478

Dr. Lang drugs Jeff and plans to use his face for Barnabas' new body.
== Synopsis ==
Teaser
: Victoria Winters has returned to the great house at Collinwood from a strange and haunting adventure in the past, and now the terrible events she lived through are beginning to change not only her life but the lives of those around her. A mysterious painting and a surprise marriage between two strangers have led to the suspicion that a witch has returned to Collinwood, determined to restore a curse that began almost two hundred years ago.
Maggie Evans arrives at Collinwood to visit Victoria, and Cassandra answers the door. She is stunned by how much Maggie resembles Josette. Because of the resemblance, she decides that Maggie should be the first to have the dream.
Act I
While Victoria and Maggie visit in the drawing room, Maggie reveals to Victoria that Cassandra's reaction was unsettling. Victoria confesses to Maggie that everything about Cassandra is strange: the whirlwind one day romance and marriage that took place between Roger and Cassandra. Victoria also correctly guesses that Maggie reminded Cassandra of someone else. Victoria also asks Maggie if Jeff Clark can rent the spare room that Maggie and her father have. Maggie says she has to clear it with her father, but she'll try to convince him. Maggie asks if Vicki is in love with Jeff, and she answers that she's not sure.
Act II
In Dr. Eric Lang's lab, Jeff and Lang argue bitterly over whether Jeff will continue working for him. Lang surreptitiously prepares a syringe while Jeff calls Victoria, then injects him. Jeff collapses.
Act III
Later, at the drawing room at Collinwood, Cassandra stares out the window and vows that Barnabas' Dream Curse will begin tonight with Maggie Evans. At her home, Maggie begins the dream. She hears three slow knocks at the door and goes to open it. It is Jeff, someone Maggie does not know. She attempts to scream, but nothing comes out. Jeff beckons her to follow him, and she does. Jeff leads her to another door and Maggie enters. Jeff closes the door after her. Maggie yells to be let out. Jeff's voice eerily calls, "Through sight and sound, and faceless terror, through endless corridors, by trial and error, a head of blazing light does burn, and one door leads to the point of return..." As she screams in terror for help, she sees she is in a room with many doors. She hears a haunting melody that she barely recalls, then chooses the only unlocked door and finds a grotesque skull. At that point, she bolts awake, back in her bed.
Act IV
Back at the lab, Jeff awakens in restraints and realizes that Dr. Lang plans to use his face for the "creature."
== Memorable quotes ==
== Dramatis personae ==
* Kathryn Leigh Scott as Maggie Evans
* Addison Powell as Eric Lang
* Lara Parker as Cassandra Collins
* Roger Davis as Jeff Clark
* Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters
== Background information and notes ==
=== Production ===
* This episode was recorded out of broadcast sequence. The previous episode to be recorded was 476.
* Kathryn Leigh Scott returns to the cast after an absence of 47 episodes.
* There is a tape edit when Jeff and Dr. Lang are in the laboratory.
* For the first time, rather than the end credits playing over an image of a set from the episode, the credits instead play over a kaleidoscopic image, as one would see during hypnosis.
=== Story ===
*DREAM SEQUENCE: Cassandra starts the dream curse; she chooses Maggie to be the first victim to experience it. Maggie then has the dream. She opens a door, revealing a skull. The beckoner is Jeff.
*TIMELINE: Day 198 begins, and will end in 482. Roger and Cassandra married the same day they met. Jeff plans to meet Victoria in an hour. Dr. Lang will be ready to conduct the experiment tomorrow.
== Bloopers and continuity errors ==
* Cassandra enters the drawing room and tells Victoria that she has a phone call. There has always been a phone in the drawing room and on the table right outside the doors in the foyer, yet we never heard the phone ring.
* Addison Powell has trouble filling the syringe. He tries a couple of times, but it doesn't work. The fluid in the bottle that he uses to try to fill the syringe is blue, but when he goes back and picks it up, the syringe is clear. So Jeff was likely injected with almost 100% air; hard to understand why he immediately falls asleep as he would be more likely to have had a heart attack. [Obviously we are to understand/believe that the syringe is full of the drug despite the blooper, so there's nothing hard to understand here.]
* At the beginning of Act II, as the camera pans backwards away from Dr. Lang filling the syringe, the camera shakes, perhaps having bumped into something.
* At the beginning of Act II, Addison Powell flubs a line when Dr. Lang is talking to Jeff: "You, uh, you realize you're making a good mis-...uh, a great mistake."
* Cassandra is significantly struck by Maggie's resemblance to Josette. Yet in the previous episode, she had no reaction to Tony Peterson looking like Rev. Trask--or any of the other characters looking like other figures from the past either. She might have known Roger and Elizabeth would look like Joshua and Naomi, but she wouldn't likely have known that Mrs. Johnson would look like Abigail, for example. [It may be that the similarity between Maggie and Josette just had more of an effect on her. Cassandra/Angelique mentions in 481 that Tony Peterson looks like Reverend Trask, but her reaction when she met him was obviously just not as strong.]
* At the beginning of Act III, as Cassandra stands at the drawing room window and begins the dream curse, the camera is unable to focus on her (focusing on the doors behind her).
* When Cassandra reaches for a leaf from a tree outside the drawing room windows, the camera pulls back and one of the studio lights can be seen at the top of the screen.
* At the beginning of Act IV, as the camera pans away from Jeff Clark strapped to the table, Dr. Lang can be seen looking off-stage for his cue.
*Maggie Evans has always been an enigma post-Barnabas-bite as she became an unwilling hostage shortly after being bitten, unlike all others who did Barnabas' will. Even though she is hypnotized not to remember that time, her will should have still been controlled by Barnabas until he was freed from his curse. When Julia was terrorized by Barnabas, why didn't she remove the suggestion from Maggie so she would remember?
*In the first part of the episode, Maggie agrees to let Jeff Clark stay at her place. When Jeff goes to Dr. Lang’s later, he says he’s quitting and moving out, presumably then to go to Maggie’s. When Dr. Lang convinces him to continue to work for him for another day, Jeff tries to call Victoria to tell her, but she is not at Collinwood. In the meantime, Dr. Lang has captured Jeff and strapped him to his mad scientist table, so he obviously wouldn’t have shown up at Maggie’s. But then when the Dream Curse sequence starts later, Maggie is in bed sleeping. So what happened in the meantime when Jeff was a no-show? Wouldn’t she and Vicki be worrying about what’s happened to him?
*Maggie's room and bed are not configured the same as when the room was last shown.
*Dr. Lang most likely intends only to cut off Jeff's face with a small scalpel. However, it is mentioned several times that a head is required for the completion of the creature. This has led to confusion over whether only a face is needed or both a face and head, and if both are required, how exactly does Dr. Lang intend to cut off the head with only a scalpel?
==External Links ==
Dark Shadows - Episode 478 on the IMDb
Dark Shadows Everyday - Episode 478 - What Dreams May Come
Dark Shadows Commentary- Episode 478: Carried on the wind
Dark Shadows Before I Die: 4/24/68
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