709 - March 12, 1969

[bunniefuu]

[Maggie narrating] - The great house at Collinwood stands deserted.

The living have sought refuge elsewhere,

leaving an evil spirit to roam the cold,

empty corridors alone.

At the Old House, Barnabas Collins remains in a trance.

He has employed the mysterious powers of the I Ching,

and gone through the door to the infinite,

hoping to find and defeat the spirit that haunts Collinwood.

But beyond the door,

he has been transported back in time

to the year ,

a time of crisis for every Collins,

a time of suspense and sorrow,

for the matriarch of the house is dead.

♪♪

- I can't.

She will always be alive to me.

If you had only known her,

how much richer your life would have been.

- I'm sure.

- She raised us when our parents died.

She loved us all, even Quentin.

I suppose I must look at her, mustn't I?

- Yes.

You will feel better if you just let yourself cry.

- No, she wouldn't want me to.

She didn't believe in showing emotion.

She said we simply had to live through

what we had to go through and hold our heads high.

I must act as she would want me to,

even though everything else is wrong.

Do you believe in the hereafter?

- The important question is, do you?

- I sometimes wish I didn't.

If she is watching us, how distressed she must be,

her will missing.

Everyone is upset about it.

Where can it be?

- Do you think someone took it?

- No, of course not.

She just didn't put it where she said she would.

Do you think someone stole it?

- The possibility of that has occurred to me.

I must admit.

- But why would he take it? - He?

- Why would anyone take it?

Tell me.

If you know, tell me.

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪

- I'm not even going to speculate on why

anyone would take the will or who did it.

- But you think someone has.

- But your grandmother certainly, from what I've heard,

was not the sort of woman who

said when she was going to do something,

that she didn't do it.

She certainly wouldn't have placed the will

in a special place in her coffin and then --

and then forget to have it put there.

- Maybe, she told that gypsy woman to do it

and Magda kept it!

- Why would Magda do it?

What would she have to gain? - It must be she!

- But you said, "Why would he?"

- I - I don't want to discuss it.

- Evan, can you talk?

I have it here in my hand.

Nothing, that's what I got, absolutely nothing.

The gypsy was right.

Yeah, but we've got to do something quickly.

Can you alert your man tonight?

When then?

Well, we've got to get started.

[knocking on door]

Who is it?

- It's Barnabas.

Judith said you wanted to speak to me.

- Listen, I've got to go.

Yes, all right, goodbye.

Come in, won't you?

- Thank you.

- You are a very odd man, Mr. Collins.

I find it hard to figure out

exactly what you want in this house.

Why you're here.

- Do you spend much time thinking about it?

- Recently, I have, yes.

Why are you here?

- Did you ask me to your room

just to have me explain myself?

Or, are you interested to find out why I have accused you

of stealing Mrs. Collins' will?

- Oh, that!

Well, I'm used to being accused of everything that happens.

Everything bad, that is.

Won't you come in?

I Ching wands.

Are you interested in this?

- I picked them up in the Far East.

One of my trips when the family and I

thought it best for all concerned

if I saw more of the world.

I know nothing about them, of course.

- Don't you?

- Why did you accuse me of taking the will?

- Because I believe you did.

- And what evidence do you have?

- Very little.

- Except an eye for character?

Why would I take it?

- I am looking forward to finding that out. - You never will.

- You're wrong.

You won't get away with it.

Your grandmother won't let you.

- Grandmother?

Grandmother is in heaven now with the rest of the family.

I'm quite sure that the Collins have a special section

all picked out where they can be all alone together.

- I believe your grandmother is still on this earth.

- What do you mean?

- Where I come from, there is a theory that,

when someone dies with - with business unfinished,

their spirit lingers to finish what has been left undone.

- Do you really expect me to believe that?

I - I suddenly am to keep my eyes open

for grandmother's ghost when it appears?

- Stranger things have happened.

- Tell me, is she listening to this conversation?

- I wouldn't be a bit surprised. - You are wrong.

The grandmother I knew

would hardly be quiet this long.

- The Mrs. Collins I knew

wouldn't let anyone ruin her plans for that will.

She will not rest in peace until it is found.

You will discover that, Quentin!

- The children, of course, will attend the funeral.

Nora will be in black

and Jamison will wear his dark suit.

I think you should attend the services.

- I was planning to, Ms. Collins.

- I hope you have something suitable to wear.

It's most important that we have a simple

and dignified funeral.

Oh, Barnabas.

I was just going over Edward's list of the pallbearers.

Do you know Rachel Drummond, our governess?

- How do you do?

- Mr. Collins is a cousin from England.

- Well, how do you do?

- Of course, Edward and I

will want you to serve as a pallbearer.

The funeral will be at o'clock tomorrow.

- Two?

Well, I'm afraid that I - I won't be able to be there.

- Really?

- I have some business in Bangor.

- Surely, you can postpone it.

- Oh, I only wish I could. - Well, you must try.

- Well, I will but, please, don't count on me.

- Oh, this will upset Edward very much.

I must tell him at once.

- Are you correcting papers?

- Nora and Jamison each wrote a composition.

It's all I had them do.

The house has been so unsettled --

- It must be hard for you.

- For everyone.

- Tell me, have you been in the house where I'm staying?

The Old House, they call it.

There is a portrait there of a girl --

she bears a strong resemblance to you.

- Really?

Was she a Collins?

- Yes.

She came here from Martinique

to marry an ancestor of mine.

I got my name from him.

They never did marry.

She married his uncle.

And so, Barnabas k*lled Jeremiah in a duel.

- What a tragic story!

But it really happened?

- Yes.

- I'm fascinated by the past.

- Are you?

- Yes.

I think that's one reason why I chose to become a governess.

Sometimes, the things that I teach

are as alive for me as your story.

I should love to see the portrait sometime.

- Yes, you must.

Your story has made Jamison's composition

seem rather dull.

I'm a romantic, I'm afraid.

- That's the way you should be.

- Well, perhaps.

- But I think, sometimes, I - I carry it much too far.

I tend to see only the things that I - I want to see

and I ignore all the unpleasant things in life.

I could - I could never right an accurate composition

or history.

I'm afraid that -

even if I were to write a story about today,

about your people and - and what's happening here,

I would - I would ignore death and - and that unpleasantness,

and I - I would somehow find love and mystery and romance.

I'm trying to become a realist.

I think I should try.

- I'm sorry, Edward isn't here.

But really Judith, your problem is very easily solved.

If Barnabas cannot come to the funeral,

curious as that may be,

then, there is one person who can come

and someone who should be the pallbearer. - Who?

- Sandor, the gypsy, of course. - Quentin --

- She adored them, you know that.

- If you can't be serious, it would be best to be silent.

You say things that make me think

you are capable of anything!

Quentin, look! - What is it?

- That lace glove! - Yes.

- Don't touch it! - Why?

- I saw that glove less than an hour ago.

- Where?

- You must remember.

On grandmother's hand in the coffin.

- There are two pairs, that's all.

- No, I chose her clothes.

That was her favorite pair.

She ordered others, but they never arrived.

That glove was on her hand, Quentin,

and you know it!

♪♪

I'm frightened.

- You always were a scaredy-cat.

I remember that.

I always hated playing with you.

- I'm not a child now, Quentin.

Open the door.

- After you.

- Quentin.

I've got to sit down.

- It's a trick, that's all.

- Someone did it deliberately.

- Who? Why?

- To scare one of us.

- No one would do that. No one.

- Well, for once, at least, you can't accuse me.

- Do you suppose her spirit is --

- Oh, what would her spirit be doing wearing a glove?

You've got to be logical about this, Judith.

- How can I be?

There is nothing logical about it.

This isn't a trick.

No one did this, I know it.

- Well then, how do you explain it?

- She is looking for her will.

- Oh, that's insane. She is in her coffin.

She's been there all along.

- Someone must stay in this room.

The body mustn't be left alone.

- Well, I'm afraid that's going to have to be you.

I'm not going to stay.

- You're frightened, Quentin, aren't you?

- Of course not.

I simply refuse to give into this superstitious nonsense

about ghosts and wills, that's all.

Here.

- If you could only speak, you can tell us.

There's so much left to tell us.

- Ah.

The very person I wanted to see.

- I don't believe that.

- Why should you?

You never believe anything I'd say,

or do you?

- Very little of it.

- Well, you shouldn't believe that because it was true.

Sometimes, at night, this house,

when I think of all the strange and unexplainable things

that have happened here,

as if a curse had been put on it.

You don't believe in curses, of course.

- No.

- You are much too modern.

- I hope so.

- I like that in you.

You know, no matter how far I've gotten away from Collinwood,

I seem to have belonged to it more and more.

And that makes me very unhappy.

- It must.

- My goodness, for once you're not snapping and biting,

taking the opposite side.

- I know what it's like wanting to get away from someplace,

some people, some things.

- Do you?

- I'm sorry I said that.

- Why?

- You'll keep bringing it up.

You won't stop trying to find out more about it.

- You know something? We are friends.

After years of battling, two minutes,

and we're friends.

Perhaps, you'll even agree that we can be more than friends.

- Ms. Judith wants me to sit with her in the coffin room

for a while. - Could we talk more later?

- I'm not sure. - Please?

I need you.

I'll be in my room.

- I'm not sure.

- Aren't you ready? - Dirk.

Oh, I can't go. Ms. Judith asked me to --

- I have the carriage waiting.

- They simply won't let me off.

- They did me.

You didn't ask, did you?

- Yes, yes, of course, I asked.

- No, no, you didn't.

You know something?

Someday, you are really going to make me mad.

- Well, backstairs excitement.

Sorry to surprise you, Dirk.

Your taste is excellent.

- Hey, what are you doing downstairs?

I just passed your room.

You were inside. Somebody --

- Are you sure?

Thanks, Dirk.

- Tomorrow night?

- I'm not sure.

- Tomorrow night.

- We'll see.

- Beth, why are you treating me this way?

Why?

♪♪

- So, I'm supposed to have done all of this? - You know it.

- And taking your grandmother's glove and put it outside?

- Yes, that, too.

- Well, I have been a busy man, haven't I? - Too busy!

Like most amateurs, you didn't know when to stop.

You made the mistake of doing more than a ghost could.

Well, I thought it a fact that ghost often searched

for something missing. - You are the ghost.

- Prove it.

- I want you to stop it.

No more!

- I don't think that's true and I think you know that.

- Well, then, if you didn't do it, who did?

- That's for you to decide, Quentin!

Tell me what happened.

Did your grandmother find the will?

Is that what is upsetting you?

- Get out!

[heart beating]

Who is in this room?

Who are you?

Dirk!

Go get the oil lamp on the table in the corridor.

- Why are the lights out in here?

They are not out in any other room in the house.

Hey, what's the matter with you?

- Where is it coming from?

- What? - That sound?

- I don't hear anything.

- What, of course you do!

It's like - like - like something beating.

Like a heart.

- Have you been drinking? - No!

- Look, what did you get me up here for?

To fix this light?

- I want you to get me a carriage.

I have to get out of here! Go into town.

- Are you crazy? It's late.

The stable boys are asleep.

- Well, wake them up!

- That's not my job. You go do it!

I am the overseer of these grounds and that's all,

and don't forget it!

[heartbeat continues]

You must be able to hear it now!

You must!

- I told you, I don't hear anything.

- You're lying! You're in on this!

You're lying!

- Don't you ever call me a liar!

- Stop it! Stop it!

Stop! Stop!

- Well, what are you doing here?

- Ms. Judith sent me to get --

- Beth, that's just an excuse.

You were on your way to see him, weren't you?

- She doesn't want to stay in the room any longer.

She wants him to come and sit with the body.

- Listen, let them bring their own messages.

Now, I've seen the way you look at him.

Beth, stay away from Quentin Collins!

[heart beating]

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪