227

Late at night, Barnabas Collins breaks into Maggie's bedroom and drinks her blood.
== Synopsis ==
Teaser
: My name is Victoria Winters. This is to be a night of horror, a night that evil will display its terrible power, a night that an innocent is to become the frightened object of that power.
In the middle of the night, Barnabas enters Maggie's bedroom through the French doors. He stalks over to her bed and bares his fangs.
Act I
The following morning, Sam walks into Maggie's room and wakes her up. She has overslept and is late for work. Sam doesn't seem to be overly concerned until Maggie starts feeling very weak and dizzy. Sam becomes alarmed. Maggie cannot explain her lack of energy. When she complains of being cold, Sam notices that the two French doors leading outside are wide open. Sam wants Maggie, who looks unusually pale, to stay home from work, but despite how she feels, she insists on going in to work. She begins snapping at him and the two briefly argue. She apologizes, and Sam goes to make her some strong coffee and she lies back down.
Act II
Later, Joe shows up at the coffee shop at the Collinsport Inn. It is just past the lunchtime rush, and Maggie, wearing a scarf around her neck, is exhausted. Joe asks for a cup of coffee, but Maggie is having trouble concentrating. She fumbles about and breaks a cup. Joe makes a few jokes, but Maggie begins acting rude to him. Sam comes into the coffee shop and explains to Joe how Maggie was feeling ill earlier in the morning. A few minutes later, Maggie faints.
Act III
As evening approaches, Maggie seems much improved. Joe has stopped over to see her, and she promises him she'll remain in bed, since she still refuses to see a doctor. Everything is going well until she recalls the nightmare that she experienced the night before. Later, at the Old House, Barnabas stares out of a window and Maggie seems to sense his eyes watching her. Sam comes into Maggie's room, and Maggie, wanting some fresh air, offers to drive him over to the Old House so that he can continue working on Barnabas' portrait. Sam seems surprised that she knows he'll be working that night, since Willie had only come fifteen minutes earlier to inform him. When Maggie claims she must have overheard, Sam notes that would be some feat, since Willie had remained outside. Maggie says that her "illness" must have improved her hearing.
Act IV
Unlike the night before, Maggie seems completely comfortable around Barnabas. She wears a Cheshire Cat grin and acts in an almost sultry manner towards Barnabas. She leaves Sam at the Old House and returns home. Sam and Barnabas chat about her "illness." Back at the Evans cottage, Maggie climbs into bed. As the evening continues, Sam gives Barnabas a break from the sitting while he "works in some colors." He mentions that it's going slow and that he'd like to take it home and work on it in the daylight. Barnabas says that he prefers it be finished at the Old House. He looks out the window and at that moment at the Evans Cottage, Maggie is tossing and turning and clutching at her neck. Sam claims that he's feeling tired and wants to knock off early, but Barnabas asks Sam to continue, he bargains that if Sam works through that night, they could skip the next night, completely. Sam agrees and Barnabas tells him that he is going out for a walk. Maggie sits up in bed like a sleepwalker, gets up and opens the French doors. She removes her scarf before returning to bed, then she rolls to the side exposing the fang marks in her throat.
== Memorable quotes ==
: Joe: So, how are you feeling?
: Maggie: I'll leave it up to you. It's a multiple choice: bad, awful, terrible.
----
: Joe: What does a guy have to do around here to get a cup of coffee?
: Maggie: He serves himself.
----
: Barnabas: While you're working, I'd like to get some fresh air.
: Sam: Get some for me, too. I've got about an hour's worth of work here.
: Barnabas: That will be just enough time.
== Dramatis personae ==
* Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins
* Kathryn Leigh Scott as Maggie Evans
* Joel Crothers as Joe Haskell
* David Ford as Sam Evans
== Background information and notes ==
=== Production ===
* This episode was recorded out of broadcast sequence. The previous episode to be recorded was 224.
* There is a videotape splice during the scene with Sam and Maggie in the bedroom.
* We see Barnabas' fangs for the first time. These were not fully seen in the cliffhanger from last episode as Jonathan Frid had accidentally inserted them upside down.
* Final appearance of the coffee shop set (Collinsport Inn restaurant).
* There are limited crew credits for this episode (only producer, director, writer, and Ohrbach's fashions), which seems odd given that after the appearance of the Dan Curtis Productions logo and announcement, there is a full 40 seconds of theme music with only the logo showing. There would have been plenty of time to include many of the other usual crew credits (makeup, music, etc.).
=== Story ===
* Maggie usually wakes at the crack of dawn, and is cleaning and making breakfast before Sam ever gets up; hence her oversleeping and exhaustion are completely out of character.
* Maggie and Joe joke about his having fun with the boys.
* Maggie refers to Joe bringing flowers to her graveside in her dream, but if that happened, it happened off camera. [Addendum: Earlier Maggie had mentioned to Joe that she had had more bad dreams the previous night, so this seems clearly a reference to a new dream that, indeed, we did not see portrayed.]
* It is obvious that Barnabas has somehow acquired a car since he offers to Sam that Willie can drive him home. Before he began "working" for Barnabas, there was no indication Willie had a car. In fact, when Elizabeth was trying to get him to leave Collinsport, there was a lot of discussion of his getting on a bus out of town. [Addendum: In 219, Jason tells Willie that he saw his car at the cemetery the night before.]
* TIMELINE: Day 67 takes place. Sam plans to have tomorrow evening off from working on the portrait.
== Bloopers and continuity errors ==
* In the previous episode, as they enter the Blue Whale, Barnabas and Sam are talking about how well the portrait sitting had gone that evening, but when it appears in this episode, it hasn't changed since it was last seen in 224. [Addendum: And, in fact, there is no visible progress on the painting from the beginning of the evening to the end when Sam is talking about quitting for the night.]
* Sam asks Maggie how she knew he was going to the Old House to paint that evening. (The implication seems to be that Maggie has somehow learned that Sam will go thanks to Barnabas's telepathic communication.) However, since Sam started painting the portrait, it seems he's been going to the Old House every evening, so Maggie could have easily assumed that would be the case again tonight. Also, later in the episode, when Barnabas asks Sam to continue working through the night, he suggests that Sam could take the next night off, which seems to be an unusual occurrence.
* Sam greets Maggie "good morning" when he enters the coffee shop even though the previous conversation between Joe and Maggie established the time as being after lunchtime.
== End credits announcements ==
* Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.
==External links ==
Dark Shadows - Episode 227 on the IMDb
Dark Shadows Everyday - Episode 227 - Sick Day
Dark Shadows Commentary- Episode 227: The nature of her illness
Dark Shadows Before I Die- Episode 227: 5/9/67
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