Julia Hoffman enters the drawing room of the great house of Collinwood and sees her best friend, vampire Barnabas Collins, embracing governess Maggie Evans and staring hungrily at Maggie’s neck. She interrupts with news that she just had an ugly scene with one of Maggie’s charges, teenager David Collins. Julia suggests Maggie go to talk with David, and she immediately does so.
Julia scolds Barnabas for almost biting Maggie. He denies he was about to do that. She reminds him of the lengths he went to a few months ago to resist the temptation to bite Maggie. She does not mention that Maggie was his victim three years ago, in May and June of 1967, an event that has repeatedly been wiped from Maggie’s memory, though not from anyone else’s. Barnabas insists that he is in complete control of himself, and that Maggie is in no danger from him. Julia looks at him skeptically, as well she might. He sounds like every addict who is ten minutes away from a relapse.
Later, Barnabas and Julia are back in the drawing room. Barnabas is all huffy because Maggie went on a date with astrologer Sebastian Shaw. Julia asks why that bothers him. He says that Sebastian is either a charlatan or something worse. Coming from a vampire, this note of prim disapproval is pretty rich, and Julia does nothing to hide her sardonic amusement at his discomfiture.
Julia is so deeply involved with Barnabas that she has no hope of making a life that does not include him, and she long ago decided to make the best of this situation by falling in love with him. Barnabas initially responded to this attitude by cruelly taunting her, but now tends to respond to her unrequited feelings with tact and, at times, a measure of compassion. That tact and compassion do not go so far as to keep him from telling her about the other women he is chasing and expecting her to help him catch up to them, but sometimes, he speaks softly and gives her a hug. For Barnabas, that’s an enormous act of kindness.
For a long time, Barnabas was hung up on Maggie, and early in 1970 it looked like she was about to reciprocate his interest. Julia meekly stayed out of their way at that time. Then Barnabas went on a cosmic journey through an alternate universe and into the far-off future year of 1995. Julia accompanied him on that journey. While in the alternate universe, he fell in love with a girl named Roxanne, who looked like she could be Julia’s daughter. When he and Julia returned to 1970, Barnabas spent some of his time trying to prevent the disaster he and Julia learned was coming when they were in 1995 and the rest mooning about his lost Roxanne. That left him no time to reconnect with Maggie. Then, he met Roxanne’s Doppelgänger who is native to the main universe, and he was back in love.
This Roxanne apparently lives with Sebastian, much to Barnabas’ dismay. So whatever his past attachment to Maggie, the fact that Sebastian is available for Maggie to date suggests Barnabas might have a shot with Roxanne. Part of Julia’s grim amusement may come from watching Barnabas’ total inability to be rational enough to see this as a bright side.
Maggie comes back to the great house having had a fine time with Sebastian. She talks with Julia and Barnabas about David and her other charge, Hallie Stokes. She agrees that they seem already to be under the influence of the evil spirits whom Barnabas and Julia saw in the wreckage of the great house when they were in 1995, and laments her inability to get through to them. Barnabas says he will go home; Maggie offers to walk with him partway, since she wants some fresh air.
We cut to Sebastian and Roxanne’s place. Roxanne knows all about Sebastian’s date with Maggie. She mentions that she saw them at the restaurant in the Collinsport Inn. That will interest longtime viewers- the diner, as it is often called, was a major set in the first 41 weeks of the show, when Maggie worked there. It has been seen so rarely since then that we can never be sure it still exists. Sebastian wonders how Roxanne knows so much, and she placidly tells him she has her ways. He leaves the room, and she gives a mischievous smile, as if she has thought of another opportunity to use her ways to secure her interests.
Julia sees Maggie when she returns to the great house. Julia tells Maggie that she has been gone for an hour and asks what kept her so long. Maggie collapses, and Julia sees bite marks gaping on her neck.
At one point they cut from the clock in the foyer at the great house to Julia. They do a matrix wipe, in which the picture dissolves into squares and then the next picture assembles from those squares. It’s the first time they have used this effect, and it is not at all clear what point it is supposed to make. Also, both shots are loaded with lots of little visual details, so that laying one on top of the other produces an ugly, confusing image.
Dark Shadows Commentary 