The Dark Shadows Daybook: June 16

By PATRICK McCRAY

Taped on this date in 1968: Episode 522

Angelique’s brother, Nicholas, charms his way quickly into Collinwood. Roger suspects nothing and invites the mysterious stranger into his bedroom to show him his art, but Barnabas and Julia decide to consult Professor Stokes. Nicholas learns that Cassandra’s trail begins at the Old House, and goes there. Although Willie is initially withdrawn, Nicholas pumps him for information until he is spent. The issue of Trask’s ghost is the result, and Nicholas heads to the cellar where he confronts the holy man’s long-dead skeleton.

Although he introduces himself in the prior installment, 522 is the first, full episode for Nicholas Blair. Given his introduction the day before as Cassandra’s brother, he is suddenly one of the most anticipated villains in DARK SHADOWS run although he arrives out of the blue. Astredo and the writers have a lot to deliver, and 522 fails no one. In the space of 22 minutes, he shmoozes Roger, intimidates Barnabas, successfully links minds with Angelique in Hell, mind controls Willie, and taunts a skeleton. Rarely have the creators of the show played so many hands at once. Characters are usually revealed at more than leisurely pace, but this kind of creative braggadocio and swagger implies that the producers have far more cards in the deck. The only person on the show with more to live up to is Humbert Allen Astredo, and he immediately displays a startling charisma and ferocity that will be unmatched until David Selby speaks as Quentin. Suddenly, DARK SHADOWS is Humbert’s world, and everyone else just lives in it. This new stroke by the writers is sorely needed. As a threat, Adam is earning more shrugs than screams, despite the dazzlingly introspective and nuanced performance by Robert Rodan. Stokes has a new, worthy opponent as well. Barnabas may be the once-undead heart of the show, but Stokes is its mind and Nicholas, quite startlingly, its obsidian soul.

NIcholas will remain a tantalizing mystery throughout his tenure on the series, opening up the gates of the underworld to grand speculation. His presence implies an organized netherworld rather than a vague place where Angelique may or may not be cleaning erasers. In executing it, the writing staff takes a strange and beautifully blasphemous chance in sixties television. Questions arise. What kind of life form are Nicholas and Angelique? Was he her brother in life? Or death? Were they ever human? What kind of bureaucracy exists in the underworld? Do they have a dental plan? And are there heavenly counterparts, refusing (unless they’re George Burns or Morgan Freeman) to intervene? Curses are one thing, but now, we’re looking at an entire system of cosmic organization. Unwittingly, the creators of the show are also crafting the payoff of Jeb Hawkes and the Leviathans, two years away.

The episode also treats us to a host of expected and surprising choices by John Karlen, who has a chance to show multiple facets of Willie’s evolving identity in the space of just a few minutes. A fretting mother hen. A gun-toting redneck. A surly and jealous Workin’ Joe, left out of the reindeer games by Barnabas, and not a little petulant about it. When Nicholas puts the data-draining whammy on him, does he recite exposition in a glazed-eyed monotone? No. His comical resentment pours out as Nicholas pulls other truths from him. Willie just lights a cigarette and turns into the barroom gossip, cockeyed grin and all. It’s just one more memorable and human display that only a demon could inspire, and few inspire like Nicholas Blair, esq.

This episode hit the airwaves June 26, 1968.

The Dark Shadows Daybook: June 26

By PATRICK McCRAY

Taped on this date in 1968: Episode 529

Frightened by a vision of Angelique, Maggie awakens the sleeping Vicki with a scream. A strange perfume bottle evidences the witch’s attempt to induce the dream curse. This, plus the appearance of Stokes’ stick pin on the spot where Sam died, induces Joe and Vicki to visit the Professor. Stokes hides Adam (no doubt in the “grotto”), mid-lesson, and entertains the pair in his Seduction Parlor. He explains that he must have left the pin during one of his many visits to Sam. Given how often Stokes modeled for Sam, this is perfectly plausible. Joe, forever fearing inadequacy based upon the example of manhood he knows Maggie saw frequently displayed by the scholarly satyr, finds his suspicions uncontrollably aroused. Joe’s doubts are exacerbated by noises from the adjoining room, written off by Stokes as his maid. The professor is used to hiding various nocturnal visitors from one another, and Joe, knowing his reputation, remains suspicious. He returns without Vicki and demands to know what lascivious delights Stokes has secreted away. After a tussle that Stokes slyly lets Joe win, the professor is quietly relieved that it is Adam who appears rather than one of his stable of “girls next door,” and but feigns shock. His shock turns to dismay when Adam and Joe take their manly grappling outside and continue to wrestle until Stokes sees one of the two shoot into the other.

Professor Stokes plays it fast and loose in this one. He lies (and for once, I don’t mean horizontally) with a sense of gamesmanship that is a joy to watch. It also makes for a purposefully terrible object lesson for Adam. DARK SHADOWS analysis is one third insight, one third speculation, and one third opinion. But could this be where Adam began to get his sleazier and more manipulative habits? Adam is the ultimate argument for Rousseau’s noble savage. He’s perfectly fine until people start stabbing him in the leg and torturing him via chicken. Of course, the DARK SHADOWS characters have just begun their journeys into toward self-betterment. I wonder if the treatment of Adam is a teaching experience for them. As both the repository for Barnabas’ curse and also his cure, the savage treatment the former vampire dishes out is the ultimate catharsis. That’s not always a good thing.

If it were 1904, we’d be celebrating the birthday of Austro-Hungarian sex symbol Peter Lorre. But he’d been dead for four years by the time this episode aired. So there.