334 - October 5, 1967

[bunniefuu]

[Victoria Winters] - At Collinwood, no one is safe

from the nameless terror that hovers so close.

Tonight, young David Collins has reason to hope

that the fears we've all had will soon be put to rest.

- Vicki, what's taking them so long?

- When you're waiting for something,

the time always seems to go longer than it really is.

- Maybe something's happened to them.

- Don't be silly.

- Vicki, terrible things can happen at that old house.

- Nothing has happened to them.

Burke and Dr. Woodard will be back here very soon.

- And they'll tell everyone that they saw the coffin

and everything will be all right.

I won't have to worry anymore.

You believe me, don't you, Vicki?

- Well, I... I believe

that you thought there was a coffin there.

- I know I saw a coffin,

and you'll know that too as soon as they get back.

- Sister Anne, Sister Anne, tell me what you see.

- What?

- That's what you look like standing there at the window.

Like Sister Anne in the story of Bluebeard,

looking out the window to see if any help was coming up the road.

While the poor bride cowered in the corner.

Do you remember that story?

- Yes, I remember it.

And help finally did come...

just in time.

And the bride was saved from death.

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪

- Wait a minute, Dave. - What's the matter?

- Even though there was nothing in the basement,

you'll have to admit that Barnabas acted awfully strangely

about letting us down there.

- I have always thought that Barnabas' behavior

was a little strange.

- I don't like him... nothing about him.

He's the kind of guy that makes you want to prove himself wrong.

- Yeah, such a strange family.

Listen, we're gonna have to be very, very careful

the way we break the news to David.

- However it's done, he's gonna be terribly hurt.

- Yeah, I know.

It's gonna make it just that much more difficult to find out

what it is that's causing the boy's fantasies

or hallucinations

or whatever else it is that he's experiencing.

- You're convinced that's all they are? Fantasies?

- I don't know.

I'm an adult, Burke.

I'm supposedly a trained scientist.

But this situation is utterly beyond my understanding.

I am baffled by it.

More than that, I'm frightened.

[knocking]

Now, you can well imagine how frightened the boy must be.

We've got to find out who or what

is behind all this and help the boy.

- Well, gentlemen, what have you to say for yourselves?

- Well, Barnabas wasn't particularly willing

or eager to let us examine his basement.

- And so you didn't go down there?

- Oh, yes, we finally did. - And?

- There was no coffin.

The basement room was practically empty.

- Well, I trust you gentleman at least enjoyed your walk.

It is a nice evening for that.

- Is that all you have to say?

- What do you want me to say?

You were very quick to point out how odd

and eccentric my cousin is.

I think I would have reacted exactly as he did.

The idea of two hysterical grown men tramping through a cellar

looking for an empty coffin is macabre.

- Roger, I don't think that

asking for Barnabas' cooperation is an imposition.

After all, he is the boy's cousin.

- Yes, and I'm the boy's father

and I tell you I wouldn't cooperate.

David is a very dramatic little boy.

He loves to play games

and the more people cooperate with him,

the more fantastic his games become.

- Well, Roger, I am a physician.

Now, I think I know the difference

between a frightened person

and a mentally disturbed person when I see them.

- Of course you do, Doctor,

and I'm sure that you can recognize

the difference between a cellar with a coffin

and a cellar without a coffin.

- I don't think you realize

how serious David's condition may be.

- David has no condition!

He's like every other young boy.

Because he's a Collins, everyone is anxious

to put a label on him, to find strangeness where none exists.

- Look, Collins or not,

that is a very frightened little boy.

- And every other little boy in the world is frightened.

It's part of growing up.

Now I was a child in this house.

I was terrified of the darkness in the corners

and frightened to walk along the corridors by myself.

I used to think that all the people in these...

Collins portraits, all those dead people...

stared at me wherever I went.

Looked at me with piercing eyes, hated me.

Well, I outgrew it and so will David.

Now, you'd better go up and talk to him.

- Aren't you going up, too?

- I leave the matter entirely to you.

Tell him what you saw,

or rather, what you did not see.

Let him know that he hasn't won this game anyway.

- It is not a game.

- If it is, it's a very dangerous one.

[knocking on door]

- They're back!

- Did you find anything? - David?

Vicki, do you mind if we talk to David alone for a minute?

- No, of course not.

I'll be downstairs in the drawing room if you need me.

Is everything all right, Burke?

- I don't know, Vicki. I hope so.

♪♪

- We didn't see any coffin in that cellar, David.

- But it's there! You must have seen it!

- I'm sorry, David, we didn't.

- You mean he wouldn't let you go down and look for it?

- Oh, yes, he let us go down. He came down with us.

But the cellar room was empty.

- It couldn't be.

I saw it.

- Come on now, David, don't get upset.

It wasn't there.

- But... but it has to be. I saw it there.

- Look, you act as if we were calling you a liar, David.

We're not.

Burke and I are trying to help you.

We want to help you any way we can.

But... you've got to understand.

- Then believe me.

Because of you don't, something terrible will happen to me.

- Now don't worry, David.

We're not gonna let anything happen to you.

- You can, you can say that, but...

but you didn't see the coffin and you...

you didn't see the look on Barnabas's face.

- I wish I knew what was going on in your mind.

I wish I could look deep enough.

- It isn't in my mind.

It's out there!

The evil is out there!

- Out where?

Tell us, David.

- I wish I could tell you, but...

but I promised I wouldn't.

- What do you mean?

- There's a place out there in the cemetery,

a tomb.

- The mausoleum?

- Where Naomi and Joshua Collins are buried.

Sarah is buried there, too.

I promised I wouldn't tell

but I'm gonna have to break that promise.

- David, we know all about the mausoleum

and the people that are buried there.

So you won't be breaking a promise just to tell us.

- Yes, I am.

Because...

someone else was buried there once.

- But there are only three coffins in the mausoleum.

- No, there's one more in there.

- There isn't any third coffin--

any fourth coffin in the mausoleum, David.

- Whose is it?

- I don't know, you see, it's... it's empty.

- But as I say, there isn't another coffin there, David.

- Yes, there is, behind the wall in the secret room.

[wind whistling]

[flute playing "London Bridge"]

Listen!

- What is it?

- It's Sarah, she's mad at me for breaking my promise!

But I had to. I had to.

You hear it, don't you?

- Hear what?

- That music coming from outside somewhere.

- Yes, it sounds like a flute.

- It's Sarah.

- What makes you say it's Sarah?

- I, I told you.

Because she's mad at me.

That's the song she always plays.

- Now look, David, let's forget all about Sarah

and the flute for a minute.

And let's start talking about that secret room again.

Now, you say Sarah told you about it.

- She even took me there.

That's what happened to me when I got lost.

I got locked in the secret room.

- And there was a coffin in it, huh?

- An empty one.

I had to hide in it when...

cousin Barnabas and Willie came in.

If they had found me there, they would have k*lled me.

That's why I had to tell, Sarah!

Because they would have k*lled me!

[flute stops] - Come on, David, come on.

Sit down, David.

Coffins frighten you a great deal, don't they, David?

- You think I made it all up, don't you?

- Now, I didn't say that.

- But I didn't! I'll show you!

I'll take you to the mausoleum and...

and I'll show you how to get into the secret room.

Then you can see the coffin for yourself.

- Suppose we get there and there is no secret room?

- But there is!

I know there is, and I'll show it to you

if you just give me one more chance.

- All right David. You show us.

Now, we're gonna have to get your father to say

that it's all right for us to take you out with us tonight.

- You'll stay... close to me when we're out there, won't you?

I don't want to get locked up in that room again.

- We'll be with you.

- And cousin Barnabas, no, he--

He won't know we're going out, will he?

- He'll have no way of knowing.

You'll be safe as long as you're with us.

- Okay, I'm ready.

[door opens]

[wind blowing]

♪♪

- Roger, we'd like to ask permission

to take David out with us for a while.

- Out where?

- To the, um, the mausoleum on Eagle Hill.

- To the what?! - To the mausoleum.

There's something there that David wants us to see.

- Another empty coffin perhaps?

- I think it would be better if we discussed it later,

after we get back.

- I'm afraid that will not be possible.

You're not going anywhere... at least with my son.

- But we have to go.

- David, I know best what you have to do.

- There's something in the mausoleum that David thinks

would help us and provide us with a clue

as to what's been bothering him.

Why he's so terrified of Barnabas.

- Oh, so we're back to Barnabas, are we?!

- Well, he is the one that David's afraid of.

- Yes, and he's also a member of this family.

And as such, is entitled to a certain amount of respect.

I think it's shocking that a cousin of mine

is insulted and defamed and accused of...

I don't even know what to call it!

- We're not accusing Barnabas of anything.

We just want to give David the benefit of the doubt.

- Do you seriously think that there's some deep,

dark secret in that mausoleum?

- No. We just want to take a look.

- [scoffs]

I think it's ridiculous and insulting.

- I'm sorry you feel that way, Roger.

You know, it seems to me that

taking the boy out there might help to ease his mind.

It's terribly important to him.

- Well, if you don't think

you're making fools of yourselves,

go on out and look for your terrible shadows in the night.

But let me warn you, this is going to be end of it.

- What do you mean?

- If there's nothing in that mausoleum,

except what should be there,

we are calling a halt to all this nonsense about Barnabas.

It is that clearly understood, David?

- There is a secret room in the mausoleum,

and I'm gonna show it to them.

And there was a coffin in the basement of the old--

- David, there was no coffin in the basement.

You imagined all of it.

- I didn't! - Yes, you did.

- David, you're not gonna be warm enough in that.

Let me get you a jacket.

- Dr. Woodard.

David is my only child and I'm very concerned about him.

I'm not blind to the fact that he has problems,

perhaps more serious problems than the average boy his age.

As I said, I'm... I'm very concerned about him.

- I know you are, Roger.

- And I think that the time has come

to speak of his mental state

and perhaps the possibility of professional help.

- A psychiatrist?

- Looking in empty cellars and tombs

is not going to uncover anything.

Looking into my boy's mind, if anyone can do it...

[footsteps approaching]

All right, if you're...

Think you have to go on, go on out now.

- Thank you, Roger.

Come on, David.

[door opens]

[door closes]

- They'll take good care of him.

- The way you looked at Burke Devlin,

I'm sure you think he could take care of anything.

Are you still planning on getting married?

- Yes, of course.

- Right away?

- Burke wants to right away.

- And you?

- I'll stay here as long as David needs me.

- There's no way of telling how long that will be.

In his present mental state,

he's like a person on a thin wire,

very high off the ground.

Any minute he may fall and...

plunge downward...

out of our reach forever.

♪♪

[Burke] - Well, here we are.

- Well, go ahead, David, lead the way.

What's the matter?

- I felt a sudden chill.

- Well, it's a pretty cool night,

even with a tweed jacket on, come on.

- I guess we'd better go in.

[door creaks]

- All right, now show us where the secret room is.

- It's behind that middle panel on the wall.

[Burke] - How do you get into it?

[David] - I'll show you.

You see the, the lion with the ring in its mouth?

Well, you pull the ring and the secret door opens.

- Well, go ahead, David, pull the ring.

- [David grunting]

It, it, it, it must be stuck!

I-- it won't, it won't move, Burke.

I can't get it to move.

- Let me give it a try.

That thing is not about to move.

- I can't understand it!

I did it before and... and it was easy.

I don't know what happened.

Wait a minute.

I know what happened.

Barnabas got here first and he did something to it!

- Would you like to try it, Doctor?

- Well, why not? Here, hold this, David.

- Well, I guess we're not as strong as we used to be.

- It's been a long, hard night.

- You don't believe me!

You don't believe that there is a secret room.

- Now look, David, we want to believe you.

But the... we, we can't see the secret room

and we can't see the coffin unless the panel opens.

And the panel doesn't open because...

Well, maybe it never did open.

- Maybe you did just imagine it, David.

- I didn't imagine it!

I'll open it. You wait and see!

[grunting]

- Come on, David, it's late, we're going home.

- You don't believe me!

You don't believe that there is a secret room!

- David, there's something that you have to believe, too.

Burke and I are your friends.

We want to help you and we will, somehow.

But you've gotta help us, too.

- How?

- By admitting that all there is in this building

is what you can see.

The floor, the four walls, the ceiling,

and these three coffins,

and that's all!

[David] - No, it isn't all.

Look, it's Sarah's flute.

You see? Sarah's been here.

So it proves I've been telling the truth.

- Let me see that.

Now David,

you actually saw Sarah playing this thing?

- Sure. I, I've seen her play it

and she always plays the same song.

- You're sure that it isn't just one of your flutes.

- No, I'm positive. Sarah left it here.

- Now why do you suppose she'd do a thing like that?

- Because she wanted me to find it and show it to you

so then you'd believe me about the secret room.

- Why don't we just forget about the secret room, David?

- There is a secret room, Burke, there is!

- Come on, we're going back to Collinwood.

Your father and Vicki will wonder what's happened to us.

Well, at least Roger will be pleased.

He said we wouldn't find anything and we didn't.

- I don't think that's exactly true, Burke.

We didn't find what we came for, for sure.

But we found this.

Now that's something.

There's gotta be a reason why this thing was here.

Well, listen,

it's the only tangible thing we've come up with so far.

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪

[Alexandra Moltke] - "Dark Shadows" is a Dan Curtis production.