428 - February 14, 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 woman on an uncertain

and frightening journey into the past,

back to the year .

In that troubled time, Victoria Winters will learn

that none who live or work at Collinwood

will remain unaffected by the evil

which has plagued the great house.

[knocking]

- Excuse me.

- Who are you?

- My name is Peter Bradford.

I am looking for a man named Ben Stokes.

- You should have gone around the back

to the servant's quarters.

- I am sorry, I'm not familiar

with all the entrances to this house.

- Ben is not here now.

- Do you know where I might find him?

- He's at the cemetery at Eagle Hill,

digging a grave for Josette Collins.

- Thank you, Miss, uh...?

- Are you going to the graveyard to look for Ben?

- Yes.

- You have a kind face.

May I impose upon you to ask a favor?

- What is it?

- If, on your way to the graveyard,

you chance to meet my cousin, Barnabas Collins,

will you ask him to come to me?

It is most urgent that I see him.

- Barnabas Collins?

- You see, the family is keeping me from seeing him.

Why, is a complete mystery to me.

- Barnabas Collins is dead.

- Dead?

What a silly thing to say.

Barnabas dead?

[giggling]

♪♪

[eerie theme music] ♪♪

[thinking] Imagine anyone thinking you were dead, Barnabas.

What an absurd young man.

He must have been trying to frighten me.

[knocking]

Sir, you are not welcome here!

- Millicent, I must speak with you!

- Lieutenant Forbes, leave this house at once! - No!

- Millicent, I'm not leaving until I have said

what I have to say.

- You have said all that was necessary

for me to hear the other day.

- You didn't hear me out then.

- If you do not leave here,

I shall be forced to summon my cousin.

- Millicent, why won't you listen to my explanation?

- I'm not obliged to answer any of your questions.

- After all that we have meant to each other,

I think you are.

- You think, I am still the innocent girl of a creature

you lied to and deceived.

- I have never have thought of you that way.

- But that is not so.

I have been awakened to the facts of life.

- Millicent, I have always been and still am

sincere in my love for you.

Now, above all else, you must believe that.

You are right, of course in your opinion of me.

When I was a child,

my life seemed to consist of one illness after another.

- I had every intention of telling you about Suki

as soon as I was free from her.

- And in my frail condition,

there was precious little time for me

to be educated in the ways of other people.

And so, I was forced to rely on believing in people's

fundamental goodness.

That doesn't make me very intelligent, does it?

- I love you as you are, Millicent.

- You see, I was not cynical enough

to know that my money

made me considerably more attractive than I really am.

- Your money?

Your money was never a consideration

of my feelings for you.

If you were to give up your fortune now

and render yourself penniless,

I'd only love you the more for it.

- It's so strange.

It never occurred to me that the day would come

when my honor would have to be defended.

- What are you talking about?

- Of course, I cannot do the deed myself.

But it will be done, Lieutenant.

You cannot tarnish a person's good name

and expect to avoid the consequences.

- Consequences?

- I have decided that my cousin Barnabas

will defend my honor by engaging you in a duel.

- A duel? - Yes.

- Does that frighten you?

- Millicent, in the first place,

your cousin Barnabas is in England.

- No, he is here.

I have seen him.

And Ben has seen him, too.

- Where?

- The only trouble is that I have not seen him again.

I have the feeling that the family

does not want me to see him

and I cannot understand why.

- Millicent, are you sure you're feeling all right?

- They are going to keep Barnabas away from me

and avoid the duel.

That means that all of your lies

and deception will go unpunished.

- Please, Millicent, stop talking that way.

- I cannot allow that.

I cannot allow you to be free to hurt others.

If no one else will defend my honor,

I shall do it myself!

- Millicent! - I'll k*ll you myself.

- You don't know what you're doing! - I hate you!

- I hate you! I hate you! - Stop it!

- Millicent!

Come, my dear. I will take you to your room.

You will remain here, Lieutenant.

I have something of considerable importance

to discuss with you.

♪♪

I'll take that.

It was fortunate for you that I came in when I did.

She could have k*lled you with this.

- Yes, I know.

Allow me to inform you that if she had,

your loss would not have been missed

by a single member of this family.

- I see.

She's told you.

- She's told me everything, Lieutenant! - She couldn't have done that

- because she still doesn't know the whole story.

It's a very good reason why I didn't tell Millicent

I was married.

- And what is that?

- I was afraid of hurting her.

- It never occurred to you that you would hurt her

even more by not telling her.

- Mr. Collins, my marriage was a very unhappy one.

Suki and I were both anxious to end it.

In fact, Suki had come here to tell me that her attorney

was in the process of preparing the papers

necessary to free us from each other.

- How very convenient of you to say this

since you no longer have a wife to contradict it.

- I swear it's true.

There is also a matter of extreme interest to me

why your wife died.

- What do you mean?

- I mean, you had everything to gain

if she died suddenly, didn't you?

- Mr. Collins, what are you implying?

- I'm not implying anything, sir.

I am saying that you had reason to do away with her.

The question is, did you?

- I don't know how you could even think such a thing.

- Taking your character

or lack of it into consideration,

it's perfectly easy.

You were after Millicent's money.

The only thing that stood in your way was your wife.

She was opposed of letting you free,

and so, you strangled there.

- I swear, I did not k*ll Suki!

Now you must believe that.

I admit that I hated her,

but I never could have k*lled her!

- Then perhaps you can explain several things

that make no sense whatsoever.

- I don't know, I'll try.

- Your wife came here to let you know

that you would soon be free of her.

Why did she find it necessary

to pretend that she was your sister?

- I met Suki in the village

the night before she came to Collinwood.

I told her I was in love with someone here.

We both agree that I shouldn't tell Millicent

who Suki was until -

until after the marriage had been dissolved.

- What was your wife doing in the old house

the night she died?

- I asked her to meet me there. - Why?

- There were certain things that we had to discuss

that we couldn't talk about here.

- Such as what?

- We still hadn't decided on the terms of our settlement.

- So, you talked to her at the old house

and you just found out

- that she was not going to settle on your terms. - No.

- She realized that you were going to marry into a fortune

and she wanted what she thought was her fair share.

- I didn't even get a chance to talk to her at the old house.

- She's already dying when I got there. - Are you sure?

- I told you I did not try to k*ll Suki!

Now, what must I do to convince you of that?

- Nothing really.

The fact is I believe you.

I believe that you lack even the course type of courage

required to m*rder someone.

Now, it does not absolve you

from the way you have treated Millicent.

- Mr. Collins, I honestly love Millicent.

- Forbes, you are too much of a swine

to love anybody but yourself.

You have violated the good name of my family

and you will not go unpunished.

- Mr. Collins, you've misjudged me. - Be quite and listen to me!

- I have every intention of reporting your

outrageous conduct to the Naval Department.

I trust that they will be as interested to avoid a scandal

as I am and will act accordingly.

From this moment,

you are not welcome in my house,

or on any of my property,

including the property at the shipyard.

- But my official duties require me to be at the shipyard.

- That is the problem of the navy, not mine.

I give you a fair warning.

If you are found anywhere at any time on my property,

you will be shot on site!

- Goodbye, Lieutenant. - Mr. Collins, you're making a very--

- I said goodbye.

♪♪

- Ben Stokes?

- Aye.

Who are you?

- My name is Peter Bradford.

- Oh, you're the one who's defending Ms. Winters.

- How do you know that?

- I heard them talk about you up at Collinwood.

- I suppose it wasn't very favorable talk.

- They don't take too kindly to anyone

who's helping the witch.

- Do you believe Ms. Winters is a witch?

- I don't know.

- According to Ms. Winters, a few weeks ago,

you said that you knew she wasn't a witch.

Isn't that true?

- If she says so, I guess it is.

- What did you mean by it?

- Sir, why are you asking me all these questions?

What do you want from me anyway?

- I want you to help Ms. Winters.

- How?

- I want you to tell the court that exactly what you meant

about Ms. Winters not being a witch.

- I didn't mean nothing by it. I was just making a remark.

- Well, you must have had some reason.

- She was real scared when I found her out there in the barn.

I was just trying to make her feel a little better.

- Do you believe that there's been witchcraft in Collinwood?

- I don't know.

- On the witness stand,

Abigail Collins testified that you stole

a black hair ribbon from her room.

When you were questioned about it, you said,

you said it was the witch that sent you to get it.

Isn't that true?

- I - I told her that.

- Who did you mean by "the witch"?

- Mr. Bradford, I got work to do.

Mr. Joshua expects this grave to be finished.

- I'd like you to answer my question.

- I'm sorry. I can't answer no more questions.

- Was it Ms. Winters who sent you to Abigail's room

to get that hair ribbon?

Was it, Ben?

- Why don't you go away and leave me alone. - Was it Ms. Winters?

- No!

- Who was it?

- I can't tell you that!

- All right. You don't have to,

but you're going to go to court in the morning

and tell them exactly what it was.

- I can't do that!

- You've got to, Ben.

You've got to go to court

and you've got to say that she is not a witch.

- If I testify, I'll be in trouble.

Mr. Joshua has made up his mind that she's the witch.

If I try to help her, he'll punish me good.

- Ben, she is in serious trouble.

If you are not willing to go and testify,

no one has been willing to go and testify.

- I can't take the chance of making Mr. Joshua angry.

He's got a terrible hold over me.

Anytime he wants, he can send me back to prison

and I don't want that to happen.

- If you know that she is innocent,

you can't stand by and let her be condemned.

- I don't know what you mean.

- I think there's something else you're afraid of.

Isn't there, Ben?

- Mr. Bradford!

What are you doing here talking to this man?

- I came to ask Ben

if he would testify at the trial for Ms. Winters.

- Stokes, if you have been coerced

and intimidated in any way.

Well, have you?

- Mr. Collins, I think that your servant here

has been sufficiently intimidated and coerced by you

and several other people.

Good day, Mr. Collins.

- Indolent, young man!

Stokes, I have something very important

to talk with you about.

Come with me.

- You said you wanted this grave finished.

- Never mind the grave.

What I have to discuss with you is more important.

It concerns my son, Barnabas.

♪♪

Before we begin, Stokes, I think you should be cautioned

that everything I'm about to say

is to be kept in the strictest confidence.

- Do you understand that? - Aye.

- Very well, then I will get to the point at once.

Several disturbing facts concerning my son's death

have been brought to my attention.

- What kind of facts?

- Strange as it sounds,

a number of people are convinced

that they have seen Barnabas wandering through the woods

and in the graveyard at night.

- But that ain't possible, sir.

- Mr. Barnabas is dead. - I know.

- But there must be an explanation

for what these people saw.

- Sir, the night can play tricks on people's eyes.

Sometimes, they see things that ain't really there.

- I would readily accept that explanation, Stokes,

were it not for the most devastating

piece of evidence of all

which I have witnessed with my own eyes.

- What was it?

Several nights ago,

I had an occasion to come to the mausoleum.

I went into the secret room

and opened my son's coffin.

- You opened it? - Yes.

- And do you know what I discovered, Stokes?

- Why, no, sir.

- I discovered my son's body was gone.

The coffin was empty.

- Mr. Joshua, I don't understand

what could have happened to it?

- I was hoping that you could tell me.

- How would I know?

I - I've been near the mausoleum

since the day Mr. Barnabas was buried.

- You are lying.

You've been seen lurking about here many times since then.

What is it for? What are you up to?

- Nothing, sir. Nothing at all.

- A person doesn't frequent a mausoleum or a graveyard

for the sheer pleasure of it.

Why have you come out here?

- I got no reason. It's peaceful and quiet.

I like to get away by myself after a hard day's work.

- Several nights ago,

Ms. Millicent encountered you here

and she told you that she had seen Barnabas.

- Mr. Joshua, I swear to you

I - I don't know what this is all about.

The only reason I can think of

is people have been imagining things.

Are you suggesting that I imagined an empty coffin?

- No, sir.

I don't believe the coffin was empty.

It don't make sense.

A dead body don't just get up and walk away.

- Very well.

I will prove to you that it was not my imagination.

Come with me.

- What are you going to do?

- First, I'm going to show you that it was an empty coffin,

and then, you will start answering

a good number of questions.

- No, I don't want to look inside it.

I - I don't want to see it.

- There is nothing to be frightened of, Stokes.

I assure you that there is no body in the coffin.

Well, open it, man.

- No, I - I don't want to.

- I said, open it!

[lid creaking open]

♪♪

[eerie theme music] ♪♪