437 - February 27, 1968

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] -A séance has been held in the great house at Collinwood,

a séance which has suspended time and space,

and sent one girl on an uncertain

and frightening journey into the past,

back to the year .

Fear of the unknown has turned others against her,

and placed her very existence in peril.

And the forces of evil, which have surrounded her fate,

now threaten a deadly end to her journey.

- Did you get the book?

- Yes, last night.

- I wish there were some other way.

- So, do I, but I don't think there is.

- Well, I have a feeling it's only going to make things worse.

- Vicki, I wish I could tell you that the law

was simply a matter of evidence, facts, proof.

But it isn't. Emotions count.

- I'm beginning to learn that.

- This is a frightened little village,

so we have to show them

that they have nothing to fear from you.

That's why you have to tell them the truth.

- But I thought we agreed that, in my case,

the truth is the worst possible thing we can tell them.

- We're going to have to take that chance.

We have the book on our side.

Nothing else has worked.

- The judges won't believe me.

- They're going to bring down their verdict today,

and if we are not able to do something more then,

just as sure as I'm standing here,

you'll be convicted

and hung.

♪♪

[eerie theme music] ♪♪

- Come in, Lieutenant.

Sit down.

- I don't want to sit down. I can't stay that long.

- Why did you send for me? - Sit down, Lieutenant.

- Mr. Trask, I told you-- - It's Reverend Trask

- and I said, "sit down."

- All right. What do you want, Reverend?

- I'm going to call you to the stand.

- I've already testified.

- You will testify again.

- Are you out of your mind?

- Today, Lieutenant, the judges will bring in their verdict,

but before they do,

you are going to testify that you helped Ms. Winters

not out of loyalty to your friend,

Barnabas Collins, as you stated before,

but because you were actually bewitched by her.

- Never.

- Come now, Lieutenant. - Now, listen to me.

- I did enough the other day.

Now, I'm not going to say another word against that girl.

- Don't start being difficult again, Lieutenant.

Just remember that your career and your prospects

are not yet out of danger.

- I said, "no."

- Lieutenant, you've been given a little reprieve,

not a pardon.

Mr. Collins' indulgence of you hangs by a very thin thread,

and I at the moment have the power to break it.

- I don't care. I won't do it.

- Oh, I think you will, Lieutenant.

I think you will.

[church bell ringing]

- Convicted and hanged?

- We only have a few more minutes.

- Convicted, hanged.

- Vicki--

- No, it has to stop. It has to stop.

- Vicki, what is it?

- Peter, do you ever have nightmares?

- Yes, of course. Don't-- - When I was a child,

- I used to have nightmares all the time.

In fact, I got so used to them

that I became curious about them.

I'd be dreaming something awful, and then, suddenly,

I'd realize that it was only a dream.

But instead of waking myself up,

I keep on dreaming

right until that, that final split second,

just before the car crashed or the monster caught me or,

or whatever it was.

And then, and only then,

I'd wake myself up.

This isn't going to do you any good.

They will be coming in a minute.

- I'd wake myself up.

- Now, now, it's got to stop now. - Vicki, listen.

- It's gone on for too long.

It's got to stop now.

It's got to stop!

- Vicki, you have to listen to me. - This gone on--

- Please, you have to listen to me. - Please, I've got to--

- I've got to wake up, I have to wake up. - Please, listen to me.

- Please, help me! - No, Vicki--

- Oh, I'm sorry.

- You've got to be quiet. - No.

- Now, just be quiet.

[footsteps approaching] They're coming.

Will you be all right?

- I don't know.

Peter, I don't know.

[keys rattling]

♪♪

- I'll try to make this brief, Your Honor.

I know the Navy would like to have Lieutenant Forbes

back at his important duties as soon as possible.

- The sooner the better.

- Lieutenant Forbes,

the other day Mr. Bradford brought up the subject

of your helping Ms. Winters.

- Yes.

- At that time, you stated that you helped her

only at the urging of your friend, Barnabas Collins.

- Was that entirely true?

- No.

- Was there some other reason

that you untied her from that tree

and brought food and drink to the place

where she was subsequently hidden?

- Yes.

- Would you tell the court what that reason was?

- Well, it's difficult to explain.

- Try, Lieutenant.

- Well, remembering it now, I -

I think I probably would have done those things on my own

without Barnabas.

- Why do you say that?

- It was - just - just a kind of feeling.

- You felt somehow drawn to do these things?

- Yes, that's about it.

- Can you explain that in a little more detail, Lieutenant?

- Well, it was as if I had no - no choice.

When I brought food to her, my - my mind was swimming.

I - I couldn't think.

I just had to do what I was doing.

- You felt powerless to resist?

- It seemed that way.

- Lieutenant, can you offer any explanation

for this strange sensation you experienced?

Can you, Lieutenant?

- S - Spell. - What?

- Perhaps, a spell.

Perhaps, I had been bewitched.

- No, Lieutenant! Why are you doing this?!

- Your Honor, please! - Order! Order!

- There will be no more of such outbursts.

Mr. Bradford, please control the prisoner.

- Yes, Your Honor.

- Thank you, Your Honor.

I have just one more question, Lieutenant.

You stated that,

perhaps, you had been bewitched by this girl,

is that how you had intended to put it?

- No.

- How do you really feel?

- There's no doubt in my mind.

I know I was under a spell.

I'm positive I was bewitched by her.

- Thank you, Lieutenant.

No further questions.

- Do you wish to cross examine, Mr. Bradford?

- Yes, Your Honor.

Lieutenant, would you look at the defendant?

- Sir?

- Would you look at Ms. Winters?

Would you she was attractive?

- Yes.

- Very attractive?

- I suppose so, yes.

Do you remember a conversation you had with her

the first night when she arrived at Collinwood?

- Yes.

- At that time, you told her that you had something that -

something - a weakness.

Yes, a weakness, that's what you said.

Do you remember?

- No.

- Oh, come, Lieutenant.

It was just before she slapped you in the face

when you tried to kiss her.

- Your Honor, I object.

- Objection overruled.

- This is pertinent, Your Honor. - Objection overruled.

- Proceed.

- You were trying to kiss her

because, as you put it, you had a weakness.

Is that not true?

- I suppose I might have said that, yes.

- I submit to you, Lieutenant, and to the court,

that this very weakness,

your - your uncontrollable desire for this young woman

- may have led you to - to aid her as you did. - No, I told you. I had--

- You did try to kiss her, didn't you? - Yes.

- Well, then, you were attracted to her. - Yes.

- And it might just naturally has led to something

which had nothing to do with witchcraft.

- I don't know.

- I think you do know, Lieutenant.

I think you know very well.

No more questions.

- The witness may step down.

- Your Honor,

in my last defense, I call Victoria Winters.

- You realize you are still under oath, young lady.

- Yes, sir.

- You may proceed, Mr. Bradford.

- Ms. Winters, will you tell the court

the year in which you were born?

- I was born in the year .

♪♪

- Would you repeat the year of your birth to us?

- Yes.

.

- Mr. Bradford, was it your intention that your client

answer in this manner?

- Yes, sir.

- Very well, go ahead, Mr. Bradford.

- Now, Ms. Winters, would you tell us where you grew up?

- I was raised in a foundling home in New York.

- Would you tell us now

about leaving the home and the year it was?

- It was .

I - I went to work as a - a governess

for the Collins family in this very town.

I took care of a little boy called David Collins.

- How did you come to be here?

- Well, I - I don't understand.

I was in the drawing room at Collinwood with--

I was in the drawing room,

and suddenly, everything went black.

It was as though I had been knocked unconscious,

and then, the next thing I knew,

I found myself in the woods,

outside of the old Collins house.

It seemed very strange to me, the house did.

- It was a years younger, is that not true?

- Yes.

I went to the house

and I saw people that I seemed to recognize.

Mrs. Collins looked like the mistress of the house

that I worked in, and Barnabas Collins,

he looked like a relative from England.

Even Lieutenant Forbes had a counterpart.

I thought that, surely, I must be dreaming.

- And that's your story of how you came to be here? - Yes.

- And it mystifies me as much as I'm sure it does all of you.

- Did you have anything in your possession at that time?

- Yes.

- Tell the court.

- It was a book.

- A history of the Collins family up to the year .

- Your Honor, I offer in evidence

this history of the Collins family.

You will notice that it's dated .

And it proves, Your Honor, beyond a doubt,

that Ms. Winters is telling the truth.

It also makes it quite understandable

that her supposedly mystical ability

to foretell the future is actually the truth.

- May I see that?

- It certainly appears to be what he says it is.

Look at those paintings at the back of the book,

amazing detail.

- Ms. Winters tells me

- that those are photographs, Your Honor. - Photographs?

- Yes, they're made with some sort of a machine.

- Remarkable.

- Yes, remarkable.

Are you finished with the witness, Mr. Bradford?

- Just one more question.

Ms. Winters, are you a witch?

- No.

I swear it. I am not a witch.

- Thank you.

- Fascinating story, young woman.

- And it's all true.

- And that volume,

a handy thing to bring with you.

Tell me, just before you were, how shall I say it,

whisked miraculously back in time,

what were you doing in that room?

Were you alone?

- No. - Who was with you?

- Some members of the family and a friend.

- What were you doing in that room?

Were you conversing?

- It - it was a--

We - we were having a kind of a meeting.

- What kind of meeting?

- A séance.

- What?

- We were having a séance. You see, there was some--

- Ms. Winters, would you kindly tell the court

what a séance is?

- Your Honor, this is irrelevant!

- Your Honor, if we are to believe this girl's

fantastic story,

I think that what happened to her at the precise moment

is - is more than relevant, sir.

- He's quite right, young man.

Answer the question, Miss.

- A séance...

A séance is when a group of people try to contact a spirit.

- You mean the dead?

- Yes.

- Ms. Winters, do you mean to tell us

that you were actually taking part in a ritual

trying to raise the dead from--

- We weren't doing anything wrong.

- By your own admission, you were calling up the dead.

Was this the first time you had ever taken part

in such an unholy right?

- You don't understand. - Answer me.

- No.

But it wasn't like that.

It wasn't the way you make it look.

- And perhaps, you are not the way you look either.

The brides of the Devil often come to us

in the guise of innocents,

- but we must never allow ourselves to be taken in. - Please. Listen.

- Add to the mountains of other evidence, Your Honor,

the very admissions of this child of evil,

she bewitches those around her,

she flies through time defying the laws of nature

and the Almighty.

She calls the dead from their graves.

I know in my heart that God Almighty

will not fail this community nor you, its servants.

- She is a witch, Your Honor. - No!

- She is a witch and she must die. - No!

- No! No! No! - Order in the court!

[clock ticking]

- How long has it been? - Over an hour.

- What can they be talking about?

- The fact that they are taking so much time

may be a hopeful sign.

- Why?

- It's because there may be doubt.

There were just may be doubt in their minds.

You might have won them over.

Listen, before you made your testimony this afternoon,

it wouldn't have taken them two minutes to decide.

- Peter, what's going to happen to me?

- Nothing is going to happen to you.

- I don't want to die.

- You're not--

Vicki, I love you.

I love you very much.

- Don't!

Don't, Peter!

I've been thrown into a time that isn't my own,

and now, I may be ex*cuted.

And if somehow, I'm able to get back into my own time,

you'll never see me again.

- Listen to me, Vicki.

I can't choose anymore.

I can't say to myself, this is right, so I'll go on,

or this is wrong, so I should stop.

I love you.

And then, no more questions.

No matter whatever happens to you,

I'm going to love you anyway.

- You know, I never thought I'd meet a preacher

even as self-styled one, whose specialty was blackmail.

- There has been no blackmail, Lieutenant.

I have merely shown you the error of your ways.

- Nonsense.

Now I feel like going straight into that judge

and tell him about how you pressured me

into lying on that stand, just tell him everything.

- If you do, Lieutenant,

it will be the end of everything for you.

[clock ticking]

They're coming back.

- I hope they'd free her, Trask.

I hope they'd free her.

- The prisoner will face the bench

as she hears the verdict of the court.

Having weighed all the evidence

laid down before us on this matter,

having heard the testimony of various witnesses,

we have reached a verdict.

We find the defendant guilty of witchcraft as charged.

She is to be taken to a place to be determined by the court

and hanged by the neck until dead.

- No!

♪♪

[eerie theme music] ♪♪