Episode 1468

Aired: Wednesday February 8, 1972

After a replay of Tuesday's close and the titles, Miller holds the gun on Chris while telling Lori to back off. "This man tried to rob me last night," Miller lies. "I plan to take him to the police." Lori answers "That's impossible, Brian. This man was with me all last night. If you take him to the police, I'll provide him with an alibi." Miller gets angry and tells Lori "not to involve yourself in my business." Lori tells Miller "it may be too late for that." Chris remarks "Why am I not surprised that you two know each other?" Lori asks Miller point-blank "Tell me everything you know about this man, Brian. I know you're not taking him to the police. We both know he's far too valuable for that. And I recognize what kind of a gun that is." Miller sneers and says "Always too clever for your own good, Lori, aren't you? It's too bad we never gave ourselves a chance, in a way...." Lori snaps "Don't bring that up. Where are you taking him? Back to that cozy little cottage you conned Roger Collins out of?" Miller tells her she's quite perceptive. "Face it, Brian. You need me on this one. I'm the only one who can analyze this man's blood to find out what we both want to know about him." Miller tells Lori "He's mine. I found him, and he's mine!" Chris yells "I'm not anyone's possession! You're both crazy!" Lori answers "You'd be crazy not to cooperate with us. You're a danger to others and yourself if you're running around at night after you transform." She starts to walk around Chris, fascinated. "An actual case of lycanthropy...I've read legends about people like you. I could find out things about you that would be indispensable to modern medicine!" Miller laughs. "It's too late now, Mr. Jennings. You've piqued her curiosity. I've seen this before, believe me." Lori looks over to Miller. "So, this was your reason for abandoning the university. They'd have thought you insane. But we both know better. Mr. Jennings, is it? Mr. Jennings, you may just have the secret to immortality flowing through your veins..." Chris looks at Lori and says "All I've got running through my veins is agony." There's a sound of footsteps in the brush. Miller gets concerned and says "We need to take him out of here before anyone else comes along. Help me, Lori. And I'll tell you everything." Lori smiles and says "We have a bargain." She helps Miller lead Chris away quickly. Shortly after that, Barnabas turns up, searching. "I thought I heard voices this way, perhaps I was wrong..." He is about to leave, when he notices a scrap of Chris' clothing on the ground. He picks it up and sighs in frustration.

Angelique paces in the old house living room. Barnabas enters, and she angrily demands to know where he's been all night. "A long story," he says. "I'm very tired." She turns away from him. "You were acting very strangely last night. After you left here....were you alone?" He is confused by this. "What are you talking about?" Angelique says "Nothing, nothing. I'm just upset." Barnabas says "We promised to keep no secrets from each other. I was out looking for an old friend. Someone I felt a strange sort of obligation towards." Angelique asks "Who?" Barnabas answers "A man named Chris Jennings. I'll tell you why." We cut to Chris being locked back in Miller's cage as Lori looks over some of Miller's notes. "He hasn't told me anything of his history. He claims this started happening to him for no reason once he passed the age of twenty one." Chris protests that he told the truth. Lori says "that may be true, though everything I read about werewolves would mean that he was either bitten by a werewolf and survived, or had a curse put upon him somehow." She asks Chris if anyone ever put a curse on him, and Chris sarcastically answers "It certainly feels that way." Miller tells Lori "I've taken some blood samples you may find interesting." He takes her outside the cell and closes the metal door. Upstairs, she looks over some of his other notes and says "You haven't done the tests I would have done." He answers "Exactly. You could discover things in days that would take me months. I'll allow you that privilege if you...." Lori says "Ah, here it is. The price." Miller says "Of course, the price. One that I think you'll be willing to pay since it doesn't really involve money." Lori sneers "Don't think for a moment it will involve love." Miller laughs. "That depends. How do you feel about Quentin Collins?" Lori is unpleasantly surprised by this remark. "I want to know everything you've found out about him." She doesn't answer.

Angelique has just heard the entire Chris story. "So...that was the reason for those awful sounds." Barnabas answers "Yes. And he attacked Julia last night, as well as Lori Slater. I'm not sure what Miss Slater's reaction was, Quentin was seeing to her. But Julia knows all about this." Angelique sneers "Another reason for good Dr. Hoffman to remain at Collinwood." Barnabas tells Angelique that Julia had tried to find some sort of cure for Chris. "I'm not surprised, given her endless fascination with you," Angelique jealously answers. "But why do you care about this man? He has nothing to do with you." Barnabas says he felt empathy for Chris' condition. "Oh Barnabas! This whole place is filled with nothing but sorrows and memories of supernatural evils! All night I was thinking how much simpler things could be, for both of us. We could leave here." Barnabas is amazed. "Leave here? This.... this is our home!" Angelique says "We could go somewhere else. To Boston, or New York. We could travel. I so want to see more of the world in this time. Why stay here, where all our problems have been? Even our time in Martinique was simpler than this." Barnabas mutters on about his "home" and how he "never thought he could leave Collinwood." Angelique says "We should leave, and leave all of this behind!" Barnabas protests "But I can't leave now! Not now when I know Chris is out there, somewhere, suffering from a condition that I could not help him with before! I can't fail him again! I can't!" Angelique asks "What about failing me, Barnabas? What of that?" Barnabas tells her she's over-reacting, when there's a knock at the door. He answers it as Angelique humphs. When he opens the door, he gasps. "Maggie!" He stammers a bit as Maggie enters. "Good morning, I hope I didn't interrupt anything. I came here to take Sarah into town." Barnabas nervously says "Oh, er yes....she's upstairs." Maggie looks at Barnabas and asks "Is anything wrong?" He looks back at her and says "No. Nothing. Just tired, that's all." Maggie says "Well, I'll get Sarah out of here so you can get some rest." Maggie runs upstairs as Angelique wonders about Barnabas' reaction to her.

Julia and Quentin have been talking over coffee at Collinwood. Julia asks Quentin how much he thinks Lori knows about him. "She thinks she knows it all," he says. "She found an old journal by Tate, who evidently liked to brag about his achievements." Julia says that perhaps Lori would dismiss it all as the rantings of a madman. "Dr. Slater seems convinced that I'm the owner of a Tate portrait with mysterious qualities that keep me alive. I'd say she's a very good detective." Julia asks Quentin what he's going to do about it. "I'm not sure," he says. "Her interest in me might actually be genuine. I wonder about her motives." Julia says "I can understand a scientist wanting to understand about the supernatural." Quentin laughs a little. "As well as develop a fascination for a member of my insane family. Perhaps you and Lori Slater ought to start a mutual Collins appreciation society." Julia remarks how Lori seemed to be interested in her own history with the family as well. "Do you think Alan is involved in any of this?" Quentin says "You're not suggesting he married into this family to assist some sort of weird research...." Julia says "No, no. Not with his past history with Elizabeth. I just wonder if he knows what his daughter really does." In the basement lab, Carolyn shows Vicky where she found the book in the desk. Vicky looks around the lab and says "I remember this place...I remember being here." Carolyn notices the partially restored curtain and says "Look at this! This wasn't like this before!" Vicky asks her what she means, and Carolyn says that when she was there the previous night, the curtain was ragged and old. "Parts of it still are," Vicky answers. "Perhaps this part that's still in good shape was hidden from view." Carolyn says maybe, but then points out the desk is also an odd mix of old and new. Vicky remarks how strange a room it all is, and how "the original Quentin Collins must have been some sort of mad genius." Carolyn says she's going to go upstairs to wait for Stokes to arrive. Vicky says she'll look around the lab a little and then meet her. After Carolyn leaves, Vicky looks around for a moment. Suddenly, the glow returns in the middle of the room and Vicky sees it. She walks towards it slowly, and says "What...what is that? It's somehow familiar...." She reaches out towards the light, and then blinks a little as it vanishes. She looks in her hand and screams before dropping what was suddenly in it - an old rope in the shape of a noose.