7

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Number	7
Timeline	1967
Narrator	Alexandra Moltke (as Victoria Winters)
Writer	Art Wallace
Director	Lela Swift
Broadcast	July 5, 1966 (Tuesday)
Recorded	June 21, 1966 (Tuesday)
Video	Complete: Disc 1 Beginning 1: Disc 1

We have 5 images of Dark Shadows 7

After Burke visits Sam, Roger is convinced Burke has returned to cause trouble for him.

Synopsis[]

Opening narration

My name is Victoria Winters. The dead past drifts through the corridors of Collinwood and settles like dust in its corners. Spurred by hope and surrounded by fear, my search continues, as life itself continues. Not only for me, but for everyone else in this strange corner of the world, people who live with their own fears, their own hopes.

Teaser

Sam returns home with drinking on his mind, but just as he begins to take his first drink, he is interrupted by Roger, who wants to talk to him sober, something Sam has no intention of doing.

Act I

Roger wants to know where Sam was last night, but Sam doesn't know. Sam reveals that he knew of Burke's arrival, which makes Roger angry. Roger's worried because Devlin's back in town. Sam is guilt-ridden about something and spent last night crying at the ocean. Roger wants to know what Sam intends to do about Burke, and Sam agrees that Burke probably wants revenge against Roger. Sam says he will do nothing.

Act II

At the Collinsport Inn diner, Burke doesn't recognize Maggie until she tells him that he used to pose for her father. Burke recalls he has an unfinished portrait at Sam’s house. Maggie alludes to her father's drinking by saying he hasn't felt like finishing anything for a few years unless it is 190 proof. Maggie asks Burke if he's made it, and he accuses her of being too nosy.

Victoria shows up asking to use the phone and gets change from Maggie, who thinks she is brave for living at Collinwood. Burke asks Maggie to watch his coffee as he goes to see what Victoria is up to, revealing he knows who she is to Maggie in the process.

Meanwhile, Roger is furious that Sam went to Collinwood and spoke to Victoria after agreeing to never go near Collinwood. Roger is determined to intercept Victoria before she sees Burke and discovers via telephone that Victoria has left Collinwood. Victoria is unable to complete her phone call and Burke is waiting when she leaves the phone booth.

Act III

Burke and Victoria have coffee and doughnuts together, but Victoria is very anxious to get away to make her telephone call. After running down their meeting, Burke points out he's her oldest friend in Collinsport. He tries to find out what she has heard about him and he offers her a doughnut several times. When she says he seems odd, he points out that she has left New York to come to a small town, opposite of what most girls would do. She points out that he has also come from the big city to a small town. He says he has his reasons, but doesn't understand hers. Victoria tells him she came to Collinsport for a job. Burke tells her that he doesn’t quite believe that.

She gets up to try her telephone call again and he stops her, apologizing for sounding rude. She explains she is being paid well to tutor a young boy and that is her only reason for coming there. Burke begs her to stay, insisting they will chat about "the weather and clam chowder and nothing else." Maggie comes over to offer Victoria moral support and Burke sends her off to get a newspaper.

After Maggie leaves he tells Victoria that he modelled for her father. Burke slips and asks about Roger, and Victoria reminds him they were supposed to discuss clam chowder. She reveals that she told Roger about Burke's arrival, but refuses to say anything else.

Roger somehow ends up at the front desk of the Inn, where he learns from Maggie that Victoria and Burke are having coffee in the restaurant. She asks Roger if he remembers Burke, and he leaves, without saying a word.

Act IV

Burke tells Victoria about a time when he was ten and got spanked at Collinwood while prowling through the West Wing looking for ghosts. When Burke tells her that a ten year old boy could not resist exploring the town's real haunted house, Victoria says she doesn't believe in ghosts, which Burke questions, now that she has spent the night there.

Maggie arrives with the newspaper and Victoria takes the opportunity to head back to the phone booth. Maggie mentions that Roger was in the lobby looking for her, but took off after she told him she was there with Burke. Burke expresses disappointment at missing a chance to see Roger again. Victoria goes to make her phone call. Burke plans to stop by Sam's, and is surprised to learn (from Maggie) that Sam drinks.

Back at the house, Sam gets a call from Maggie, who is too late to tell Sam that Burke is on his way there. Sam isn't drunk enough to talk to Burke after Burke shows up at the Evans cottage. Burke’s happy to see Sam, though the opposite doesn’t appear to be true. Sam’s upset by Burke’s visit and finally asks him to leave.

Maggie meets Victoria in the lobby and asks how her telephone call is going. The phone rings, she asks for Miss Hopewell from the Hammond Foundling Home, she says it is important, very important!

Memorable quotes[]

Sam: Don't rob me of my hours; they're all too few, or perhaps too many.

Sam: The trouble with you, Sam Evans, you don't exist. You don't exist at all.

Sam: What I have to say would, would split the earth apart and send me plummeting to the pit of hell.

Roger: I wanted to talk to you. But without this! (a bottle of whiskey)

Sam: Look, if I'm supposed to talk to you, that's when I'll need this most!

Sam: To life, Collins. To the long, unhappy, miserable life that lies ahead for both of us. (takes a drink and gazes at the glass) Sustenance of my soul, provider of my courage, destroyer of my talents.

Roger: Where were you last night?

Sam: Nowhere. Everywhere. Perhaps I was here.

Roger: I came here to see you last night. No one was home.

Sam: Well, the fact of the matter is, Collins, that even when I'm here, nobody's home.

Maggie: Now there's a brave gal. Can you imagine anyone wanting to live in Collinwood?

Burke: As a matter of fact, I can.

Maggie: You couldn't pay me a hundred bucks a day to work in that spooky joint.

Burke: Nobody asked you, Maggie. But they did ask Miss Winters.

Maggie: (referring to Burke) Watch him. He's a fire-eater.

Dramatis personae[]

← Mitchell Ryan as Burke Devlin →
← Louis Edmonds as Roger Collins →
← Mark Allen as Sam Evans →
← Kathryn Leigh Scott as Maggie Evans →
← Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters →
Calvin Ander as Hotel Clerk (uncredited)

Background information and notes[]

Production[]

This is the first time we see the phone booth at the Collinsport Inn. It's located in the lobby in this episode, but the location will often change to inside the restaurant, depending on the plot.
Despite the Collinsport Inn restaurant being n shown in two episodes (1, 3), this is the first episode where the restaurant is equipped with a cash register, in its usual place by the edge of the counter near the door. For its first function, Maggie makes three dollars' change so that Vicki can go to the phone booth in the lobby and make a long-distance call. The register will also be absent from the set in one later episode (19).
Sound effect: The buzzer sound of a doorbell can be heard at the Evans cottage when Burke stops by to renew his friendship with Sam. A doorbell will be heard in only two other episodes during the first year of the show, also at the front door of the Evans cottage when Burke arrives to visit (22, 49).
This is the first episode to not have any scenes at Collinwood.
Sam has two sets of glasses to drink out of; one set has a frosted appearance, which means they are meant to be broken, like the one Roger broke in episode 1.
This is the first episode where the credits end with Bob Lloyd saying, "Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis production". In previous episodes, the voice-over said, "Dark Shadows has been a Dan Curtis production".

Story[]

Maggie's statement that she would never work at Collinwood turns out to be quite ironic, as she will eventually be hired as David Collins' new governess, replacing Victoria, in 652.
TIMELINE: It was last night when Roger was unable to find Sam.

Bloopers and continuity errors[]

When Sam takes his second drink after his toast, the liquid dribbles down his chin.
The Collinsport Fly makes its first appearance in this episode. It can be seen in the diner as Burke asks Maggie to fetch him a newspaper.
Roger's striped shirt causes the camera to strobe on close-ups.
In the first scene with Roger and Sam, a hammering in the background can be heard.
When Victoria puts the first three coins into the pay phone, you hear them fall and a bell. But there is no sound effect at all when she places the fourth coin in the phone box.
A dark shadow appears on Sam as he returns home, as well as several times during the subsequent scene with Roger.
Actor Mitchell Ryan has a hard time with his lines when Burke is talking to Victoria. He pauses between nearly every word, repeats his offer of a doughnut, and claims they're just having a "simple cup of coffee." Also, he says, "All the young girls are just dying to leave the big city to find love" etc., but Victoria has done the opposite, leaving New York to go to a town which "would not take up four square blocks of Manhattan." Obviously he was supposed to either say girls were dying to leave the small towns, or go to the big city.
Mark Allen flubs his line when Burke says he hasn't changed a bit: "Have I?...Haven't I?"
In this episode and the next, Victoria calls Hopewell a Miss rather than Mrs. as had previously been established.

End credits announcements[]

It's 'Wild West Day' on 'The Dating Game', and you're invited to join the fun as contestants try to rope themselves a partner, tomorrow morning at 11:30, 10:30 Central Time on ABC.
Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis production.