Vampire Barnabas Collins and mad scientist Julia Hoffman have traveled back in time to 1840. They know that events took place in that year that led to a disaster that destroyed the great house of Collinwood and everyone in it in 1970 and that left the whole estate of Collinwood a deadly, hag-ridden waste in 1995. They hope to find a way to change history.
Today, they discover a woman lying on the ground in the woods. She is Hortense, governess at the great house, and she is horribly injured. At first they think Hortense is dead, but Julia feels her wrist and says, using a bit of Collinsport English we haven’t heard since #672, that she can feel a “pulsebeat.” Hortense manages to speak the words “headless creature” before she dies.
Julia and Barnabas tell Quentin Collins, heir to Collinwood and its acting master, what happened. His reaction makes it clear that he knows what Hortense meant by “headless body.” Later, Barnabas gets Quentin to tell him the truth. His cousin Desmond found a severed head in a shop in Macau and brought it back as a gift for him. The severed head turned out to be that of warlock Judah Zachery, who terrorized the town of Bedford until he was executed in 1692. The head has cropped up again from time to time, most recently in 1803, when it was associated with four brutal slayings known as “The Bedford Atrocities.” Under the head’s influence, Desmond found its body. Now the body is roaming about. The head has also gone missing. Until Quentin heard that the body is still headless, he assumed that Judah’s parts had reconnected themselves. He still thinks they must be hanging around together someplace.
Barnabas and Julia decide that the head and body must be associated with the disaster they want to prevent. They make a note of it. But they have more definite knowledge about a woman called Daphne Harridge. They saw Daphne’s ghost in 1995 and 1970, and got to know her as a living being when she was briefly resurrected in 1970. She was governess at Collinwood in 1840, was killed along with her charges, teens Tad Collins and Carrie Stokes, in 1841, and was a part of the disaster in 1970. When they first arrived in 1840, they were puzzled to find that Hortense was the governess and that no one had heard of Daphne. But Daphne is in Collinsport now, and the governess’ position is vacant. Julia and Barnabas make it their top priority to keep her from becoming governess.
Quentin believes Barnabas and Julia to be his cousins from England (or Philadelphia, it doesn’t seem to make a difference.) He has trusted them with the secret of what he and Desmond have done involving the head. So you might think they would address this problem by trying to persuade him not to hire Daphne. But that doesn’t seem to occur to them. Instead Julia goes to Daphne’s room and tells her she is about to be offered the post of governess at Collinwood and that if she accepts it she will be in terrible danger. In response, Daphne asks Julia who she is and why she is threatening her. Julia tries to explain that she is a friend bringing a warning, but that doesn’t cut any ice. Regular viewers know that Julia is not only a prodigiously skilled and creative liar, but that she also has a magical power of hypnosis that enables her to rewrite people’s memories. With those qualifications, you’d think she could do better than that. When Quentin drops by later and says that Desmond has recommended her to be the next governess, Daphne is startled, but quickly accepts.
The episode ends with a hooded figure walking through the old cemetery north of town. We see the figure from behind as it enters the mausoleum where Barnabas’ family is entombed. The figure opens the secret panel. The camera stays low and does not allow us to see the face of the figure entering the hidden chamber where Barnabas was sealed in a chained coffin when he first became a vampire in the 1790s. When the figure is in position to see that the coffin is not there, the camera pans up and we see that it is wicked witch Angelique. The composition shows that this is supposed to be a big shock. Indeed it would be, had Lara Parker not delivered the opening voiceover, giving away that she is going to be in the episode.
They have ruined many surprises this way. This one is a particular shame. Regular viewers know that Angelique will probably turn up sooner or later, but this is the first time we have seen the character since #978.* Her return is a big deal, and we do have a right to expect the show to be more careful about getting the biggest bang they can out of it.
*Parker played an alternate universe counterpart of Angelique from April to July 1970. She’s been away for 72 episodes.
