one we'll hear in later episodes. Maybe it's not as complete a soundtrack as it states. Does Maggie have some sort of amnesia, or is she just held in thrall by Barnabas?

John: So is Barnabas' plan to keep 'Maggie/Josette' locked away in the old house? And marry her? I'm surprised that up to now, there's been no mention by Barnabas of Maggie resembling his long lost love before now. It does appear that she's far more than just a vampire bride to him.

Christine: Barnabas has certainly got some issues to want to use Maggie to relive his life with Josette. I suppose if you're going to have a vampire on a soap opera, he should be a romantic vampire and not just some bloodsucking beast. How does he expect to get away with keeping Maggie hidden the way everyone is always tramping through the Old House?

John: I thought for sure the noise Burke heard was going to be Willie Loomis. I wonder if Barnabas actually did send him on an errand to Bangor...

Christine: He must be tasked with picking up the wedding cake.

The teleprompter is lurking just outside the door, maintaining close proximity to Mitchell Ryan.

Dark Shadows Episode 235 - 5/19/67

Vicki pounds on the bedroom door, calling for Maggie to let her in. A knock at the door signals Burke's arrival. He breaks down the door to find Maggie in bed with fresh bloody wounds on her neck, and the outer doors open.

The doctor examines Maggie, and points out that she's lost a tremendous amount of blood again. He also points out the wounds on her neck are open again. He says they look like bite marks, as if she were attacked by a huge dog. Vicki says she heard a dog outside Maggie's window.

The doctor picks up the phone to call an ambulance when Burke arrives with Sam. He rushes in to check on Maggie. Vicki says she's been unconscious since they found her. He asks how the wounds on her neck re-opened. Sam says something inhuman is responsible.

The doctor asks Sam and Vicki to leave while he completes his examination of Maggie.

Burke offers Sam a drink, and he refuses. The doctor comes out and says her neck wounds are her only injuries. He says another significant transfusion is in order. He asks the doctor what Maggie's chances are. The doctor says she has a good chance if she makes it through the night, and Sam asks him if he thinks there's a chance she won't make it through the night.

At the Collinsport Hospital, Joe arrives as Maggie slowly comes out of her unconscious state. Sam explains to her that she's in the hospital. She notices Joe is present. The doctor tells them not to waste her strength. Sam asks her what happened to her tonight after Vicki left her room. She says it was the worst nightmare she's ever had. She apologizes to Joe for picking fights with him. She asks her father to take care of himself, and not drink too much. She explains that she might die, and Sam and Joe refuse to let her talk that way. The doctor returns and tells them they can wait in a lounge down the hall.

After midnight, the doctor tells the nurse on duty that Maggie is not to be left alone under any circumstance.

At 2pm, Joe and Sam continue to sit in the waiting room. Sam talks about waiting there for Maggie to be born, and then starts to cry as he describes waiting to find out if she'll survive the night.

A nurse checks in on Maggie, and she says she needs air. She asks the nurse to open the window. The nurse initially refuses, and then agreed to do so. After she does, Maggie tells her she feels much, much better.

Sam paces in the waiting room in front of Sam. Joe tells him Maggie will be fine.

Maggie gasps several times, then appears to pass out. The nurse checks her quickly then rushes out to call the doctor. He's walking by when she says she can't detect a heartbeat. The return to her room to find Maggie gone, with the door outside standing wide open.

Our thoughts

John: Burke has to hold the door shut in order to break it down. Otherwise, he might have taken out the whole set wall.

Christine: I was wondering why they didn't just try going through the French doors. Burke and Vicki find Maggie with a really bad hickey and saliva on her throat. It was pretty gross. Barnabas is such a dog!

John: Sam hasn't had a drink since when? When he started working on the Barnabas portrait? Or has he been to The Blue Whale since then? It would be hard to believe that he won't drink as long as he's got a steady gig?

Christine: Perhaps the work keeps his hands busy. Or it could be that he hasn't had the need to drink so much since he's gotten over his guilt and worry over his role in Burke's manslaughter conviction.

John: Do they not pay the light bills at the Collinsport Hospital? It's darker in there than the old house when Barnabas has all the candles burning.

Christine: They keep the lights dim in the hospital at night so patients can sleep. It seems the staff at Collinsport Hospital has not been trained on CPR procedures. It was developed in 1960, so I suppose it was still relatively new.