Dark Shadows Diary, Episode 74

Episode 74, "Devlin Shrugged"
Oct. 6, 1966

Burke Devlin has had better days.

Someone should remind him of Humphrey Bogart's old saying, "Things are never so bad that they can't be made worse." Burke spent a few years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, and that kind of thing ought to give a man perspective. I have to wonder if he was always a bad loser, though. His consistent outrage over life's ambiguities makes it unlikely that his prison stretch was a peaceful one.

In this episode, he finds his hotel room infested with Collinses. He returns "home" to find David skulking around, only to have Carolyn bring a super-sized bucket of Daddy Issues to his front door minutes later. Both conversations are awkward, to say the least. Here's a sample of his dialogue with David:


DAVID: "Nothing's against the law, unless you get caught."
BURKE: "Who told you that?"
DAVID: "You did."


And things get much worse from there. David tells Burke the "voices" that visit his room at night told him Roger killed Bill Malloy. It puts Burke in the difficult situation of defending Roger, while also ignoring David's obvious signs of mental illness. Carolyn's angry arrival is almost a breath of fresh air, and saves us from further disturbing admissions from her cousin.

Carolyn is still angry that Burke was making time with Victoria Winters, which only makes sense if you're willing to overlook several Thayer David-sized logical fallacies.But, the drama rings false, and only serves to re-introduce us to a player in the story not seen for quite a while: the Mysterious Silver Pen, played by ingenue Inky McGuffin. It's been 20 years since I've seen this story arc, and what I remember best about it was the bizarro use of this silver pen as a major plot device.

The pen was given to Carolyn as a gift by Burke, but was taken by Roger Collins with the intent of giving it back to Burke. The pen has since disappeared, but I have a sneaking feeling that it will be making a return appearance in the next few episodes.

Carolyn calls home to ask about the pen and learns Bill Malloy's death has been classified an "accident" by Sheriff Patterson. Roger is way too happy about this bit of news and is mincing around Collinwood without a care in the world. No, really ... he's abandoned all pretenses of responsibility for anything, saying at one point "On this day, neither David nor Burke exist for me." He's also skipping out on work, but that's just gravy at this point.


While Roger is gloating, Burke is fuming. He tosses the Collins kids out of his room and heads straight for the sheriff's office, where he learns Malloy's death received its dubious "accident" rating from the county coroner.  Suffice to say, Burke's not happy about the change of events.



kids in the hall - my pen! by Gekko23