Episode 1454

Aired: Thursday January 20, 1972

After a replay of Wednesday's close and the titles, Harrison yells "Stop this fire! I'll tell you! I'll tell you whatever I can!" Petofi waves THE HAND and the fire stops, leaving no damage. "I knew we could come to some sort of understanding," Petofi says. Harrison glares at Petofi for a moment before saying "You cannot be trusted, can you?" Petofi laughs, but stops when suddenly the black caped and masked figure appears in the window in a flash of lightning! Petofi steps back and shouts "No! No! It's back!" Harrison says "What?" and suddenly the black figure jumps into the room, waving the scimitar high above Petofi. "Not the hand!" Petofi yells. "You cannot take my hand! No!" The black figure slashes at Petofi but misses. Harrison grabs a poker from the fireplace beneath Bramwell's picture and steps between Petofi and the figure. "Gladstone!" he shouts. "You mustn't do this!" He blocks a wave of the scimitar with the poker, but knocks into Petofi as he jumps out of the way of another blow. Petofi's glasses fall to the floor and Petofi yells "No! I cannot see! Help me, Mr. Harrison!" Harrison picks up the glasses from the floor with a smile, and tilts his head towards the door signaling the black figure, who runs from the room and turns the lights out. "Mr. Harrison!" Petofi shouts, feeling around the room in the dark and bumping into furniture. "Help me find my spectacles!" Harrison drops the glasses into his coat pocket at grabs Petofi's arm in the darkened room. "Follow me," Harrison says. "I fought Gladstone off." We see in the hallway outside that Benjamin was disguised as Gladstone and is peeking out of the mask to watch as Harrison holds the ring up to his face as Petofi looks away at blurred darkness. "It's tough for a madman like Gladstone to.....change." And with that, Benjamin watches as Harrison and Petofi both vanish from the room. We cut to the same room in regular time, 1897, dark and empty. Petofi continues to grope in the air, demanding "My glasses! I must have them!" Harrison leads him from the room and says "Come on. Gladstone might still be lurking around here. Don't you have an extra pair?" Petofi says "Back at my cottage." Harrison smiles and says "I'll lead you there." He leads Petofi down the darkened hallway.

Harrison leads Petofi down the steps of Collinwood quickly, though we hear some muffled voices inside the drawing room. As he leaves, we see the portrait of Barnabas is on the wall. After the front door closes, Barnabas comes out of the drawing room with a curious look on his face. We cut to Harrison leading Petofi through the woods. "I suppose you expect another favor for your helping me now, Mr. Harrison," Petofi grumbles. "I don't want you to destroy Collinwood. Isn't it enough that I revealed your existence a hundred and fifty years from now?" Petofi answers "It's never enough to have anything less than complete knowledge, my boy..." They reach the Tate studio, and Harrison leads Petofi in towards the couch. "Where is your other pair of glasses?" Harrison asks. Petofi says "I keep them in that bureau by the door." Harrison nods, but there is no bureau by the door. Harrison takes the glasses from his pocket and we hear him think "Perhaps I should just leave him here.... there's no way he could find his way back to Collinwood without these spectacles...but if only I could be sure..." Suddenly there is the familiar sound of a clanking chain outside. Harrison looks out of the window. "What is that?" Petofi says. "What is that sound?" The chain rattling gets louder. Harrison says he doesn't hear anything, but Petofi says he hears it. "Give me my glasses! I must see what is happening!" Petofi shouts. Harrison looks at the glasses and thinks about it, but suddenly Petofi is next to him, and grabs hold of his neck with THE HAND. "I said give me those glasses....NOW!" Petofi shouts.

Harrison is choking under Petofi's grip as Petofi grabs the glasses and puts them on. He looks around and is shocked. He takes his grip from Harrison's throat and sees the room is filled with Tate's paintings. "You! You tricked me! You brought me back to my own time!" Petofi angrily shouts, coming back towards Harrison with THE HAND raised. "You will pay for your treachery...." Harrison ducks out of the way as the rattling chain gets louder. He grabs one of Tate's canvasses and uses it to shove Petofi backwards towards the couch. The chains get louder and there is a pounding on the door. "Treachery!" Harrison shouts, and (with apologies to Captain Kirk) adds "You're a man of treachery in both universes, Petofi!" Harrison flings the door open, and Garth Blackwood steps in, holding a burning torch. "There is your criminal!" Harrison shouts. "He's a murderer....and a cheat!" Petofi shouts "No! No! Get back, Blackwood! He has been helping me! Yes, he has been helping the criminal!" Harrison shouts "He lies! The criminal lies!" Blackwood looks at them both and begins to torch the room. "There will be a trial by fire!" Blackwood shouts. Petofi scowls at Harrison and says "I will live long enough to destroy you, Harrison Collins! I will destroy the Collins family!" Petofi tries to run out of the room, but Blackwood grabs him and won't let him go. "You must stay and face justice!" Blackwood declares. As he and Petofi struggle, Harrison runs out the door and closes it behind him before running into the woods. He watches as Tate's studio burns and screams are heard from inside. He hears some footsteps in the woods and ducks out of sight. Several gypsies appear. They smile and nod as the Tate house burns. "Now we wait," one of them says. "We will take Petofi alive," says another, rubbing his thumb along the blade of an identical scimitar to Gladstone's. Harrison sighs and smiles. After a shot of the moon rising, we see the gypsies dragging an unconscious Petofi from the wreckage of Tate's studio. His glasses fall off and lay on the ground. Harrison looks at them and snickers at the irony, but then hears more footsteps coming. He ducks into the woods again as Barnabas approaches. Barnabas finds the glasses, and then stops to think a moment before entering the ruins of the studio. Harrison steps out of the woods and we hear him thinking. "That was Barnabas! What could he be doing here? Do I dare find out...." He starts to take a step towards the ruins, but then stops. "No!" he thinks. "Barnabas would not and must not know me here....I must get back to the East Wing while I have the chance." He heads back towards Collinwood.

Harrison sneaks into Collinwood and runs upstairs. He walks down the East Wing corridor and enters the parallel time room. Meanwhile in parallel time, Benjamin has removed the cape and mask and waits in the room. We hear him thinking "I wonder what could be happening in that other world...so strange....that this room could hide another time, another place. I wonder who my counterpart is in that world and what they are doing right now. Or what that other Collins family is like." He looks up at the portrait of Bramwell. "If Harrison was right and there was no ancestor of his named Bramwell, I wonder if any of us exist in that strange other life. Perhaps it's better for us not to know.... it's time I lived my own life here to the fullest anyway." He puts the scimitar down when suddenly behind him is Harrison. "Harrison!" Benjamin says. "What happened? Petofi....is he gone?" Harrison smiles. "Petofi is where he belongs. It is done," he says. He and Benjamin smile at each other.