A dark night at the Great Estate of Collinwood; for another thread has been woven into the evil tapestry being created by the evil Judah Zachary. Barnabas Collins, who has overcome a centuries long curse that changed him from a caring, intelligent, and loyal man into a heartless, inhuman beast that preyed on the innocent, has now fallen victim to the wiles of the vengeful warlock. Cursed to age to the number of years he has been in existence, he was protected by a created being who mysteriously drained off the curse. But the connection that bound these two men has been severed, and now Barnabas has begun his dark and horrible journey down a path that can only ultimately, lead to death...
Barnabas Collins, looking much older than he had moments ago, looks at Julia Hoffman and Willie Loomis bewildered. "What is it? What has happened to me?" He asks pitifully. Julia's mouth opens, but says nothing, as she grasps for a way to tell him what has happened. "Tell me, Julia. Why did you and Willie look at me as you did? Willie steps and motions Barnabas to walk a couple of steps to the oval mirror on the drawing room wall. Slowly he moves to the mirror and sees the aged reflection in the mirror and a look of horror crosses his face. "Oh No-o-o-o!" he wails. At that moment, a knock comes at the doors. The three of them all look at each other fearfully. "Who is it?" Julia calls out. Through the door comes the muffled reply, "Professor Stokes!" Barnabas turns suddenly away from the door, "I don't want him to see me like this!" he said with hushed urgency. Julia tilted her head to one side not quite understanding his reaction and said, "But Barnabas, we must let him in. He may be the only one who can help!" Barnabas paused a moment still looking fearful, then it faded into one of hesitant acceptance. He nodded to Willie that it was alright to open the door. Willie opened it and Stokes entered looking perplexed. Julia stood between Stokes and the now seated Barnabas. "Eliot. Something has happened! He raised one eyebrow questioningly as if to ask her to continue. Her eyes fluttered and her lips tightened as she moved aside so he could see. His eyes widened slightly and he brought his fingers to his chin and declared, "Good Lord! It would seem my suspicion was correct." Julia, puzzled by this statement then asks, "Your suspicion?" Stokes then pursed his lips and nodded and replied, "Yes, the aging Barnabas is experiencing can only mean one thing! Looking up at him, Barnabas then queries, "Yes?" Stokes then declares, "It can only mean that Adam... Is Dead!" The other three all register looks of shock as three dramatic notes sound.
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Barnabas rises to his feet and asks to be sure he had heard correctly, "Adam is dead?" Stokes paced a few steps still rubbing his chin with his fingers and replies, "It would seem so. The thought has occurred to me several times over the past few days. I haven't seen Adam since that afternoon he stormed out of the house. Now your rapid aging would seem to indicate that the inherent bond the two of you share has been severed somehow. I assume the only way that could occur is through the death of one." Willie then turned and rubbed the back of his head and said, "I wanted that monstah dead for a long time, but not if it's gonna make Barnabas get oldah." Stokes quietly acknowledged the statement without also revealing his mild annoyance at it as well. "So now the aging curse that Judah Zachary imposed on you is being realized because Adam is not here to drain it off any longer." Julia's eyes flutter and widen, "What will we do, Professor? We must find a way to remove it!" Stokes turned to her with a "what would you have me do" look on his face and said, "While I'm sympathetic to Barnabas plight, I am not practiced in the art of witchcraft. If he ages at the same pace Adam did, we have several weeks before he catches up to the same level of aging. Perhaps we can find a remedy in the meantime. Julia looked curiously at Stokes and asked, "Eliot, you don't seem quite yourself, are you feeling well?" He turned and looked at her with dismay and said, "Being trained in matters of the psyche, I find it remarkable that you should ask such a question, Doctor! Despite my sympathy and loyalty to Barnabas, I was quite fond of Adam. He didn't ask for anything that has ever happened to him. Dr. Lang's experiment didn't achieve the original intended result and a new life was created instead. His life was a life that was hopelessly imprisoned and at the mercy of unknown forces beyond anyone's control. He was a mere child, deposited into a full grown man's body and forced to mature more quickly than nature provides us all. He never got to develop naturally. He was a remarkable individual. His life was a cruel injustice. If you will all pardon me, I need some time to sort out my thoughts before I can adequately concentrate on the matter at hand." With that, he turned and left the room. Barnabas rose from the chair and his eyes lowered. "He's right. Adam is one more victim I have caused to fall. In my zeal to achieve humanity, I didn't care who had to suffer to accomplish it." Julia looked troubled and replied, "It wasn't your fault, Barnabas! You mustn't blame yourself! The experiment was to deposit your life force in that body. You had no way of knowing a totally different life would be created! We never did hear the recording Eric left behind that told of that possibility. Cassandra disposed of it and we never heard it. The only reason we know what we do is from the results, and from Adam, who did hear the tape." Willie also spoke saying, "Yeah, don't be so hod on yaself, Bahnabas, look what Angelique dun to you! You wudn't yaself when ya did all that stuff. If I'd been you, I'd probly dun the same thing! If wudn't fair whut she did to ya!" Barnabas looked at this man he had previously been so cruel to and managed a half smile and said, "You are a true friend, Willie. Have you forgotten the things I did to you?" Willie looked at his shoes for a moment and looked back at Barnabas and replied, "Yeah, I remembah. But I don't hold none of that against ya, cuz I know that wasn't you. I seen what ya really like now, an I ain't gonna let this happen to ya! I'm gonna go staht on that staihcase right now!" That being said, with a determined look on his face, Willie left the drawing like a man on a mission. Camera holds on Julia looking proudly at the empty doorway Willie had just departed through. (Music out)
Adam stands in the abandoned room looking in the mirror. His hands touch his face as he marvels at the sight. His fingers lightly trace down where the deep wrinkles used to be. Only smooth, youthful flesh was to be found now. His eyes are both smiling and welled with tears of joy at the wonder he is beholding. His grateful eyes turn to Trevor Halliburton and he says, "I still can't believe it. I'm no longer ugly! Trevor grinned and said, "Well you got exactly what you asked for! I'm a man that stands by my word!" He picks up the empty apothecary bottle from the table and looks at it musingly. "You sound as if you didn't believe I could do what I say. I assure you, this was mere child's play compared to what I can do... Compared to what I'm going to do!" His voice now has the sneering plotting quality to as is if he is plotting some diabolical scheme and asks, "You remember how to find the apothecary shop where you got this?" Adam looks curiously at him and replies, "Yes. I know how to find it. Why?" Trevor reaches into his breast pocket and withdraws a small writing pad and a pen and hurriedly sits down at the table and begins writing. As he writes, he says, "There are a few more things I will need for you to get for me, Adam. Things I will need to proceed with my plans!" Adam looks puzzled at him as he continues listing several items and asks "What kind of things?" Trevor stands and rips the paper out of the pad and hands it to Adam. "I'm afraid you wouldn't know anymore than you do now if I did tell you." He reaches inside his coat and produces his wallet. He rifles through it and withdraws several bills and hands them to Adam as well. "This should be sufficient to cover everything I've listed there. You will bring those items to this room! Do you understand?" Adam then looks first at the bills, and the list in his hands, and then he looks at Trevor with an "in the dark" look and replies. "Yes." Trevor pats him on the back and says, "Very good, I shall expect them here by tomorrow night. Get yourself a good night's rest Adam." He then turned and departed the room. Adam then turns back to the mirror. He is again touching his young, handsome face and smiles as camera fades to black and music stings out.
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Scene opens on the East Wing drawing room. Sounds of hammering are heard in the distance. Barnabas stands staring out the window. Julia enters the drawing room and her entrance is somehow sensed by him. He turns to her and says, "I see Willie is working on the staircase again." Julia rolls her lips and nods slightly and replies, "Yes. He started very early this morning." Barnabas paces about the room and says, "I wonder if it all came too late." Julia looks at him curiously and asks, "What do you mean?" Barnabas looked at her resignedly and sits in the arm chair steepling his forefingers in front of his chin and says, "Judah's curse has already taken hold on me. I can't help wondering if Willie is wasting his time. If we had the staircase before this occurred, it may have done some good. I can't help thinking that we may be able to locate Judah's journal, but obtaining it will do nothing to remove this terrible aging process. I can't let the rest of the house see me like this. There would be too many questions I cannot answer. How can I explain this to everyone? They have no idea what we are dealing with. If I tell them it is a curse, they will think I've taken leave of my sensibilities." Julia walked in front of the fireplace and replied, "And Judah is living right here in this house! If we reveal what we know to the rest of the family it could mean disaster!" Barnabas nodded slightly and quietly said, "Yes. After everything I've been through, I was certain I could deal with Judah Zachary as I've dealt with my enemies in the past. I ended the Reverend Trask's reign of terror, Nicholas Blair was destroyed, Count Petofi, the Leviathan people, The Angelique in parallel time, Gerard Stiles. I thought we had disposed of Judah in the past. How did he manage to survive to trouble us yet again, How?" Julia glanced downward, unsure how to respond. Then Barnabas paced a few steps and turned saying, "Someone else will have to find the answers, I'm afraid. I am dying, Julia. In a matter of weeks, I shall age to almost 200 years old. I shall be no match for Judah Zachary. If only he would leave the rest of the family in peace, I would willing accept this fate." Julia then pleaded with him, "Don't you see Barnabas, that's exactly why you MUST not give in. Judah will not be satisfied with your destruction alone. He will destroy each and every person you care about. He is determined to end the Collins family line. He won't stop until everyone in this house is dead!" Barnabas looked at her and replied, "I realize that, Julia. But how can I fight him without everyone in the house discovering what is happening to me?" Julia looked hopeless and paced a few steps as she struggled to find an answer. Suddenly she turned to Barnabas and said, "I will tell the family that you are very ill. That you may be contagious, and that I am treating you, but that you cannot have any visitors. Then we shall find a way to battle Judah Zachary!" Then a troubled look came over her face. "Eliot! How will we be able to have him in here without arousing suspicion?" Barnabas nodded, "Yes, How would we explain his being allowed to visit when I am to be quarantined?" A look of despair crossed her face as she replied, "I don't know, Barnabas! I don't know!"
Scene opens in the old abandoned room where the staircase is to be built. Willie Loomis labors over a pair of saw horses with a hand saw. He holds a pencil in his mouth sideways causing his teeth to be bared. He still maintains the look of resolute determination as he saws through the board. He then stretches a tape measure across the board and checks the measurement, then looks at the diagram that had been left by the mysterious hooded woman. He nods approval and carries it over to the staircase which was well underway. He placed the board on the stringer. He grabs a nearby hammer and secures the tread in place. He steps back to look at his work when the outer door opens and Julia enters. "Oh, hey Julia!" Julia looks at the amount of work he has accomplished in amazement and says, "Very good Willie. I wouldn't have expected you to have been this far along." Willie sighs and replies, "I know how impohtant this is. I can't just watch Barnabas get old an die." Julia pauses a moment looking at nothing as her mind ponders, then she looks at Willie and says, "You've really become genuinely fond of Barnabas, haven't you?" Willie then looks at her and replies, "Yeah, I mean, shuah he was real mean to me when he fust came heah. But like I said befoah, I know he was kinda like, well, you know, possessed or somethin'. The moah time I'm with him, I see what kinda man Barnabas really is. Ya know, I've almost seen him cry ovah what kinda man he used to be, an ovah the things he's done. I know if I hadden let him outta the mausoleum, Willie Loomis would be dead right now, Dead or in prison. I know Barnabas is sorry about the way he treated me befoah. I see it his face a lotta times. Since he got ridda the curse, he's been a real good man. I can undahstand why Ben Stokes liked him so much. I betcha if I didn't know how to read, Barnabas would be tryin' to teach me how. He didden use to pay me for wukkin for him. I just knew I betta do what he said or ole Willie would be sorry. But he pays me now. He pays me real good. An he don't make me stay in the house with 'im so he can keep an eye on old Willie. He trusts me now, Julia. Yeah, I like 'im. He's the best friend old Willie Loomis evah had. So if buildin' these staihs might help save 'im, then I'm gonna build 'em as good an as fast as I can." Wasting no more time, he grabbed another board and placed it on the saw horses. Julia smiled, and turned back to the door and closed it quietly behind her. In a dark corner of the room, unseen by Willie, stood the robed, hooded woman. Her head nods approvingly, then she slowly fades away as camera fades to black.
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Trevor sits at the table in Adam's old room. The self satisfied look of triumph is on his face as Judah inside him gloats. "My victory is almost complete! The Collins who posed the greatest threat to me has been dealt with. He shall become a wrinkled old man with barely the strength to raise so much a hand. Dealing with the rest should be child's play. They are simpletons who scoff at the existence of the kind of powers I possess. They will perish in their folly. I will watch them fall, one by one, till the last Collins lies still, my foot upon their throat. I, Judah Zachary, will triumph!" His thoughts are heard aloud. He stands with a box of matches. Three candles are arranged in a pyramid on the table. Slowly, purposefully, he lights each one. He blows out the match and then resumes his seated position. "Now, I shall deal with my next victim!" He says with a sneer. He becomes aware of footsteps outside the door. The door knob slowly begins to turn. The door cracks open. The camera freezes on the troubled face of Trevor Halliburton, as he wonders who is about to discover his actions. (Three dramatic notes sound)
Barnabas Collins.
JONATHAN FRID
Julia Hoffman.
GRAYSON HALL
Professor Stokes.
THAYER DAVID
Willie Loomis.
JOHN KARLEN
Adam.
ROBERT RODAN
Trevor Halliburton/Judah Zachary.
KEITH PRENTICE
Written and Directed by RUSS WILLIAMS
Story Developed and Created by ART WALLACE
Produced By PETER MINER
Associate Producer GEORGE DiCENZO
Miss Scott's Fashions by JUNIOR SOPHISTICATES
Fashions courtesy of ORBACH'S
Music composed by ROBERT COBERT
Scenic Design SY TOMASHOFF
Music Supervisor SYBIL WEINBERGER
Costume Design MOSTOLLER
Make up VINCENT LOSCALZO
Associate Producer KEN McEWEN
Assistant to the producer HARRIET ROHR
Unit Manager PATRICK PLEVEN
Technical Director J.J. LUPATKIN
Lighting Director MEL HANDELSMAN
Audio FRANK BAILEY HENRY PLIMACK
Sound Effects ED BLAINEY
Video RUDY PICCIRILLO ROSS SKIPPER
Series created by DAN CURTIS Executive Producer