Recovering vampire Barnabas Collins has himself become the victim of a vampire, his onetime wife, Angelique. Barnabas and his friend, mad scientist Julia Hoffman, are taking care of Angelique’s other blood thrall, Joe Haskell. Julia does not know about Barnabas’ predicament, but when he brought the dying Joe home she examined him, found the bite marks on his neck, and not only recognized what had happened to him but figured out that Angelique was the vampire. Under Julia’s care, Joe is recovering in Barnabas’ upstairs bedroom, but Angelique has now ordered Barnabas to kill him. Julia walks in just as Barnabas is about to put a spoonful of poisoned medicine into Joe’s mouth.
Julia takes the medicine from Barnabas and asks him what he’s doing. He looks down and pretends he was confused about what she had told him. She is unconvinced, and he keeps looking down and lying. He looks for all the world like a little boy whose mommy caught him being naughty. It’s hilarious, and when they have another conversation about the same topic later in the episode it is hilarious again.
Barnabas is back at his bedside when Joe comes to. Joe knows Barnabas tried to kill him, and starts talking about revealing secrets. Barnabas asks if he wants his ex-fiancée Maggie Evans, The Nicest Girl in Town, to know what he has become. Joe says no, that Maggie must never know what Angelique has made of him.
Maggie stops by. Julia urges her to talk with Joe. She is reluctant to do so, fearing she will upset him, but after Julia presses her she agrees. Alone with Joe, Maggie asks him about the other girl in his life. He is tempted to tell her about Angelique, saying that she is the only person he could possibly talk to, but the resolution he had earlier expressed to Barnabas reasserts itself and he clams up. He does tell her that Barnabas is trying to kill him, and that if he dies it will be Barnabas’ doing. Maggie refuses to believe that Barnabas could have done anything to harm Joe.
Longtime viewers will find an irony in this. In May and June 1967, Barnabas was a vampire and he kept Maggie prisoner in this room. Julia would later hypnotize her to forget that ordeal, and now she is inclined to think Barnabas is just peachy. Downstairs, Maggie tells Barnabas and Julia Joe did not say anything coherent. She thanks Julia for treating Joe and Barnabas for “everything you’ve done!”
Julia goes to the great house of Collinwood, where she has been a permanent houseguest for about a year. Housekeeper Mrs Johnson meets her in the foyer. Unknown to Julia, Angelique bit Barnabas last night, and left him unconscious in the woods. Mrs Johnson’s son, unsightly ex-convict Harry, found Barnabas there and took him back to the great house, where Mrs Johnson vainly offered to call a doctor for him. Barnabas insisted on going back to his own house, where he told Mrs Johnson that Julia would take care of him. Julia has no idea any of that happened. Mrs Johnson asks her how Barnabas is doing. She describes the symptoms he showed the night before. With her background, Julia must surely recognize these as signs of a vampire attack, but she has to keep a bland face while with Mrs Johnson.
Joe comes to and decides to kill Barnabas before Barnabas kills him. We end with him pulling a rope tight around Barnabas’ throat.
Dark Shadows Commentary 
We see here that Vicki was not the only character to get dumbed down. She just never came back AND she was never give a good in show reason for suddenly losing IQ points. She was also never given a good enough storyline to give her any other quality other than dumbed down. Currently Julia, who possibly IS the sharpest knife in the drawer is having a spate of ignoring facts and being unable to to put what facts she recognized together. She does get her mojo back. Maggie is similarly oblivious to what is going on around her, but at least the show has made it clear that she has been brainwashed, literally, twice in order to make her forget what she knows and possibly to block the idea that she should even have suspicions about Barnabas and others. The show’s need to drag things out took a toll on characters being smart and sadly, most of the ones who lost their intelligence were the women. It’s sad. It’s also why I don’t hate the character of Vicki, I remember when she was smart and a character who had a purpose, other than trying to avoid being actually groped by Roger Davis while acting as if she loved his character and wanted to be groped.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very true! I’m often impressed by the amount of intelligence Alexandra Isles manages to suggest in Vicki, even when the script presents her as an abject moron. Recognizing the actors in 1795 was so utterly stupid even she couldn’t overcome it, but it is very interesting to watch her coping with RD.
LikeLike