637

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Number	629
Timeline	1968
Narrator	Grayson Hall
Writer	Gordon Russell
Director	Lela Swift
Broadcast	December 3, 1968 (Tuesday)
Recorded	November 25, 1968 (Monday)
Video	Complete: Disc 67 Collection 11: Disc 3

We have 15 images of Dark Shadows 637

Victoria and Jeff are married, but later he starts to feel as if he is being drawn into the past, and then he disappears.

Synopsis[]

Darkness hangs like a shroud over the Collins estate as a stormy night draws closer to dawn. Inside the great house, a young man broods over a momentous decision, for he has discovered that he belongs to an era gone by. Now he stands on the threshold between past and present, torn between his allegiance to those he once loved and to the woman he now loves.

Jeff is clearly upset and Victoria goes to comfort him. He's afraid to marry her, knowing that he may be returned to the past at any time. Victoria is steadfast in her belief that his love will keep them together. He's comforted by her words, but also reminds her that he is the number one suspect in Eve's murder. Victoria tells him that Roger Collins went to the police, and provided Jeff with an alibi.

Just then Elizabeth enters the room, and Victoria tells her of the wedding plans. She and Jeff intend to marry that night, and Victoria wants Liz to be her witness. Liz is surprised by the sudden news, but agrees to support the marriage.

It's just after 3 o'clock in the morning when Victoria and Jeff are married by a justice of the peace. Elizabeth hugs Victoria goodbye, and Victoria tells her that she's never been so happy. Elizabeth slowly leaves, wondering if she did the right thing. Jeff and Victoria spend their wedding night at the Collinsport Inn, where they drink a toast to the future. Jeff is still worried that he may not be able to stay with Victoria, but she is too happy to worry about anything.

Meanwhile Barnabas and Julia return to Collinwood, unsuccessful in their search for Adam. Barnabas wonders if he should look for a coffin, remembering that if Adam dies he will again become a vampire. Julia thinks it unlikely that Adam will die, despite the bullet in his back. She asks Barnabas if he feels any differently and he admits that he does not. They both begin to relax a little.

Julia reminds Barnabas of Angelique, and they make plans to find her coffin and drive a stake through her heart. Barnabas says he wants to do the job himself. The clock strikes four as Elizabeth returns to Collinwood. She tells Julia and Barnabas that Victoria has married Jeff Clark. The news affects all of them deeply.

At six o'clock Julia returns downstairs, having managed to get a little sleep. She finds Barnabas who is still awake and distraught over Victoria's marriage. He confesses that he never really believed Victoria to be in love with Jeff, but Julia tells him he must accept her decision. He says he does, and honestly hopes that Victoria will be happy.

Later, he and Julia go to Angelique's coffin, where Barnabas accidentally steps on Nicholas's magic mirror. Barnabas opens the coffin and finds it empty. Barnabas knows that Angelique is not gone for good.

Back at the Inn, Jeff and Victoria are happy in their new life together. Victoria gives him a wedding present, and he reminds her of their times together in 1795. Victoria worries that Jeff is spending so much time thinking about the past, but he is unable to stop himself. As he remembers the time of the trial, he feels himself again being pulled back to the past. Victoria tries to get him to fight, but he says it's too strong this time. She runs to the phone to call Professor Stokes, just as Jeff disappears. She screams.

Memorable quotes[]

Jeff: Even though you can see me and touch me, and I can hold you in my arms, I don't exist here and now. And if you marry me, it'll be like marrying a corpse.

Victoria: (to Jeff) No one can take you away from me now.

Julia: We've forgotten about Angelique!

Barnabas: No, I haven't forgotten about her. But what can we do about her except hope that she won't return?

Barnabas: (about Angelique) She may be gone, but she's not gone for good. Sooner or later she will be with us again.

Jeff: It's almost as if... as if it were happening now. I can feel the same emotion. Remember when we were waiting for the jurors to bring in the verdict? I thought they'd believe me. Sure, reasonable, honorable men...oh, they'd believe me, sure. They wouldn't let us be separated. They'd give us a life together, that's for sure. They wouldn't take you away from me. But they did. And now... now they're taking me away.

Elizabeth: I don't know if anything is alright anymore.

Dramatis personae[]

← Joan Bennett as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard →
← Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins →
← Grayson Hall as Julia Hoffman →
← Roger Davis as Jeff Clark →
← Betsy Durkin as Victoria Winters →
Thomas Spratley as Justice of the Peace

Background information and notes[]

Production[]

The room at the Collinsport Inn appears to be a redress of Jeff's old apartment room without the shelves. [Addendum: The fireplace is on the wrong side of the room, however.]

Story[]

Jeff and Victoria have their honeymoon at the Collinsport Inn, the same location Jeremiah and Josette had theirs centuries before.
Professor Stokes lives in Rockport.
INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: Jeff: (recalls his conversation with Victoria just before she was hanged in 1796).
TIMELINE: 2:50am at the start of 637. Earlier this evening, Roger went to the police and told them Jeff is innocent of Eve's murder. 3am: Jeff and Victoria leave to get married. 4am: Dawn in two hours, Elizabeth returns to Collinwood. It was about an hour ago when Victoria and Jeff were married. 6am: Julia and Barnabas in the Collinwood drawing room.

Bloopers and continuity errors[]

In the teaser, the microphone is not picking up Joan Bennett's voice at first.
Jeff says that on the night Victoria was hanged almost 200 years ago, when he was saying goodbye to her and she was being taken to the gallows, it was thundering just as it was right now. However, there was no thunder during this scene in episode 460.
It's hard to imagine that it would be possible to find a justice of the peace who would perform a wedding at 3:00 a.m. [This is untrue. In a lot of small towns, they will gladly do so. I know someone who did just that in Cape Cod.]
During the wedding, the justice of the peace seems to stumble over Jeff's name: "Jeff, uh, Clark ["Clark" mumbled slightly]." Also, there is a clanking sound and other off-stage noise as the justice conducts the ceremony.
As Elizabeth and Victoria are hugging and speaking immediately after the wedding ceremony, the justice of the peace says something at the same time.
The phone on the table in the foyer of Collinwood seems be missing. [Addendum: The phone on the foyer table disappears and reappears regularly throughout the show's run.]
Despite the recent death in 632 of Mr Wells, Jeff and Victoria apparently have no problem getting a room at the inn.
The champagne bottle has regular aluminum foil on the top rather than a cork. [Addendum: The bottle clearly has a plastic cork. Jeff unwraps the foil, untwists the metal on the plastic cork, and then pops the plastic cork. You can see it flying.]
When Jeff and Victoria kiss near the fireplace at the Collinsport Inn, strings of saliva are seen connected to their lips as they part from the kiss.
It's a little strange that Julia would ask Barnabas if he has an urge for blood given that they just walked into Collinwood and anyone could be in the drawing room (and David does eavesdrop.)
When Barnabas and Julia are talking about finding Angelique's coffin, Jonathan Frid misspeaks, saying he and Angelique would go through "Widow's Hill Cemetery" instead of "Eagle Hill Cemetery."
Angelique's coffin is in a different room from earlier episodes. [Addendum: It would not be unusual for a vampire to have more than one coffin in different locations, and Barnabas and Julia seem to imply that when they talk about going to Nicholas's house next. What is more of a continuity error is that Barnabas was calling this room where Angelique called him to a "crypt," when there was never any indication that that's what it was, and Angelique's coffin was not in that location when she held Barnabas captive there. In episode 618, when Angelique brings Barnabas to this location, she must leave when dawn arrives, and she transports herself away to her coffin.]
There are noises (possibly someone talking) as Jeff tells Victoria that he doesn't have a wedding gift for her.
When Jeff is recalling the night Victoria was hanged, he mentions waiting for the jurors to return with the verdict. However, there were no jurors at the trial, only judges.
At the end of the episode, when Jeff is in place with the Chromakey effect, his body is too small in proportion to Victoria's.
There is a very large blue smudge in the scene at the end due to the Chromakey effect.