By PATRICK McCRAY
July 26, 1966
Taped on this date: Episode 32
Roger reveals to Liz that David tried to kill him and is stewing away under lock and key. Meanwhile, Carter calls Bill in for insight on the vehicular sabotage. Bill insists that the attempted killer was Burke and adds suspicious details about Burke’s private detective. Carter’s questions center on David. At Collinwood, Roger fumes over both Laura, David, and their individual betrayals of him. He reveals that Laura was Burke’s “girl” before she was with Roger, and David was born only eight months after the wedding. Roger reminds Liz that he and David have only been at Collinwood for two months. That means that Liz barely knows the boy. At the jail, Bill reveals that David and Roger had been fighting, but that doesn’t mean it would turn lethal. Carter cites David’s grabbing of the wrench, “ruining” the fingerprints. In truth, there are two sets of prints: David’s and Burke’s. Burke’s too smart to have killed Roger so openly. Also, David’s first set of prints are almost covered by Burke’s. It raises a helluva suspicion. In the drawing room, Liz reports that David is remaining tight lipped. Liz wants to go easy on him, asking if Roger has been the warmest father. She wants to help David, not turn him away. Nothing excuses David, but he’s been forced to live with Roger’s guilt. Even if David may not be Roger’s son, he’s (still kind of) a Collins and will be protected. Liz insists on it, and further insists that Roger leave him alone. Carter knocks on the door for Roger. Carter reports the issue of the wrench and David’s prints. Liz intercedes and says that the valve fell off by itself, and the handyman just mentioned it. The case seems closed. Roger predicts that Liz will regret it.
Farewell, Michael Currie and Sheriff Jonas Carter! This is his final appearance. Episode 54, where are you? That’s when a new justice comes to Collinsport. The kind that only Dana Elcar can bring in the role of Sheriff George Patterson. We don’t learn much about Patterson. For instance, we have no knowledge if he ever worked as a figure model for Sam, as did Burke. Or if he still works as a figure model for Sam. Or if he wears a yellow unitard in his spare time. Or if he practices Pilates. Or if he were the inspiration for the Jennifer Lopez character in HONEY, where she “teaches hip-hop at the Center.” Or if he wore that strange, skin-tight red outfit that Lopez donned in THE CELL. After all, they’re both crimefighters. Or if there is a connection between his disappearance in Collinsport and his eventual elevation of Chief of CONTROL as shown in the documentary, THE NUDE BOMB. What happened to Ed Platt’s Chief? Was Collinsport a recruiting station for CONTROL? Was Platt the predecessor of Sheriff Carter? Why was Carter skipped over for an executive position at CONTROL? Michael Currie, you may be a fine actor, but you leave more mysteries than answers.
(Episode 22 airs on this date.)
July 26, 1968
Taped on this date: Episode 555
Nicholas quickly convinces Adam to reveal that Vicki is bound and gagged in his room. Nicholas sees this as clever inducement for Barnabas. Adam admits to lying about it to Carolyn, and he hates lying. Nicholas, of course, champions lying. They will soon move her to the safety of Nicholas’ home. In the meantime, the demon supplies Adam with drugs to keep her unconscious. Later, Nicholas lies to Carolyn and tells her Adam is innocent. Carolyn, however, reports that Barnabas was visited by Adam, who admitted to the kidnapping. Why? Barnabas didn’t say. Nicolas suggests that it was a ploy by Barnabas to discern Adam’s location so that he might call the authorities on the promethean. Jeff enters, terrified. He reports that the vampire victim was Tom Jennings, a kind man, barely alive. He was well-liked, making the attack all the more frightening. The sheriff is outside, and Carolyn volunteers to help in the search. Alone with Jeff, Nicholas reports seeing a panicked Barnabas running away from something in the woods. This is congruent with the odd behavior that Jeff saw from him in the woods. In Adam’s room, the promethean worries about Vicki’s silent slumber. Carolyn enters early with his meal, reporting that the search for Vicki has kept her up all night. Adam reassures her that she will be all right. After she leaves, Adam rouses a dazed Vicki. He unties her and tries to give her water, assuring her that he will not harm her. He asks if she loves Jeff and not Barnabas. She asks for his motives and he is evasive, slipping the sleeping draught into her drink. She tries to escape, but he catches her and threatens to kill her. He forces her to drink the drugged beverage. Adam attempts to be gentle once she is seated. Vicki says that Carolyn spoke of his gentility and asks for his pity. She then passes out. Nicholas arrives to take her. Adam insists that she not be harmed or go without her. Nicholas cites the consequences, such as Carolyn concluding that he is involved with her kidnapping. The demon then instructs him to wait for several hours and then bring her to the woods near the Old House. Why? Because Barnabas will begin the experiment. Soon, Vicki awakens in her new, locked room at Chez Nicholas. All she knows of her location is the sound of the ocean. Elsewhere in the house, Nicholas opens Angelique’s coffin where she sleeps as a vampire.
Normally, morality plays about lying involve children and adults. But with Adam, you get a very articulate adult, and he provides much more of a force of physicality and conscience against which Nicholas clashes. It’s so tiring to see the devil once again treated as the Prince of Lies, but in this case, the DARK SHADOWS writers present Nicholas’ position as a philosophically valid slice of realpolitik. Adam wrestles with very real issues, and I find myself identifying with him on his journey. Kudos to both Humbert Astredo and Robert Rodan for taking what should be an obvious dilemma and breathing real dimension and unpredictability into it. Poor Adam, caught in such a web of lies. We can see that it pains him, and yet Nicholas is so marvelously sincere that it’s hard to imagine the lug responding any other way.
(Episode 545 airs on this date.)
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