PT 1841 -A Fine Romance (January-April 1971)
In our time, Desmond has destroyed the Staitway Through Time, and he takes Leticia to the strange room in the East Wing that Barnabas told him about. The room changes, and they watch as Lamar Trask dies. He is found by Flora and Julia Collins who hide the body of the stranger, thinking him another victim of someone in the family.
In parallel time, Catherine Harridge is engaged to Morgan Collins, but Bramwell Collins, a disinherited cousin, is also in love with her. When his pleadings don't convince her to break the engagement, he kidnaps her. She admits she does love him, but says she also loves Morgan and will marry him. Bramwell interrupts their wedding, making Morgan challenge Bramwell to a duel. Bramwell is seriously injured, but realizing that Bramwell never fired at Morgan, Catherine succumbs to a night of passion with Bramwell. But knowing her duty, she marries Morgan.
When his father Justin dies, Morgan gets a letter explaining the family curse. As the oldest child, he is responsible for holding a lottery to choose a family member to spend the night in a cursed room. No one has ever been able to do this without dying or going insane. If someone does, the curse will be over. If the lottery is not honored, the whole family will be destroyed. Though Morgan tries to ignore the curse, when family members start coming down with the plague, they agree to hold the lottery. Unfortunately, cowardly Gabriel Collins draws the designated slip and runs away. Morgan drags him back and locks him in the room of the curse. He survives, but the family locks him in the tower in case he is violently insane.
Melanie Collins, the adopted daughter of Justin and Flora, has a split personality. Suffering a memory lapse, she thinks she might be dangerous, especially when she finds the murdered Stella Young. When Stella's brother Kendrick shows up, she is frightened, but he soon falls in love with Melanie, and is unable to believe she is capable of killing anyone. When Melanie refuses to marry him because of the issues of her past, Kendrick convinces her friend, psychic Carrie Stokes, to help Melanie discover who her real parents are. Though Carrie succeeds in finding out that Melanie's father is dead, her mother is alive. Carrie sees who she is, but Julia Collins persuades her not to tell Melanie. But later the aged Josette Collins admits that she and Barnabas Collins were her parents. Melanie and Kendrick marry.
Now that Catherine is married to Morgan, Bramwell starts courting her sister Daphne. Catherine pleads with him not to marry out of hate, but Bramwell and Daphne marry anyway. But he is devestated to learn that Catherine is pregnant with his child. Daphne becomes suicidal when she overhears Catherine admitting she still loves Bramwell, but the point is moot. The same say that Bramwell becomes a wealthy man again, Daphne comes down with an undiagnosed illness, and is dying. Catherine and Bramwell both feel guilty over their treatment of Daphne, but before she dies, Daphne tells them that they must be together. It is the only way either of them will be happy.
Since Gabriel did not spend the entire night in the cursed room, the lottery must be held again. Catherine draws the slip, but Morgan locks himself in the room of the curse to save her. When he comes out, he is possessed by the spirit of James Forsythe, the man who supposedly placed the curse in 1680. But through him they learn the truth: the curse was actually placed by the evil Brutus Collins who cheated and killed Forsythe those many years ago, also killing his wife Amanda and sister Constance. The ghost of Brutus bans the spirit of James Forsythe back to the grave. He also instructs the escaped Gabriel to kill everyone in the family. But the now-unpossessed Morgan is able to kill Gabriel first.
The ghost of Brutus Collins insists on another lottery, making the newly-married Melanie insane until they do. Kendrick is chosen this time, but Morgan has found out the Catherine is pregnant with Bramwell's child and locks them in the cursed room together. Their love allows them to break the curse, and though Morgan wounds Bramwell, Kendrick saves Catherine from being thrown off the roof. Morgan falls to his death. Melanie recovers and she and Kendrick plan to leave Collinwood. Bramwell and Catherine look forward to a peaceful life. Suddenly, Ben Stokes and Harris the footman come in carrying Melanie whose been attacked by an animal in the woods. Ben speculates that it might be a vampire. But a voice-over tells us that it truly was an animal, there is no vampire at Collinwood, and that everyone lived long and happy lives.
Doomed from the start by the loss of Barnabas, PT 1841 was primarily a love story. Taken from Wuthering Heights, they focused on the romance of Bramwell and Catherine, returning once again to their gothic beginnings. In parallel time, 1795 went as it would have without Angelique. Barnabas and Josette married, having a son, Bramwell. The occult was in the background, with Carrie Stokes' pyschic powers and the subplot based on the short story The Lottery. But while the story was a good one, it wasn't enough to satisfy viewers. Dark Shadows was cancelled.
The final scene in which Thayer David and writer Gordon Russell (doing a cameo as the footman) carry the unconscious Nancy Barrett into Collinwood was supposedly a last minute addition to the final script. Legend has it that several closing scenes were considered, including returning to the present our time, and having Victoria Winters show up at the door. She would have called Elizabeth "mother" and collapsed just before the credits rolled. But a conclusion was needed. So Thayer David's voice-over was added, taking away the audience's last hope. Dark Shadows was over.
But somehow, Dan Curtis' dream refused to die. Still to be released was the second MGM movie Night of Dark Shadows. The series would also be the first daytime drama to be released in syndication. And almost 20 years after the final episode was aired, like many of its own characters, Dark Shadows would come back to life.
Credits and characters of Story 15
Portrait Gallery for Story 15