Yesterday, 5 February 1796, the Countess DuPrés visited suspected witch Victoria Winters in the Collinsport gaol. The countess begged Vicki to lift the spell that she believes to be causing her niece, the gracious Josette, to behave strangely. Vicki responded that she had cast no spell on Josette or anyone else. She claimed that she was not a witch at all, but an unwilling and well-meaning time traveler displaced from the year 1968. As it happens, this is true.
Vicki told the countess that according to the history and legend she learned in the 1960s, Josette will soon die. The last events leading to her death will be triggered when she loses a ring with a black onyx stone. Vicki’s remarks settled any lingering doubts the countess may have. She is now certain that Vicki is a witch, and that when she claims to be warning people against upcoming dangers she is in fact taunting them with her own cruel plans.
In Josette’s room, the countess discovers that Josette has somehow come into possession of just such a ring as Vicki described. Josette refuses to tell her where it came from. Later, the countess stands in the foyer of the great house of Collinwood, studying the portrait of the late Barnabas Collins that hangs there. She recognizes Josette’s new ring as the one in the portrait. Well might she recognize it- she knew Barnabas well, he died only a couple of weeks before, and he wore the ring all the time. He and Josette had been engaged to marry each other, and never gave up their passionate attachment even after they married other people. It is hard to think of a reason why the countess would not have thought of Barnabas at the moment Vicki began describing the ring, much less as soon as she saw it on Josette’s finger.
Barnabas’ father, haughty overlord Joshua, asks the countess what she finds so interesting about the portrait. She asks if the ring was part of a set; he answers that it was unique. He begins to reminisce about Barnabas’ great fondness for the ring. His warm look of recollection gives way to an expression of deep pain, and he stops himself as he is about to say that he left it on Barnabas’ finger when he buried him. He refuses to say any more about Barnabas.
The countess and Joshua do not like each other very much, but they are of one mind about Vicki. It is inexplicable that the countess does not tell Joshua about Vicki’s prediction and about the fact that Josette now has Barnabas’ ring. Her reticence sets up a dramatic moment, when Josette comes downstairs, faints, and Joshua finds the ring on her finger. But that moment would only have been more dramatic if it had also been the first time the countess saw Josette with the ring. Vicki’s description of a ring should have been more than enough to prompt her to study the portrait and ask Joshua about Barnabas’ ring, but perhaps not enough to embolden her to say much to Joshua. The scene in Josette’s room makes a hash of the countess’ motivations here, and leaves Joshua’s discovery of the ring as a pointless repetition.
Joshua goes to Barnabas’ coffin, hidden in a secret chamber of the family mausoleum. He talks to Barnabas for a while. He admits that he was a cold and distant father, but vows to take a terrible revenge on anyone who might have disturbed his rest. He opens the coffin and finds that it is empty. His shock is chiefly to do with the disappearance of the body, but can only be sharpened when he realizes that instead of delivering his heartfelt confession to his son’s corpse he was in the somewhat ridiculous position of delivering it to a piece of furniture. This is a characteristic situation for Joshua- when he is ready to open up about his feelings, he finds that no one is there who can even appear to be listening.
Returning viewers know that no one robbed Barnabas’ grave. He has become a vampire. He gave Josette the ring himself, after biting her and telling her she would become his undead bride. All of this has been concealed from Joshua, the countess, and Vicki. Barnabas shows up today and has a forgettable scene with Josette. They get involved with the secret passage leading out of her bedroom.
Josette’s room will be Vicki’s in the 1960s, when she is the governess at Collinwood, and we saw in #412 that she knows about the secret passage. There is one other thing you would expect Vicki to have known. Barnabas returned to prey upon the living in April of 1967; Vicki knew him from then until she came unstuck in time in November of that year, though she thought he was alive. He wore the ring with the black onyx stone all the time in 1967, just as he did in 1795. Vicki was familiar with the portrait, which still hung there in her time. She believed its subject to be the ancestor of her acquaintance, knew that it was the same ring, and knew that the “original” Barnabas had been Josette’s lover. So if Vicki read a book or heard a legend that described the ring in connection with Josette, you would think she would have put one and one together and come up with two.
Acilius on Dark Shadows 