Episode 1440

Aired: Friday December 31, 1971

After a replay of Thursday's close, Alice enters the cabin carrying the knife and Valery shoots at her. Trask smiles outside as he hears the shot, but when we cut to Alice, we see that she has just barely been grazed and is holding her arm. Valery screams "You will never take me!" and tries firing again, but the gun jams. Alice gets up and manages to knock the gun out of Valery's hand. Valery babbles on about an "angel of death sent to take me" and Alice finds the note next to her on the bed. She starts to read out loud phrases like "red hair" and "reaping blade" as Trask enters the room. Alice turns to him angrily and says "What is this? This note telling her to kill an angel of death with red hair? Red hair like mine?" Trask humhuhs and says that Valery must have "written it in her madness." He tries to get the gun out of Valery's hand, but Alice waves the knife at him and scowls. "This was all YOUR doing!" Alice says. "You set this up for Valery to kill me...you didn't intend for her to destroy herself alone...you wanted her to kill me and then be imprisoned as criminally insane... leaving you alone with the money!" Trask tells her she is "wrong, so wrong," but Alice calls Trask an "evil manipulator" who "even forced me into killing Catherine!" Trask tells Alice that "killing Catherine was your choice." Valery, hearing this points at Alice, saying "You killed my grandmother.....how could you...." and passes out. Alice tells Trask that "killing you can be my choice as well, Gregory....and it would be a simple matter to place the blame on your mentally deranged wife, who everyone knows hated you..." Alice starts towards Trask with the knife, but when she lunges at him, he knocks her aside and runs away. Alice gets up and looks at Valery with a mix of disgust and pity. She says "Ooh, Gregory...you are going to be exposed for exactly what you are...." She takes the gun from Valery and leaves, locking Valery back in. Valery moans "Grandmother.....grandmother...." and starts to cry.

Quentin and Harrison are racing through the woods as Quentin tells Harrison that the farmhouse is "just ahead." They reach it and find the door locked. Harrison calls for Valery, but there is no answer. Quentin tries forcing the door, but it won't budge. Harrison picks up a large rock nearby and bashes the knob in, forcing the door open. As they enter, they find Valery passed out on the bed. Harrison rushes to her side and feels her wrist. "She's alive, thank God!" he says, and begins to try to revive her. Quentin looks around angrily, and says "This is all Trask's doing...I should have killed him when I had the chance..." He sniffs the pitcher of water and says "This smells of ether...or something else." Harrison looks at Valery and then sniffs the water pitcher. "She's been drugged. Into a state of delirium," he says. "We'd better get her to a doctor immediately," Quentin says. Harrison tries to get her to follow him, but all Valery does is cry over "grandmother." Quentin says "Perhaps even your friend Petofi could help her... if he has the kind of powers we both saw." Harrison looks at Quentin and says "Don't trust Petofi, Quentin. I did not want to bring him here with me, I was forced to. He is a very powerful and very evil man, and we must be very careful in dealing with him." Quentin thinks this over as we cut to Alice searching for Trask in the woods, carrying the gun. As she turns a corner, she gets terrified and cowers at the sight of Catherine's glowing ghost. "Go away! Go away from me!" Alice yells, but Catherine smiles and says "My Valery has been saved....and now, my dear, your time has come...." Alice yells for Catherine to "go away" and Catherine vanishes. Alice looks around nervously, and then after taking a step, is facing the black masked, scimitar wielding killer. Alice screams "No! NOOOOO!" as we see him slash away with the long blade.

Back at the cabin, Harrison carries Valery outside as Quentin follows. Behind a tree skulking, is Trask. We hear him think "Harrison has returned...I wonder if he actually does have that will Quentin spoke of.... now that they have Valery and possibly that will, I must act..." After Quentin and Harrison walk away, Trask sneaks back into the cabin and looks around. "The gun... it's gone! This calls for a change in plans..." we hear him think. In another part of the woods, Quentin leads as Harrison and Valery follow, Valery staggering. Harrison and Valery cannot keep up, and Quentin says he'll rush back to Collinwood and call for a doctor. Harrison leads Valery to a place where she can sit, and she continues to cry about her grandmother. He tells her she's got to try to stay awake, and she asks him who he is. Harrison says "You don't recognize me? I am Harrison." Valery looks confused for a moment and then looks at his hair. "Black...black hair...you are not the angel of death..." she says. Harrison tells her that she'll be all right, and then vows revenge on Trask. "Come on, " he says leading her. "We should get back to the house." They take a few steps, and then Valery screams. In front of them is Alice's corpse - the throat is slashed and the hands are missing. The gun lays nearby. "Alice!" Harrison gasps. "The hands...gone! The killer! The killer in the woods!" In another part of the woods, Trask hears Valery screaming, and thinks "That's Valery! They must be heading back towards the house. I should get there first!" He starts to move in that direction. Valery looks at Alice's corpse and says "Red hair...the angel of death lies dead! Dead!" Valery begins to laugh hysterically as Harrison tries to calm her. He takes her away and leads her further into the woods, but when they turn a corner, standing in front of them is the masked killer, dressed all in black, holding two bloody dismembered hands above his head.

The killer puts the hands into a sack he's carrying and starts to take the scimitar out of a scabbard he wears. Harrison grabs Valery and leads her running back into the woods. Trask hears the commotion as he approaches, but then stops in his tracks when he sees Alice's body. He gasps, but then we hear him think "Alice....dead! By the hand of that unknown maniac who hunts in these woods....perhaps this may be a fortunate turn of events...." He sees the gun and smiles. We cut back to Harrison and Valery running through the woods as Valery continues to babble about the "angel of death" being dead. Harrison says he wishes he had "some sort of weapon right now" as they continue running. They reach the outside of Collinwood when Harrison turns and says "I don't think he followed us... perhaps the one killing was enough for him. Something else that we will need to investigate once we take care of you. Gladstone will have to be notified." He sees that Valery is smiling at him. "You have no idea who I am, do you?" he says to her. She continues smiling, and he says "Perhaps your intellect is gone for the moment and you are only able to experience the most basic of your own emotions. You can only show me your honest feelings for me. She leans in to him and kisses him. He holds her and says how happy he is that he was able to get to her in time, and then looks at her dumb smile and tells her "I will save you, Valery! I will make sure you are cured of whatever that blackguard did to you! I swear it! And then I will see to it that Trask suffers terribly! When the true will I am carrying is revealed, he will have nothing over you." He starts to lead her towards the house when Trask suddenly steps into his path holding the gun. "I don't think you're in any position to make me suffer, Mr. Collins!" Trask says. "But I can inflict a mortal blow unto you....once I relieve you of that secret will you just informed my dear wife about." Trask holds the gun as Harrison stands in front of Valery.