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643

643 Gallery
643
Number

635

Timeline

1968

Narrator

Louis Edmonds

Writer

Ron Sproat

Director

Penberry Jones

Broadcast

December 11, 1968
(Wednesday)

Recorded

December 4, 1968
(Wednesday)

Video

Complete: Disc 67
Collection 11: Disc 3

643 Gallery
We have 10 images of Dark Shadows 643

David and Amy become locked in a remote room in the west wing.

Synopsis

Darkness envelops the walls of Collinwood. There is danger in this night, for a seance has just been held in the great house, and the spirit of a mysterious woman has spoken from beyond the grave. A new reign of terror is about to begin.

Carolyn asks Chris why he stopped the seance, and he is unable to explain. Roger arrives home and is disturbed by a book falling from the piano and a letter to his father suddenly appearing. Carolyn suspects it's Magda's spirit, who warned them of a curse. Roger becomes suddenly worried about his son and goes upstairs to check on him. Amy hides from Roger, and David pretends to be asleep. After Roger and Carolyn go to bed, Amy and David use a secret panel in the drawing room to go exploring in the west wing, looking for Quentin and encountering ghostly happenings trying to stop them. The door in the west wing storage room slams shut, and David and Amy are locked in.

Memorable quotes

David: I'm not afraid of anything, Amy.

David: (about Roger) He was acting so strange. He never says good night to me. And why was he keep...asking me whether I was all right?...I can't understand him sometimes.

Amy: You're braver than I am.
David: That's 'cause you're a girl.

Dramatis personae

Background information and notes

Production

Story

  • Elizabeth and Roger's father is named Jamison Collins. He was previously mentioned in 17; however, this is the first time he is referred to by name.
  • The grandfather clock makes a ping-pong noise instead of ticking along with the traditional chimes.
  • The last time the secret passage in the drawing room was used in 87, Roger opened it with a latch in the cabinet next to the door. This time David just pulls on it to open it.
  • GHOSTWATCH: Amy talks to Quentin on the old telephone again; David just hears him breathing as before. An old book with a letter to Jamison from Quentin in it falls off the piano so that Roger will discover it. Carolyn senses the presence of Magda in the drawing room even after the seance has ended. Magda speaks through Carolyn, saying, "Stop them." As David and Amy get to the door to the west wing, the flashlight flies out of David's hand as if wrenched away by an invisible force. An invisible hand also pushes David away from the door to the west wing. A ghost (presumably Magda) knocks over an old grandfather clock in front of David and Amy in the west wing as they are walking toward the storage room. The door to the storage room slams and is jammed closed with David and Amy in the room.
  • SEDATIVE: Roger offers Carolyn some of his sleeping pills.
  • TIMELINE: Day 253 begins, and will end in 645. 4am: Roger and Carolyn go to bed.

Bloopers and continuity errors

  • In the teaser, either Don Briscoe or Nancy Barrett seems to have forgotten their lines. After Carolyn says, "I don't believe you," they stare at each other for several seconds, and Briscoe mouths something inaudible. Then Carolyn resumes with, "You were frightened, all right."
  • Roger finds an old letter addressed to Jamison from Quentin mentioning Oscar, dated 1887. Jamison Collins is supposed to be a boy in 1887. If he is a boy of 12 or 13 in 1897, then in 1887, he would be very young, so how could he read a letter sent to him by Quentin? [Addendum: The 1897 story line was likely not planned yet, so this is only a retroactive continuity error.] In that letter, Quentin mentions that only Jamison can save him now and that he should intercede with Oscar on his behalf. Oscar would later be renamed as the character Edward Collins.
  • As Amy wakes up David, a banging sound can be heard. As they're talking, the sound of footsteps is heard. As they make their way to the west wing, someone can be heard coughing.
  • In Act II, after Carolyn, possessed by Magda, says, "Stop them!" a boom mic shadow passes over Roger.
  • When David and Amy are talking in David's room, Amy says, "I think we ought to--" and stops; there is a pause before David shushes her. It seems that David came in a bit late with his "Shh!"
  • When Roger leaves David's room, he says, "I'll turn the light out for you," and he does. But after he leaves, the room is still very brightly lit. [Addendum: Lights do dim in the room when Roger flips the switch. But this is television, and it's impractical to have a room in total darkness. There is always a light source of some sort even though lights are intended to be off so that we can see what is happening.]
  • After David gets his flashlight, someone coughs off-stage.
  • David Henesy stumbles over a line when David is telling Amy they can get into the west wing from a secret way. He says, "So...you...keep it a promise...that you wont tell anyone, right?"
  • When Roger and Carolyn decide to go to bed, they leave the drawing room but leave the lights on. Roger does turn out the light in the foyer. Immediately afterward, when David and Amy sneak into the drawing room to go to the secret passage, the lights are off in that room.
  • Amy calls the gramophone a phonograph, but this might not be surprising since, in episode 646, it clearly says on the side of the machine, "Edison Home Phonograph." Besides, it would have been less surprising for a little girl in 1968 to know the word "phonograph" than for her to know the archaic word "gramophone." [Addendum: There is no gramophone/phonograph in this episode that Amy talks about.]
  • Amy says she wants to see a real ghost and David says, "So do I," in a tone that suggests that he has never seen a ghost before, but obviously he has, namely Josette and Sarah.

External Links 

Dark Shadows - Episode 643 on the IMDb

Dark Shadows Everyday - Episode 643 - Interceding with Oscar

Dark Shadows Commentary- Episode 643: Magda, whoever she is

Dark Shadows Before I Die- Episode 643: 12/11/68

Gallery (10)