Sorcerer Count Petofi enters the great house of Collinwood, carrying a large painting covered with a cloth. He finds the hypocritical Rev’d Gregory Trask, who is at the moment master of the house, standing in the drawing room, dazed. Petofi realizes that Angelique the witch cast cast a spell on Trask, and that this spell is part of her effort to obstruct his own evil plans.
Petofi meets broad ethnic stereotype Magda Rákóczi in the foyer. He forces her to tell him that Angelique is upstairs, in Quentin Collins’ suite. He exits, taking the painting with him.
Angelique is casting a spell, ordering Trask to point a revolver at his temple. She is about to make him squeeze the trigger when Petofi surprises her. He overpowers her, both physically and in terms of the spell, and frees Trask.
Quentin is in the prison cell in the basement. Together with the scene between Petofi and Angelique, this circumstance will ring bells for longtime viewers. We first saw this cell in #401, when the show was set in 1795. In that part of the series, Thayer David played much-put-upon indentured servant Ben Stokes, who was a plaything in Angelique’s hands. Ben was the first prisoner confined to the cell, when haughty overlord Joshua Collins was punishing him for some or other things he had been powerless to prevent. Now, the dramatic date is 1897, and the same actor is playing Petofi, who stands at the opposite extreme from Ben. Angelique is not much better able to resist Petofi than Ben had been to resist her, and so far from being a place where he will be imprisoned the cell is just another place for him to exercise his power over everyone else.
Quentin is in the cell because he is a werewolf, and this is the night of a full Moon. The closing cliffhanger comes when Trask, released from Angelique’s spell, comes and tells him he will watch him transform into the animal, then go get the police.
Dark Shadows Commentary 