Episode 1106: The girl Barnabas thinks he loves

Julia Hoffman and Willie Loomis have gone to an old crypt and opened a coffin in which a vampire rests by day. They have come at the bidding of another vampire, Barnabas Collins, who wants them to destroy his colleague. Willie is ready with the stake and hammer, but Julia calls stop. She recognizes the ghoul in the box as Roxanne Drew, whom she identifies as “The girl Barnabas thinks he loves.”

Willie used to be Barnabas’ blood thrall; for some reason he now considers him a friend, and is voluntarily helping him and Julia in their efforts to combat the new vampire and a separate supernatural menace represented by a number of ghosts, some of whom have taken corporeal form. He hesitates to drive a stake through the heart of what appears to be a lovely young woman, but knows that doing so is the only way to save the life of Roxanne’s victim, governess Maggie Evans.

Julia has long since implicated herself so deeply in Barnabas’ many crimes that she has no hope of a future that does not center on him. She would like to carry on some kind of romance with him, a reasonable enough choice given that she cannot have one with anyone else, and has fallen in love with him after a fashion. Barnabas does not recognize the nature of their entanglement, and he refuses to reciprocate Julia’s desires in this matter. It must be galling to her that he has chosen Roxanne as his current infatuation, not least because she looks so much like her to be the daughter she never had. But her devotion to Barnabas is so extreme that Julia says that Willie and their friend, Quentin Collins, must carry the coffin to Barnabas’ house with Roxanne in it and allow Barnabas to decide what to do when he rises.

Julia goes to Barnabas’ house and finds Sebastian Shaw lurking in the parlor. She is startled to see him. He asks if he has committed a crime. Presumably he has, since he has no legal right to be there and no one is available who could have let him in, but Julia would rather ask him questions than scold him for trespass and unlawful entry. Sebastian is Roxanne’s closest known associate, and when they discovered that she was the vampire Julia and Willie were puzzled that he was not guarding her. For his part, Sebastian is interested in Maggie, and has come to Barnabas’ place to talk with Julia, who is Maggie’s doctor. He asks for permission to sit with Maggie, and Julia says that Maggie is too ill for visitors. Neither of them gets much satisfaction from the conversation.

Sebastian goes to the crypt and is surprised to find that the coffin is gone. He notices the hammer and stake on the floor, unused. Meanwhile, back at Barnabas’ house, Willie tells Julia that they left the hammer and stake in the crypt. Inexplicably, she orders him to go get them lest Sebastian find them. They aren’t monogrammed or anything- there’s nothing about them that could tell Sebastian who had been in the crypt. The most they can do is reveal to him that Roxanne has not been destroyed, but if he is under her power he knows that already. When Willie comes, of course Sebastian sees him and realizes that Roxanne must be in Barnabas’ house.

Barnabas rises. He is distraught to learn that Roxanne shares his affliction. At his command, Willie opens the coffin. Roxanne tries to bite everyone. Julia holds her back with a cross, and they re-close the coffin.

Willie and Julia leave. Roxanne is kept immobile by a cross on her chest. The coffin is hidden behind a bookcase in the parlor. Barnabas stands over the coffin and makes a speech, then leaves Roxanne alone in the house. The front door is, as always, unlocked.

Sebastian had let himself in after Julia and Willie left. He sees Barnabas come out of the chamber behind the bookcase, then lets himself into that chamber. He opens the coffin. Surprisingly, he does not let Roxanne go- he aims a pistol at her. Presumably it is loaded with silver bullets that will destroy her. It’s been clear all along that Sebastian hates Roxanne, but also clear that she controls him, so we have assumed he is her blood thrall and is powerless to act against her. Perhaps this is not so!