Plot Summaries - Episodes 301-600

(Note: These summaries are meant as a quick guide to the many plots that made up the larger narrative of Dark Shadows.)

Anxious to be with Vicki/Josette Barnabas urges Julia to hurry with the cure. Julia has however become highly enamored of Barnabas. Meanwhile Burke continues to investigate Barnabas, to Vicki's disapproval. Sarah starts to show up often. She shows David the secret room in the crypt and leaves her doll in Maggie's room. All attempts by Barnabas to talk to her prove fruitless. He becomes afraid that she will expose him. David is locked in the secret room when he hides there from Barnabas and Willie. Barnabas knows Sarah talks to him and is afraid that he knows the truth. Sarah helps David out of the room and Burke arrives before Barnabas can do anything. David does, however, start to have nightmares about Barnabas.

With Maggie's memory returning she is once again a threat. The police shoot an intruder outside her bedroom, only to discover it is Willie. Barnabas has decided to frame him for Maggie's kidnapping. Dr. Woodard diagnoses Willie as mentally unsound.

Barnabas has now switched to scare tactics with David. However, the boy sneaks into the Old House and finds the open coffin. Julia manages to stop Barnabas from killing him. David's story has caused a search to be conducted of the Old House by Burke and Dr. Woodard, it turns up nothing. Unfortunately, Sarah has been talking to Dr. Woodard. He confronts Barnabas and later steals Julia's notebook, containing the specifics of Barnabas' condition. Julia is forced by Barnabas to help kill Woodard. The death is made to look like a heart attack.

Vicki becomes distraught when she learns that Burke's plane has crashed without survivors. Barnabas takes this opportunity to get closer to her. However, Julia is jealous and hypnotizes Vicki so that she finds Barnabas very unattractive. Growing impatient Barnabas forces Julia to hurry the cure. As a result he ages to his true age of 200 years. Carolyn coming to check on David's story sneaks into the Old House. The aged Barnabas catches her and puts the bite on her, which causes him to return to normal, and with a new slave. Carolyn catches Julia hypnotizing Vicki and Barnabas is furious. He swears to kill her. Julia saves her life by blackmailing Barnabas with her notebook, which she has given to Tony Peterson for safekeeping. Carolyn attempts to steal it but is caught. Barnabas starts to play mind games with Julia. Sarah visits her but will not help her. Sarah tells Barnabas that he must be "good". A seance is held to determine if David is telling the truth. While it is going on Vicki disappears.

Vicki has been transported to 1795. She meets Barnabas before he became a vampire. There is a striking resemblance between the old and new Collins families. Jeremiah, Barnabas' uncle, agrees to help Vicki get hired as the new governess. Josette's maid, Angelique, arrives. She has her own plans for Barnabas. When his fiancee arrives (Josette) Angelique uses witchcraft to cause Barnabas to nearly choke to death. She then uses her witchcraft to turn the Collins servant, Ben Stokes, into her slave. She casts a spell causing Jeremiah and Josette to fall in love.

Millicent Collins, a family heiress, arrives. When Jeremiah tries to leave town, Angelique turns Barnabas' father Joshua into a cat. Natalie suspects there is a witch but believes it is Vicki. She urges Barnabas to hurry with the wedding. Before it can occur Jeremiah and Josette run off together. Unfortunately, it does not change Barnabas' mind. Natalie and Joshua's sister Abigail find Vicki's charm bracelet and are convinced she is a witch. Jeremiah and Josette return. Barnabas challenges Jeremiah to a duel, which he wins by mortally wounding Jeremiah. Abigail has meanwhile solicited the aid of Rev. Trask, a fanatic who supposedly reveals witches. Barnabas and Nathan hide Vicki in Collinwood, which is under construction. Upset by events Angelique takes it out on Sarah. She promises to cure her if Barnabas will marry her. Jeremiah, who has been in a coma, dies.

Barnabas now agrees to marry Angelique. As an added incentive, she has enlisted the aid of Jeremiah's ghost. Barnabas is disinherited for his wedding plans, but is given the Old House as a wedding gift. Vicki tells Barnabas she is from the future. Ben is caught by Abigail and confesses his part. Thinking Vicki is in the Old House Rev. Trask exorcises it. Angelique causes Vicki to run out of hiding into the Rev's waiting arms. She is put in jail. Ben is forced by Barnabas to reveal Angelique. Barnabas tries to kill her but she threatens to kill Josette. When Barnabas shoots Angelique she believes she is dying and puts a curse on Barnabas. A giant bat is sent to him. When she doesn't die she regrets this and tries to save Barnabas. Josette believes Vicki is the witch and implores her to help Barnabas. Unfortunately, Barnabas dies anyway. Angelique does not want him to revive as a vampire so she goes to stake him. He rises and kills Angelique.

Sarah sees Barnabas and follows. When he finds his first victim she is terrified and runs away. Ben later finds her in the cemetery. She has contracted pneumonia and dies in Barnabas' arms. Feeling remorse Barnabas tells Ben to put a stake through his heart. The spirit of Angelique returns and prevents this. She then summons Josette and Barnabas nearly bites her. In a short time he can no longer hold back and bites Josette, the subsequent strange behavior of Josette does not go unnoticed. Joshua discovers that Barnabas's coffin is empty.

To stop Barnabas' plans at having a vampire bride, Angelique calls Josette to Widow's Hill and causes her to fall to her doom. The witchcraft trial of Vicki begins. Barnabas decides to revive Josette but is shocked by her disfigured face. She wishes to return to death. Barnabas moves his coffin to the Old House basement but is caught by Abigail, who dies from fright. Vicki is accused of being responsible.

During Vicki's trial Ben tries to tell the truth, but Angelique shows up to testify. Vicki is sentenced to hang. Barnabas knows that Trask is responsible for this. He kills a woman and puts her in Trask's bed. He later forces Trask to write a declaration of Vicki's innocence. After which he bricks Trask up in the Old House basement to die.

Meanwhile, Joshua has discovered Barnabas' coffin and decides he must destroy Barnabas. Millicent is bitten by Barnabas. Joshua brings in a good witch, Bathia Mapes, to help Barnabas. Unfortunately, she goes up in flames with a little help from Angelique. Vicki escapes from jail but is wounded. Nathan tells Naomi that Barnabas is a vampire. She takes poison and dies as she tells Barnabas that she forgives him. When Barnabas finds out it was Nathan who told her he plans to kill him, and does. Joshua finds he is unable to destroy Barnabas so he chains his son in the coffin to protect the Collins name. Vicki is hanged. Peter vows to someday find her. When the hood is removed Vicki is gone, replaced by Phyllis Wick. Vicki has returned to the present.

Barnabas is now afraid that Vicki learned of his condition in the past, so he bites her. He is terrified to learn she has bought a portrait of Angelique. Barnabas convinces Vicki to marry him. Before this can happen though Vicki wrecks the car they are in, when she sees a Peter look-alike. In the hospital, Barnabas is exposed to sunlight and learns he is partially cured due to a blood transfusion. The hospital doctor, Lang, has an assistant who looks just like Peter Bradford, Jeff. Vicki believes he is in some way Peter and calls off the wedding. Dr. Lang plans to finish the cure and give Barnabas Jeff's physical features, by transferring him to a body made of human parts.

Roger arrives with a new bride, Cassandra. It becomes obvious to Vicki that she is actually Angelique. Angelique renews Barnabas's curse with a dream curse, passed on to whoever it is told to. Cassandra kills Lang. Julia plans to finish his experiment but when she does the results are not right. Barnabas is still alive, but the creature comes to life, as Adam. Adam gradually matures and learns to talk. Barnabas has Sam age the portrait of Angelique, and Cassandra ages as well. Cassandra has it stopped by blinding Sam. Willie taunts Adam and he escapes. After he tries to kill Barnabas, Barnabas decides to kill Adam. Adam kidnaps Carolyn but is later captured. He is put in jail but escapes. He saves Carolyn from leaping off Widow's Hill, and then jumps himself. He is not killed however. Julia and several others hold a seance to contact Trask in the hopes he can stop Angelique. Trask is set on revenge with Barnabas however. He holds a mock trial with Barnabas's 1795 victims and finds Barnabas guilty. When Julia sees Josette's ghost she realizes what has happened to Barnabas. He has been walled up in the Old House basement. Julia and Willie save him.

Meanwhile the dream curse has ended, because Sam dies before he can relate it to anyone. Trask is finally successful in exorcising Angelique. However, Warlord Nicholas Blair arrives, posing as Cassandra's brother. He searches for her and eventually brings her back. Cassandra raises Sam so that he can tell the dream to Vicki. Barnabas tries to help her by listening to the dream. He survives it but is then attacked by a bat and is believed to be dead. Julia discovers that Adam is alive and knows Barnabas is because of the link they have. Stokes and Julia save Barnabas, who is still human.

Nicholas learns that Julia brought Adam to life. He befriends Adam. When Cassandra tries to kill Adam, Nicholas is upset and takes her powers away. Cassandra confesses to Barnabas but he refuses to forgive her. Adam is upset that Carolyn doesn't like him and demands a mate for him be made. Vicki decides to marry Jeff but Adam kidnaps her. Nicholas brings Angelique back as a vampire under his control. When Adam starts to get testy, Julia agrees to make him a mate. Tom is killed by Angelique, and returns as a vampire. He attacks Julia who then stops the experiment. Barnabas comes to the rescue and stakes Tom, although the coffin is later missing. Willie tells Nicholas how Adam was made and Angelique overhears. She bites Jeff and uses him to start the experiment, intending to resurrect herself. Vicki calls off her wedding because of Jeff's strange behavior. Barnabas manages to stop the experiment but is beaten around by Adam for it. Maggie's memory of Barnabas starts to return.

Carolyn now volunteers to be the life-force for the next experiment and Julia begins. However, something goes wrong and Carolyn dies, but the body disappears. She later reappears in full health. Danielle Roget is summoned by Nicholas to serve as a life force for his own experiment. As it happens she was a very nasty person from the 18th century. Danielle's body, Adam, and the new Eve all disappear afterwards. Eve appears to tell Nicholas about her hatred for Adam.

Copyright 2007 Todd Frye