The show has been spending a lot of time lately trying to interest us in the ghost of Dameon Edwards, a man who doesn’t seem to have had much going for him even when he was alive. They went through the motions of a murder mystery concerning Dameon’s death. The episode that introduced him also hinted that he was killed by sleazy musician Bruno Hess with the complicity of butler Mr Trask, and those hints are confirmed today. So the mystery was never much of a puzzle. Besides, Bruno and Trask are the counterparts of homicidal villains whom we saw in the universe where Dark Shadows was set for its first 196 weeks, so we’ve expected all along that they would turn out to have someone’s blood on their hands. And neither of them is the central figure in an ongoing story, so even if they had been brought to justice for their crimes it would only be an easy way for the writers to dispose of characters who were going to be written out anyway.
Today, wicked witch Angelique finds Dameon’s skeleton sealed up in an alcove in the basement of the great house of Collinwood. She summons his ghost and dismisses him. That’s it for Dameon. What will happen to the skeleton, or to Bruno, or to Trask, or to the alcove, we don’t yet know.
The sight of the skeleton standing in the alcove does remind us of one of Trask’s alternate universe counterparts, a fanatical witchfinder who was sealed up in a basement alcove elsewhere on the estate in 1796. Since Trask is involved in this little arc, it’s a nice touch to connect it to that other Trask.
Most of the episode is devoted to a far more interesting story, an adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde. They’ve been focusing on the addiction angle. Mad scientist Cyrus Longworth is hooked on the potion that changes his appearance and allows him to fool even people who know him well into believing that he is a separate person by the name of John Yaeger. He enjoys the violence that he commits as Yaeger.
Today, three people try to save Cyrus from himself. Lawyer Larry Chase resists Cyrus’ instructions to transfer $5000 to Yaeger and to rewrite his willin Yaeher’s favor; chemist Horace Gladstone is reluctant to keep selling Cyrus a volatile synthesis he needs for the potion, and figures out that he and Yaeger are one and the same; and Buffie Harrington, who is exploring her masochistic side by submitting to beatings from Cyrus as Yaeger but still thinks the two are different people, goes to Cyrus to urge him to be more careful in his dealings with Yaeger. Dark Shadows has dealt intelligently and sensitively with the theme of addiction from its earliest days, and today’s focus on people who care about the addict trying to help him achieves a real poignancy.
We may wonder if drug abuse was a particularly timely topic behind the scenes of Dark Shadows at this point. Larry is a substitute for the character of Chris Collins, who was played by Don Briscoe. Briscoe would eventually be diagnosed with bipolar personality disorder, and in 1970 was trying to self-medicate with street drugs.
The makers of the show didn’t give up on Briscoe until the absolute last minute. This episode was taped very close to airtime, after episodes that would be broadcast weeks later were already in the can, giving Briscoe as much time as possible to get himself together. The part of Larry was played by Ken McEwen. McEwen joined the show in August 1968 as an associate director. He had a guild card due to small parts he had taken in a couple of TV shows in the 50s, but had never been an actor full-time. And he clearly hasn’t had much time to learn his dialogue. He is perfectly competent in the first of his two scenes, when Larry is in The Eagle tavern with Yaeger, Gladstone, and Buffie. There are no major bobbles and you can tell exactly what is on his mind. But when Larry returns and meets with Cyrus in his laboratory, McEwen stumbles over every line and never develops a coherent attitude.
The music is interesting today. The Eagle in the current universe corresponds to the Blue Whale, Collinsport’s tavern in the main continuity, and while we are there we hear the jukebox music that was prominent in the show’s first year. There is a scene between Gladstone and Buffie in her apartment; when that opens, we hear some music I don’t believe we’ve heard before. If they’ve written a theme for Buffie, it gives us hope we will see a lot more of Elizabeth Eis’ excellent performance in this role.
The original videotape master of this episode was lost. We have it on a kinescope. I love the kinescopes; I wish all the episodes were available in that format, as well as the videotapes. We haven’t seen one since #813, and will see only one more, #1017. You can always set the options on your device to display in black and white, but the kinescope comes with some visual blurring and sound distortions. Those are usually flaws, of course, but when the show has already given you the feeling that you are catching a glimpse of another reality they can add to the eeriness and yearning for what might have been.
Dark Shadows Commentary 