626

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Number	619
Timeline	1968 / 1796
Narrator	Alexandra Moltke
Writer	Sam Hall
Director	Lela Swift
Broadcast	November 18, 1968 (Monday)
Recorded	November 11, 1968 (Monday)
Video	Complete: Disc 66 Collection 11: Disc 2

We have 23 images of Dark Shadows 626

Jeff digs up Peter's coffin and finds it empty. Adam follows Eve to Jeff's apartment and strangles her.

Synopsis

Teaser

An early dusk over the great estate of Collinwood as if the night were trying to cover what has happened here. An afternoon which started with the highest hopes of happiness has ended in tragedy. The guests assembled for a wedding have all left the great house, knowing that wedding may never take place. And the would-be groom has run frantically to a deserted graveyard to find a grave nearly 200 years old, a grave which may be his own.

Elizabeth helps Victoria put away her wedding gown and veil while Roger catches up with Jeff at Eagle Hill Cemetery. Roger tries to get Jeff to not open the grave and threatens to call the police. Jeff opens Peter's coffin anyway and finds it empty.

Act I

Jeff reels from seeing the empty grave, but Roger tries to convince him that it means nothing. Jeff states that he no longer believes that he is really alive and from this century. Roger convinces Jeff to stay away from Victoria while in this state. Meanwhile, Victoria decides to go to the cemetery, but Elizabeth convinces her to stay. She tells Elizabeth that Jeff told her that Eve was the one who travelled back in time and brought back The Collins Family History Book. Vicki makes Elizabeth swear that the men will not keep any secrets from her. Looking through the book Victoria reads about her own execution in 1795/96 and flashes back to the gallows and Collinsport Gaol.

Act II

Victoria continues her flashback of Peter Bradford and the day of her hanging, particularly Peter's insistence that he would find her. Roger returns and tells Victoria that he left Jeff in the graveyard. Victoria is determined to see Jeff. Meanwhile, Eve goes to Jeff's boarding room and, thinking he is at the door in the dark, calls to him and tells him she "will make everything all right," but when the figure steps out of the shadows, it turns out to be Adam. They fight and Eve confesses that earlier in the day she had lied to him when she said she was happy with Adam, but that she has always hated him because of his physical deformities. Adam loses control and strangles Eve. We hear her death scream.

Act III

Jeff returns to his room with a plan to go to New York City. He begins to pack his suitcase when Victoria arrives. He lets her in and tells her he has decided to leave because he does not know how much longer he will be allowed to stay in the 20th century now that he knows he really is Peter Bradford. She tells him there is still time to get married tonight, but he keeps packing. Jeff sees something frightening in the closet and tries to get Victoria to leave, but having seen the expression on his face, she goes to the closet and sees Eve's corpse.

Memorable quotes

Jeff (to Victoria): Why? You want to keep track of me? The amazing new phenomenon? The ghost who breathes? Your favourite freak.

Jeff: Is there a law against opening your own casket?

Jeff: Touch me, Mr. Collins.

Peter: I'll find you somehow. Remember that. I'll find you. Remember.

Jeff: I was always Peter Bradford to you anyway.

Victoria: Yes, you were.

Jeff: The sad case of Victoria Winters and Peter Bradford.

Dramatis personae

← Joan Bennett as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard →
← Louis Edmonds as Roger Collins →
← Roger Davis as Jeff Clark / Peter Bradford →
← Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters →
← Robert Rodan as Adam →
← Marie Wallace as Eve →

Background information and notes

Production

Final episode narrated by Alexandra Moltke. Moltke narrated 381 episodes, including the first 270, more than any other cast member.
In the first of only two episodes this ever happened, two acting credits appear after Alexandra Moltke's credit (Marie Wallace & Robert Rodan).

Story

Judge McClain is the name of the person who was supposed to perform the wedding ceremony of Jeff and Victoria. [Except that Roger said that the officiant was a "minister". The judge might be a backup since the big wedding did not come off as planned.]
The dates on the timetables Jeff uses are as follows: April 28, 1968, revised May 13, 1968.
FLASHBACK: Victoria remembers the day of her execution in 1796. During her flashback to the day she was hanged, the executioner comes to her wearing a black hood; the hood was not present when the executioner and jailer came for her on that day, as seen in 460.
INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: Victoria: (reads from Collins family history book).
TIMELINE: It was yesterday when Eve made Adam happy. It was either three or six months that Victoria spent in 1795.

Bloopers and continuity errors

In the reprise from the previous episode, Jeff says, "Is there a law against opening your own casket?" However, he previously said "coffin" instead of "casket". Also, Jeff's white shirt was almost spotless, and his arms, hands and face are clean. In the reprise, the shirt is extremely soiled and dirty, and Jeff's hands, arms, and face are covered with dirt.
A hanging tree branch seems to block Roger for a time.
When Jeff runs from the cemetery, Roger Davis puts his hand on a gravestone that visibly moves, which then continues to wobble back and forth. Also, his head hits a branch and drops a leaf.
After Elizabeth says "No" when Victoria says she is going to the cemetery, someone coughs off-stage. There is also off-stage noise throughout this scene.
Joan Bennett vacillates between saying Roger and Jeff will return soon, when either name would have been acceptable. This almost could qualify as a realistic mistake by the character rather than a blooper.
A boom microphone shadow can be seen when Victoria and Elizabeth talk about the book.
When Louis Edmonds returns to the room, he forgets his line, then remembers it just as Alexandra Moltke steps on his line.
Jeff's apartment, when seen in episodes 602 and 611, was entered at stage left by the fireplace. Now it is entered stage right. Episode 611 was directed by Sean Sullivan, 602, 626, and 627 by Lela Swift.
Eve has spent the past two weeks trying to convince Roger Davis's character that his name is Peter, but when she thinks he is outside the door, she keeps calling him Jeff.
Eve obviously got into Jeff's apartment OK, so it must have been open. When Adam comes following Eve, he just opens the door. When Jeff arrives later, he unlocks the door (suggesting he would have locked it earlier).
In the scene between Adam and Eve, there are to shots where first Adam and then Eve are looking straight into the camera in close-up for effect. When the close-up returns to the two-shot each time, the actors are still looking straight toward the camera and then return to looking at each other.
As soon as Jeff enters his apartment and closes the door, a shadow can be seen from under the door. This is likely Alexandra Moltke taking her place prior to knocking.
Roger Davis drops a book while speaking to Victoria and packing; she almost picks it up, which would have been normal; it would be as normal for her character to decide not to as it would be for the actress.