Witchy Cassandra/Angelique Collins was banished to some kind of spiritual limbo by the Reverend Trask’s successful exorcism of her. She’s not only disappeared from Collinwood, but her portrait has faded. No one has any idea what’s happened to her.
Then a man arrives, introducing himself as Nicholas Blair, Cassandra’s brother. Since modern-day Cassandra is the same woman as 1700s Angelique, this causes a great deal of surprise and some alarm among the people who know all about Angelique.
Nicholas seems more aware of what’s happened to her than anyone else. He reassures Roger that Cassandra is flighty and likely to go off suddenly and not tell anybody where she’s gone, but there’s an archness to his tone and a double meaning to everything he says, especially when he’s talking to Barnabas. When alone, he speaks directly to the faded portrait as if it were the missing Angelique before conducting his own private investigation to find out where she is. He first goes over to the old house to learn from Willie about the skeleton that’s reappeared in the basement*, then downstairs to chat with the skeletal Trask.
The reappearance of the skeleton would indicate that Trask believes his corporeal work is completed, but Nicholas has other ideas. He calls up Trask’s spirit to ask what the late reverend did to Angelique. He seems to have some power over the ghost… until Trask whips out a crucifix. Nicholas reacts to the sight of a cross the way that Dracula usually does, but that we’ve never yet seen Barnabas do. Trask then disappears, laughing maniacally.
Soon afterwards, Trask shows up at Collinwood, presumably to warn Vicky about Nicholas, but he’s interrupted when her boyfriend Jeff comes into the room. Jeff not only recognizes the ghostly form of the 18th-century reverend, but calls him by name. To Vicky, this is finally the proof she’s been waiting for that Jeff is really Peter Bradford from 1795.
Continue reading “Dark Shadows: Angelique’s Ashes”