540

Cassandra learns of the link between Barnabas and Adam.
== Synopsis ==
: On this night, terror reigns in the great house of Collinwood, for a witch's curse has somehow been thwarted, and there is one with powers even greater than hers who is about to evoke a horrifying act of vengeance.
Cassandra summons Willie, however is unable to find anything from him about Barnabas. David plays Lang's taped message for Cassandra, which describes the link between Adam and Barnabas.
== Memorable quotes ==
: Willie: I can't lie to you.
: Cassandra: No, you can't.
== Dramatis personae ==
* John Karlen as Willie Loomis
* Lara Parker as Cassandra Collins
* Humbert Allen Astredo as Nicholas Blair
* David Henesy as David Collins
== Background information and notes ==
=== Production ===
* This is the first time John Karlen provides the opening narration and is only the third time it has been by male voice.
* Final episode directed by John Weaver.
=== Story ===
* TIMELINE: Nicholas moves up the deadline. Cassandra now only has until 9pm, giving her one more hour left to discover why the dream curse failed; 8:56pm: David plays Dr. Lang's message for Cassandra; 9pm at the end of this episode and the start of the next.
== Bloopers and continuity errors ==
* At the beginning of the teaser, Humbert Allen Astredo looks to his left for his cue to start speaking while the camera is trained on his face as John Karlen recites the opening narration. Astredo also seems to be reading much of his conversation with Cassandra at the beginning of Act I from the teleprompter.
* At the beginning of Act I, a boom mic or camera shadow appears behind Nicholas as he stands at the drink cabinet.
* When Nicholas and Cassandra are talking about finding out why the dream curse failed, there is a glitch--looks like a dissolve--in the picture.
* When Willie and David are talking at the front door of the Old House, there is a loud banging sound off-stage.
* Cassandra stumbles over the words "the dream curse."
* When Cassandra summons Willie, there's no indication that additional time has passed between when she summoned him and when he arrives at the gazebo, but Willie's arrival seems almost instantaneous.
* After Cassandra tells Willie to look in her eyes, there is an unusual amount of dead air before Willie approaches her. Then John Karlen and Lara Parker stumble over each other's lines when Willie says, "No, I don't want to" and Cassandra commands him to look into her eyes again.
* Willie tells Cassandra (while he is under her spell to tell the truth) that Barnabas told Dr. Hoffman he wanted her to bury him where no could find him after he died from the dream curse, but he actually asked her to destroy him by driving a stake through his heart.
* Cassandra tells Willie to go back to Collinwood instead of the Old House. They're at Collinwood.
* After Willie leaves the gazebo and Cassandra says she was certain he knew something, Humbert Allen Astredo's shadow can be see moving on the wall, and we can see him sitting down onto the railing. It seems we weren't supposed to see that, more that it was to appear that he magically appeared sitting on the railing, similar to his "magic" entrance in the drawing room at the drink cabinet earlier in the episode. In that instance, Cassandra turns her back, and you can see a part of Astredo's body as he moves into position at the drink cabinet in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.
* Cassandra tells Nicholas that she learned from Willie that Barnabas reverted to vampirism ("what he was") temporarily, but Willie didn't actually say that (or know that, really). Willie knew that Barnabas was dead and only assumed that he would revert to being a vampire.
* Humbert Allen Astredo flubs a line: "If you have been able to...un...If you have been unable to..."
* David Henesy flubs a line: "Listen to the tape recording, all right?...tape recorder Dr. Hoffman gave to me."
* When Cassandra and David are talking in the foyer, the camera fails to focus on David correctly at one point and moves up and down.
==External Links ==
Dark Shadows - Episode 540 on the IMDb
Dark Shadows Everyday - Episode 540 - Mission: Inscrutable
Dark Shadows Commentary- Episode 540: Intervening factor
Dark Shadows Before I Die- Episode 540: 7/19/68
0540