Episode 1457

Aired: Tuesday January 25, 1972

After a replay of Monday's close, Barnabas has opened his eyes inside the coffin as the chains are being removed. We hear his narration "I had no idea who it was. Was it my father, come to destroy me? Was it Ben? Or could it be someone else? How long had I been there? I had no idea, and all I knew to do was to fight for my existence! I did not want to know the eternal loneliness of death after what I had been through...." Barnabas watches as the lid slowly opens. We see Willie's face come into view and grow more terrified - he can barely begin to let out a scream as Barnabas' hand grabs him by the throat. Barnabas pushes the lid of the coffin up with his other hand and sits up, holding Willie by the neck. Willie hyperventilates but we can hear him saying "This isn't happening, this isn't happening" over and over again. Barnabas is out of his coffin and still holding Willie. "Who are you?" he commands. "Did my father send you here? What happened to Ben?" Willie can't say anything and is still terrified and shaking. Barnabas looks him over. "These clothes you're wearing...what sort are they? Strange material...." Barnabas takes his hand off Willie's neck and begins to examine his sleeve. Willie gasps and can barely speak, but manages to say "Let me go...please, let me go. This must be a set-up or a gag...you can't have been sealed up in here...no, no, no way. I'll tell you what, if you go back in the coffin, I'll put the chains back on and I won't tell anyone, I swear!" Barnabas looks at him with a sneer. "You are an idiot. But perhaps I can make you useful...." Willie struggles to free his arm but cannot. Barnabas suddenly bares his fangs and Willie yells "Oh God! No! No!' Barnabas chomps on his arm. We fade to Willie sitting in a corner of the mausoleum room, docile. Barnabas looks over his tools. "So, you came to rob the tomb of the Collins family and found me instead. I suppose there is some irony in how you feel now, isn't there....what is your name?" Willie mutters "Willie....Willie Loomis," holding his arm and turning away from Barnabas' glare. "My father would never hide any treasures in here. How long? How long have I been in here?" Willie says "I don't know. Your clothes...that puffy sleeve. What year do you think it is?" Barnabas looks at Willie and says "I went into that coffin in 1795." Willie is shocked, and answers "It's 1967 now. You've been in there almost 200 years." Barnabas gasps at this and leans on the coffin. "Oh my God..." he says. "Two hundred years. Everyone...everyone and everything I've ever known.....is dust!"

Barnabas sits in Josette's room and continues his story to Angelique. "I could not even contemplate the changes that two hundred years could have brought," he begins as we dissolve back to the mausoleum room. Barnabas is studying Willie. "If you came here to steal based on legends you heard of my family, I may assume the family still survives in this time?" he says. Willie nods. "Tell me about them. I will need to know these things," Barnabas says. Willie stammers "There's Mrs. Stoddard, she's head of the house, really. Her brother Roger lives there, he's sort of mean." Barnabas sneers. "Spare me your character judgments. They will react quite differently to me than to you. Mrs. Stoddard? A Collins woman who married, I assume. If she's head of the house, where is her husband?" Willie laughs a little and says "That's a kinda interesting question, actually... he's gone, just gone. She has a daughter named Carolyn, about my age. Roger has a kid too, a little boy named David. I don't know where his wife is. Seems like the Collinses don't have happy marriages or somethin'." Barnabas thinks this over. "I look forward to meeting them." Willie, shocked, nervously says "You gonna meet them? What are you gonna tell them? You can't go in dressed like that and say 'hi, I've been gone for two hundred years, but now I'm back!'" Barnabas looks over his clothes for a moment and then notices Willie's flashlight. He picks it up and the light shines in his face. He finds it harsh, but studies the device. "A light that does not burn... what other strange things await me in this time?" Willie tells him if he wants to find out, "you're gonna have to get new clothes. You're gonna have to dress like me!" Barnabas looks at Willie and says "I'm sure I can do better than that." He reaches into his pocket and takes out a small gold pocket watch. "Take this into the village and find me a gentleman's outfit more suited to this times with the money you get for it. Do you understand?" Willie takes the watch and studies it a moment. "Gold...." he says. "This watch is gold..." Barnabas smiles. "Yes, Willie, it is. And even if you thought a moment about stealing it for yourself, you know you no longer have the will to do so. You know you must obey my wishes now, don't you?" Willie nods and says yes. "Go," Barnabas says. "Bring me those clothes so that I might see the strange new world that awaits me." We cut to Barnabas getting comfortable in a 20th century suit. He looks himself over while Willie watches. "Those look good on ya, Barnabas....too bad there's no mirror in here." Barnabas humphs and answers "It wouldn't matter if there was." He takes his cane and cape and tells Willie to wait there for his return. "I must go up to Collinwood and meet my family." Outside of Collinwood, Barnabas stands at the front door, hesitant. Barnabas narration: "My return to Collinwood fascinated me. The great house looked as I remembered, only the lights were so much brighter. I wondered what the people were like inside and how it would feel to be home again." He knocks at the door and Mrs. Johnson answers. "Good evening," Barnabas says. "Is Mrs. Stoddard at home? I am Barnabas Collins, a cousin from England." Mrs. Johnson gasps and tells Barnabas how she would have known that without him saying anything. She leads him inside, where he looks around the foyer with a smile. As he stands in front of his own portrait, he takes it all in.

Barnabas is walking through the ruined old house as his narration continues. "After meeting the family, I couldn't help myself and I came here, to the old house. It had been left as it was when I was put into the coffin, it seemed. The memories of that time overcame me. I saw Josette's portrait over the mantle, just where I had hung it that fateful night we fought. Suddenly, I was not alone..." Vicky walks into the old house looking for David and is startled by Barnabas. "Miss Winters," he says, kissing her hand. "What brings you here?" Vicky tells Barnabas how David always plays in the old house and how she's looking for him. He begins to tell her how grand and beautiful the old house once was, where the marble came from, and so forth as she gets starry eyed and tells him how much she loves the past more than the present. "Vicky was a delight," Barnabas continues to narrate. "She seemed to understand things so much better than the others of this new century." Vicky leaves and Barnabas begins to fixate on Josette's portrait. "But as I stood amongst the ruined remains of what had been my life, I wondered why. Why had I been freed now, in this strange time? Fate had always been my enemy, why had fate set me loose upon this world? I fought the urge to go after Vicky, I knew I could not let myself destroy her. At that point in my life, it felt as if I had only just lost Josette...I wondered if I had been freed to have a second chance. Perhaps I needed to find the reason I had been freed after so long a time." We cut to Maggie cleaning up tables in the diner. Barnabas passes by and sees her, and then stops in his tracks. "As soon as I saw her, I knew why I had been freed," we hear him narrate. Barnabas stares at Maggie and then comes inside the diner, fixated on her. "I saw the image of my Josette....and I knew that I must have her back." Maggie smiles at him innocently.

In the basement of the old house, Maggie is being held prisoner. Barnabas angrily tells her she will submit to him or die and locks her in her cell. She begins to cry as his narration continues. "I tried to make Maggie into my Josette, but her will was too strong. I don't think I've ever hated myself as much as I've loathed that part of me that nearly destroyed that brave young girl." Maggie opens the secret wall and escapes to the beach as he continues narrating. "She managed to escape me, though her memory was gone. She was placed into the psychiatric care of a Dr. Julia Hoffman..." We cut to Julia (old hair-do and all!) examining Maggie at Windcliff. "Julia came to Collinwood to investigate." We see Julia meeting Barnabas at Collinwood, and soon seeing that he casts no reflection in her compact. "As fantastic as her conclusions were, Julia soon deduced the true reasons for Maggie's condition, and lured me into accepting a bizarre bargain." We cut to Mr. Bat flying outside a window, which becomes Barnabas. He moves towards a bed with a pillow ready to smother someone when he hears Julia behind him. "Good evening, Mr. Collins. I know who you are, and what you are." Barnabas stands before Julia aghast. We cut to the basement of the old house, where Julia is giving Barnabas injections as his narration continues. "Julia attempted a scientific cure for the curse. She was only partially successful." Barnabas watches Julia as she prepares his injection and sees her smiling at him. He looks at her wondering what to think. "I wasn't sure of Julia's motivations. At first, I thought she was only interested in science. Later on, we began to share too many secrets to maintain only a business-like arrangement." We cut back to Barnabas and Angelique in Josette's room. "Julia has always been there to help me when I've been mortal and to protect me when I have been cursed. I nearly lost her in the strange world of parallel time up in that east wing room at Collinwood, and I nearly lost her to Judah Zachary's vengeance. She must find a way to save Maggie from what I've done. How can I be sure that Maggie could ever understand how helpless I was and what two hundred years in that coffin can do to one's spirit?" Angelique is nearly in tears and tells Barnabas that "I will see to these things, Barnabas. I will put a stop to the chains of suffering you've described." Up at Collinwood, Julia has just finished sedating Maggie again (yes, there's a never ending supply). Angelique enters and asks Julia if there's been any change. Julia says no. "Then," Angelique begins. "Perhaps it's time for a change in plans." Julia asks "What change?" Angelique looks at Julia a moment and says "In a way, I'm responsible for this, and I'm responsible for protecting Barnabas since I am his wife. He no longer needs you to fulfill that role." Julia disagrees, and says that Barnabas will always need her help, but Angelique cuts her off. "Julia, I suggest that you leave Collinwood and leave it behind. Go back to your work at Windcliff and the life you once had. I will see to Maggie....in my own way." Julia isn't too sure about this.