Dark Shadows (TV Series) Episode #1.217 (1967) User Reviews

The heartbeat starts at dusk.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 24 February 2021]

Willie fears he is in grave danger by staying at collinwood, and Jason won't let him leave. Carolyn informs Victoria that Willie has been found and something is dreadfully wrong. Jason realizes that Willie has been almost drained of blood and he is frantic but won't let Willie go. as it gets close to the sundown, Willie is more frantic and desperately tries to get out, eventually escaping into the Collinsport night air. Something is obviously controlling him!

At least Jason isn't a total baddie, his concern for Willie genuine. Carolyn and Victoria are concerned as well, and Carolyn suspects that something really sinister has happened to Willie to make him act this way. Jason ends up back in the crypt, and there's a feeling of doom as he roams around the crypt to the sound of the heartbeat. Great, chilling episode that in a classic horror movie would only take a reel to patch out, but in a TV episode can be dealt with featuring more details.

ESsentially a two-hander

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 26 October 2018]

Episode 217 is essentially a two-hander between Jason and Willie. The later is sick from his mysterious malaise and desperate to escape before nightfall, but events prevent him. There's a lot of slow, eerie foreboding here, countered by Jason's gruff frustration.

Dark Shadows Episode 217 - Jason Unable to Keep Willie in Bed

[Scarecrow-88 · 5/10 · 22 September 2018]

This episode really treads water as Jason fights with Willie about staying in bed while Willie keeps trying to get up and leave. And that is on repeat, getting rather tiresome. Because soap operas operate with alternating actors/actresses in and out as to give dialogue between as few characters as possible to maintain focus within a 30 minute time frame (with commercials), I did consider the continued use of Barnabas' portrait (they are sure getting a ton of mileage out of that emphasized image) to remind us that he might not be around in the flesh all the time but that doesn't mean we will be forgetting him a clever directorial / script approach. Jason getting a chance to look at Willie's wound, fading and not showing the fangs left in the flesh by the vampire, while attempting to figure out what's wrong with his health (I think they really use makeup to give Willie that particular cadaverous look, wanting to reinforce and reiterate just how much blood loss resulted from his encounter with Barnabas), also continues the investigation into what happened during that "lost time". Willie, agonizing and sickly, even gains sympathy from Carolyn, speaking with Vicky as if she were worried about a close family member-quite a change considering how repulsed by him she was prior to his vampire attack-who asks Jason about his declining condition. Carolyn gets the chance to confront Jason about what he has against her mother and why she was warned to leave well enough alone. Jason, though, is once again evasive, insisting Elizabeth's welfare rests in their "friendship". Jason, when Barnabas is away, remains the show's sidebar villain, while the show shifts away from Willie being such a lowlife scoundrel now that he's a slave to the vampire. Willie wanted to get away before nightfall, and I think the efforts of the direction and writing to put notice on that impending "end of the day approaching" is not in vain...looking out the window, hearing the call (the heartbeat of Barnabas), obedient to the lure of the vampire, Willie has no choice but to follow. No matter how much Jason tries, he can't compete with Barnabas' power. Willie gets away, flees in Jason's car, heading for the cemetery where his master awaits. Jason doesn't stay in the Collins' mausoleum long that's for sure! Vicky taking Willie lunch before he gets away (barking at her to get out with her compliant, not beyond confusion at his behavior), is a brief scene, as is her conversation about Loomis with Carolyn. Vicky, truthfully, could have been absent from this episode, but Carolyn's concern was specified in their dialogue so the writing staff/production felt it necessary to include her. This episode was more or less about Jason and Willie, and the inevitable conclusion.