Tag: the phoenix

Episode 140: Some call it Paradise

On his blog Dark Shadows Every Day, Danny Horn discussed the soap opera term “supercouple”:

This is the thing that people miss when they talk about soap opera couples. Two characters don’t have to be in love with each other to be a “couple” — although they often are, which is why people think that’s the definition.

Two characters are a “couple” when a scene with them together is way more interesting than a scene with them apart. It makes absolutely no difference whether they love each other, or hate each other, or they’re partners, or best friends. Kirk and Spock are a couple. Ernie and Bert are a couple.

Dark Shadows Every Day, Episode 473: The Twin Dilemma

By Danny’s definition, Dark Shadows‘ first supercouple is well-meaning governess Vicki and her charge, strange and troubled boy David Collins. Most of the storylines the series started with- Vicki’s quest for her origins, dashing action hero Burke Devlin’s quest for revenge on high-born ne’er-do-well Roger, reclusive matriarch Liz’ insistence that certain parts of the house never be entered, the doomed romance between flighty heiress Carolyn and hardworking young fisherman Joe, etc- either dribble away to nothing or never really get started. But Vicki’s attempt to befriend David is interesting every time we see the two of them together on screen.

That is entirely down to the actors. The scripts give David the same viciously hostile lines of dialogue over and again, require Vicki to read aloud from textbooks about the geography of Maine, and lock Vicki up in windowless rooms for what seem like eons. But David Henesy and Alexandra Moltke Isles, with their facial expressions, tones of voice, gestures, use of space, etc, create the impression of a relationship steadily growing in emotional complexity and importance. When David finally looks up into Vicki’s eyes and declares “I love you, Miss Winters!” in #89, this body language gives us a context within which we can feel that a plot-line has moved forward. In the months since that statement, David and Vicki have grown closer, and now they are quite cozy.

So much so, in fact, that there is a danger that they might end up recreating the interpersonal dynamic that Liz and Roger model and that will become Dark Shadows’ signature- a relationship between a bossy big sister and her bratty little brother. Liz continually tries to control Roger’s behavior so that he will not be bad, and when her efforts fail, as they invariably do, she covers up for him and shields him from accountability. Earlier this week, as Vicki explained David to himself and he clutched at her for support after he had done shocking things, we could see how after a time they might fall into that pattern.

Today, they seem to put that danger behind them once and for all. David’s mother, the mysterious and long-absent Laura, has come back and wants to take David to live with her. David has wanted this for years, but in the days since Laura’s return has come to be deathly afraid of her. Vicki has met with Laura and arranged to cross paths with Laura when she and David take their afternoon walk. Vicki’s theory, which has quite a bit of evidence behind it, is that David is only afraid of rejection, and that if he can see his mother in a setting where nothing will be expected of him he will start to relax.

The first result of this encounter is that David slips off a high cliff, clinging for his life to a crumbling rock on its edge. This would seem to be a negative outcome. Vicki rescues him, embraces him, and talks him into going to his mother.

Vicki holds David and urges him to go to his mother

David sees that Laura is crying and apologizes to her. They embrace and warm to each other. David, Laura, and Vicki walk back to the house together. David’s father, Roger, and his aunt, Liz, are impressed with the progress Vicki has made.

Happy at home

Dark Shadows began on a sort of 14 week schedule. Coming at the end of the first 14 weeks, episode 70 gave us our first visit to the haunted Old House and our first unambiguous sighting of a ghost. At the end of the third 14 weeks, episode 210 will end with a hand darting out of a coffin and rebooting the show entirely. Today, the conclusion of the second 14 week period is perhaps less spectacular, but in its own way just as pivotal as those other milestone episodes.

With David’s apology for making his mother cry and his resolution to open up to her, he is becoming significantly less bratty. With her handing of David off to Laura, Vicki is renouncing her opportunity to be bossy, and indeed to become a surrogate sister to him. With that danger out of the way and an untroubled friendship established between them, the Vicki/ David arc seems to have reached a logical conclusion. The series will have to find a new supercouple, or a clutch of new storylines, if it is to hold our attention in the long term.

Perhaps Laura and David will be the new pair at the center of the show. They are together at the beginning and end of the second half of the episode, and in between Laura gets some information about David to which she gives an intriguing reaction.

At the beginning of that second half, the five characters in today’s episode share a meal in the kitchen at Collinwood. The richest people in town live in a huge mansion, and this is their dining room:

Family dinner

I suppose Liz and her daughter, flighty heiress Carolyn, lived alone in the house for 18 years, ending with Roger and David’s arrival sometime last spring. So perhaps there is a bigger dining room sealed off somewhere. Be that as it may, the smallness of the kitchen is one of its most valuable features as a set. Scenes there have an intimacy that makes it natural for characters to share important information with each other. Indeed, almost every time we’ve seen the kitchen, we’ve seen someone pick up information that led them to take action that advanced the plot.

Liz and Roger mention that Laura hasn’t eaten anything. Roger follows that with jokes about the cooking abilities of Mrs Johnson, Collinwood’s housekeeper. Laura not eating is a familiar theme to the audience. The first several times we saw Laura she was in the restaurant at the Collinsport Inn. Maggie Evans, keeper of that restaurant, remarked that Laura never ate during any of her visits there, and yesterday she didn’t touch the breakfast Vicki brought her. The emphasis they keep putting on this point is one of many signs they’ve offered that there is something uncanny about her.

After the others have left the little table, Liz exchanges a few words with Laura. She mentions that David is a highly imaginative child, who even supposes that he talks with the ghosts of Collinwood. At this, Laura opens her eyes wide, shifts in her seat, looks straight ahead, and says that that does sound like pure fantasy. Liz adds that he spends a lot of time with the ghosts. Laura glances back in Liz’ direction and says that perhaps now he will spend more time with her.

One might imagine that a long-absent mother, hearing that her son thinks he spends a lot of time in conversation with ghosts, would be concerned for his mental health. A reaction like the one Laura gives Liz might be a sign of such concern. But we’ve had so many hints that Laura is herself somehow connected to the supernatural that this does not seem to be a likely explanation. More probably, her discomfort is a sign that David’s sensitivity to the uncanny and his communication with the ghosts might lead him to learn something about her that she does not want him to know.

Laura and David sit by the fire in the drawing room. Vicki has scolded David for his habit of standing at the doors to the drawing room and eavesdropping on conversations taking place inside. Now, it’s Vicki’s turn to stand on the same spot and eavesdrop on a conversation involving David.

Vicki listens in

David has asked Laura to tell him about the place she comes from. “Some call it Paradise,” she says. She starts describing a hot, sunny place with palm trees. Her last known address before appearing in Collinsport was Phoenix, Arizona, so maybe that’s what she’s talking about. But as she goes on, the description sounds less and less like that city, and more and more like the places we hear about in the legends of the Holy Grail. The air is always fragrant with the flowers that bloom continually, and the trees are the proper nesting places of a creature that figures prominently in the Grail legends, the Phoenix. David has never heard of the Phoenix, and Laura tells him an elaborate version of its story.

In episode 128, Maggie sat at Laura’s table in the restaurant and Laura told her the story of the Phoenix. When Maggie told her father, drunken artist Sam, that a mysterious blonde woman who used to live in Collinsport had told her that tale, Sam had reacted as if he recognized the story as one Laura used to tell. The version she told Maggie, though, was a relatively brief one, and was by way of an etymology for the name of her most recent hometown. The version she tells David today is much more elaborate. It evokes a whole world, claims that world as her home and therefore as David’s, and invites David to take his rightful place under the sign of the Phoenix.

As Vicki hears Laura reach the climax of the story, a sudden wind blows the front doors open, and a fraction of a second later blows the drawing room doors open as well. Laura looks up and sees Vicki eavesdropping. She is a bit startled to see her, though not as startled as Vicki is to be seen:

Vicki caught eavesdropping

After a brief moment- less than a second- Laura turns from Vicki and to the fire. She and David peer into the flames.

Peering into the flames together

Laura turns from the flames and looks at David. The episode closes with her look of satisfaction as she sees her son fascinated by the fire.

Watching David watch the fire

The doors have blown open before when the show wanted us to think that supernatural forces are at work in the house. Laura herself may control some supernatural forces, but it seems unlikely that she is the author of this incident. It interrupts her story just as she is declaring that “The Phoenix is reborn!,” her reaction shows that she didn’t know or particularly care that Vicki was eavesdropping, and her turn to the fire would suggest that she is concerned the wind might have extinguished the flames. Perhaps we are supposed to think that Laura’s presence and her plans have stirred up one or more of the ghosts Liz mentioned to Laura after dinner, and that the gust of wind was a sign of their presence. That would in turn suggest that the weeks ahead will feature a conflict between Laura’s uncanny powers and those of the spirits lurking in the back-world implicit in the action of the show.

Episode 138: You should know about the Grim Reaper

The authorities in Phoenix, Arizona have asked the sheriff in Collinsport, Maine to inform high-born ne’er-do-well Roger Collins that they have identified the charred body of a woman as that of Roger’s wife, mysterious and long-absent Laura. The body was found in what was left of Laura’s apartment in Phoenix after a fire destroyed the building, and the woman was Laura’s age, height, and build. Since Laura was the only person associated with the building whose whereabouts were unknown, the identification of the remains as hers seemed secure to the Arizona authorities.

It seems less so in Collinsport, as Laura is no longer absent. She’s been back in town for days. She has been staying at the Collinsport Inn, where she met several old acquaintances. They recognized each other and engaged in conversation. She has come to the great house of Collinwood, where she talked with Roger and other members of the family, and will be staying in the caretaker’s cottage on the grounds of the estate. Only her son, strange and troubled boy David, has expressed any doubt as to her identity, and no one takes that doubt literally.

If the sheriff knew that he was living in a soap opera, he might suspect that the woman who has come to town is a previously unknown evil twin posing as Laura. If he knew that his particular soap is loaded with supernatural storylines, he might try to figure out what sort of uncanny being she could be. But he seems to be under the impression that he lives in the world. When at one point Roger tells him to “Stop being melodramatic,” it doesn’t occur to him that he has no choice but to be melodramatic. So, all he can do is ask Laura if she knows who the dead woman might have been. When tells him she doesn’t, he leaves.

Roger is eager to divorce Laura and send her away with their son, David. After the sheriff goes, Roger expresses his consternation at the news of the fire. Laura has nowhere to take David. When she tells him that she never planned to take David to that apartment, but that she had “made a commitment to another place,” he is instantly relieved. He does not ask where that other place is. His interest in where Laura or David will be or what they will be doing is exhausted the moment he learns they will be far away from him.

Someone else is visiting Collinwood tonight who wants more from Laura than Roger does. That is Roger’s nemesis and Laura’s ex-boyfriend, dashing action hero Burke Devlin. Flighty heiress Carolyn has gone to get Laura’s bag from the Collinsport Inn and bring it to her aunt. While in town, she met Burke. When she told him of her errand, Burke volunteered to help her carry the bag. Now she and Burke are in the drawing room at Collinwood. They kiss, and he persuades her to let him carry the bag to the cottage. When Carolyn says that she is jealous of his interest in her aunt, he assures her it’s “all business.” She tells him he can’t fool her, to which he replies “Yes I can.”

Burke kisses Carolyn. Screenshot by Dark Shadows Before I Die.

As Carolyn, Nancy Barrett plays, first, excitement as Burke moves in to kiss her; then, a mixture of frustration and confusion, as she begins to suspect that he is only using her to get to Laura. Regular viewers have seen Burke several times after a flirtatious scene with Carolyn, and each time he has switched immediately into hard-driving businessman mode the moment she wasn’t looking. With her performance in this scene, we start to wonder if she is about to catch on that he doesn’t have any feelings for her.

Roger finds Burke and Carolyn in the drawing room. He is furious with Burke for coming to the house, and with Carolyn for inviting him in. He and Burke rage at each other. As Roger, Louis Edmonds does a superb job of simultaneously conveying white-hot rage at Burke and a much colder anger towards his niece. Up to now, Carolyn has responded to her uncle’s prohibitions against seeing Burke flippantly, but this time she seems to accept that she has gone too far. After Burke leaves, she kisses Roger on the cheek and whispers “Goodnight, uncle,” sounding genuinely chastened. Roger is usually a difficult man to take seriously, but Edmonds’ tremendous performance in this scene leaves her with no choice but to give a hushed reaction.

Placing this scene after Roger’s blasé reaction to his wife and Burke’s cynical toying with Carolyn makes the point that Roger and Burke are more excited about each other than either ever is about anyone else. The show embeds their emotions in the “Revenge of Burke Devlin” storyline. Burke is trying to send Roger to prison, and is scheming to enlist Laura in his efforts. Ten years ago, Burke was imprisoned because Roger and Laura testified that he was driving his car, with them as passengers, when he ran down a pedestrian and left him to die. Before the accident, Burke and Laura had been a couple; the day Burke was sentenced, Laura and Roger were married. Now Burke hopes Laura will say that she perjured herself, and that Roger was driving.

Burke’s plans never quite make logical sense. Were Laura to confess to perjury, she would be in as much legal trouble as Roger. Even if she struck a bargain to keep herself out of prison, she would certainly not advance her goal of taking David by alienating Roger and branding herself a criminal. It is difficult to see what incentive Burke imagines that she has to join him.

At the cottage, Laura is sitting by the fire, staring off into space. When Burke knocks on her door, she continues staring. In Laura’s scenes by fireplaces, the spooky music, the slowly panning camera, and Diana Millay’s rigid posture all combine to create the impression that what we see when we look at Laura is only a fragment of a human being.

Laura stares off into space. Screenshot by Dark Shadows Before I Die.

Once Laura lets Burke in, he talks her into closing the door, pushes himself close to her, and insists on telling her about the demands he will be making on her. He wants her to testify against Roger, to restore the years he spent behind bars, and to love him. When she tells him that the things he wants are not in her power to give, he refuses to take no for an answer. Over her objections, he takes her in his arms and forces a kiss on her. As Burke kisses Laura, the door opens and Roger appears with a gun.

Burke kisses Laura. Screenshot by Dark Shadows Before I Die.

Burke’s demand that the past be undone and his attempt to force Laura to feel love for him show the unreality of his ambitions. He claims to represent “Honesty and the Truth,” but everything he clamors for is an empty fantasy. So much so that we wonder if what he really wants might be something quite different from what he keeps saying he wants.

Episode 130: Someone should watch you

Strange and troubled boy David Collins is using a swing set near the long-abandoned Old House on the grounds of the great estate of Collinwood. This is a jarring moment for returning viewers. David just had a traumatic experience at the Old House. He had found his governess, the well-meaning Vicki, bound and gagged there, about to be murdered by the fugitive Matthew. Terrified that he would be punished, David had fled, leaving Vicki at Matthew’s mercy. Vicki escaped, but it is still odd to see David using playground equipment there so soon.

David is not entirely alone. Peering at him from behind a bush is his mysterious and long-absent mother, Laura. Spooky music plays when we see Laura. In yesterday’s episode, similar music played when drunken artist Sam Evans unaccountably adopted Laura’s mannerisms and painted a picture reminiscent of her fascination with fire. That suggested that there is something supernatural and dangerous about Laura. Her surreptitious watching of David, so near the haunted and malign Old House, leads us to wonder if he is the one in danger.

Laura watching David. Screenshot by Dark Shadows Before I Die

No one has told David that Laura is back in town. Wildly indiscreet housekeeper Mrs Johnson has found out about it, and while she tucks David into bed she drops a series of very broad hints to the effect that someone else may be watching over him soon. David doesn’t seem to catch her point, but he does mention that he thought he saw a woman watching him from behind a bush while he was using the swing set. Mrs Johnson responds with a brusque joke, but looks very interested. Since she knows Laura is back, she may well wonder if Laura is the woman David saw.

David’s father, high-born ne’er-do-well Roger, and his aunt, reclusive matriarch Liz, are deeply worried about what Laura wants. They haven’t been able to get in touch with her, and the last time they saw her she was profoundly mentally ill. Mrs Johnson knows of their concerns, but does not tell them that David may have seen Laura on the grounds of the estate. Mrs Johnson is disloyal to her employers, working as a spy for the Collins’ family’s arch-nemesis, dashing action hero Burke Devlin. We’ve already seen her give a report to Burke today, and presumably if she has any further information she will reserve it for him.

Late in the evening, Laura comes to the house. She tells Roger that she will gladly divorce him, and that she does not want a financial settlement. All she wants is full custody of David. She says that the course of psychoanalysis she underwent while institutionalized has done her a great deal of good, and that she no longer drinks. She does have a pronounced habit of staring into the fire, but Liz mentions that she has the same habit herself. Neither Liz nor Roger sees any sign that Laura is still suffering from whatever psychiatric disorder she had.

David begins to writhe on his bed as soon as Laura looks into the fire. In his sleep, he moans “mother, mother!” When she leaves, he sleepwalks into the foyer. The wind blows the front doors open, and he starts to run out, again calling “Mother, mother!”