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821 Gallery
821
Number

811

Timeline

1897

Narrator

Jonathan Frid

Writer

Violet Welles

Director

Lela Swift

Broadcast

August 19, 1969
(Tuesday)

Recorded

August 11, 1969
(Monday)

Video

Complete: Disc 85
Collection 16: Disc 1

821 Gallery
We have 29 images of Dark Shadows 821

Count Petofi threatens to destroy Collinwood if Barnabas does not tell him the secret of time travel.

Synopsis[]

For everyone at Collinwood, terror takes a different form. For Magda Rakosi, terror has come in the shape of King Johnny Romano, demanding the hand of Count Petofi from her. But Magda cannot return the hand, nor can she tell him who has it. She can only pray for strength to stand up against the gypsy punishment she knows she must face.

While questioning Magda, King Johnny finds the gypsy box containing Abraham Howell's hand, and so believes Magda was lying to him, and that Magda wanted to keep the Hand for herself. King Johnny takes Magda away for trial.

Aristede reports back to Petofi. Petofi laughs at how well his deception worked, Petofi had exhumed the body of the recently departed Abraham Howell, and cut off one of his hands, which Charles Tate had then fashioned to resemble Petofi's own Hand. He says if the gypsies had attempted to use the substitute hand they would have known it was a fake. Barnabas is still chained in his coffin.

Petofi looks through the Collins family history. Petofi wonders what Magda's fate will be. An invisible presence scares Aristede. It was Howell's spirit, understandably restless after his body's mutilation. Petofi then lets Barnabas out of his coffin and threatens to wipe out all the Collins family and future generations of Collins by killing them now.

King Johnny tells Magda that the gypsy he is travelling with has no tongue because he ran away from his trial. King Johnny attempts to bless the hand, but Howell's spirit appears and reclaims his hand. Johnny accuses Magda of the "bajour," the big trick. Magda escapes.

Memorable quotes[]

Count Petofi: The beautiful people of 1969. What will they be like?

Count Petofi: Ghosts, I have discovered, come and go. Even gypsies can finally be got rid of. But music and the pleasures of the senses endure forever.

Barnabas: Count Petofi, you surprise me. I expected far better from you. You are incompetent.

Count Petofi: We borrowed a good citizen’s hand. His spirit is understandably restless and disturbed.

Count Petofi (to Barnabas, after he has again refused to take him to the future): Very well, if you will say no more, then I must remain what I am — a restless spectator at a play that’s about to begin. I sit in my seat, I read the program, scanning the cast of characters, wondering what each one will do, when the curtain rises. But suppose the curtain rises, and there is — nothing but a bare stage?

Dramatis personae[]

Background information and notes[]

Production[]

  • First appearance of Henry Baker as Istvan.
  • Only appearance of Philip Cusack as Abraham Howell.

Story[]

Bloopers and continuity errors[]

  • The previous episode ends with Magda opening a box that contains a hand which is pointing toward the left. However, in the reprise of this scene, when Magda opens the box, the hand inside of it is pointing toward the right.
  • When King Johnny tells Magda that she may be seeing her dead relatives quicker than she thinks, Istvan starts chuckling in response too early, before Johnny is finished speaking. (Perhaps Istvan has heard this threat before?)
  • When the spirit enters Petofi and Aristede's lair, the candles are blown out already when they are shown, and then the room grows dark afterward.
  • After Count Petofi removes the cross from Barnabas's chest, he backs away from the coffin and bumps into the open door behind him.
  • boom microphone shadow can be seen as Aristede enters the room where Barnabas is held.
  • When Johnny returns to the campfire to find Magda missing, his accomplice, Istvan, rushes to his side, nearly tripping over what sounds like a pile of wood.

External Links []

Dark Shadows - Episode 821 on the IMDb

Dark Shadows Everyday - Episode 821 - The Big Switch

The Dark Shadows Daybook - Episode 821

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