david collins – Page 9 – Dark Shadows Commentary

Episode 123: A nice dungeon

The restaurant at the Collinsport Inn appeared in the very first episode of Dark Shadows. Well-meaning governess Vicki arrives in town, and stops there on her way to her new home in the great house on the estate of Collinwood. Counter-woman Maggie Evans, The Nicest Girl in Town, gave Vicki a bit of a hard time at first, but quickly emerged as the person likeliest to be her friend. And indeed, Vicki and Maggie have visited each other, had heart-to-heart talks, etc.

We’ve seen the restaurant many times since. As part of the inn, it has always figured as territory associated with dashing action hero Burke Devlin, arch-nemesis of Vicki’s employers, the ancient and esteemed Collins family. It was Burke who brought Vicki to the inn and therefore sent her Maggie’s way, and the major scenes in the restaurant since have revolved around Burke and his doings. By making the whole complex of the inn an extension of Burke’s personality, it established him as a force equal to the Collinses with their mansion and its precincts.*

Today marks a shift in the use of the set from a symbol of Burke’s power to a neutral space where new characters are introduced without giving away their relationships to the ongoing storylines. While Burke figures in the conversation, he doesn’t appear in the episode, and the action does not depend on what he has done.

Maggie presides over the place. Her interactions with newcomers begin from the fact that she works there. The only other public spaces we’ve seen are the Blue Whale tavern, where the bartender does not speak and any conversations start as part of whatever story the speakers are involved in, and the sheriff’s office, which is nobody’s idea of a casual hangout. So Maggie is elected Welcoming Committee.

A blonde woman in a stylish hat takes a seat at a table while Maggie is at the counter bantering with her boyfriend-in-waiting, hardworking young fisherman Joe. Joe tells Maggie that the woman looks familiar, but that he can’t quite place her. After Joe leaves, Maggie gives the woman a menu, pours her a cup of coffee, and talks with her.

The mystery woman in her stylish hat. Screenshot by Dark Shadows Before I Die

The woman asks about Grace, whom Maggie replaced at the restaurant five years ago. She confirms that she lived in Collinsport when Grace ran the restaurant. Since she is from Collinsport, Maggie is surprised that she came to town on the bus and is staying at the inn. The woman asks about the Collinses. Maggie says that high-born ne’er-do-well Roger Collins is the same as ever, only more so. When the woman asks what that means, Maggie explains that he is the person in town likeliest to play the role of Ebenezer Scrooge.** The woman asks about Roger’s son, strange and troubled boy David Collins. She is happy when Maggie says that David is a cute, clever boy, and startled when she says that “a nice dungeon would help” him to be easier to live with.

The woman is never named, but returning viewers will have a very short list of people she might be. The ongoing storylines are:

Vicki’s quest to learn the identity of her birth parents. The woman doesn’t look anything like Vicki, and the one potential lead Vicki has discovered in her time in Collinsport is a portrait of a woman who looks exactly like her. If the woman is connected with that storyline, therefore, it would likely be in some roundabout way- we wouldn’t expect them to cast a blonde actress as a close relative of the brunette Vicki after the big deal they made of that portrait.
The mistress of Collinwood, reclusive matriarch Liz, hasn’t left home in eighteen years and no one knows why. Liz is the first person the woman asks about, so it could be that she has come to shed some light on this puzzle. The only women who lived in the house eighteen years before who have gone away since were the servants, so it could be that this woman is a former Collins family servant who has come into money.
Homicidal fugitive Matthew’s abduction of Vicki. Matthew has always been friendless, and his only relative is an elderly brother. He has always lived in poverty, and did not know the servants who were connected with the house before Liz became a recluse. So it is difficult to see what connection he could have to this woman. On the other hand, the ghosts with whom the show has been teasing us since the first week have been making their presence very strongly felt as that story reaches its climax. The woman may have some connection with the supernatural back-world of the series, and that may somehow link her to Matthew or Vicki.
Vicki’s love-life. Vicki and Burke had been spending a lot of time together, but she has told him that because he is the enemy of her employers they can never see each other again. Burke doesn’t seem to be ready to accept this. Since she has been missing, Burke has taken an aggressive part in searching for her. Vicki has been seeing instantly forgettable young lawyer Frank, but we haven’t seen him since she’s been abducted (that I recall; the guy is very forgettable.) The woman seems to be a bit too sophisticated for Frank, but she may be a rival for Burke’s affections.
Joe’s breakup with flighty heiress Carolyn and his budding romance with Maggie. Maggie doesn’t recognize the woman at all, Joe can’t identify her, and their working-class backgrounds make her almost as unlikely a connection for them as she is for Matthew. Still, if she is a former servant at Collinwood, she might have some connection with one or the other of their families.
Burke’s quest to avenge himself on the Collinses in general and Roger in particular. There is a woman involved in Burke’s grudge against Roger- Roger and a woman named Laura were in Burke’s car when it killed a pedestrian. They both testified that Burke was driving, saw him sentenced to prison for manslaughter, then married each other. Burke swears that Roger was driving, and Laura was apparently Burke’s girlfriend, certainly not Roger’s, before the night of the fatal collision. Laura is still married to Roger, though they have lived apart for some time, and she is David’s mother. The mystery woman’s reactions to Maggie’s descriptions of Roger and David would make sense if she were Laura, as would her evident affluence and her separation from friends or relatives.
Vicki’s effort to befriend David. If the woman is David’s mother, she could complicate this, the quietest but most consistently successful of all the show’s storylines.

Maggie’s reference to “a nice dungeon” is ironic. There are dungeons about, both literal and figurative. Matthew is keeping Vicki bound and gagged in one inside the long-abandoned Old House on the grounds of Collinwood, where his helper David visits him today. David doesn’t know that Matthew is holding Vicki until the end of the episode, when he stumbles upon her. As David Collins, David Henesy gives a splendid reaction to this shocking sight:

Old friends meet in new places. Screenshot by Dark Shadows Before I Die

Before the mystery woman enters, Maggie herself seems to be in a kind of dungeon. Her dungeon is built not of stone walls or iron bars, but of careless writing. Joe is filthy and exhausted after many long hours searching for Vicki, who is missing and may be in the clutches of a murderer. Even though she is Vicki’s close friend and The Nicest Girl in Town, Maggie doesn’t show a moment of concern for her. She giggles, jokes, and smiles all the way through her conversation with Joe. Not only is her dialogue out of character, it is composed entirely of cliches that remind you forcibly that you’re watching a 56 year old soap opera. For example, when Joe mentions that he crossed paths with Carolyn in Burke’s hotel room, she exclaims, “That is a convention!” The dread Malcolm Marmorstein strikes again…

*My wife, Mrs Acilius, developed this point in our discussion of the episode.

**Louis Edmonds would indeed have made a marvelous Scrooge. It’s too bad the cast of Dark Shadows didn’t get round to performing A Christmas Carol until 2021, two full decades after his death. It was a great performance, highly recommended, and is followed by a Q & A every fan of the series will find fascinating.

Episode 122: No man in his right mind

A while back, Tumblr user “marcycaa” posted this cartoon summarizing the relationships well-meaning governess Vicki has with strange and troubled boy David and flighty heiress Carolyn in the 1966 episodes of Dark Shadows:

Today, Vicki is being held prisoner by the fugitive Matthew, and Carolyn and David are off their leashes. Carolyn telephones dashing action hero Burke to complain that her mother and uncle don’t want her to see him. Burke reacts with disbelief that Carolyn is nattering on about that when Vicki is missing and might be dead.

David is the only one who knows where Matthew is. He is taking food and cigarettes to him. He has begun to suspect that Matthew has Vicki, and is afraid that he will kill her. This fear contends with his fear that he will go to jail for harboring a fugitive. He sneaks off to see Burke to seek reassurance. When Burke asks him what he wants, he says that he wants Burke to tell him that Matthew is innocent and that his hated father, high-born ne’er-do-well Roger, is responsible for everything Matthew has been accused of. When Burke can’t do that, David slips away.

Back in his hiding place in the Old House on the estate of Collinwood, Matthew lies down on a mattress next to the chair to which he has bound Vicki. Before he can get to sleep, he hears voices calling his name. The portrait of Josette Collins glows, eerie music plays, and one of the voices identifies itself as Josette. Vicki can hear none of this and tells Matthew that he must be dreaming. He wants to agree with her, fearing that the only alternative explanation is that he is going mad.

The audience knows that the ghosts are real, but we don’t know whether they mean anyone well. Matthew’s first action upon hearing the voices is to leap up and hold a knife at Vicki’s throat, so it doesn’t seem that they are protecting her. David considers them his friends, but nothing they have done for him has so far led him anywhere but deeper into his constant agony. The last time Vicki was locked up, the ghost of beloved local man Bill Malloy came and told her she would be killed unless she got away soon, but then vanished, leaving her trapped. While it seems likely the voices represent a power that will destroy Matthew, it is by no means clear they will do so before he kills Vicki. For all we can see, they may be about to drive him to do precisely that.

Vicki is our point of view character, but we’ve known Matthew since the second week of the show. As Carolyn tells David today, he’s always been gruff, but has seemed basically well-intentioned. Reclusive matriarch Liz seems to think that Matthew has some sort of cognitive impairment that would make it difficult for him to function in the world at large, and the sheriff’s manner of ordering him about when they have come into contact would suggest that he has the same idea. Matthew’s killing of Bill Malloy and crimes against Vicki have been desperate acts, committed with displays of reluctance and confusion. The idea that Matthew will end as the victim of a malign force that also spells doom for Vicki is therefore logically satisfying and dramatically compelling.

Episode 121: Ghosts and ghosts-to-be

Each of the 1225 episodes of Dark Shadows features one name under the credit “Written by.”* A total of nine names rotate in that spot. While we know that some episodes included writing from uncredited contributors, the only such contributors we can identify come from among that tiny group of eight men and one woman. For example, Malcolm Marmorstein, credited with today’s script, wasn’t officially named among the writers until #115, but he may well have written additional dialogue as far back as #46. Joe Caldwell’s name doesn’t appear on-screen until #245, but he will actually be writing some of the scripts attributed to Ron Sproat starting this month, maybe this week.

Opinions will of course vary as to which of the nine identifiable writers was better and which was worse. Few, however, will find a place for Marmorstein on a list of Dark Shadows’ eight best writers. Although he had extensive experience in the theater, Marmorstein had none of the sense of what actors can do that Art Wallace and Francis Swann brought to the first nineteen weeks of the show. Nor did he know how to structure a drama, write crisp dialogue, or invent fresh story points. Directors Lela Swift and John Sedwick collaborate with a uniformly strong cast to put Marmorstein’s scripts on such a strong footing that at moments they seem like they are about to be good. Those brief flashes of hope are invariably, cruelly, disappointed.

There are indeed some bright spots in today’s episode. Reclusive matriarch Liz is in the drawing room of the great house of Collinwood. Well-meaning governess Vicki and homicidal fugitive Matthew are both missing, and Liz is worried that Vicki may have fallen into Matthew’s hands. Wildly indiscreet housekeeper Mrs Johnson shares her conviction that Matthew has killed Vicki, and won’t stop talking about this belief even after Liz expressly orders her to do so. Clarice Blackburn plays Mrs Johnson as a woman with no self-awareness whatsoever, and no screen actor has ever had a more effective way of showing horror at displays of social maladroitness than did Joan Bennett. In their hands, this scene is laugh-out-loud funny.

A knock at the door rescues Liz from Mrs Johnson’s untrammeled morbidness. The sheriff has come to report to Liz on the state of the searches for Vicki and Matthew. Mrs Johnson answers the door and won’t let the sheriff see Liz until she’s given him a piece of her mind about the incompetence of his department. There aren’t any memorable lines in this exchange, but the contrast between Blackburn’s highly animated movements and Dana Elcar’s cheerful placidity is so obviously suitable for comedy that it feels funny.

Back in the drawing room, the episode starts to fall apart. Liz and the sheriff talk about the searches for Vicki and Matthew. The dialogue is full of repetition and wasted words. Liz asks if the sheriff has an idea where Matthew might be, to which he replies, “He could be anywhere, and everywhere.” Might he hurt Vicki? “He might, but on the other hand he might not.” After all, “he’s very unpredictable.” Then, “you know how unpredictable he is.” Yep, unpredictable, let’s repeat that word five or six more times, that’ll keep us busy until the commercial break.

They could have cut some of that smoke-blowing and replaced it with lines about what the sheriff has done. My wife, Mrs Acilius, wishes the sheriff had mentioned telephoning Vicki’s former residence, the Hammond Foundling Home, and asking people there about where Vicki might have gone and whom she might have tried to contact. That might not have led to any action, but at least it would invite us to imagine that something might be going on somewhere.

The scene between Liz and the sheriff does have an effective ending. She asks him if he holds out much hope for Vicki. He replies, “Frankly, no.” She turns to leave the room. We break for commercial on that downbeat, which lets the bleakness of the situation sink in.

Strange and troubled boy David Collins comes home. David is the one person who knows that Matthew is hiding in the long-abandoned Old House on the grounds of the estate. He has been delivering supplies to him. Even David does not know that Matthew is holding Vicki prisoner in a hidden chamber. David sees that the sheriff is in the house, and asks Mrs Johnson if the sheriff has any news about Vicki or Matthew. Mrs Johnson seizes this opportunity to resume denouncing the sheriff’s incompetence, saying that the only clue he can recognize one that tells him it is time to eat and make himself even fatter than he already is.

David is about to move on when Mrs Johnson questions him about the pack of cigarettes he stole from her earlier. She sets some punchlines up for David in this exchange. She mentions that she lit a cigarette while serving David his breakfast, to which David replies by asking if she is supposed to smoke while working. She says she knows that she set her pack of cigarettes on the table when she and David were alone in the kitchen, and that she hasn’t seen it since. He suggests it walked away by itself. She tells him he’s the only one who could have taken them; he says that if he wanted cigarettes, he wouldn’t steal them, he’d buy them. None of these lines is much on the page, but as delivered by Blackburn and David Henesy, they are genuinely funny.

Mrs Johnson looks for nicotine stains on David’s fingers. Screenshot by Dark Shadows Before I Die.

David goes into the drawing room and talks with the sheriff. Picking up on Mrs Johnson’s remark about the sheriff’s vigilant observation of meal-times, David asks him what it means when the whistle blows at the cannery. “Lunch,” says the sheriff. Again, not a world-class piece of comic material, but Henesy and Elcar make it land.

David then asks the sheriff for the details of his search for Matthew. The sheriff happily answers all of David’s questions in detail, as if he were giving a briefing to the state police. He tells David that anyone who might be hiding Matthew will go to jail.

This scene shows the limits of what a good actor can do with bad material. David is going to return to the Old House at the end of the episode. He will be prompted to go back there because he has learned information from the sheriff that Matthew will want to know. While there, he will set up suspense by revealing to Matthew that the sheriff has triggered his intense phobia of jail. That locks the sheriff into playing his scene with David as a babbling oaf.

In Elcar’s first episodes as the sheriff, he had made indiscreet remarks to David, but as we saw him observing the reactions those remarks elicited from David and others he seemed to be using them as ploys to advance his investigations. For example, in #59, he had given David some information that excites him and unnerves his father, high-born ne’er-do-well Roger Collins.

We can see how he might use similar tactics in this situation. After all, Vicki is David’s governess, and David has spent more time with her than has anyone else. Matthew had been the caretaker in the house where David lives, and David knows him quite well also. In this conversation, when the sheriff refers to Matthew as unlikable, David becomes very excited and exclaims “I like him! Er, I did like him, I mean.” If the sheriff knows his business he might well pay very close attention to everything David says, and keep encouraging David to say more. He will certainly notice David’s terrified reaction to the idea that someone helping Matthew will go to jail, and test his reaction to further comments on related themes. But if he takes any note at all of David’s attitude, the current storyline will end within minutes. So in this scene, Marmorstein leaves Elcar no way to play the sheriff as an intelligent character.

After the sheriff leaves, David and Liz have a scene in the drawing room that builds up to a tremendously frustrating moment. David keeps asking his aunt one question after another about Matthew and Vicki, Vicki and Matthew, does Matthew have Vicki, is Vicki in danger from Matthew, then without taking a breath “Do you know any secrets about the Old House?” Liz responds “I wish that someday you’d ask an important question.”

Granted, we know that Matthew is holding Vicki prisoner in the Old House and Liz does not, but it is hard to imagine anyone failing to see the connection between these two thoughts. Joan Bennett and David Henesy had a fine rapport that made the scenes between Liz and David Collins a delight, and you can see them trying to save this exchange. David is in a panic at the beginning of the scene and gets steadily more worked up as it goes along. We see Liz observing his agitated emotional state, paying such close attention to his facial expressions, tone of voice, and frantic bodily movements that she misses key elements of his words. It’s a valiant attempt on their part to make the scene work.

David wants to go to the Old House to see Matthew. In the foyer, Mrs Johnson again confronts him about the cigarettes. He yells at her to “Get off my back!” and runs out. This might have been an attempt to show that David feels his world closing in on him, but it doesn’t succeed. We’ve already seen those two characters say everything they had to say about that topic on that set. Repeating it just feels like filler.

*There are reference works that draw on the original paperwork produced by the makers of the show; even these list one writer per episode. That’s how the Dark Shadows wiki manages to list a writer for every episode, including those that don’t show writing credits on-screen.

Episode 120: No promise of salvation

Well-meaning governess Vicki is bound, gagged, and imprisoned in a hidden chamber in the long-abandoned Old House on the estate of Collinwood. Her captor, fugitive Matthew, fluctuates between saying that he doesn’t want to hurt her and threatening to kill her. Their scenes are appropriately difficult to watch.

At the great house on the estate, strange and troubled boy David Collins is having breakfast with wildly indiscreet housekeeper Mrs Johnson. This is our first look at the full kitchen set in Collinwood since episode 53, and as in previous scenes in that intimate locale one character conveys a large amount of story-productive information to another.

Mrs Johnson tells David that Vicki is missing, says that Matthew probably has her, and that she will likely never be seen again. She dwells at length on the prospect that Vicki’s mangled corpse may be rotting on the beach somewhere.

David finds this idea upsetting. When Vicki first became his governess, he had been quite unpleasant to her. Among his favorite themes in conversation with her was the legend that a governess would fall to her death from the cliff overlooking that beach, and his wish that she might be the governess who makes the legend come true. His disquiet at Mrs Johnson’s speculation shows how far he has come since those days.* Now, he likes Vicki very much.

When Mrs Johnson tells him that if Vicki is dead, it’s his fault, he is shocked. She explains that Vicki disappeared while she was looking for her wallet, and that she wouldn’t have lost her wallet in the first place if she hadn’t had to go looking for David when he ran off. Unknown to Mrs Johnson, David knows where Matthew is and is bringing him food. She has no idea how heavy a responsibility David would bear were Matthew to kill Vicki.

While Mrs Johnson washes the breakfast dishes, David fills a paper sack with more food for Matthew. He also steals the pack of cigarettes she left on the breakfast table. The sounds coming from the sink make it clear she is only a few feet away from David while he conducts this raid, but she doesn’t notice a thing. When she leaves the sink, she does notice that her cigarettes are missing, but doesn’t accuse David of taking them. Nor does she ask him about the paper sack, though there is nothing between it and her eyes.

David takes the food to Matthew at the Old House. From her place of bondage, Vicki listens as David tells Matthew that she is missing and that people are blaming him for her disappearance. David talks soulfully to Matthew.

David wonders if his hated father, high-born ne’er-do-well Roger Collins, might be holding Vicki prisoner. Matthew has encouraged David to believe that Roger, not he, killed beloved local man Bill Malloy, and tells David that there’s no telling what Roger might do now. Once a man has killed, he explains, killing is easier the next time. Vicki, fearing that Matthew might kill her and now fearing that he might kill David as well, hears this remark with alarm.

After David leaves the house, he realizes he forgot to give Matthew the cigarettes he stole from Mrs Johnson. He returns to the house and does not find Matthew. Vicki hears David. Through her gag, from behind the wall, Vicki calls out to him. David’s first reaction to the sound of this muffled voice is to look at the portrait of Josette Collins above the mantelpiece.

We have seen Josette’s ghost emerge from the portrait twice, and in #102 we saw David have a conversation with it. We could only hear his side of it, but it seems that David can hear Josette talk to him through the portrait. Viewers who remember that scene will appreciate David’s quick glance at the portrait. He doesn’t seem to think that Vicki’s voice sounds much like Josette’s, he’s just checking to make sure.

David makes his way to the bookcase that conceals the entrance to the hidden chamber. He is listening there to Vicki’s muffled cries when we see Matthew coming back to the house.

As David Collins, ten year old David Henesy plays the lead in today’s episode. David Collins’ character began as a little fellow who had “known nothing but hatred all his life,” in the words of his aunt, reclusive matriarch Liz. Because his father hated him so, the only way David knew to behave was hatefully, and he made a valiant effort at that. Vicki strives to befriend him, and has had great success. Now, he is trying to extend the benevolence he has learned from Vicki to Matthew, whom he believes to be wrongly accused. David seems very small and very fragile throughout the episode. That vulnerability, framing David Henesy’s lively and intricately realized performance, makes for an effective Friday cliffhanger when we see David Collins in danger at the end.

*My wife, Mrs Acilius, contributed a great deal to my understanding of David’s characterization in this episode.

Episode 115: The suddenness that frightens

In episode 98, strange and troubled boy David Collins appeared to be a true sociopath, never losing his cool while he manipulated the adults around him according to his sinister plans. It was easy to see how a character like that could drive the story for a long time.

Traces of this conception resonated in David Henesy’s portrayal of David Collins as recently as this week. In #113, David Collins found homicidal fugitive Matthew hiding in the Old House on the estate of Collinwood. Matthew shows David the same fury he had earlier shown both well-meaning governess Vicki and reclusive matriarch Liz. Those grown women needed impressive amounts of courage to keep their composure while dealing with Matthew in that state, but nine-year-old David is as relaxed and chipper as a kitten. He simply disregards Matthew’s obviously menacing affect, and cheerfully enlists him in his scheme to send his father to prison. We can see a detached, calculating mind undisturbed by mere human feelings.

Matthew greets David. Screenshot by Dark Shadows Before I Die

Today seems to put an end to the idea of Sociopath David. David brings Matthew a meal at the Old House. Matthew startles David, then spends a moment making vaguely creepy remarks about having frightened people in the past. These remarks suffice to petrify David. It takes Matthew two and a half scenes of happy talk to calm David’s fears. Once David has warmed up, he starts boasting about how well he knows the Old House. Matthew claims to know a secret about the place that David does not know. This upsets David. He pleads with Matthew to fill him in, and won’t let it go until they hear Vicki nearby calling for him.

Matthew hides while David and Vicki stand in the entryway talking. David’s defensive mood carries over to that conversation. He insists that ghosts really do haunt the Old House, something Vicki hasn’t denied. He tries to frighten her by talking about the multitude of rats that infest the house. Longtime resident that she was of the Hammond Foundling Home, an institution that sounds like a cross between the bleakest creations of Charles Dickens and H. P. Lovecraft, Vicki doesn’t bat an eye at the notion that she is surrounded by countless rats. Still, she does have a bus to catch, so she hustles David back to the great house on the estate.

There, David has an earnest conversation with his aunt Liz about loyalty and unfortunate people who need help. David feels unloved and expresses a longing for a friendship with someone he can trust absolutely. The unemotional iceman of #98 is nowhere in sight.

The best storyline they’ve had so far has been the budding friendship between David and Vicki. I suppose turning David into a master manipulator with no conscience and no capacity for empathy would bring that storyline to an abrupt conclusion, but the move they make here folds him into it completely. His relationships with the other characters have so far been defined for us by what Vicki learned about events that took place before she arrived at the beginning of the series. The only person David knew before Vicki came and towards whom he has changed his attitude since is Matthew, and there is a very short list of possible surprises that David and Matthew can generate together.

That raises the question of how David will meet any new characters who might come on the show. He’s nine, so presumably he will need to be introduced. He hates his father, high-born ne’er-do-well Roger, and his cousin Carolyn has no patience for him. Liz loves him very much, but she hasn’t left home in 18 years. He often sneaks off and visits his father’s sworn enemy, dashing action hero Burke Devlin, but Burke keeps these meetings secret. So if David does interact with any new characters, those interactions are likely to be presented in the context of his friendship with Vicki. Since Vicki has more possibilities than David does to move the plot, that means that they will be presented primarily in terms of their effects on Vicki. The needy, untrusting David of this episode might get himself into trouble from which Vicki will have to rescue him, and he might get Vicki into trouble from which others will have to rescue her. But unless he gets a more dynamic character motivation matrix, it’s hard to see how he will ever contribute anything to the narrative beyond support for Vicki.

Vicki is the main character of the first 39 weeks of Dark Shadows, and this week is particularly Vicki-heavy. The week began with Liz preventing Matthew from breaking Vicki’s neck, and ends today with Matthew capturing Vicki when she comes back to the Old House to get something she had dropped there. The next couple of weeks will focus on her imprisonment. So if you’re going to be relegated to supporting one character, I suppose Vicki is the one you would choose. But still, it’s a shame. Not only is David Collins too promising a character, and David Henesy too talented an actor, to be reduced to sidekick status, but the notion of a show that’s on five days a week having one main character is just nuts. You need multiple sources of plot development and thematic coherence. David would be a terrific one.

Episode 113: I’ve got another contemplation

The writers didn’t always put a lot of effort into Dark Shadows’ opening voiceovers, but today’s is exceptionally dire:

My name is Victoria Winters.

Collinwood is still living up to its name as a ghost-ridden house where deaths have gone unsolved. Except that in this case, the murderer is known. Only his whereabouts are unknown. But much like a wounded animal at bay, he has taken refuge in the one place where he thinks he will be safe. The Old House has already been searched thoroughly, so Matthew Morgan feels this is one place the police will not look again.

“Collinwood is still living up to its name”- it is still in the woods and is still occupied by people called Collins? No, “its name as a ghost-ridden house.” So, it is living up to its reputation, not to its name.

Then we get three short sentences beginning with “Except,” “But,” and “Only.” If the narrator has to issue three retractions in fifteen words, it’s difficult to be optimistic about what will happen when people start exchanging dialogue.

“But much like a wounded animal at bay, he has taken refuge in the one place where he thinks he will be safe.” How does that make him more like a wounded animal at bay than like any other creature who is aware of only “one place where he thinks he will be safe”?

“The Old House has already been searched thoroughly”- that sounds OK, until about 30 seconds into the episode, when Matthew lets himself into a secret chamber of the Old House that only he knows about. When you say a house has been searched “thoroughly,” I for one assume you mean that the searchers figured out how many rooms were in it.

This is the final script credited to Francis Swann. That sloppy, confused narration doesn’t sound like his writing. Maybe he was in such a rush to be done with Dark Shadows that he didn’t bother to take a second look at the opening voiceover once he’d pounded it out of his typewriter.

Or maybe he didn’t write it at all. Malcolm Marmorstein’s name will appear in the credits soon, and Marmorstein was eminently capable of writing something that lousy. The actors have an unusually hard time with their lines today, as if the teleplay got to them later than usual. Swann hasn’t written an episode since #106, and that one felt very much like his farewell. So it could be that Marmorstein was supposed to write this one, got stuck, and Swann came in to bail him out.

Further supporting that theory is a change of texture between the first half of the episode and the second half. After the prologue showing the fugitive Matthew hiding in the Old House, we go to the room in the Collinsport Inn occupied by dashing action hero Burke Devlin. Mrs Johnson, housekeeper at Collinwood and spy for Burke, visits him there. She recaps the last couple of episodes for him. The scene is listless and disjointed, in part because of the actors going up- at one point Clarice Blackburn actually prompts Mitch Ryan with Burke’s next line- but also because they have so little to work with when they do remember what they’re supposed to say.

After Mrs Johnson leaves Burke’s room, strange and troubled boy David Collins drops in on him. Mitch Ryan and David Henesy were always fun to watch together, and they manage to get a good deal of interest out of an opening exchange in which David tries to get Burke to admit that Mrs Johnson is his agent inside the Collins home. They then go into Burke’s kitchen, where they talk about their respective grudges against David’s father, high-born ne’er do-well Roger Collins. That’s an emotionally charged topic, and the kitchen is an intimate space. But the conversation is dull. The actors don’t look at each other very much- even when they aren’t reading off the teleprompter, they keep casting their eyes to the floor, as if they’re having trouble staying awake. You can’t blame them if they are sleepy- there’s nothing new in their lines.

The second half of the episode takes us back to Collinwood, and all of a sudden it comes to life. In the foyer, an authoritative-sounding Mrs Johnson scolds David for not hanging his coat up properly. He then puts her on the spot with his ideas about her and Burke. Once he has her good and nervous, he tells her he’s going to the Old House to talk to the ghosts. Mrs Johnson takes the supernatural very seriously, and responds to that idea with some words spoken in a deeply hushed tone. She finally dismisses him with a brusque command to be back for dinner. After the door closes behind him, she looks about for a moment, pensive. Taking Mrs Johnson through these moods, Clarice Blackburn traces a clear line of emotional development that gives the scene a healthy dose of dramatic interest.

We are then treated to a previously unseen location insert in which David is skipping along the path to the Old House. It’s a lovely little scene, dreamlike and eerie:

David skipping on his way to the Old House

David stands before the portrait of Josette Collins and asks for information about Matthew. The portrait isn’t talking, but Matthew himself appears. David tells Matthew that he doesn’t believe he is a murderer, and that the two of them can investigate and prove his innocence. When David tells Matthew he has no choice but to trust him, Matthew asks “Ain’t I?” Returning viewers remember that in the previous two episodes, well-meaning governess Vicki and reclusive matriarch Liz both asked Matthew to trust them. In response, he tried to kill Vicki, and only his fanatical devotion to Liz kept him from doing the same to her. David’s blithe self-assurance stops Matthew this time, and he agrees to stay in the Old House and let David take care of him.

This episode is the first time we see the secret chamber off the parlor of the Old House. Much will happen there. Another first comes when Matthew is deciding whether to trust David or to kill him. He goes to the window of the parlor. We cut to the outside, and see him in the window thinking murderous thoughts. Many, many times next year and the year after we will see another character, one not yet introduced, in that window, vowing to kill someone or other.

The Old House isn’t the only place where today brings firsts. Up to this point the proper way for people to dispose of their coats when entering the great house of Collinwood has been to fold them and place them on a polished table in the foyer. But this time, David responds to Mrs Johnson’s reproof by taking his coat to a space next to the door where he mimes placing it on a hanger. In later years, we will actually see a set dressing there that can pass for a closet, but for now we just have to imagine one exists.

Episode 98: My part of the bargain

A woman named Mrs Johnson joins the domestic staff of the great house of Collinwood. After reclusive matriarch Liz has sat with her in the drawing room for a few minutes, Mrs Johnson rises to begin her duties. Liz asks her to wait, and stammeringly warns her that some members of the household may seem unfriendly at first. She isn’t to take notice of that- they simply need time to get used to having a new person around when they have been so isolated for so long. Mrs Johnson takes this warning in stride, and again thinks she has been dismissed. But a second time Liz asks her to wait. She tells Mrs Johnson that she needn’t go into the closed-off portions of the house,* and particularly emphasizes that she wants her to stay out of the basement.

Liz’ nephew, strange and troubled boy David Collins, is not at all happy with Mrs Johnson’s accession to the household establishment. When his aunt begins to introduce them, David cuts her off, saying that he had met Mrs Johnson in the restaurant at the Collinsport Inn. He asks Mrs Johnson why she wants to work in the house. His level tone shocks his aunt. She takes David into the drawing room while Mrs Johnson goes upstairs.

When Liz reproves him for rudeness, David asks if he will have to apologize to Mrs Johnson again. He explains that the Collins family’s arch-nemesis, dashing action hero Burke Devlin, had made him apologize to Mrs Johnson in the restaurant after he yelled at her to “Shut up!” Liz says that for once Burke did the right thing. David then asks if Mrs Johnson is going to be his jailer. Liz asks him where he got such an idea. David starts talking about ghosts, and Liz can’t take it anymore. She tells him to go. He complies, still eerily calm.

In the next scene, we’re back in the drawing room. Gruff caretaker Matthew is working in the fireplace. David sneaks up behind Matthew and startles him. He asks Matthew what he’s scared of- is it ghosts? Matthew says he doesn’t talk about such things. David keeps needling him. Matthew gets more and more agitated, David stays absolutely in control of himself.

Mrs Johnson comes in with a ham sandwich and a glass of milk on a tray. She tells David she’s been looking all over the house for him. He protests that he doesn’t take his meals on a tray, but in the kitchen. When Matthew warns him not to make a mess, he gladly sits down on the couch and takes hold of the sandwich. Matthew sulks away.

Mrs Johnson wheedles David into talking about the closed-off rooms of the house. She asks him what he sees there. He asks if she believes in ghosts. She says she doesn’t. He says, again in the blandest possible voice, “You will.”

Matthew returns in time to hear Mrs Johnson encouraging David to describe the closed-off rooms. He sends David to the kitchen with his tray, and scolds Mrs Johnson for asking questions about matters Liz doesn’t want anyone looking into.

When the clock strikes 3 AM, Mrs Johnson shines a flashlight directly into the camera. She is inspecting the basement. She tries the door to the locked room. She can’t open it, but looks into whatever she can. Suddenly, something grabs her from the darkness. She looks down, and sees David’s complacent grin.

Mrs Johnson tells David she came down to investigate a noise. That doesn’t impress David, perhaps because it doesn’t explain why she was opening drawers and cigar boxes. For his part, he tells her that he’s there waiting to see a ghost.

David tells Mrs Johnson that his aunt will be very upset if he finds out she was in the basement. She tries to bluster her way out of trouble, but David tells her not to worry- he won’t tell. She asks why not. Because, he says, she’s a friend of Burke Devlin. She denies being Burke’s friend. He says she must be- otherwise, when she publicly accused Burke of causing the death of beloved local man Bill Malloy, he would have been angry. Burke’s mildness persuaded David that the accusation was a little drama the two of them were acting out. Returning viewers have seen enough of Burke’s temper to know how David came up with his premises, and those who saw episode 79 know that his conclusion is true.

David goes on to say that he thinks Burke must have sent Mrs Johnson to the house to spy on his father, high-born ne’er-do-well Roger Collins. This is also true. Before she can try to deny it, David says that he is all for this mission, because he hates his father and hopes he dies. Mrs Johnson is shocked, both by the words and by the altogether relaxed demeanor with which David speaks them. She must never have met a nine year old sociopath before.

Mrs Johnson resumes her bluster. David assures her that he won’t tell Liz he saw her if she doesn’t tell that she saw him. He goes upstairs, disappointed that he missed seeing the ghost. Mrs Johnson stays downstairs, and after a moment hears a woman sobbing inside the locked room. She tries the door again- it is covered with cobwebs, and obviously hasn’t been opened in a very long time. She knocks, and the sobbing desists.

We’ve heard the sobbing woman before. She drew well-meaning governess Vicki to the basement in the first week of the show, and when Matthew found Vicki down there he rebuked her fiercely and reported to Liz that he caught her “snoopin’ around,” the supreme evil in Matthew’s moral universe. When Liz talked to Vicki about the incident, she amazed Vicki by denying that she had heard any sobbing. Eventually, Vicki forced Roger to admit that he had heard the sobbing many times over the years, and that he had no idea what it was. The reappearance of the sobbing woman promises a resolution to a long-standing mystery.

*Several times in the episode, Mrs Johnson mentions the disused “east wing” of Collinwood. We’ve heard a good deal about a closed-off west wing, and it will be years before the show confirms that there is also an east wing. So “east wing” is probably a blooper today. But it is clear that the house has multiple closed-off sections, and in episode 84 there is a distinct suggestion of a sealed east wing. So if it is a blooper, it is a felicitous one.

Episode 93: A little wrong about David

Strange and troubled boy David Collins talks with his father, high-born ne’er-do-well Roger, about David’s governess, the well-meaning Vicki. David wants Vicki to stay on. Puzzled by this, Roger lists some of the cruelties David has meted out to Vicki. David explains that he has changed his mind about her since he did those things. Roger asks why. David explains that Vicki has seen the ghost of beloved local man Bill Malloy, and that if she sees the ghost again, it might reveal that Roger murdered Bill. Roger responds to this remark by slapping David across the face. David is shocked, and runs to his aunt, reclusive matriarch Liz, to complain.

Roger is well-established as an abusive parent. He has time and again spoken openly of his hatred for his son, and more than once we have seen him manipulate the rage with which he has filled David so that the boy will do his dirty work for him. This is the first time we’ve seen him engage in physical violence. David’s disbelieving reaction and his assumption that he has the right to complain support the idea that Roger has previously limited himself to psychological abuse.

The actors are such pros that I find it hard to imagine Louis Edmonds really made contact with David Henesy when he swung his hand. But Henesy visibly flinches a second before the slap, as if he expected to be hit. Maybe Edmonds came close enough in dress rehearsal that Henesy couldn’t help being scared.

Roger hits David. Screenshot by Dark Shadows Before I Die

When David runs to Liz, he finds that she is busy trying to reason with her own strange and troubled child, flighty heiress Carolyn. Carolyn is annoyed by David’s interruption, and dismisses his claims about Roger out of hand. Even after Roger proclaims that he did hit David and will do it again if he doesn’t stop babbling about ghosts, Carolyn says that she believes David made the whole thing up. Liz sends Roger, but not Carolyn, out of the room, and talks to David about the incident. Liz walks him back to his room, not saying much as he seethes and says that he wishes his father were dead.

Liz returns to her conversation with Carolyn, trying to talk her out of her obsession with the family’s arch-nemesis, dashing action hero Burke Devlin. Liz understands the fascination- how could she not? Carolyn is a vigorous young woman, and she’s already broken up with the only other attractive man on the show, hardworking young fisherman Joe. So Liz shares some information about how miserable her marriage to Carolyn’s father was, tells her that Joe reminds her of the man she wishes she had married instead, and urges her to try to patch things up with him.

Roger reappears and pouts to his sister Liz. He claims that Vicki is a bad influence on David and demands that Liz fire her. Liz refuses to do so, or to take anything Roger says at all seriously. When he refers to the idea that he might take David and leave her house, she tells him she is sure that her money means more to him than does his son. His response to that is to slam his hand on the piano and to concede her point.

The Liz/ Roger moments today focus on Dark Shadows‘ most characteristic relationship, that between a Bossy Big Sister and her Bratty Little Brother. Liz fails to address Roger’s hitting David for the same reason she fails to address his psychological abuse of the boy- facing either problem would require acknowledging that Roger is a father and that he has the responsibilities of a grown man. Liz is deeply invested in treating him like a naughty little boy whose behavior she will try to correct when the two of them are alone together, but for whom she will always cover when the grownups are around.

Her cutting remark about Roger’s attachment to her money shows the same pattern. When it’s just the two of them, Liz scolds him for living off her. But when there was a prospect he would face consequences for his spendthrift ways, she borrowed against everything she has to pay his way out of trouble.

In a world of Bossy Big Sisters and Bratty Little Brothers, David is adrift. He’s bratty enough, but has no sister. The obvious candidate for a substitute big sister, his cousin Carolyn, makes it clear today she couldn’t be less interested in David. Regular viewers know that Roger and David moved into the house not long before episode 1, that Carolyn didn’t grow up with David, and that she was not happy when he ended her long reign as an only child. Aunt Liz likes David very much, but she has spent too much time protecting Roger from accountability to protect anyone from Roger. Vicki is determined to befriend David, and now that she has seen a ghost there is a chance she will succeed. But she is far too mentally healthy to reenact with him the pattern the Collinses of Collinwood are bred to expect. To accept Vicki’s friendship, David will have to learn an altogether new way of relating to another person.

Episode 90: In this house, nothing is impossible

The one storyline in the first 42 weeks of Dark Shadows that has a satisfactory beginning, middle, and end is the transformation of strange and troubled boy David Collins from the deadly enemy of his governess, the well-meaning Victoria Winters, to her faithful friend. That storyline reaches a turning point in today’s episode.

Last Friday, David imprisoned Vicki in an abandoned room deep in the closed off section of the great house of Collinwood. From the other side of the locked door, he taunted her that she would remain trapped there until she died. After she was freed from the room, Vicki decided that she would leave her position unless she could see something new in David that would convince her she could reach him.

In today’s teaser, David visits Vicki in her bedroom and tries to deny that he wanted to kill her. She quotes several remarks he has made to her over the months she has been at Collinwood in which David indicated that he would very much like to kill her, leading up to his declaration that when she dies he won’t even go to her funeral. He retracts that one, explaining that “I like funerals.”

After a few more minutes of this charming conversation, Vicki mentions that, while trapped in the room, she saw the ghost of beloved local man Bill Malloy. David’s attitude changes abruptly. He pleads with her to continue as his governess.

David’s cousin, flighty heiress Carolyn, walks into Vicki’s room in time to hear David begging Vicki to stay in the house. Stunned, she asks what brought this reversal about. Vicki explains that she told David that she saw a ghost, and that “Any friend of a ghost’s is a friend of David’s.” Carolyn wants Vicki to stay, and tries to argue that what David has said is enough to prove that she can become his friend. Vicki is not at all persuaded of this, and is still inclined to go away.

Vicki’s skepticism about David’s sudden friendliness after so much extreme hostility is a sign of intelligence. Her next actions suggest that the Dumb Vicki of later years is not far away.

Gruff caretaker Matthew is replacing the lock on the door that separates the unused part of the house from the rest of it. Matthew leaves for a moment in the middle of this job to attend to other business. Vicki and Carolyn take advantage of his absence to slip through the lockless door and make their way to the room where Vicki was trapped.

While the girls are in the closed-off section, Matthew returns to work on the door. David asks him what would happen if someone were behind that door now- would they be able to get out once he finishes putting the new lock on? Matthew dismisses him without an answer. It would seem to be a question Vicki and Carolyn might have considered asking before they sneaked into the disused wing.

Once they are in the room, Vicki behaves even less sensibly. She tells Carolyn that while she was trapped there, she tried to use a piece of paper to slide the room key under the door. Carolyn asks her to explain what she means. So she recreates the situation. She puts the key in the lock on the outside of the door, closes the door, pushes a bobby pin into the keyhole from the inside so that the key falls onto the floor outside, then slides a piece of paper under the door. The paper slides under the key. To her surprise, this time she is able to fit it under the door. Evidently she had expected to imprison herself and Carolyn in the room.

Fortunately, the two of them are able to make their way back to the main part of the house. They find David waiting for them in Vicki’s room. He says that he was worried about Vicki. The girls wonder if his concern is genuine. He looks up at Vicki, stares into her eyes, and says “I love you, Miss Winters!” Then he rushes out of the room.

Thunderstruck, Vicki asks Carolyn if David had ever said those words to anyone or anything before. Looking stiffly off into the distance, Carolyn tells her that he said them once, to a kitten he had. Vicki asks what happened to the kitten. Carolyn tells her that David drowned it.

In Wednesday’s episode, David’s father, high-born ne’er-do-well Roger Collins, had called his son an “incipient psychopath.” Carolyn’s closing line would seem to corroborate that diagnosis. Nor is it the only thing that deepens the sense of danger around David.

David has a couple of interactions with Matthew. David’s aunt, reclusive matriarch Liz, owns the house and has ordered Matthew to change the lock. David asks what reason she gave. Matthew says Liz told him that Vicki somehow made her way in the closed-off part of the house and got herself trapped there. Matthew takes it that Vicki was “snoopin’ around.” In Matthew’s scale of values, “snoopin’ around where you ain’t no call to be” is the cardinal sin. And Liz warned Vicki long ago that Matthew is a “strange and violent man” who might be dangerous to her if he thinks she is overly inquisitive.

We catch a glimpse of Matthew’s violent side today. When David tells him that Vicki saw the ghost of Bill Malloy, he becomes intensely agitated. He grabs the boy by the arm, shakes him, and struggles with himself before he can let go.

Liz is fond of Vicki and has a sense of responsibility for her. Yet given the choice between telling the truth about David’s terrible behavior or defaming Vicki and thereby exposing her to Matthew’s wrath, it’s under the bus for Vicki. That Liz tells the cover story she has devised to shield David from any consequences for his murderous actions to Matthew of all people is not only cruel to Vicki, but a sign of Liz’ extreme unwillingness to face unpleasant facts. Matthew is fanatically loyal to Liz and to the Collins family in general. He is the very last person in the world to use any information against them. Yet Liz can’t bring herself to tell even him the truth about David.

This is not the first time Liz has lied to Matthew to cover up a murder attempt by David. The first time we saw Thayer David in the role of Matthew was in episode 38. In that one, Liz told him to take the blame for an auto crash that might have killed Roger. He is to say that he failed to check the brakes. She refuses to tell him why she wants him to tell this lie. We know the truth- David tampered with the brakes in order to kill his father, and Liz has decided to conceal this fact. Since then, she has behaved as if she never knew of David’s crime.

Liz is not only protecting David- she is protecting herself from a fact she cannot bring herself to face. Liz has all the power in the family, Roger openly hates David, and Carolyn is too selfish to do much for her little cousin. We can see no prospect that anyone will rein David in before he does something Liz can’t hide from the police. Since attempted murder doesn’t qualify, I suppose we have to wonder whether David is on track to succeed in murder. Vicki’s efforts to make an emotional connection with her charge may be his last chance to avoid a hideous future.

Episode 79: I’ll hate you in public

Problem child David Collins enters the restaurant at the Collinsport Inn. Mrs Sarah Johnson, longtime housekeeper to the late Bill Malloy, is confronting dashing action hero Burke Devlin, declaring that he is to blame for Bill’s death. David angrily defends Burke. Burke whisks him out of the restaurant into the hotel lobby.

Little does David know that the confrontation between Burke and Mrs Johnson was staged for the benefit of his family, the ancient and esteemed Collinses. The two of them are scheming to have Mrs Johnson placed on the Collinses’ domestic staff as housekeeper so that she can spy on Burke’s enemy, David’s father, high-born ne’er-do-well Roger Collins.

Burke and David have a charming little scene in the lobby. David stumbles over many of his words. These are probably flubs, but they fit so perfectly with what we would expect a highly agitated nine year old to sound like that the writer might have wished he’d put them in the script. David says that he and Burke are two of a kind, that everyone in the world is against them, and that he wants to murder them all. Burke asks if this wouldn’t be a bit of a drastic solution. While David ponders that question, Burke ushers him up to his suite.

There, David asks if it is true that he told his aunt, reclusive matriarch Liz, that he would use any means at his disposal to strip the family of all its assets. Burke says that he offered to buy the house, and reminds David that he himself had suggested Burke do that so the two of them could enjoy a freewheeling bachelor existence there. David accepts this at once and is all smiles. He then tells Burke that his governess, Miss Victoria Winters, has been teaching him about the Civil War. The theme of divided loyalties has been weighing on him- how can he choose between two sides led by Liz and Burke, the only two people he likes? Burke tells him they will just have to work out a peaceful solution, and David smiles again.

David Henesy and Mitchell Ryan were not only excellent actors- preternaturally so, in the case of the preteen Henesy- but were also such appealing personalities that scenes featuring the two of them are irresistible. These particular scenes build Burke up as a villain. In his conversations with Mrs Johnson and in a couple of phone conversations, he has made it clear that he is indeed committed to destroying the Collinses. Even if this is the first episode we have seen, we know that he is lying to David and tricking him into helping with the annihilation of his birthright. Returning viewers have seen him being even more explicit about his plans on many occasions. So our loyalties are as divided as David’s- we are eager to see more interactions between Mitch Ryan and David Henesy, but are appalled by what is going on between Burke Devlin and David Collins.