494

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Number	488
Timeline	1968
Narrator	Grayson Hall
Writer	Ron Sproat
Director	John Sedwick
Broadcast	May 16, 1968 (Thursday)
Recorded	May 10, 1968 (Friday)
Video	Complete: Disc 53 Collection 8: Disc 1

We have 12 images of Dark Shadows 494

Willie secretly gives Maggie a pair of earrings belonging to Josette Collins.

Synopsis[]

Teaser

Another day comes to a quiet close at Collinwood, but the evening brings with it no end to the fear that hovers over the great house like an eternal twilight. And the evening promises no peace for those trapped between the darkness and the light, where even the limits that separate the living from the dead have become obscured, and words like man and mortal, life and death have been drained of meaning.

Willie brings food to Adam in the basement room, but when he tries to get him to eat, Adam throws the tray to the floor. Scared, Willie runs out of the room.

Act I

Julia tells Willie that it will take time to teach Adam. Willie thinks he would be better off at Windcliff but Julia tells him if he goes back there, he will be there for the rest of his life, with a report about how he can never get better. He says that is not true, but Julia is intent on making sure Willie remains with the experiment till its conclusion. Julia goes to prepare more food, telling Willie to stay with Adam. As Willie bends down to clean up the food Adam threw, Adam takes Willie’s buttons from his coat and Willie realizes Adam likes shiny things. Trying to make friends with Adam, Willie moves the sixth brick down on the wall and opens the secret panel to get the chest of jewels. He shows them to a fascinated Adam and tells him that these belonged, once, to a lady named Josette Collins. Willie muses that he once saw the earrings in the box on Josette but then tells Adam it was really a woman named Maggie Evans, a lady that looked just like her. She lived here for a time. Willie remembers how he felt about Maggie, but Maggie is scared of him. As he is putting the earrings back in the chest in the wall, he thinks it would be good to try to make Maggie happy by giving her the earrings.

Act II

Willie waits outside Maggie’s living room window looking in. Maggie is there with Joe Haskell, cleaning her Pop's brushes. They plan to go out, and Maggie goes to her room to get ready while Joe takes coffee cups to the kitchen to clean. Willie sneaks in and puts the earrings in Maggie’s purse.

Willie comes back to the Old House and finds Julia there with Adam. He tells her he was only gone for a few minutes, but Julia says she has been there for a half hour. She tells him he must stay with Adam, and she will check periodically. If at any time Willie is not with Adam, he will go back to Windcliff.

At the Evans cottage, Maggie can't find her keys. Joe suggests she look in her purse. When she does, she finds the earrinrgs.

Act III

Maggie is puzzled how the earrings got into her purse. She has never seen them before, but there is something about them that makes her think they were made for her. When Joe expresses disapproval, because the earrings are not from him, she tells him that she loves a good book or a box of candy as a gift over them any day. Sure. Maggie feels drawn to them. Joe gets more upset as she holds up the earrings, admiring them in the mirror.

Act IV

Adam wants to get into the secret panel and look at more shiny jewels, and Willie cowers in a corner, scared. Julia comes in, and Adam notices her necklace. Willie tells her to show Adam her necklace to calm him. As Adam calms down playing with the necklace, Willie and Julia leave the room. Willie tells Julia that Adam should be destroyed. If not, he will destroy her. Julia doesn't think that is the case any more. He is intelligent and has an alert mind. Willie doesn’t see that. Julia tells him, "It takes intelligence to know intelligence." She has brought the tape recorder and turns it on so Adam can hear the music, and she and Willie go up the stairs. The music stops and Adam hears Lang's message. Adam says, "Barnabas."

Memorable quotes[]

Willie (regarding Adam): He's too dumb to learn anything. Just look at him.

Julia: It takes intelligence to know intelligence.

Maggie: They [the earrings] remind me of something, something I've forgotten. Well, I know they don't belong to me yet, but somehow when I look at them, I seem to think they were meant for me, I mean from the start. They are lovely . . . a very beautiful and thoughtful gift. Only a man who has gazed into my eyes with deepest love would know they were meant for me.

Dramatis personae[]

Grayson Hall as Julia Hoffman
Joel Crothers as Joe Haskell
John Karlen as Willie Loomis
Kathryn Leigh Scott as Maggie Evans
Robert Rodan as Adam
Addison Powell as Eric Lang (voice only, uncredited)

Background information and notes[]

Production[]

Sets used in this episode: Basement of the Old House and the Evans cottage.

Story[]

Adam's cell in the Old House cellar has a secret panel that can be opened by pressing the sixth brick down on the wall. This is the same room that Maggie was held captive in during episodes 251 to 260, with its secret panel. TIMELINE: Day 206 takes place.

Bloopers and continuity errors[]

In Act I when Willie is in the basement cell with Adam, one of the stage lights goes out, making the scene suddenly darker. Later in the same scene, the light comes back on.
At the beginning of Act II, Joel Crothers starts his line "Are you sure...?" too early while Kathryn Leigh Scott is still saying hers.
In Act II when Joe tells Maggie that he will clear the coffee cups and starts to move towards them, the shadow of a boom microphone passes over the painting to the left.
When Julia and Adam are in the cell in the Old House cellar wondering where Willie disappeared to, John Karlen can be seen through the door window waiting for his cue to come in.
Before Julia tells Willie that she will check periodically to make sure he is staying with Adam, Grayson Hall seems to forget her line and looks at the teleprompter.
Despite Julia's repeated threats that Willie will be sent to Windcliff, she never thinks of the idea that Adam might be more safely kept at that institution. Surely Julia could come up with a plausible lie to the staff about Adam's appearance and mental state!