A Snake in the Grass (November 1969-March 1970)
Barnabas is returned to the present possessed by the strange Leviathan cult, dedicated to bringing back ancient demonic being who ruled the earth in prehistoric times. One true Leviathan is left, his spirit contained in an antique box. After converting antique store owners Phillip and Megan Todd, Barnabas entrusts the baby Leviathan to their care.
A mysterious figure is stalking Carolyn. It turns out to be her father, Paul Stoddard, who left years ago. Paul made a deal with a mysterious Mr. Stratch back in 1949, enabling the Leviathans to claim his "most prized possession": Carolyn. Needless to say, Liz is not happy. She wants Paul to go away and leave her and her daughter alone. But later she changes her mind and asks him to stay at Collinwood. She has become a Leviathan.
Barnabas accidentally (?) runs down a man who says his name is Grant Douglas, but he is really Quentin. He has amnesia from the accident. Julia and art collector Olivia Corey work together to bring back his memory. Trying to track down his portrait, they find the elderly Charles Delaware Tate posing as the reclusive Harrison Monroe. Wanting to be cured as Quentin was, Chris has Tate paint his portrait. But his power is gone, and the werewolf kills him. Olivia turns out to be Amanda Harris, kept alive and young by a deal she made with Death, who calls himself Mr. Best. To stay alive, she must find Quentin and get him to say he loves her. But her time is running out. Julia tracks Quentin's portrait to the home of Sky Rumson on Little Windward Island. The portrait, now painted over, belongs to his wife. Julia is shocked to discover his wife is Angelique. She gives Julia the portrait in exchange for her vow not to reveal her location. She has given up witchcraft and wants to forget the Collins family entirely. The restored painting, now horribly aged instead of Quentin, brings back Quentin's memory. But it is too late for Amanda. She is taken to the Underworld. Quentin defies Death to save her, and Mr. Best agrees to let them go if they don't touch until they reach the surface. But as the bridge to the outside collapses, Quentin grabs her arm to keep her from falling, and Amanda disappears forever.
The leviathan grows rapidly from infant to boy to teenager. Worried about Julia's interference, he orders Barnabas to kill her. But he balks at this, and tries to make her a Leviathan instead. Somehow, Julia is unaffected, but Barnabas' loyalty to the Leviathans is eroded. He saves Phillip and Paul from being killed by Michael (the true Leviathan's name in this incarnation). But his final betrayal comes after he becomes the adult Jeb Hawkes, Barnabas tries to kill him to keep him from marrying Carolyn. Realizing the full threat of the Leviathans, Julia tells Barnabas where to find Angelique, and begs for her help. She refuses, but does agree to hide Liz and Carolyn on Little Windward Island to keep them from the Leviathans, despite her fear that they will remember her as Cassandra. But Jeb does not forgive easily. As punishment for his betrayal, he turns Barnabas back into a vampire.
Another threat to Jeb exists, the Leviathans' ancient enemy, the werewolf. Though Sabrina has tried to cure him, Chris is still under the curse. Cult member Bruno discovers the werewolf's identity and traps him, though he fails to kill him. But Jeb has actually fallen in love with Carolyn and wants to become human. Bruno finds out and tries to kill Jeb by locking him in the room with the werewolf. Jeb escapes and tries to get Julia to cure him, but she can't. He decides to marry Carolyn anyway.
Angelique's world is destroyed when she meets the man her husband owes everything to - Nicholas Blair. Her husband is part of the Leviathan plot. No longer having a reason not to use her powers, she escapes to Collinwood. Peter Bradford's ghost has come to destroy Jeb for killing him and Vicki in 1796, but Angelique sends him back to the grave. She wants to destroy Jeb herself. She sends a supernatural shadow after him, but moved by his love for Carolyn, he tells him how to place the shadow on the real enemy, Nicholas. He does so, and Nicholas is destroyed. But Sky Rumson vows revenge and pushes Jeb off Widow's Hill.
Barnabas has been reeking havoc since becoming a vampire again. He burns down the antique shop, and turns Megan Todd into a vampire. Though Julia and Willie stake her, Barnabas worries about the people around him. Finding a room in the east wing of Collinwood that lets him see into a parallel time line, he steps into the room while it is empty. Suddenly the room changes, and Barnabas is in another universe.
Based on the Cthulhu Mythos by H. P. Lovecraft, the Leviathan storyline was a disaster from the beginning. Barnabas was a villain again, but not the tragic villain he was before. The Leviathan Barnabas was completely amoral, showing no signs of remorse. Aside from upsetting viewers, it left the story without a hero. Liz, David and Amy all become Leviathans. Maybe Julia was supposed to be the hero. She is immune to Leviathan control for some inexplicable reason. Or maybe Quentin. At least that would have given him something to do. Possibly it was supposed to be Angelique. She was introduced early on, then almost never utilized until the last two weeks of the story. Maggie might have made a great heroine here, but she was too busy being menaced for no apparent reason. Certainly wimpy Chris Jennings and eccentric Sabrina Stuart weren't options. And Roger, well, he was just Roger. But fans were upset, so Barnabas, for very little reason, throws off the Leviathan influence and comes in to save the day.
And worse than not having a hero was having a villain no one could understand. Vampires, werewolves, witches, and ghosts were all things the average audience member knew about. Power, love, revenge were motives they could understand. But the motives of the Leviathans were never made clear. What the Leviathans actually were was never made clear. Dark Shadows lost more viewers from sheer frustration and confusion than ever before. The ratings fell dramatically.
It was a shame, really, since the subplots during this time were most interesting. Quentin and Amanda's recreation of the Orpheus myth was a brilliant story of devotion and love. The return of Paul Stoddard was the last storyline from Art Wallace's original outline, unused since the death of Jason McGuire. Angelique's struggle to live a normal life with the man she loves tugged at the heartstrings. And the surprise return of Nicholas Blair finally gave a concrete villain to hate in the main story. But the subplots were too short and resolved too quickly, too late, or weren't shown enough to keep viewers interested.
With the ratings dropping, the writers needed to do something to bring back fans. To make their lives even more difficult, most of the big stars would be gone filming the MGM movie House of Dark Shadows. Frid, Karlen, Hall, Scott and most of the regular cast were committed to this project. We had just come back from the past, and the present would be impossible without the regulars, so they decided to go sideways into Parallel Time. A new story would begin with all the same characters, but with different jobs, motives, personalities, and relationships. Confused? So was everyone else.
Credits and characters of Story 11
Portrait Gallery for Story 11
