Victoria Winters promotional poster with actress Bella Heathcote.
Victoria Winters, whose real name was Maggie Evans, came to Collinsport after escaping from Windcliff Sanitarium and answering a newspaper ad to be David Collins' governess. Victoria created her name from an advertisement on the train to Collinsport, and practiced introducing herself as both Victoria and Vicky.
Before being forced to live under supervision at Windcliff, Victoria had been, similar to her future pupil David Collins, able to communicate with the ghost of Josette DuPres. Her parents, fearful, had her locked away. Victoria escaped and attempted to rebuild her life, all the while being drawn to Collinsport. She was, however, haunted by nightmares of her family's abandonment and her life in the institution.
The ghost of Josette appeared to Vicky shortly after she was hired at Collinwood, drawing her from her bedroom and telling her, "He's coming." Vicky did not know that the ghost was speaking of Barnabas Collins' imminent release from his coffin. Vicky encountered Josette's ghost in the house twice, during which the spirit re-enacted her suicide, falling from the mansion's large chandelier. During their second encounter, Josette asked Victoria to help her- a request Vicky did not understand.
Vicky developed a good rapport with David Collins, as she could see the merit to his claims of being able to communicate with his mother from beyond the grave. She also began a quasi-romantic relationship with Barnabas Collins after he arrived at Collinwood under the pretense of being a British relative. The two shared in the reading of of the novel LOVE STORY, and walked along the edge of the water at the base of Widows' Hill. During Barnabas' ball at Collinwood, Vicky admitted to having caught his eye, and, after Vicky told the story of her past, the two shared a moment of true romance.
Although Victoria was falling in love with Barnabas, the revelation that he was a vampire frightened her, and at the peak of Widows' Hill, she admitted that the two could not be together because she would age and he would not. Vicky asked to be made into a vampire, but Barnabas refused. When Vicky fell from the cliff, Barnabas dove after her, attacking her while they hurtled toward the sea and rocks. At the bottom of the cliff, Vicky opened her eyes, reborn a vampire, and spoke the name Josette.
Notes
- On the original Dark Shadows television series, the characters of Maggie Evans and Victoria Winters were two different people, though both served as governess to David Collins at some point. Maggie was also taken to Windcliff Sanitarium for treatment one more than one occassion.
- The original series spelled Victoria's nickname as "Vicki", while movie promotional materials spelled the name as "Vicky".