When Ron Sproat joined the writing staff of Dark Shadows in the Autumn of 1966, he used his first several scripts to catalogue the ongoing storylines and classify them according to their potential for future use. Now Sproat is approaching the end of his time on the show, and he is again in a self-referential mood. Today’s episode is mostly about the geography of the great house of Collinwood and the grounds around it.
We first heard about the servants’ quarters in Collinwood in #196, when seagoing con man Jason McGuire imposed himself on matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard as a houseguest. Liz faced front and looked past the camera to stage right, saying she might find a room for Jason that way. He cut her off, saying that was where the servants’ quarters were. He insisted on a room upstairs, among the family.
Today, we see the servants’ quarters for the first time. Children David Collins and Amy Jennings are under the influence of the evil spirit of Quentin Collins, and David tells Amy that Quentin wants them to go to a particular room. Since it is late and they are supposed to be in bed, they take care that none of the adults see them. Rather than go past the other bedrooms and down the main staircase in the foyer, they cut through the long-deserted west wing and enter the drawing room through a secret panel. They are detained there briefly when they hear heiress Carolyn Collins Stoddard talking with Amy’s brother, mysterious drifter Chris Jennings, in the foyer. When Carolyn and Chris go away, Amy and David leave the drawing room and exit the same direction Liz had faced when she tried to get Jason to stay in the servants’ quarters.
The only servants living in the house now are housekeeper Mrs Johnson and her son, unsightly ex-convict Harry. Mrs Johnson comes down the corridor and hears the children talking behind a door. She is wearing her robe over her nightgown, confirming that the part of the house the children have gone to includes her bedroom. A very nice painting hangs on the wall of the corridor, showing that the Collinses’ habit of cramming their properties with fine art extended to every part of the house.
Also in this episode, Carolyn invites Chris to live in the cottage on the estate that was once occupied by crazed handyman Matthew Morgan, and later by undead blonde fire witch Laura Murdoch Collins. Carolyn tells Chris that the cottage is very far from the main house, profoundly isolated. It has been fairly well established that another mansion on the estate, the Old House, is a fifteen minute walk through the woods from the main house, so Carolyn’s tone suggests that the cottage, too, is about that remote.
This might bring a chuckleworthy image to the minds of longtime viewers. In #139, well-meaning governess Victoria Winters carried a breakfast tray loaded with tea things from the main house to Laura at the cottage. She is conspicuously careful with the tray. Vicki was at once so resolute when she had a task to accomplish and so utterly lacking in practical sense that it is very easy to picture her hiking the better part of a mile through the woods carrying such a thing.
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