343 - October 18, 1967

[bunniefuu]

[Victoria Winters narrating] - The lengthening shadows of Collinwood

have faded with the dusk as night comes on from the sea,

but the troubling mysteries of the day

did not dissolve into the dark.

They persist,

submerged unseen in the twilight,

waiting until another day or night will come

when they will be revealed with even greater horror.

[equipment whirring]

- Don't stop now!

Why did you do that?

It was magnificent!

- Well, I, I only wanted to test it.

- Well, obviously it works.

- No, there are still a few details to fix.

- But you explained to me previously

that it only needed a test

to prove that the acids had activated.

Well, I'd say that you've succeeded admirably,

as you always do.

- I'm not ready to do the treatments yet.

- But we were going to do it once Doctor Woodard

was safely out of the way, is he?

- You know the answer to that.

You are the one that k*lled him.

- I know he is out of the way, but safely?

That's what I'm eager to know.

Now, what have you heard?

- There was an autopsy.

- Yes?

- He died of a massive thrombosis

and a coronary occlusion.

- A heart attack.

How sad.

How very, very sad.

A man in his prime, too.

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪

Nonsense, you have done nothing but take chances.

- For the sake of the treatment,

but not with the treatment.

I should think that you would appreciate the difference.

- You want to discontinue the entire treatments,

don't you?

You didn't expect that it would lead to m*rder,

did you?

- I - I didn't k*ll anyone.

- Oh, I know what it's like to have a conscience,

but you handed the hypodermic needle to me.

- It was your plan from the first. - No!

- No!

- Oh, I know what it's like.

Extremely inconvenient to have a conscience isn't?

Well, you must keep it in close check at every moment.

- I can't go on.

Please!

I - I was only making a test

so I could see it work for the first and last time.

- Discontinue this magnificent structure?

- Yes! Please!

- I couldn't consider it.

I have come too far.

We've both come too far.

- I can't go any further.

- Nonsense!

You have no choice!

- You can't force me,

besides I'm your only hope and you know it.

- True, but

remove that hope and what difference does it make to me

what becomes of you?

- Oh, Barnabas, please, don't make me go on.

You had a plan before you met me.

Now, go on with it.

- I'm sorry,

but you have given me one irretrievable gift...

hope.

The hope of becoming human again.

The hope of being able to love and not destroy.

Even the hope itself is a hint of what it must be like

to be a human being.

I can't let it go now...

ever!

- You couldn't bear being human!

With humanity comes conscience.

With conscience comes guilt.

With guilt comes suffering. You couldn't bear it!

- I can.

I must.

If I can love and not destroy, surely forgiveness can be found.

- For what you have done?

- Perhaps not.

But let me love first as a human being loves

and if there is still no forgiveness,

well, let me take the punishment as a,

not as a monster, but as a man!

- You only say that because you don't really know

what a torment guilt can be.

- Don't I?

I have the memory of another time before I became what I am.

If I didn't know what being a human was,

why would I be so the eager to strive for it?

- I should remind you that to love without destroying

is not a particularly prominent human trait.

Perhaps you are more human now than you realize.

- I know what I am

and I know that I must become something else.

The first laboratory treatment will begin at midnight.

- I wouldn't be that sure.

- Strange, but I am. - Oh?

- Yes, because...

I am confident of you, Doctor.

I wonder what I will be like as a human being?

♪♪

- All right, Burke, let's not talk about it.

- You say that, but then we always do.

- Please, let's not have an argument.

Especially not now, so soon before you are going away.

- But I thought the whole question was settled.

- You know it was.

But that was before David starting acting this way.

- Vicki, I am very fond of David, too,

you know that.

But when we are married,

he can't be our first consideration.

- And I don't mean that he should be,

but I can't move out on him now the way he is.

Burke, he seems to be getting worse, not better.

- What do you mean?

- He's so quiet all the time.

He always used to fight and argue and run off

and do all the things that he wasn't supposed to do.

Now, he won't even leave his room.

- How did he take it when he was told about Woodard?

- He doesn't know about it yet.

- Nobody told him?

- We've been afraid to tell him

because of the way he's been acting.

- It really took the stuffing out of him, didn't it,

when we proved to him that he really didn't see

what he thought he saw in the old house.

- Just the fact that he thought he saw Barnabas in a coffin

proves how disturbed he must be.

Burke, please, can't we go on living here?

We could fix up the west wing just beautifully.

You've never even seen it.

- Vicki, Vicki, are you sure it's because of David?

Or is it because you really want to fix up

that old museum in there?

- I beg your pardon,

but I couldn't help overhearing something about

fixing up a museum.

- Good evening, Barnabas.

- Good evening, Burke. Good evening, Vicki.

- I was trying to persuade Burke to restore the west wing.

But it's hopeless.

- What, Burke or the west wing?

- Both.

Vicki, can you excuse me for a moment?

I have a couple of phone calls

I should have made a half an hour ago.

- All right. Hurry back.

- Don't worry, I will.

- I wish there were some way I could persuade him.

- There's no way of persuading Burke

to grant you this one wish?

- As long as he feels the way he does.

I certainly can't put it on that basis.

- I can't understand a man, especially one who loves you,

refusing you anything.

- I can't really blame him.

I suppose that the west wing would be a sort of a museum

and Burke certainly isn't the museum type.

- I doubt any place where you live could possibly be a museum.

You would make it come alive immediately.

- Well, thank you.

But even if I,

if I was there, all that Burke would see is the mustiness

of the carpets and the fading in the old paintings.

- But if the wing were completely restored,

much in the manner of the old house where I am,

I find that far from old and musty.

- So do I.

But it's hopeless.

I know it is.

- Allow me to say this,

assuming that Burke will agree to it,

I could be a great service to you.

I think I have proved my ability to restore old properties.

- You'll help?

- I could be of service to you and Burke.

- That would be exciting.

- Yes, we could make it come alive again,

just as it was a long time ago.

- Yes.

It would seem such a shame not too.

And then it wouldn't be a museum, would it?

- Far from it.

- No. It's, it's no use.

It's not what Burke wants,

which is the same thing as saying it's not what I want.

- I'm sorry to see you surrender so easily,

something that is obviously so important to you.

- It's not that important. Not really.

- I know that if it were something that I wanted,

I would pursue it no matter what.

- But it's Burke that's important to me.

After that,

nothing else matters very much.

- Forgive me if I say I don't believe you.

Oh, I know that Burke means a lot to you,

but so do other people.

David, for instance, Mrs. Stoddard.

- Yes, they do.

- And Collinwood itself for that matter. - Mm-hmm.

- I love Collinwood.

Not only for what it is, but for what it symbolizes,

the past.

- The past.

I can remember when I began to love the past

too much and too well.

- Have you ever really stopped?

- Yes.

I think I have.

- Because Burke has shown me

that the past isn't as important as the future.

- Of course.

In spite of my predilection for the past,

I - I share your insistence

on the importance of the future.

Believe me, like yourself,

I put great stress upon the future

and what it can bring.

♪♪

- Then the meeting is scheduled for the following week instead?

Good.

I'll have everything under control by then.

Fine.

- I understand that you are leaving us.

- Only for a few days.

- Vicki will be disappointed.

- She'd better be.

- I - I know it's none of my business but --

- What is it?

- Do you think it's really wise to go at a time like this?

- Wise?

What are you talking about?

- Well, perhaps wise isn't the right word.

- With the deal I've got going,

I would be very unwise not to go.

- Perhaps inconsiderate is a better word.

- Well, now you're making even less sense.

- Am I?

I - I was thinking of Vicki.

- What about Vicki?

- Well, David upset her very much.

- Well, not that much.

- And then Doctor Woodard's death was a shock to her.

- It was a shock to all of us.

- Yes, but I have a feeling that it meant a lot more to Vicki

than you realize.

- Vicki thought a lot of him.

We all did.

- But she is so much more sensitive than the rest of us.

- Julia, I don't understand what you're trying to say.

- Oh, I'm only saying that,

maybe now isn't the right time to go away on a trip,

that's all.

- Not the right time to go away?

Why not?

- Vicki, I didn't hear you come in.

- Julia is being very thoughtful, I guess.

- About what?

- Nothing, really.

Actually, I am a little embarrassed

that I brought it up.

- Having brought what up?

- Julia is a little worried about you.

- Why?

- Well, I just thought that you've been under a strain

as we all have and I thought that, possibly,

Burke could postpone his trip, that's all.

- We've all been very upset about Doctor Woodard and David.

But that's no reason for you to postpone your trip.

- Of course.

I really shouldn't have meddled. I apologize.

- There is no need for you to apologize.

You were just being thoughtful.

- Not at all.

- Julia? - Yes?

- I wanted to ask you if you

would like to go with Burke and me to the funeral?

- Funeral?

- Yes, it's tomorrow morning.

- Tomorrow.

- You really shouldn't go alone.

I - I wish you would come with us.

- I - I don't know.

- Well, you were such friends,

it will be tough enough for you.

- I - I - I'll have to let you know.

Please, excuse me.

- She is the one who is really upset.

- I feel so sorry for her. - Yeah.

- She is taking it pretty hard.

A few minutes ago, when she was talking to me in there,

she hardly made any sense at all.

- I had no idea she was so fond of Doctor Woodard.

- Oh?

Ahh!

Oh, no!

No, no!

- What's the matter? - No.

- What happened, Julia?

- There was no one there. - What?

No one! There was just --

I - I turned around and I looked

and there was no one there!

- Julia, who wasn't there?

- No one was there.

- Julia, you had better come inside.

- I'm - I'm all right. I'm all right.

It's - it's, it's all right.

No one was there.

No one!

No one!

♪♪

[instruments whirring]

[church bell ringing]

- Most prompt.

I knew I could find you here at the appointed hour.

- Don't, don't make me go through with it.

- The time for discussion is past.

- Don't, don't make me do it. I'm warning you!

- Warning me? - Yes!

- Warning you!

- Of what, may I ask?

- How do you know that I'm not warning you against myself?

- Well, because I have no reason to fear you.

- If you only knew.

- But I do know.

- How do you know that I don't want to destroy you?

- I must admit, the thought occurred to me.

- But in the past day or two

you have erased whatever doubts I may have had.

- What do you mean?

- Well, I've seen the effect that one m*rder has had on you.

I am certain that you wouldn't even consider another.

- I could.

I could!

- I'm afraid that you couldn't.

Now,

let us proceed according to plan.

- All right.

If you're so certain, we'll go ahead.

- You are trying to frighten me out of it, aren't you?

Well, I'm afraid you won't succeed.

I am as certain of you as of anyone,

in or out of my power.

- You could be wrong

for the first and last time.

- I'm willing to take my chances.

- You realize, of course, that if the treatment is a success,

you will lose what you have wanted all this time.

- What do you mean by that?

- You always wanted Josette.

Once your nature is changed, you won't want her anymore.

- Perhaps something equally as lovely awaits me.

- Vicki?

- Please hurry, I am anxious to begin.

- Perhaps --

Perhaps you don't need to change.

Perhaps there is someone who would accept you as you are.

- Oh?

And who might that be?

- There might be someone.

- Well, I'd be eager to know her identity.

- I don't mean anyone in particular.

- Then you hold out a vague promise.

- It's not as vague as it sounds.

- No, I'm sure that it isn't.

Now, please proceed!

- She, she might accept you, even, even love you.

- What good is that if I can't accept myself or love myself?

Now please hurry!

- Remember what I told you.

Human beings don't often love without destroying.

- And remember what I told you.

I'll take my chances.

Isn't that what being a human means?

Begin.

[machine whirring]

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪

[announcer] "Dark Shadows" is a Dan Curtis production.