I've seen through episode 1238 as of last night. It's the end of the series, and we're killing off characters wholesale! Gabriel stabbed Melanie in the shoulder (she's fine) and ran off into a secret passage. Morgan chased him, they fought, and Gabriel wound up falling back onto the sword of a suit of armor! We see him impaled on the bloody sword in what might be Dark Shadows's goriest killing. Then the next day, Daphne comes out of her coma, is all lovey-dovey with Bramwell for an afternoon, he makes her tea, and soon she's dropping dead, telling him she hopes he one day finds comfort with her sister Catherine!
Plus, Kendrick learns that Carrie DID see Melanie's mother in her vision, and after a confrontation with Julia, we learn it's...Josette! She's Bramwell's half-sister, as Justin was her dad -- she's the result of an affair they had on their trips into Boston. Julia wants to make Josette promise never to come to Collinwood again, to spare Flora's feelings. It's not clear if she's agreed to this, but I'm guessing she probably has. Kendrick and Melanie will probably be marrying soon.
Just seven episodes left to go! Back in more innocent times, with just seven episodes behind us, Carolyn told Joe she loved him, but declined his proposal to marry!
Jeff of Earth-J > Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)January 7, 2026 at 7:05am
I'm left wondering: what is Justin's relationship to Joshua Collins? Jeremiah is no longer important as the man who built Collinwood because the Great House was constructed at least 115 years before the one in the main timeline. But Barnabas is, or was, a character, so his parents must have been Joshua and Naomi. Presumably Flora Collins is the parallel version of the character who lived in Rose Cottage, with her son Desmond, in 1840 "real time." It's never mentioned who Desmond's father was (that I recall). Perhaps in this reality she married someone else (Justin) and had three sons: Morgan, Quentin and Gabriel.
It's not clear if she's agreed to this, but I'm guessing she probably has.
Although Josette did return later in this same episode, that's still a good guess because this is Mary Cooper's last appearance of the parallel Josette. It's Daphne's, too (well, she dies), although Kate Jackson will appear in the Night of Dark Shadows movie.
The Baron > Jeff of Earth-JJanuary 7, 2026 at 11:25am
I'm left wondering: what is Justin's relationship to Joshua Collins?
He's his father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.
I apologize for my lack of faith in you finishing up by the end of the year. As things stand now, even with the holidays coming up, you're going to finish the series long before we will. :(
In other news, I just finished reading S.E. Hinton's Hawkes Harbor, which I burned through in a couple of sittings. Originally intended to be part of HarpCollins' short-lived line of Dark Shadows paperbacks, it was rejected by the publisher. But the author reworked all of the character and place names and released it as a novel in its own right. (Read more about it HERE.) The substitutions are all fairly obvious (Hawkes Harbor, DE instead of Collinsport, ME), but there several more drastic changes to Dark Shadows lore. For example, "Barnabas" was cursed by a native American rather than a witch. Other details of his "origin story" were changed as well. Also, the "Old House" is on Hawkes Island (actually a peninsula), and his coffin was hidden for centuries in one of the caves on the far side. I have read many original Dark Shadows novels, by Dan "Marilyn" Ross, Lara Parker and others, but this is by far my favorite and certainly the best-written.
In Dark Shadows, towards the end of "The Kidnapping of Maggie" storyline, Willie Loomis was written out of the show for seven months while actor John Karlen did a play or something. Willie Loomis was trying to help Maggie, but ended up getting shot in the back three times by the police for his trouble (not that he was entirely innocent in the affair) and sent off to Windcliff Sanitarium. When his play had run its course, he was written back into the show. By this time, Barnabas and Julia were in the midst of creating Adam, DS's riff on Frankenstein.
Hawkes Harbor begins with "Willie" (Jamie) still in "Windcliff Sanitarium" (Terrace View), under the care of "Dr. Woodard" (Dr. McDevitt). Willie's backstory is told via a series of flashbacks and therapy sessions and, just as Ted Knight's backstory is revealed in The Golden Age (even though it is an "Elseworlds"), so too is Willie Loomis's seen through the lense of Jamie Sommers. Both stories progress until Jamie's backstory catches up with the present day narrative (1968), then, just as in the TV show, "Barnabas Collins" (Grenville Hawkes) and "Julia Hoffman" (Louisa Kahne) have Jamie released from Terrace View. But S.E. Hinton doesn't drop him in the midst of that "Adam & Eve" nonsense (at about the halfway point of the book); she proceeds to tell her own story (fanfic by a professional writer). Hawkes Harbor also provides a much more coherent endgame for the "Josette"(Sophia Marie)/"'Maggie Evans"(Katie Roddendem) plotline.
I saw Danny mention this at some point, and it sounds like a blast! S.E. Hinton definitely indulges in her fandoms. I followed her on Twitter back when it was a fun place to be, and her feed alternated between political snark and hardcore Supernatural fangirling. I'd never even watched the show, but it was easy to get swept up in her enthusiasm.
I've only had a chance to see one more episode in the past week, episode 1239. (In fairness, our dining room is being torn apart because of water damage and everything in the house it topsy turvy.) Melanie and Kendrick return to Collinwood as man and wife (with Melanie dressed in so much brown and orange that she looked like a Thanksgiving turkey). They plan to live at Collinwood for a while, but then Melanie changes her mind... and then she sees the ghost of Brutus, who changes it completely! She thinks she's Amanda now*, and tries to kill Kendrick. They lock her up. And there's gotta be a new lottery!
*I've gotten the names of characters wrong so often on this thread, but lets face it, some of these actors change their names more often than they change their costumes! How many times has Nancy Barret played characters who suddenly were posessed or otherwise became other characters, anyway? She's a psychic! Now she's a showgirl! Now she's a psychic showgirl!
Meanwhile, Bramwell is lashing out in his mourning, and vows to destroy his cousins. And Julia thinks Morgan will kill him if he doesn't leave town right after Daphne's funeral.
Jeff of Earth-J > Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)January 7, 2026 at 8:49pm
Julia finally convinces Kendrick to stay at Collinwood after he witnesses Melanie being posessed by Amanda, but I might argue that perhpas getting her away from that environment might be the best thing for her.
1240: So Gabriel is not taking part in the latest iterration of the lottery because he's dead; Bramwell's not because he never does; Kendrick is, although he is only very recently a Collins by marriage; Catherine is not because Morgan has forbidden it on the grounds that she was chosen last time (although he took her place); and Melanie is not because she's mad (insane). the solution seems simple to me: Melanie should spend the night in the room. She's already insane. [The ghost of] Brutus has said that she will never be herself again until a Collins spends a night in the room and survives. Sending melanie in would seem to be a "win/win" situation: either she survives and is cured, or she dies which would be a kindness under the circumatances. There's no guantee that anyone would survive, and if he or she doesn't, Melanie would still be mad. Kendrick wants to do it, so why even have the lottery? That's not part of Brutus' demands, just that some Collins spend the night in the room. I don't recall how this storyline ends, and I'm looking forward to finding out (then never watching it or thinking about it again).
Replies
I've seen through episode 1238 as of last night. It's the end of the series, and we're killing off characters wholesale! Gabriel stabbed Melanie in the shoulder (she's fine) and ran off into a secret passage. Morgan chased him, they fought, and Gabriel wound up falling back onto the sword of a suit of armor! We see him impaled on the bloody sword in what might be Dark Shadows's goriest killing. Then the next day, Daphne comes out of her coma, is all lovey-dovey with Bramwell for an afternoon, he makes her tea, and soon she's dropping dead, telling him she hopes he one day finds comfort with her sister Catherine!
Plus, Kendrick learns that Carrie DID see Melanie's mother in her vision, and after a confrontation with Julia, we learn it's...Josette! She's Bramwell's half-sister, as Justin was her dad -- she's the result of an affair they had on their trips into Boston. Julia wants to make Josette promise never to come to Collinwood again, to spare Flora's feelings. It's not clear if she's agreed to this, but I'm guessing she probably has. Kendrick and Melanie will probably be marrying soon.
Just seven episodes left to go! Back in more innocent times, with just seven episodes behind us, Carolyn told Joe she loved him, but declined his proposal to marry!
I'm left wondering: what is Justin's relationship to Joshua Collins? Jeremiah is no longer important as the man who built Collinwood because the Great House was constructed at least 115 years before the one in the main timeline. But Barnabas is, or was, a character, so his parents must have been Joshua and Naomi. Presumably Flora Collins is the parallel version of the character who lived in Rose Cottage, with her son Desmond, in 1840 "real time." It's never mentioned who Desmond's father was (that I recall). Perhaps in this reality she married someone else (Justin) and had three sons: Morgan, Quentin and Gabriel.
It's not clear if she's agreed to this, but I'm guessing she probably has.
Although Josette did return later in this same episode, that's still a good guess because this is Mary Cooper's last appearance of the parallel Josette. It's Daphne's, too (well, she dies), although Kate Jackson will appear in the Night of Dark Shadows movie.
I'm left wondering: what is Justin's relationship to Joshua Collins?
He's his father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.
Just seven episodes left to go!
I apologize for my lack of faith in you finishing up by the end of the year. As things stand now, even with the holidays coming up, you're going to finish the series long before we will. :(
In other news, I just finished reading S.E. Hinton's Hawkes Harbor, which I burned through in a couple of sittings. Originally intended to be part of HarpCollins' short-lived line of Dark Shadows paperbacks, it was rejected by the publisher. But the author reworked all of the character and place names and released it as a novel in its own right. (Read more about it HERE.) The substitutions are all fairly obvious (Hawkes Harbor, DE instead of Collinsport, ME), but there several more drastic changes to Dark Shadows lore. For example, "Barnabas" was cursed by a native American rather than a witch. Other details of his "origin story" were changed as well. Also, the "Old House" is on Hawkes Island (actually a peninsula), and his coffin was hidden for centuries in one of the caves on the far side. I have read many original Dark Shadows novels, by Dan "Marilyn" Ross, Lara Parker and others, but this is by far my favorite and certainly the best-written.
In Dark Shadows, towards the end of "The Kidnapping of Maggie" storyline, Willie Loomis was written out of the show for seven months while actor John Karlen did a play or something. Willie Loomis was trying to help Maggie, but ended up getting shot in the back three times by the police for his trouble (not that he was entirely innocent in the affair) and sent off to Windcliff Sanitarium. When his play had run its course, he was written back into the show. By this time, Barnabas and Julia were in the midst of creating Adam, DS's riff on Frankenstein.
Hawkes Harbor begins with "Willie" (Jamie) still in "Windcliff Sanitarium" (Terrace View), under the care of "Dr. Woodard" (Dr. McDevitt). Willie's backstory is told via a series of flashbacks and therapy sessions and, just as Ted Knight's backstory is revealed in The Golden Age (even though it is an "Elseworlds"), so too is Willie Loomis's seen through the lense of Jamie Sommers. Both stories progress until Jamie's backstory catches up with the present day narrative (1968), then, just as in the TV show, "Barnabas Collins" (Grenville Hawkes) and "Julia Hoffman" (Louisa Kahne) have Jamie released from Terrace View. But S.E. Hinton doesn't drop him in the midst of that "Adam & Eve" nonsense (at about the halfway point of the book); she proceeds to tell her own story (fanfic by a professional writer). Hawkes Harbor also provides a much more coherent endgame for the "Josette"(Sophia Marie)/"'Maggie Evans"(Katie Roddendem) plotline.
I saw Danny mention this at some point, and it sounds like a blast! S.E. Hinton definitely indulges in her fandoms. I followed her on Twitter back when it was a fun place to be, and her feed alternated between political snark and hardcore Supernatural fangirling. I'd never even watched the show, but it was easy to get swept up in her enthusiasm.
I've only had a chance to see one more episode in the past week, episode 1239. (In fairness, our dining room is being torn apart because of water damage and everything in the house it topsy turvy.) Melanie and Kendrick return to Collinwood as man and wife (with Melanie dressed in so much brown and orange that she looked like a Thanksgiving turkey). They plan to live at Collinwood for a while, but then Melanie changes her mind... and then she sees the ghost of Brutus, who changes it completely! She thinks she's Amanda now*, and tries to kill Kendrick. They lock her up. And there's gotta be a new lottery!
*I've gotten the names of characters wrong so often on this thread, but lets face it, some of these actors change their names more often than they change their costumes! How many times has Nancy Barret played characters who suddenly were posessed or otherwise became other characters, anyway? She's a psychic! Now she's a showgirl! Now she's a psychic showgirl!
Meanwhile, Bramwell is lashing out in his mourning, and vows to destroy his cousins. And Julia thinks Morgan will kill him if he doesn't leave town right after Daphne's funeral.
Julia finally convinces Kendrick to stay at Collinwood after he witnesses Melanie being posessed by Amanda, but I might argue that perhpas getting her away from that environment might be the best thing for her.
1240: So Gabriel is not taking part in the latest iterration of the lottery because he's dead; Bramwell's not because he never does; Kendrick is, although he is only very recently a Collins by marriage; Catherine is not because Morgan has forbidden it on the grounds that she was chosen last time (although he took her place); and Melanie is not because she's mad (insane). the solution seems simple to me: Melanie should spend the night in the room. She's already insane. [The ghost of] Brutus has said that she will never be herself again until a Collins spends a night in the room and survives. Sending melanie in would seem to be a "win/win" situation: either she survives and is cured, or she dies which would be a kindness under the circumatances. There's no guantee that anyone would survive, and if he or she doesn't, Melanie would still be mad. Kendrick wants to do it, so why even have the lottery? That's not part of Brutus' demands, just that some Collins spend the night in the room. I don't recall how this storyline ends, and I'm looking forward to finding out (then never watching it or thinking about it again).
(In fairness, our dining room is being torn apart because of water damage and everything in the house it topsy turvy.)
Ugh. What a pain in the arse.
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