Last week, a man who refused to identify himself cold-called Maggie Collins and told her to meet him secretly in a dark alley near the waterfront. Once she got there, he grabbed her and set about raping her. Only when one of Maggie’s old school friends happened by was he interrupted and she rescued. Today, the same man calls Maggie and tells her to meet him secretly on a cliff in the woods. This time he identifies himself as Cyrus Longworth, whom she did not recognize during his previous attack on her and whom she still regards as a friend, so she agrees. Once she gets there, he approaches her. He is disguised as “John Yaeger,” an imaginary person whom he creates by taking a potion he made to change his appearance. The Yaeger disguise is effective at concealing Cyrus’ identity, but Maggie does recognize him as the same man who trapped her the last time she fell for this. He takes her prisoner and locks her in a dungeon in the basement of an old farmhouse he obtained yesterday by murdering its rightful owner. He tells her she will come to like it there.
Dark Shadows first became a hit in May and June of 1967, when it was set in a different universe. We saw Maggie’s counterpart held prisoner by vampire Barnabas Collins, who had the lunatic idea that if he tortured her in the right way her personality would disappear and that of his lost love Josette would take its place. Maggie escaped from Barnabas; her memory of his crimes against her was mind-wiped away, and she became quite fond of him. The show eventually decided to run with Barnabas’ idea, building more and more connections between Maggie and Josette. Late in 1969, another character played by Kathryn Leigh Scott actually did turn into Josette. By the time we crossed over to the current continuity ten weeks ago, the original Maggie and Barnabas were an item.
The feature film House of Dark Shadows retells the story of Barnabas’ imprisonment of Maggie. Principal photography on that film just wrapped a few weeks ago. So it is front of mind for the production staff. The dungeon Cyrus has prepared for Maggie is made of the same panels representing brick walls that indicated the dungeon where Barnabas kept the other Maggie. Moreover, Cyrus has stocked it with some of Maggie’s belongings, including the silver brush and mirror that had once belonged to Josette which Barnabas provided to the Maggie of his universe. So the horror of seeing Maggie in the dungeon, at the mercy of the loathsome Cyrus, is compounded by the thought that the show might possibly do what it did with Barnabas, and have Cyrus’ plan work. Longtime viewers can all too easily imagine Maggie deciding she loves Cyrus, disgusting as he is.
Fortunately for the audience, Cyrus meets someone today whose involvement in the plot assures us that his plan will not be a straightforward success. This person knows him as John Yaeger; he knows her as Alexis Stokes. In fact, she is Alexis’ twin sister, the late Angelique Stokes Collins. Angelique rose from the dead, murdered Alexis, and took her place as a permanent houseguest at the great house of Collinwood. Maggie and her husband, drunken sourpuss Quentin Collins, own Collinwood. Angelique was Quentin’s first wife, and she wants to be reunited with her widower. When she meets Cyrus, she decides to encourage him in his designs on Maggie.
Angelique’s counterpart in the original continuity is a wicked witch whose plans always misfire. As they are unraveling, they usually add a madcap quality to the proceedings which makes a sharp contrast with the unrelieved bleakness of Maggie’s time in Barnabas’ dungeon. Though this Angelique is utterly evil, we can hope she will spare us that dreariness.
Dark Shadows Commentary 