Scary times.
Soap operas exist to provide escapism from the fears of a dark and wearisome world. All media does, of course, whether it admits it or not, but the soap opera offers a complete window into an alternate reality. In these five-day-a-week sojourns into the intrigues and passions of small town life, we allow our problems to be subsumed by the grand dramas of imaginary people whose intense focus on their spectacular problems may, hopefully, provide a balm for us.
Suffice to say, I’m glad to have Dark Shadows right about now. If it brings you some peace as well, I’m glad for that too.
Sentiment aside, we open this, the 10th week (!!!) of Dark Shadows’s run, with a promising meeting. Bill Malloy has cracked a deal with Burke Devlin in an attempt to get him out of Collinsport: Burke lays off the Collins businesses and Malloy delivers Roger, the man truly responsible for the tragedy that sent Burke to prison a decade ago, on a silver platter.
Malloy promised a big meeting at 11:00, where he would bring himself, Roger, Burke, and Sam Evans, the man who set Malloy on this path of certainty, however accidentally, together in the same place for what in another time Burke Devlin was sure to have called “the judgment of the gods”.
He knows what Malloy intends to do and he isn’t having it, family legacy be damned. He refuses to be a pawn in Malloy’s scheme.
Too late though.
Burke calls Roger, interrupting an attempt by him to go…somewhere. Malloy has already briefed Burke on this meeting, elucidating him on everything he has planned, except the identity of his “hole card”, Sam Evans.
He says this while the “bouncy” Blue Whale music is playing, because non-diagetic sound cannot adhere to the tonal laws of the fictional universe.
Roger repeatedly insists he has no idea what Burke is talking about or, indeed, that Burke is the one speaking to him, which is a neat illustration of how absolutely out of ideas he is.
Voice crack.
So there’s the position. Roger really has no choice, and the meandering, torpid nature of the Burke Devlin story finally appears to be going somewhere.
Speaking of meandering and torpid, this episode marks the return of Art Wallace, who will write this entire week before Francis Swann comes in for the next week and you get the idea. So if you were missing him, fine. Enjoy. You’ll note at the very least that nobody tries to force a husband on Elizabeth in these next five episodes, so that’s something.
Roger appears to decide not to go anywhere and make a phonecall.
Why does Collinwood have two phones, one room away from each other, but no other modern amenities? Is the foyer phone supposed to be for the help?
Whoever Roger is speaking to is not Mr. Malloy and does not know where Mr. Malloy is, so Roger resorts to his favorite tactic of being a facile bully.
Something tells me the lady didn’t forget. Also, mark that name. We may never get to see that son of a bitch Ned Calder, but Mrs. Johnson isn’t about to content herself on the other end of that phone forever.
Presumably deciding bullying is a diverting but fruitless exercise in this situation, Roger hangs up.
The things she’ll say to reintegrate herself into the story.
It turns out, though, that Vicky isn’t bullshitting. While she spent the last couple of episodes not existing, she did in fact forget a familiar drawing in the drawing (Ha ha!) room.
24 hours ago, David in fact did threaten to kill her or, at least, make her life very unpleasant. That threat was so jarring Victoria had an episode-long struggle about whether or not she should leave. Since then, of course, we haven’t seen David at all, much less Vicky interacting with him, so it’s entirely possible they’ve patched things up and are well on their way to an amiable student-teacher relationship. Alternately, Art Wallace knew he had to keep the murderous child on canvas and he really didn’t want to handle the ramifications of reminding us that he was a murderous child.
Anyway, David’s an Artiste now.
The kid she’s touting as a prodgidy attempted to murder this man, his father, two nights previously. Why does she expect he’ll be impressed?
So people can yell at post-Wallace writers for introducing things at random for the sake of the story, but let it be known that David as Artist was introduced by Wallace, even if it came as a result of Dan Curtis’s desperation to move things along.
Victoria explains that encouraging David’s talents might mitigate his recent “destructive” behavior which is as close to an acknowledgment of all that as we’re going to get.
Victoria insists this could be a good way to “show him the world isn’t really hostile”.
He’s got her there. I do like the return to Vicky as a sort of Pollyanna contrast to the bitter anger of David. We got indications of this during the lessons we got to see her have with him, but that got waylaid by the revelation that David was, you know, hostile.
In any case, it at least evidences that Victoria is trying to do her job. Credit.
Oh, here we go.
I find this very hard to believe.
Am I allowed to get sentimental again? No? Well, nevertheless, I find this very poignant. Once you ignore the fact that Roger is only getting so existential because he knows he’s about to be ousted as a wretched criminal, it’s quite a sobering thought.
Weren’t we all once happy children, before the dark shadows of the world impressed upon us with their bitter dose of reality? Wasn’t it once easier to imagine hope and joy and the relentless faith that things would be alright?
But maybe some of us weren’t happy children. Maybe we were angry and resentful and weary of the cruelties of the world. Maybe we were David. Would that be wrong? Would we deserve pity? Would the crushed Roger Collinses of the world deserve scorn?
I can’t answer that. But it’s an interesting thought.
Speaking of Pollyanna, Roger gives her the name.
Is this praise of his son? Even wrapped in an insult and coded as contempt, Roger at least seems to appreciate David’s worldview. Maybe in evidence of this, he asks to see the drawing.
They said it! They said it!
You might recognize this picture as being the exact same as the charcoal sketch done by Cursed!Sam that Maggie brought up in an earlier episode. They don’t let things go to waste around here.
The picture we saw in that episode looked quite nice, really, but if there were ever any descriptors for Cursed!Sam’s manner “rough and childish” would be my candidates.
So that’s where this is coming from. Vicky even announces she has a “plan” to this effect, which demonstrates a better handle on this than she’s ever had with that “quest for my past” thing.
Roger is, as you can see, very interested.
Roger’s manner changes considerably as Vicky explains just who the artist in question would be.
Roger, as he has consistently done when anybody even alludes to Sam Evans, freaks the fuck out. Vicky, you recall, doesn’t know she’s already met Sam and, here, seems not to know his name when Roger says it which presents something of a continuity error given Cursed!Sam told her to tell Roger “Sam walked along the cliffs” or whatever the hell after their first meeting. So that would be Wallace forgetting his own material.
So all of a sudden, Vicky’s pending dinner with the Evanses provides the same dangers (in Roger’s point of view, at least) Burke’s portrait sitting did: Sam might Say Something that would incriminate Roget. Fascinatingly, we’ve reached the point in the story where Sam does say something, but it was to somebody Roger never suspected (Malloy) in a setting that had nothing to do with the portrait sitting.
That’s actually smart writing, mind you, setting us up to expect some way for something to happen, but then having the expected thing happen on another route. When there are nice things to be said, I say them.
So Roger’s defense now consists of slandering the name of Sam Evans, which I’m sure will in no way galvanize the already reluctant accomplice who you have repeatedly threatened and has already intimated is sick of living in fear.
But boy have I missed that hot, bearded, sweater-wearing son of a…
I know it’s weird to claim Sam has been “absent”, but he’s been gone in two subsequent episodes recently, and given the miracle run Dave Ford has had since taking on the role, that’s a lot. Never fear. We’re not through with the bad bastard yet.
Sam’s painting is interrupted by a fervent knock at the door.
Regrettably, that never works. Malloy is on the other end of the door, yelling at Sam to open up before he forces his way in and that would be too much aggressive beard energy from daytime television.
Malloy tells him to “forget the work”.
Like many of us in these difficult times, Sam’s creative fires have been kindled by crisis. Maybe he’ll write King Lear next.
Yeah…in prison.
Mind, Sam isn’t sure what he told Malloy last night, or rather this morning, but as per their earlier conversation, he knows he said something and this visit can only reaffirm that.
I keep biting back the urge to make topical jokes, but imagine these guys all getting into a Zoom meeting, and Roger rage quits at some point, but instead of logging out, he just leaves his desktop in the window and they all see the folder labeled “POETRY”.
Malloy describes the meeting as being about Sam, Roger and Burke.
Sam attempts more excuses, but Malloy isn’t here for it.
Nobody imagines bearded middle-aged men yelling at each other when they think of ‘soap operas’, but I wish more people would.
Sam tries to insist that none of that is his business, but Malloy isn’t fooled and does what he should’ve done the moment he got in the door: repeat Sam’s words back to him.
He hasn’t, but he intends to. Sam echoes Roger’s party line and wonders if Malloy intends to “destroy him”.
He even invokes Maggie who, I guess, is working the ditchweed shift again, and how much she’d be hurt by his downfall, but Malloy has no such sympathy which…
Look, I get Sam deserves it, but if he were to get carted off to prison, Maggie inherits the house, the debts, and has to carry on at a minimum wage job. But one less mouth to feed, I guess, which has to be something.
And with such helpful words, Malloy departs.
Things are looking pretty grim for our pal Sam Evans. Elsewhere, he’s being lambasted as an alcoholic.
Roger has told Victoria all about what a gross drunk Sam is. Maybe this argument would’ve landed better if he hadn’t just put away a whole glass right in front of her, but what do I know?
This man tried to break into Victoria’s room as she slept and just last night attempted to gaslight her about the supposedly haunted basement.
Victoria, however, doesn’t seem to mind that Sam is allegedly a dangerous alcoholic, and I’m not sure whether that’s a testament to her pluck or her stupidity.
We’ll never meet any of them, so all the more reason for Vicky to insist on Sam.
But Roger, like the crusty villain in an ‘80s teen movie, is adamant.
It was only a matter of time before Roger fell back on the propriety angle. And, since she’s had so many conversations like this by now, Vicky can’t help but notice there’s an agenda here.
Come to think of it, Roger doesn’t know about Vicky having dinner with Burke last night. Carolyn and David know and neither told either of their parents which shows a good deal of restraint and also deprived us from a much more reasonable altercation given Vicky by now has many good reasons the Collinses don’t want her to hang around Burke and could therefore hold more blame for meeting with him, but what do I know?
Either way, Vicky is suitably chastised and departs and Roger runs back for the phone.
Back in the foyer, though, Vicky is alerted by a knock on the door.
Fuck.
For some ungodly reason, Vicky has enough respect for Roger not to let Malloy go barging in on him but, as we’ve seen repeatedly throughout this last week, Malloy isn’t so easily cowed.
Because we have a lot of time in this episode, Vicky suddenly develops the extraordinary amount of bravery required to defy Malloy, stopping just short of opening the door to ask him if he knows who Sam Evans is.
Vicky wonders what kind of man Sam is.
Ah. Well.
You can see the instantaneous effort of his bowels vacating. Malloy tells him he’s got an “invitation” for him.
Vicky is already used to not knowing a thing that’s going on around her, but this must be an especially novel thing to have no clue about.
Roger, presumably deluded enough to think he has any kind of control over this situation, drags Malloy into the next room and Malloy complies because, well, that is why he’s here isn’t it? As Roger closes the doors, Vicky hears him yell an unwise, but plot-significant piece of dialog.
Eavesdropping is an important dramatic device. It’s older than Shakespeare and about as old as the Bible, unless we want to believe God honestly didn’t overhear any of that trick shit going on with that snake.
Soap operas thrive on eavesdropping, as well they should. When you build your premise on secrets and betrayal, a good way to expand the circle of these secrets is have a third party overhear the conspiring of others. The Bold and the Beautiful does this on an almost weekly basis, because it’s the closest thing to a spoof soap the U.S. has left. In moderation, though, it’s a healthy and interesting device.
Here, Vicky has heard one significant piece of a larger plot: Malloy is arranging a meeting between Roger and Burke. She doesn’t linger to eavesdrop because she isn’t David and therefore likely wouldn’t get away with it for a second, so the rest of the altercation will remain a mystery for her.
But we can trust, because she was shown overhearing part of it, that that information will be useful to her forthcoming.
Roger’s entire attitude here is off-the-wall fuming outrage and it really is a joy to see.
Roger even threatens to have Malloy fired, which is quite a threat to make since he doesn’t seem to know how his own job works. Malloy, however, has no fear of losing his position. He determines, in any case, to hold this meeting, come hell or high water.
Roger learns Sam is to be the fourth guest at the conventicle.
Malloy brings up the manslaughter trial and Roger’s testimony.
Once. But not anymore.
Frank Schofield delivers a powerhouse performance here, his gruff, salty voice rising in frightening timbre as he encroaches on the various victims of his focus. Sam, however, was able to kind of fight him off, but Roger has no such luck.
It is, naturally, intentional that Wallace had both of Malloy’s “victims” use the same turn of phrase. This could’ve been an elegant little wink on the writer’s part, but Malloy has to point out he heard the same words from Sam.
Roger comes very close to confessing everything right now, in an intense, focused performance that proves Louis Edmonds has It.
Reminder: you can say “hell”, but you’re still resigned to “darn”.
Roger echoes his own words from last episode.
The dramatic weight of the scene is lessened somewhat when Roger shambles over to the sofa and sits, leaning over the card table like a petulant child while Malloy looks angrily into the distance.
Malloy offers Roger yet another out.
But Roger, naturally, refuses and it’s a good thing too, because I am not here for what passes for “police” around here.
So that’s it. Either Roger calls the cops within the hour, or he goes to the meeting and either way his goose is cooked. If things look desperate for Sam, they look even worse for Roger Collins. And you just can’t help but feel even a microcosm of sorry for him.
We enter the last act as the clock chimes a quarter past 10:00.
Vicky emerges from that door under the stairs that leads to the basement and a coat closet and maybe other things, none of which I can imagine why she’d be in there, just in time to overhear yet another thing…
Who is Roger talking too? Who is he planning to meet? Is it part of the meeting? Is it a contingency? A last ditch effort to save his own skin?
He hangs up before we can learn more.
But Vicky is adamant she needs to talk to Roger…
You are no doubt wondering what could be so important that she has to talk about this now with four minutes left in the episode.
She did remember! Of course, the only reason that remembrance didn’t happen earlier is so she has an excuse for overhearing that phone call, but we can cut our pal Art some slack.
Vicky points out there’s a discrepancy between Sam wanting to speak to Roger in their first meeting and Roger now insisting he “hardly knew” him. Roger can’t talk his way out of this one.
It’s remarkable how single-minded Vicky is on her goal to learn next-to-nothing about her past. She’s now convinced herself that Sam Evans knows some big secret about who she is and this is the only explanation for why Roger wouldn’t want her to see him instead of, oh, the dozen other shady motives Roger can and has been demonstrated to have.
Vicky wouldn’t have to look this desperate if attempts had been made for her to learn things before, but we’re officially more than 2 months into the series run and the so-called driving question of the show hasn’t progressed an inch, so here we are, having Vicky look hysterical and deranged next to Roger Collins.
Vicky drops the point for now, but reminds Roger (and us, I guess) that she still intends to talk to Sam which is nice, I guess, at least she has dinner dates, that’s what the protagonist does now while everybody else gets involved in the story.
He chuckles contemptuously as he pours himself another drink, which is an apt visual metaphor for the Powers That Be on this program as they continue to reassess their priorities.
But it will, in time. For, as Roger Collins leaves for Malloy’s fateful meeting, and the clock ticks ever closer to 11:00, events are put in motion that will forever change the course of this show.
The last minute change of scene brings us to Roger’s office at the appointed time.
Burke is already here and Sam has just arrived. But that’s only half the appointed number. Burke isn’t worried though, at least not as much as Sam is.
Before Sam can more than sputter, Roger breezes in.
If anything, Burke is enjoying himself. And why shouldn’t he be? After all, he’s been promised everything he’s ever wanted.
This Day in History- Monday, August 29, 1966
The Beatles play their final concert in Candlestick Park, San Francisco, to a crowd of 25,000. For the next three years they would play only in studio.
Kooks of Collinwood 