Dark Shadows - To Stake a Vampire: The 250th Episode

The conclusion of Episode 250 is right out of a Hammer Dracula film. Maggie, who contends with Willie and trying to fool Barnabas into thinking she has been converted to Josette, tries once to stake Barnabas but the overwhelming power and hold over Willie is too much. Willie even builds the coffin much to Barnabas' pleasure that will hold the body of Maggie...the plans are for Barnabas to pervert Maggie completely to vampirism are set for the next night. Meanwhile, Maggie plots to stake Barnabas a second time after Willie, every bit the weak-minded, cowardly stooge who responds to the heartbeat (loudly noising from Barnabas' coffin) by stopping her first attempt, is gone. Of course, when she attempts to stake Barnabas, it is close to sundown, so he is at his strongest, giving her that evil stare that darts her back. So Dark Shadows had two wedding plots ongoing by the 250th episode. Yeah, two. Even if I think that perhaps two marriage plots might have been overdoing it, both have definitive villains spearheading them that must be stopped somehow. How does Maggie escape the clutches of Barnabas, considering Willie is also there to subvert her attempts? How does she avoid the vampire bite that Barnabas plans to utilize in order to fully "restore" his Josette, a fabrication of a love long lost? Can Maggie get away? Will Willie ever develop a spine? Oh, does the plot thicken!

Anyway, if you like Barnabas at his most villainous, Dark Shadows was really letting Frid sink his teeth into the role. Yes, I agree that he's essentially a type of Lugosi or Lee, but that is no surprise considering how the influence of Universal and Hammer had quite the effect on any horror involving vampires. Barnabas is so dedicated to resurrecting his own Josette, he uses his mind power and a music box to thwart Maggie's efforts to gain control of her mental faculties. But the show does lets us see Maggie continuing to fight Barnabas, even as Willie, essentially a weaselly, emasculated doormat for the vampire, keeps interfering. She even tries to lure Willie away with a beautiful ancestral diamond necklace, but Barnabas is too strong for even that...Willie does take a moment or two to gaze upon it, so that greedy little rodent is still inside him. 3.5/5

This brick wall actually moves when Maggie presses against it.