Dark Shadows - The Locked Room

Episode 249 shows Jason has a plan to make sure Elizabeth isn't caught by evidence hidden in the locked room in the basement Caroline so desperately wants to find in order to help her mother. Caroline feels Jason has her mother under some serious burden, lording it over her, and wishes to see if it has something to do with the room locked for over eighteen years. This "Plot B" to the Barnabas story arc is a holdover from Dark Shadows- The Beginning and feels very much like any regular Soap Opera storyline. A creep blackmails the head of a family, knowing a secret he exploits for financial opportunity. Elizabeth has a murder she has continued to remain guilty and tormented by, Jason knows that secret and returned to Collinwood in serious need of cold, hard cash. That cash is available to him through Elizabeth. Elizabeth couldn't bear for her daughter (or brother, Roger, for that matter) to know that she killed her father and Jason is more than willing to use that as leverage. But any time he sees that the money he so wishes to grab is under threat, Jason uses his wily, sleazy brain to concoct and orchestrate some path through any barriers that might stop him otherwise. So he hides the evidence in the locked room under the rock floor as Elizabeth lets Roger, Caroline, and Vicky (who is more or less tagging along and obviously seems quite uncomfortable even being in the room) investigate. Old cobwebbed chests of her father's clothes and nothing else leaves Caroline shaken by even requesting to look into the room as Roger, also, suffers serious regret in ever going inside to find anything that might be incriminating. So with that out of the way, Jason initiates his masterplan, "encourages" Elizabeth to inform her family that she'll be marrying him. And so does the Soap Opera shenanigans continue. I was amused by all of this because decades later and these kinds of plots are still being used in Soaps of both the day and primetime. Of course, we all know that Jason will eventually get his comeuppance. But at least the writers finally moved the plot along to get to the actual wedding plans. 2.5/5