686

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Number	677
Timeline	1969
Narrator	Joan Bennett
Writer	Sam Hall
Director	Lela Swift
Broadcast	February 10, 1969 (Monday)
Recorded	February 3, 1969 (Monday)
Video	Complete: Disc 72 Collection 12: Disc 4

We have 26 images of Dark Shadows 686

Roger returns to Collinwood and is upset that his son has been accused of the strange things occurring recently.

Synopsis[]

There is a storm over the estate of Collinwood, and as the lightning flashes, an ambulance leaves the great house, for this night, an aged silversmith arrived with important information which might give two people a clue to the dangers that threaten them. But now the silversmith is dead, and no one knows how he died.

Barnabas and Julia contemplate what Ezra was going to tell them. David takes the ledger which Ezra brought with him to Collinwood; Beth appears to David, and has him read the information about the silver medallion that Beth Chavez purchased the medallion and charged the cost to the account of Quentin Collins; Quentin makes David rip out a page which contains that crucial information. Roger returns to Collinwood and is upset that his son has been accused of some of the strange things occurring recently. The ledger is later found in the drawing room. Julia finds a picture of Beth in an old family album.

Memorable quotes[]

Elizabeth: Roger is very fortunate; he only believes what he sees.

Julia: Mrs. Johnson's a repressed hysteric.

Barnabas: Curious so many hearts should stop in this house.

Julia: Then we're all in danger, aren't we? And there's nothing we can do about it.

David: (about Quentin) I hate him, Beth!

David: You always accuse me!

Barnabas: You always put yourself in the position where I have to.

David: I just knew you and Aunt Elizabeth were going to sit in the car and talk about... Vicki and things.

Roger: I'm sure you know a lot of interesting things that your Aunt Elizabeth does not.

Elizabeth: I'd like to know what's happening in my own house.

Roger: Did a ghost put it there? Really, Julia.

Roger: I really think you've been reading too many bad mystery novels lately, Barnabas.

Roger (to David): Bored is hardly a word that should be in your vocabulary at your age.

Dramatis personae[]

← Joan Bennett as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard →
← Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins →
← Grayson Hall as Julia Hoffman →
← Louis Edmonds → as ← Roger Collins →
← David Henesy as David Collins →
← Terry Crawford as Beth Chavez →

Background information and notes[]

Production[]

Louis Edmonds returns to the cast after an absence of 24 episodes.
There is an edit in Act I. David takes the ledger from Quentin's room, and then immediately we see him leaving the west wing and closing the door behind him in the upstairs hallway.
There are no closing credits for this episode. Only the Dan Curtis Productions logo is shown.

Story[]

When referring to the storage room that Julia visits, Elizabeth says that no one has been in that part of the house for years.
The ledger Ezra brought to Collinwood runs from January to June 1897. David reads a page dated April 16, 1897, which mentions Beth Chavez as the one who wanted the medallion made "to guard against the wrath of Cerberus" and that the bill was charged to Quentin Collins.
GHOSTWATCH: Beth's ghost appears to David.
INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: David: Quentin won't honor.
TIMELINE: 11pm at the start of the episode.

Bloopers and continuity errors[]

Jonathan Frid flubs when he says that Ezra knew who he sold the book to. It was not a book; it was the medallion. [Addendum: Frid immediately corrects himself and says "medallion."]
Louis Edmonds forgets Maggie's and Amy's names. He calls them the governess and the little child. Jonathan Frid fills him in on Maggie's name, but then calls Roger by the name of David (and corrects himself).
It seems unlikely that an autopsy would be performed so quickly on Ezra Braithwaite. It's nighttime, and he arrived at Collinwood just this evening as well. Even if we accept that the autopsy was performed, it must have been an incredibly quick one since Elizabeth and Roger have not even returned from the airport yet.
When Barnabas is questioning David in David's bedroom, after he asks, "Did he, David?", someone coughs off-stage.
Jonathan Frid flubs a line when asking Elizabeth about looking at the family records: "Sometimes...we always cannot understand the story until the end of it comes."
In Act II, after Elizabeth leaves the drawing room to check on David and get the storage room keys, as Barnabas and Julia are talking, there is loud knocking from off-stage.
The room with the old books is supposed to be in the basement, yet it has a big bay window/glass door leading outside (which is blown open, so Julia isn't exactly trapped). [Addendum: No one says that the storage room is in the basement. Granted, Elizabeth does say "down here" in reference to the room when they are there, but when she tells Barnabas and Julia where the records are, she merely says "the storage room" without saying the room is in the basement.]
Earlier in the series, Julia posed as an author, writing a book about the Collins family; she looked through countless books and albums back then. Odd that she never got to this storage room with its large historical archive. (Perhaps Liz wasn't letting anyone into the basement, afraid they'd find her awful secret? [Addendum: As noted above, no one in the episode says the storage room is in the basement.] [Even if it were in the basement, Liz learned in #273 that she had no awful secret there to discover.])
At the end of the episode, the candle does not blow out on the first try, but the room gets darker anyway before the candle is eventually blown out.