← 127 → Timeline 1967 Narrator Victoria Winters Writer Ron Sproat Director Lela Swift Airdate December 20, 1966 Tapedate December 13, 1966 Home Video DVD: TB C4D3 We have 1 images of Dark Shadows #127

Vicki tells the family of her experience with the Ghost of Josette.

Synopsis Edit

Teaser

My name is Victoria Winters. I have just lived through days of terror. I have been the captive of an insane, desperate man who wanted to kill me. I had given up hope of ever being rescued until a moment ago.

Matthew screams and is silenced; Vicki shouts and receives a reply from Burke. Roger comments on David's correctness and his own disbelief. They free Vicki, who warns them of Matthew and his axe. They find Matthew dead from fright.

Act I

Liz, who was alerted by David, calls the Sheriff. She's terrified because Burke and Roger haven't returned yet. Mrs. Johnson has a bone chill like she had on the night Bill died. Vicki comes home.

Roger's furious because Vicki could have been beheaded thanks to David's interference. Vicki states that the ghost of Josette Collins saved her. Roger thinks Vicki's traumatized and imagined the ghost; Burke would be inclined to agree, but can't forget the look of terror on Matthew's face.

Act II

Off-screen, Sheriff Patterson arrives and Roger takes him to the Old House; Liz orders Burke not to hurt Carolyn or Vicki, to whom she suspects he is attracted. He claims not to be. Mrs. Johnson tells Vicki of Burke's devotion and private investigation team. Burke visits Vicki in her room and she thanks him. They exchange meaningful glances.

Act III

Burke tells Vicki to flee Collinwood; she believes she's safe now that Matthew's dead. Roger comes home and tells the news that there will probably be no inquest. Matthew died of a heart attack most likely brought about by a big fright; Roger doesn't want to know what scared him so.

Act IV

Liz apologizes to Vicki for all her troubles and thinks she might be better off leaving; she wonders if Vicki can ever forgive David for his actions. Vicki and Liz discuss the troubled boy. Liz tells Vicki that she believes she saw a ghost, but tells her not to think about it. Vicki does; she feels Josette watched over her the whole time. Vicki believes she resembles Josette.

Vicki thinks Josette is one of her ancestors; Liz starts, then laughs it off. Vicki asks Liz if she's ever seen a ghost; Liz tells of her great-aunt, who saw a ghost on the beach as a little girl after wandering away from the house. It was a woman in a long white dress who appeared to her and told her not to be afraid as she was about to die from exposure (before being found by a fisherman in a non-fished area).

Liz's powerful sedatives kick in and as Vicki falls asleep, she mumbles, "she does exist, she does!" Meanwhile, Josette's ghost appears outside the Old House and dances around the columns.

Memorable quotes Edit

• Liz (to Burke): "The girls are important to me. Both of them. Don't hurt them, Burke."

• Vicki (about Josette): "I think she was watching after me the whole time I was there."

• Vicki (about Josette): "The woman I saw... she looked more like me than the portrait did."

Dramatis personae Edit

• ← Joan Bennett as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard →
• ← Mitchell Ryan as Burke Devlin →
• ← Louis Edmonds as Roger Collins →
• ← Clarice Blackburn as Mrs. Johnson →
• ← Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters →
• ← Thayer David → as Matthew Morgan (uncredited)
• ← Kathryn Leigh Scott → as Ghost of Josette Collins (uncredited)

Background information and notes Edit

• Last appearance of the character Matthew Morgan. The character and actor appear only in the teaser, which was taped the previous day, which is why there was no credit for Thayer David at the closing credits.
• Certain portions of this episode seem to have been lifted from a filmed Kinescope copy.
• Elizabeth tells Vicki the story of her great-aunt's encounter with Josette. Although unnamed at this point in the series, Liz's great-aunt would be Judith Collins Trask.
• Vicki believes she and Josette share a resemblance; indeed Alexandra Moltke resembles the portrait of Josette far more than Kathryn Leigh Scott did. Although there would be hints that there may be a connection between Vicki and Josette, nothing would come of this... until the 1991 NBC series.
• The shots of Josette dancing around the Old House are reused from 70.

Bloopers and continuity errors Edit

• Louis Edmonds flubs a line, saying that the ghost of Josette was "her figment of imagination." (rather than a figment of her imagination)