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5
Number

5

Timeline

1967

Narrator

Alexandra Moltke
(as Victoria Winters)

Writer

Art Wallace

Director

Lela Swift

Broadcast

July 1, 1966
(Friday)

Recorded

June 17, 1966
(Friday)

Video

Complete: Disc 1
Beginning 1: Disc 1

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We have 3 images of Dark Shadows 5

Victoria explains to Carolyn what little she knows about her past. On Widows' Hill, Sam Evans tells Victoria the story of Josette Collins.

Synopsis[]

Opening narration
My name is Victoria Winters. The gray light of early morning brings no relief from the tension that inhabits the old house on top of Widows' Hill. But at least the night has passed, a night that was touched with a fear I'd never known before. And now it would be over, fear would be ended. And so would hope.

Teaser

Victoria starts packing her things in the morning, when Carolyn comes into her room, upset that she's quitting. She's thought she'd finally found a friend and can't believe Victoria is leaving before she even meets David. Victoria corrects her, telling her she did meet David. They go down for coffee and David sneaks into Victoria's room.

Act I

David prowls through the bedroom and calls "Mother, mother." He scratches the initials off of Victoria's suitcase and starts beating on it.

Downstairs in the breakfast nook, Victoria tells Carolyn about meeting David and how he said "I hate you" to her. Then she talks about the sobbing she heard around 2:00 AM. Roger comes in and gives Victoria a letter from home before apologizing to her for panicking on her last night. Victoria asks him about the sobbing, but Roger also attributes it to her dreams.

Act II

David starts tossing Victoria's clothes into the suitcase haphazardly.

Carolyn is still upset about Victoria leaving. She's jealous of Victoria having a "normal" family to go back to. Victoria shows her the letter from home and tells her she’s an orphan who grew up in a foundling home. She tells her the only family she knows is the note attached to the cardboard box she was found in that reads, "Her name is Victoria. I cannot take care of her." She explains that she's come to Collinsport with the hope of learning about herself. From age two until she was sixteen, Victoria received $50 a month from Bangor, Maine, which is only 50 miles from Collinsport. She also explains that her surname, Winters, refers to the season in which she was dropped off at the orphanage. To show there are no hard feelings, Victoria offers to do the dishes.

Act III

David continues going through Victoria's things. He watches her leave the house on her way to Widows' Hill.

Sam Evans approaches Victoria and expresses knowledge about her. He tells her to tell Roger she saw him, then to pack her bags and go home to New York. He recounts the tale of Josette Collins, how she was brought from France to marry Jeremiah, who built Collinwood for her; the family hated her, as did the whole town, because she was an outsider, and different. She jumped from Widows' Hill from the very spot where Victoria stands and sometimes one can hear her crying her heart out. Victoria protests that she does not believe in ghosts, and he calls Elizabeth a walking ghost because she hasn’t left the house in eighteen years, haunting the hallways. He leaves, reminding her to tell Roger she saw him.

Act IV

Carolyn is ironing in the breakfast nook when Victoria returns, asking Carolyn why she didn't tell her about her mother. Carolyn says she thought everyone knew. She explains that her mother hasn't been off the hill since six months before she was born because her father left her and she's decided to wait for him to return. Victoria goes upstairs to pack and Carolyn suddenly connects that eighteen years ago, money started coming to the orphanage at almost the same time her father left Collinwood. She runs upstairs to tell Victoria, who thinks she’s grasping at straws, but entertains the notion.

Inside her bedroom, Victoria finds her suitcase full on the bed. David reveals himself and holds her birth note. He continually recites the words on it until Victoria orders him to give it back to her, then he wads it up and throws it on the floor. He tells Victoria that the Widows told him to send her home. She doesn't know what he's talking about and he storms out saying that nobody ever listens to him.

Carolyn comes into Victoria's room and sees the suitcase mess from David. Victoria tells her that she has realized that if she leaves now, all she has in the world is a crumpled note, and if she is to find out anything about her past, she has to remain there. She resolves to stay, much to Carolyn's delight.

Memorable quotes[]

Sam: Some quiet nights, if you listen—listen really carefully—you can hear her cry...crying her heart out in loneliness.

Roger: Good morning, you lovely people!

Sam: Go home, Miss. Go back to New York.
Victoria: Who are you?
Sam: That's a good question, one I've been trying to figure out all my life. Who am I? Who are any of us? Why are we here in this green and ugly world? Your name is Victoria Winters.
Victoria: How do you know?
Sam: When a man has, has cruised along these cliffs as long as I have, gazed out to sea, feasted his eyes on the beauty about him and, and fastened his ears to the keyholes beside him, he learns a great deal.

Dramatis personae[]

Background information and notes[]

Production[]

  • First appearance of actor Mark Allen and the character Sam Evans.
  • The first mention of character Josette Collins.
  • This is the first episode with extended closing credits that scroll.

Story[]

  • Elizabeth hasn't left Collinwood since 6 months before Carolyn was born.
  • Carolyn's father left 18 years ago.
  • Victoria began receiving anonymous payments 18 years ago.
  • Josette Collins was brought to Collinsport as the bride of the man who built Collinwood. The townspeople hated her because she was a stranger. Her husband's family hated her because she was different. She would cry every night and eventually jumped from Widows' Hill.
  • GHOSTWATCH: David claims the ghosts of the widows told him to send Victoria away from Collinsport.

Bloopers and continuity errors[]

  • The slate for this episode mistakenly lists the air date as 6-31-66, though Bob Lloyd correctly reads 7-1-66. Also, Nancy Barrett walks into the shot and stops at Victoria's door, ready to knock on it.
  • The camera's shadow appears on the side of the bed when Victoria answers the door to her room.
  • Nancy Barrett stumbles over the line "Your first and last breakfast in Collinwood."
  • Actor David Henesy can clearly be heard pounding on Victoria's suitcase at the start of the scene in the breakfast nook, which should be far away.
  • Vicki arrived in Collinsport for the first time mere hours prior to breakfast, yet there’s already a letter in the morning post waiting for her, one which came all the way from the New York foundling home? That must have been some extraordinary time-bending mail service Collinsport had in mid-1960s backwater Maine.
  • In Act I, David scratches the initials off of Victoria's suitcase, but in Act II they're back on.
  • Actress Alexandra Moltke mistakenly calls Carolyn "Caroline."
  • In the closing credits, Ohrbach's is misspelled as "Orhbach's," and Sy Tomashoff is misspelled as "Sy Thomashoff" in the closing credits.

End credits announcements[]

External Links []

Dark Shadows - Episode 5 on the IMDb

The Collinsport Historical Society - Dark Shadows Diary - Episode 5

Dark Shadows Commentary- Episode 5: Good morning, you lovely people

Dark Shadows Before I Die- Episode 5: 7/1/66

Gallery (3)[]

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