Episode 215 of Dark Shadows opens at the Blue Whale, where we learn that Burke Devlin has previously thrown Willie Loomis out of the place. Willie has disappeared again, however, and Burke and Jason McGuire find themselves wondering where he has gone.
Then Joe Haskell arrives with some startling news. A young calf on his uncle's farm has been found dead with its blood drained.
Well, that's probably nothing.
Jason eventually confronts Willie at the Blue Whale and offers him the $500 Elizabeth Stoddard gave him to leave Collinsport. Willie refuses. Whatever has happened to him, he no longer wants to leave. Considering how desperate everyone previously was to get Willie Loomis out of town, his sudden determination to remain in Collinsport probably isn't going to improve anybody's situation.
Maggie Evans also appears in this episode. I'm still not entirely sure how she fits into the larger story, although I know she appears in the movie House of Dark Shadows as one of Barnabas Collins' victims. Since I'm watching the television series without knowing exactly how all these characters and storylines eventually fit together, I'm trying not to get too far ahead of myself.
What I learned from Episode 215: Willie may be a vampire.
At this point, I officially have no idea who half these people ultimately turn out to be, what their relationships will become, or why Josette figures so prominently in both of the Dark Shadows movies and apparently in this storyline as well. I don't even know when Josette is going to appear in the television series.
That's actually becoming part of the fun of watching Dark Shadows this way. I know fragments of the mythology from the movies and from popular culture, but not enough to know how the television series gets from where I am now to the story I vaguely recognize. Barnabas has arrived, Willie is acting very strangely, livestock is turning up without blood, and everybody else is still trying to conduct their ordinary Collinsport business as though nothing supernatural is happening.
Dark Shadows 215 Willie Why Are There Specks of Blood On Your Sleeve?
“Willie, why are there specks of blood on your sleeve?”
That's probably nothing, too.
On to the next episode.
