Nathan Forbes, naval officer and scoundrel, goes to the Old House on the great estate of Collinwood and finds his estranged wife Suki dying. With her last breath, Suki gasps out the name “Barnabas Collins.”
Nathan goes to the great house and informs the master of the estate, haughty tyrant Joshua Collins, of what he has found. Joshua accompanies Nathan to the Old House. Suki told the Collinses that she was Nathan’s sister, lest she disrupt Nathan’s engagement to fluttery heiress Millicent Collins, a second cousin of Joshua. Suki had planned to force Nathan to divert a large percentage of Millicent’s vast wealth to her. Unaware of the true nature of Suki’s relationship to Nathan, Joshua is only mildly suspicious that Nathan might have murdered her.
Nathan brings up the fact that in her dying words Suki named Joshua’s son. This irritates Joshua, who reminds Nathan that Barnabas has gone to England. Nathan tells Joshua that he thought he saw Barnabas the other night, from a distance, in the dark. Considering that the most Nathan could have been sure he saw under those conditions was Barnabas’ coat, no one would be impressed by such an account. It’s an unusual coat, but there’s nothing to prove Barnabas didn’t get rid of it and wear a new one to England. Joshua is particularly bland about Nathan’s thought that he may have seen Barnabas, since he made up the story that Barnabas went to England to conceal the fact that he died. Joshua believes that Barnabas died of the plague, and that if that news got out the men wouldn’t show up to work at the family’s shipyard. So he does not share Nathan’s suspicion that Barnabas may have had something to do with Suki’s death.
What we know that Joshua does not is that after his death, Barnabas became a vampire. Suki discovered him in the Old House, and he was indeed the one who murdered her. But so far as anyone can tell, Nathan is the only suspect, and whoever learns that Suki was actually his wife will have to regard him as something more than a suspect.
Joshua and Nathan are about to search the house when the gracious Josette comes staggering downstairs. Josette had come to Collinwood to marry Barnabas, had been put under a spell that caused her to marry Barnabas’ uncle Jeremiah instead, and was miserable when both Barnabas and Jeremiah were dead. Now Barnabas has bitten Josette and is planning to kill her and raise her as his vampire bride.
When Suki was killed, everyone around the estate was involved in a search because Josette had gone missing. Joshua and Nathan are shocked to find her here, and even more shocked by her physical condition. She reaches the foot of the stairs, says Barnabas’ name, and collapses.
Joshua and Nathan bring Josette back to the great house. Joshua orders his wife Naomi to look after Josette; Nathan tells Millicent that Suki is dead. When Naomi asks Joshua if Josette said anything when they found her, he lies, concealing Barnabas’ name. Naomi knows as much about Barnabas’ death as Joshua does; that he lies to her suggests that he himself is unsure what to make of the situation.
Millicent decides to make herself useful. She goes through Suki’s papers, looking for the address of the maiden aunt in Baltimore whom Suki told her was the only living relative she and Nathan had. While Nathan tries frantically to stop her, Millicent finds Suki and Nathan’s marriage certificate. She bursts into tears and runs away. The comedy portion of the Millicent and Nathan story has ended.
As Josette, Kathryn Leigh Scott has some scenes in bed today, adding to many such scenes she has already had. Her character in the parts of Dark Shadows set in the 1960s is Maggie Evans, The Nicest Girl in Town. Maggie also spends a lot of time in bed. In their post about this episode on Dark Shadows Before I Die, John and Christine Scoleri speculate that Miss Scott must have been the best-rested member of the cast, and append an album of screenshots from 22 scenes we have seen so far where Miss Scott was in bed to substantiate their case.
The gracious Josette, recently ill, has disappeared from her bedroom in the great house of Collinwood. She did not exit through the door to the hallway, nor did she climb out the window. Josette’s aunt, the Countess DuPrés, asks the master of the house, haughty tyrant Joshua Collins, how her niece could have got out. Joshua says there is a secret passage, but he cannot imagine how Josette would know about it. He did not tell her, and the only other people who knew of its existence were his brother Jeremiah and his son Barnabas, both of whom are dead. Since Josette was engaged to Barnabas for a time and was later married to Jeremiah, perhaps one of them might have mentioned the passage to her, but this possibility does not occur to Joshua.
Everyone in the house becomes involved in a search for Josette. That includes untrustworthy naval officer Nathan Forbes, Nathan’s fiancée Millicent Collins, and Nathan’s wife Suki. Millicent does not know that Suki is Nathan’s wife. Suki introduced herself to the Collinses as his sister, and is content to go on masquerading as such so long as there is a prospect Nathan will pass along a great chunk of Millicent’s vast inheritance to her. Nathan did not expect Suki to turn up, and she has been making him extremely uncomfortable for the last couple of days. It has been magnificent to watch.
Nathan and Suki need to have a conference about some topics they cannot possibly discuss in a house where they might be overheard. It occurs to him that no one is living in the Old House on the estate. He tells Suki to wait for him there.
Nathan is not entirely wrong when he says that “there is no one living” in the Old House. However, there is one among those who are not living who is not simply dead. That is Barnabas, who has become a vampire. Suki enters the house and meets him.
Barnabas demands to know who Suki is. When she introduces herself as Suki Forbes, sister of Nathan, he soon declares “You are not his sister, you are his wife! Don’t bother to deny it.” He tells her that Nathan has no sister, therefore she could only be his wife.
Suki plays the innocent.
This conclusion is more impressive the more you think about it. Before Barnabas died, he and Nathan were friends, so it is reasonable that he would know Nathan has no sister. Suki is not carrying a bag or riding a horse or wearing strong boots, so she must be staying at the great house. She gives her name as Forbes, so she must be staying there as a connection of Nathan’s. Granted that she is lying about being his sister, the true nature of that connection must be something she and Nathan want to conceal from the Collinses. Barnabas knows that Nathan has persuaded Millicent to marry him, prospectively raising him from the genteel poverty of life on a junior naval officer’s salary to the great wealth of the New York branch of the Collins family. So the secret relationship must be one that would deny him that glittering prize. Suki, indeed, must be Nathan’s wife. It is a brilliantly logical inference, which makes it inexplicable that Barnabas draws it. He is a character who does smart things sometimes, foolish things frequently, but he has never before shown any great aptitude for sequential reasoning. Nonetheless, it is a wonderful moment. Wonderful moments multiply when Suki is around.
Suki is one of the most quick-witted and daring characters on the show. She recovers from the initial shock after a second or two and asks Barnabas what it is to him if she is Nathan’s wife. He speaks in his usual menacing way, and she tells him he is in no position to make threats. She recognizes Barnabas from the portrait of him that hangs in the great house. She realizes that the official story, the tale Joshua put about that Barnabas has gone to England, must be the cover for some shameful secret, and she sets about crafting a blackmail demand as her price for keeping that secret.
Suki thinks she has Barnabas over a barrel.
Suki finds Josette’s cloak on a chair. She realizes that Josette is in the house with Barnabas, and we see her thinking up new and higher blackmail demands.
Suki makes a discovery.
While Suki is involved with the cloak, Barnabas dematerializes. Bewildered, she looks for him in the parlor, then goes outside. A bat frightens her.
Suki frightened.
Suki retreats into the house. She melts down and starts sobbing with fear.
Suki reaches her breaking point.
The bat reappears in the room. It hovers near the lens of the camera, then gives way to Barnabas, one of the best efforts they have made at showing Barnabas change form. Suki tells him she can’t believe what she is seeing.
Suki cannot believe her eyes.
Suki brings out the best in the writing staff, driving them to show each character doing whatever it is they do that makes the biggest contribution to the show. Unfortunately, Barnabas makes his biggest contribution when he murders people. So he winds up strangling Suki at the end of this episode. It is a terrible shame that a character as dynamic as Suki is only on Dark Shadows for a few days.
So long, Suki.
It is also a shame that Jane Draper doesn’t come back to play another part in one of the segments of Dark Shadows set in a period other than the late 18th century. Perhaps the makers of the show thought that in Nancy Barrett, who plays Millicent in the 18th century segment, Carolyn Collins Stoddard in the 1960s segments, and many other characters in segments we will see later, the show already had a tiny blonde actress with a wide range and a forceful style. Her similarities to Miss Barrett may have prompted the producers to cast Ms Draper as Millicent’s rival/ would-be exploiter/ mocking Doppelgänger. Miss Barrett’s other characters tend to be very different from Millicent. They are given to abrupt psychological reverses, alternating between acute self-consciousness and fierce self-loathing and between irritable distrust and complete emotional dependence. Her characters are usually their own mocking Doppelgänger, so that there was no need to cast another actress to play such a part. But Ms Draper is so very good as Suki that there can be little doubt she would have been able to handle any role they threw her way.
When gallant gentleman Barnabas discovered that his wife Angelique was a wicked witch who had been casting spells to ruin the lives of everyone he knows, she forbade him to disclose this information. If he did, she would kill his true love, the gracious Josette.
Now, Angelique has turned Barnabas into a vampire. When he found out about this, he killed her. Sadly, that didn’t take. For the last few days Angelique’s disembodied head has been floating around foiling all of Barnabas’ attempts to contain the damage he has been doing.
Today, we open in the Collins family mausoleum. Barnabas’ coffin is hidden in a secret chamber inside the mausoleum. He and Josette are in the publicly-known outer chamber, where she found him yesterday. He pleads with her to leave him and forget she ever knew him, but will not tell her why. Angelique has made it obvious that she is already working to kill Josette, so obvious that Barnabas and his friend Ben were talking about it yesterday. So Barnabas has no reason to withhold any information from Josette, and every reason to tell all. But he continues to keep everything back that might persuade her to flee from him. This does fit with his pattern of behavior- half the reason they are in this situation is that Barnabas wouldn’t tell Josette that he and Angelique had had an affair long ago. But it is still frustrating.
Back in the great house of Collinwood, Josette runs into the two characters who have been keeping the show watchable for the last couple of weeks, fluttery heiress Millicent Collins (Nancy Barrett) and caddish naval officer Nathan Forbes (Joel Crothers.) After a series of delightfully played comedy scenes, Millicent and Nathan have become engaged. They break their happy news to Josette. She is so preoccupied with her encounter with Barnabas that she barely reacts.
Nathan leaves. In the drawing room, Josette tells Millicent that she saw Barnabas tonight. Millicent knows that, according to Barnabas’ parents, Barnabas has gone to England. She is therefore certain that Josette could not have seen Barnabas, and she patiently explains this impossibility to Josette. The difficulties Millicent knows about are nothing to what Josette knows- she saw Barnabas die.
In the parts of Dark Shadows set in the 1960s, Nancy Barrett plays another heiress, Carolyn Collins Stoddard. In those same parts of the series, Joel Crothers plays hardworking young fisherman Joe. In 1966, Carolyn and Joe were dating each other for no reason they could discern, and the audience was afflicted with scene after scene of them out on dates staring at each other in boredom. Millicent and Nathan are as much fun to watch together as Carolyn and Joe were dull. They are pursuing objectives we can understand, and we can also be sure that their plans will not work out as they expect.
Nathan is clever, charming, and unscrupulous. He was uninterested in Millicent until he found out she was rich, then immediately began an assiduous pursuit of her hand and her inheritance. In addition to greed, he has also shown a keen eye for opportunities to bed the women on the household staff. When his naval career is threatened by the villains, he shows no sign of courage. Yet we have also seen him behave admirably, even heroically, in trying to help bewildered time-traveler Vicki. And when Barnabas was alive, Nathan was a trustworthy friend to him. So for all we know, by the time he gets his hands on Millicent’s money, this complex man might have fallen in love with her and made up his mind to be a good husband.
Millicent is not a “smart character” in an IQ-test sense, but her limitations translate into an accidental wisdom. Her ideas of life have been shaped by plays she has seen and novels she has read, leading her to think she is a character in a florid melodrama. But of course that is exactly what she is, and so her behavior is, if anything, more situationally appropriate than are the actions of the more superficially rational people around her. Certainly it is jarring when Josette starts telling Millicent about Barnabas, when she knows that Barnabas wants to keep his presence secret. Considering what will happen to Josette if she keeps approaching Barnabas, Millicent does quite the sensible thing when she insists on leaving the official story alone.
Nathan has gone to the local tavern. In the 1960s, this same set will be a tavern known as The Blue Whale. Joe will be a regular customer, and the man who will preside behind the bar is played by actor Bob O’Connell. In #319, a character pretending to be drunk called the bartender “Bob-a-roonie,” leading fans of the show to call the character “Bob Rooney,” a name never used in the series.
Now, in 1796, the tavern is called The Eagle. Bob O’Connell again plays the man who pours the drinks. His name is Mr Mooney. “Mooney” sounds enough like “Rooney” that I wonder if the “Bob Rooney” gag circulated among the production staff. Mr Mooney gets more lines today than Bob the bartender ever did, and his name is listed in the credits for the first time at the end of his 57th episode.
O’Connell did a lot of very good work in those first 56 appearances. He was especially good with facial expressions that showed he had overheard enough of a conversation to think he ought to be more aggressive about refusing to serve drinks to customers before they lose all sense, but not enough to have anything substantial to report to the police. I’m sorry to say that his delivery of dialogue today is not on that level. Partly that’s because he has to put on some kind of Anglo-Celtic accent that he is none too sure of. But that isn’t the only problem. He delivers his lines much too fast and too loud, and does not modulate his voice in response to anything his scene-mates do. He isn’t interacting with the others at all, just waiting for his cues and making sure the microphone picks up the words. His scene is a major letdown for Bob the bartender fans everywhere. O’Connell’s previous successes as a working guy who knows more than others assume he does leave me wishing they could have done another take of the scene with some fresh guidance from the director.
Fortunately, the same scene introduces one of the most magnificent characters in all of Dark Shadows. She walks in, tells Mr Mooney she’s with Nathan, and gives her name as Suki Forbes. That’s Forbes as in “Mrs Nathan Forbes.”
Nathan tries out a series of lies on Suki, each of which she bats away effortlessly. He offers to pay her to leave town; she lets him go collect his money, while she stays in the tavern and gets all the relevant information from Mr Mooney. Nathan has been away for about ten seconds by the time Suki finds out he plans to marry into the family that owns the town. She is quite pleased by the prospects this introduces.
Suki thinks of how much she might earn by pimping Nathan out. Screenshot by Dark Shadows Before I Die.
Our hopes that Nathan would eventually make Millicent happy are thus reduced to a very low order of probability. Regular viewers are again reminded of Carolyn, in this case of Carolyn’s absentee father Paul Stoddard. Paul was a charming, dishonest, and cruel man who married Carolyn’s mother Elizabeth only for her money.
We haven’t seen Paul, and know very little about his background. What we do know is that he was not from the village of Collinsport, had no money of his own, and that his best friend was a merchant seaman named Jason McGuire. We got to know Jason quite well when he showed up and blackmailed Liz for a long dull stretch of the show. Poor men would have few opportunities to meet young women of Liz’ lofty station, and even fewer means of persuading them they were acceptable marriage partners. Since the marriage took place in 1945 or 1946, when a sizable fraction of American men were on active duty in the armed forces, and since Paul was connected to Jason and therefore to the sea, it would seem likely that Paul was a Navy officer. After all, an officer’s uniform can get a man admitted to any social circle, as Nathan illustrates. So the miserable marriage that Liz endured might have echoed a similarly ill-conceived match a collateral ancestor of hers made in the late 18th century.
Hi I am the Jane Draper who played Suki on Dark Shadows! Thought I’d be on it longer but got killed off by Barnabas. I worked on Broadway, film and this soap opera. Now, I play Bluegrass, always my passion, on guitar and upright bass. Born in Illinois, grew up mostly in Southern Indiana and moved to NYC in my teens.
thank you for your kind words.
Jane Draper, comment left 13 August 2020 on “Episode 420: The Stalking Dead,” Dark Shadows Every Day.
Acilius on Dark Shadows 