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| ← 772 → | |
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| Number |
763 |
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| Narrator | |
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| Broadcast | |
| Recorded |
June 3, 1969 |
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| We have 21 images of Dark Shadows 772 | |
Tim receives a message from Evan which lets him know he must kill tonight.
Synopsis
- The year is 1897, the place is Collinwood, the time is an hour before dawn, a precious hour for Barnabas Collins. For Barnabas, afraid that his secret will be discovered has turned an enemy into a vampire, a vampire, who when he is caught, will leave Barnabas free to perform his mission in the past. But the vampire has disappeared and Barnabas knows he must be found.
Carl arrives at the Old House, looking for Pansy. Barnabas claims he doesn't know where she is. Carl later goes to the school where he asks Charity if she's seen her. Charity denies it and tells the distraught Carl that he must have faith.
Charity goes to see Tim, and finds him deeply involved in his translation work for Evan Hanley. He barely acknowledges Charity, much to her concern. Later on she arrives with a message from Evan, and finds Tim in the midst of a nightmare. He tells his frightened fiancee that all will be well once he finishes the assignment. He opens the message which reads "Queen of Spades" and becomes agitated. Minerva Trask soon arrives and sends Charity away to attend to her students. Tim is very short with Minerva and finally yells for her to get out. She leaves the room in amazement.
Carl returns to the Old House, still very upset over his failure to find Pansy. He hears Pansy singing but cannot find her. Barnabas walks in. Carl asks Barnabas about Pansy. Barnabas continues to deny knowing where she is.
Back at the school, Minerva asks Charity what she thinks of Carl Collins. Charity responds that she never thinks of him. Minerva tells her that she should start, as Tim is not someone she finds worthy of her daughter's hand. Charity confesses that she is not in love with Tim - although she is fond of him, but that there is someone else she would rather marry, Barnabas.
Minerva calls Tim in and Charity officially ends their engagement. Tim barely blinks at the news, obviously having other things on his mind. Minerva takes out a deck of playing cards and deals them. Tim sees the Queen of Spades and gives her the poison in the cup.
Memorable quotes
- Carl: Weird things are always happening around this place.
- Tim: Just let me alone to do what I have to do.
- Minerva: Apologies are the devil's invention. They just cover evil behavior.
- Minerva: (to Charity) Be practical. Fall in love with Carl Collins.
- Minerva: My husband leaves the running of the school to me, as you well know. Reverend Trask is a thinker, not a doer.
- Minerva: Tell me, my dear, what do you think of Carl Collins?
- Charity: Carl Collins. I don't exactly think of him at all.
Dramatis personae
- Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins
- Nancy Barrett as Charity Trask
- Clarice Blackburn as Mrs. Minerva Trask
- John Karlen as Carl Collins
- Don Briscoe as Timothy Shaw
- Kay Frye as Pansy Faye
Background information and notes
Production
- The Collinsport Afghan appears on the bed of Tim Shaw. It was last seen on Beth's bed in 765.
Story
- GHOSTWATCH: Carl hears Pansy's voice.
- INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: Tim: It must happen tonight.
- TIMELINE: The narration states it to be an hour before dawn at the start of this episode and at the end of the previous. 5am: Carl leaves the Old House. Tim has been up all night, he is to kill Minerva tonight. Tim has been working for Evan for the "past few weeks". It was yesterday when Pansy sang for Barnabas, (i.e. the early hours of this day). 8:10pm: Minerva plays cards. It was this morning when Tim and Minerva had an altercation.
- Barnabas buries Pansy Faye in a shallow grave saying: "Rest in Peace."
Bloopers and continuity errors
- In the reprise, there is a rope around Pansy's neck and a small trickle of blood. At the end of the previous episode there was no rope -- only fang marks. Unfortunately, there's simply no way to make sense of this; after Pansy is attacked by a bat in 771, there are only two possible suspects: Barnabas and Dirk. Barnabas would seem to be the likely culprit, after almost being named as Dirk's killer by Pansy, yet it is Barnabas who is shocked to discover her body at the Old House. That leaves Dirk, who surely would have bitten Pansy rather than strangle her. (It's possible that no one realized until after the taping of 771 was completed that the logical next step after Pansy was found dead with fang marks on her neck would have been for her to rise as a vampire. Obviously, this was not what Dan Curtis and the writers had planned, so the scene was retconned, probably with the belief -- which was prevalent at the time -- that it would be quickly forgotten about and never seen again.) [Addendum: Although I generally agree with the retcon idea, a person who has died by vampire bite, even in Dark Shadows lore, need not necessarily rise again as a vampire. Barnabas has killed many people--especially the "women on the docks"--by biting them without any indication that they arose again as vampires.]
- A boom microphone can be seen over Tim's head as Charity enters with the coffee.
- Jonathan Frid flubs when he tells Carl that Pansy may not know the way to the Old House, when in fact he should have said Collinwood since he and Carl were already at the Old House, and Pansy has never been to Collinwood.
- As established above, the episode begins an hour before dawn. Within that hour, Barnabas somehow manages to bury Pansy Faye and return to the Old House with time to spare. Barnabas had sent Carl away that hour before dawn to "look for" Dirk at the cottage or Trask's school. Carl comes back to the Old House and tells Barnabas--who has not yet gone to his coffin--that he also went to Collinsport to look for Dirk. He could not have done all that in less than an hour.
- Tim Shaw is still reading (translating) the Latin book for Evan, but when he was at Evan's house the night Evan set him up for the murder of Minerva, Evan told Tim he had done enough when Tim said he had almost finished the book. Why would he still be translating the book supposedly weeks later if he pretty much had finished the job in the one night? The whole "translation" was a ruse anyway for Tim to touch the drugged pages of the book and lick his fingers so Evan could hypnotize him. That mission was accomplished long ago.
- The execution of the Minerva murder plot doesn't make much sense. Evan had explicitly told Tim under his spell originally that when he SAW the queen of spades, Tim was to commit the murder. The note that has the words "queen of spades" written on it that Evan sends to Tim in this episode doesn't make any sense as a prompt for the murder given what Evan had said originally. And even if it was just a reminder, the only way Tim sees the queen of spades on a card is by happenstance, because Minerva just happens to be playing solitaire and she just coincidentally puts down the queen of spades at the right moment. There's no way Evan or anyone else could have predicted that.
- It seems odd that Minerva would be idling by playing solitaire; such a religious woman would probably have seen playing cards as an invention of the Devil, and would have better used her time (and hands) in sewing or knitting, or some other useful pursuit.