In March 1967, seagoing con man Jason McGuire showed up at the great house of Collinwood with a plan to help himself to the Collins family’s wealth. He had told matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard that her husband was dead as the result of a blow she had dealt him. He used that story to force Liz to put him up in the great house.
After a few days, Jason’s friend, dangerously unstable ruffian Willie Loomis, showed up in town. Willie was to play a role in some plan of Jason’s that was never explained. Jason made Liz give Willie a room in the great house as well. After a couple of weeks, Willie stumbled onto vampire Barnabas Collins, who took him into his power.
Jason was on the point of success beyond his wildest hopes, about to marry Liz and become master of Collinwood. Suddenly it all came crashing down, and it was revealed that Liz’ husband wasn’t dead after all. Liz threw Jason out of the house. Spying on Willie and Barnabas, Jason saw that they had a fortune in jewels. Seeing one last chance to leave Collinwood a rich man, Jason went to Barnabas’ underground lair to help himself to the jewels. But he wound up opening the coffin just after sunset, and at the end of his final episode Jason had the hand of the undead menace Barnabas crushing his throat. In the next episode, Barnabas and Willie took Jason’s corpse to Barnabas’ old hiding place and Barnabas forced Willie to bury it there.
Now, Barnabas and his friend, mad scientist Julia Hoffman, have become the protagonists of Dark Shadows. They have traveled back in time to 1840 and the show is a costume drama set in that year.
Months before Julia and Barnabas arrived in 1840, seagoing con man Gerard Stiles showed up at the great house of Collinwood. He told Samantha Drew Collins and the rest of the family that her husband had died in a storm at sea, despite his efforts to save them. He used that story to persuade the family to put him up in the great house.
Around that same time, Gerard’s friend, Cockney showgirl/ psychic Leticia Faye, showed up in town. Leticia was to play a role in some plan of Gerard’s that was never explained. Gerard used his influence to persuade Flora Collins to give Leticia a room in her mansion, a place near Collinwood known as Rose Cottage. A couple of weeks into the 1840 segment, Leticia stumbled onto the disembodied head of warlock Judah Zachery, which took her into its power.
Gerard was on the point of success beyond his wildest hopes, about to marry Samantha and become master of Collinwood. Suddenly it all came crashing down when it was revealed that Samantha’s husband wasn’t dead after all. Gerard could not decently stay in the house. Spying on Leticia, Gerard saw that she had a golden mask encrusted with a fortune in jewels. Seeing one last chance to leave Collinwood a rich man, Gerard goes to Judah’s underground lair to help himself to the jewels. But he winds up uncovering him just after his body has been reconnected to his head and reanimated, and at the end of today’s episode the hands of undead menace Judah are moving towards Gerard’s throat.
Jason was always meant to be an in-betweener, a character who would help clear up a couple of unresolved storylines and introduce Barnabas. In those days before internet discussion fora and soap opera magazines, the viewers would not have known that actor Dennis Patrick never signed a contract when he was cast as Jason and already had commitments in California coming up in the summer. But those who had been watching for the previous four months had seen the story of undead fire witch Laura Murdoch Collins absorb one narrative thread after another, so many that it would be clear to them that the show had committed itself to being a supernatural thriller. We may not expect a vampire named Barnabas, but we do expect someone to succeed Laura as the show’s next uncanny Big Bad. Jason was obviously doomed, because he did not know what kind of show he was on. He thought it was still the noir drama it was from August to December 1966, when it told of the Murder of Bill Malloy and its aftermath. In that genre, a blackmailer or a thief might find a way to prosper. But in this world, he is just so much meat for the monster’s dinner table.
But the show has been building Gerard up for months. In July, Julia and Barnabas traveled to the year 1995, where they found that Collinwood was a deadly ruin presided over by Gerard’s ghost and had been since a mysterious disaster took place sometime in 1970. They then went to 1970, and found that they were as powerless to prevent Gerard’s ghost from destroying Collinwood in that year as they had been unable to fight him in 1995. And while his attempt to steal the mask shows that he has failed to understand the extent to which supernatural powers dominate his world, his association with Leticia and his own pose as a seer show that he can engage with those powers to some extent. Therefore, we cannot expect that we will see Judah standing over Gerard’s corpse tomorrow, ordering Leticia to dig a grave.
As the show has been building up the character of Gerard and with him actor James Storm, so it has been going out of its way to keep actor Michael McGuire and the physical presence of Judah on the sidelines. When a character heard a voice coming from the Head, another actor provided that voice. Even today, when Michael McGuire is playing a fully reconstituted and reanimated Judah, he is billed in the credits as The Head. Nor is there a portrait of Judah, as there was a portrait of Barnabas starting a week and a half before Jonathan Frid made his first appearance, committing the show to using the actor who modeled for it. So while they have established that Judah will be the Big Bad for some time to come, there is no reason to expect Michael McGuire to continue playing him.
For most of 1969, Dark Shadows was set in 1897. During that time, David Selby’s character Quentin Collins, whose great-uncle and Doppelgänger is Samantha’s husband and is also named Quentin Collins, became a huge breakout hit. In the second half of the segment, the arch-villain was sorcerer Count Petofi. Among his other powers, Petofi was able to forcibly swap bodies with people. In #872, Petofi, inhabiting Quentin’s body, managed to travel to the year 1969. It looked like Mr Selby would be playing Petofi in a contemporary dress segment, but after a brief moment he was snatched back to 1897.
Quentin had first been introduced as an unspeaking ghost wearing nineteenth century garb, giving people dirty looks, and figuring in a retelling of The Turn of the Screw. Gerard met exactly that description when the show was in contemporary dress in August and September 1970. When we traveled back to 1840, characters even remarked on the living Gerard’s similarity to that year’s version of Quentin. In #1120, Daniel Collins, father of Quentin, told Gerard that he was very much like Quentin, and after their attempted marriage collapsed Samantha bitterly told Gerard that all he ever wanted was to become Quentin. So we can easily suppose that the show is trying to replicate with Gerard and Mr Storm the success it had with Quentin and Mr Selby. Even if Judah displaces Gerard’s personality and begins operating through his body, that will be a reenactment of the Quentin/ Petofi story. If we hope that the possession will be broken, we will be hoping for Gerard to return, leaving us rooting for him and opening the possibility that he will be transformed from villain to protagonist, as Barnabas and Quentin have been.
But there is an obvious problem with the idea of adding a second Quentin to the cast of characters. Ever since the show left 1897 in November 1969, the show has been struggling to find a place in the story for the Quentin it already has. Abraham Lincoln used to say that a town that isn’t big enough to support one lawyer can always support two, and I suppose they might have hoped that two Quentins would clash with each other often enough that the same principle would apply. But even if that was on their minds, in Gerard’s similarity to Jason they hedged their bet. If Judah takes possession of Gerard, it will be as if Jason’s fatal misadventure had been followed by Dennis Patrick switching to the role of Barnabas. They’ve managed to keep Barnabas busy most of the time he’s been on the show, so perhaps they think they have space for an another character like him.
This episode does feature one scene that is so hilarious I think it must be an example of intentional comedy, intentional at least so far as the director and actors were concerned, if not the writer. Barnabas has discovered that Julia is under Judah’s power and is giving her a stern talking-to in the drawing room of the great house. Leticia enters to report to Julia that there is trouble in the hiding place. Julia looks at her and shouts “Leticia, get out! Get out, Leticia!” As she does so, Barnabas shouts “Come back! Come back!” The alternating cries “Get out!”/ “Come back!”/ “Get out!”/ “Come back!” had us laughing out loud.
