416 - January 29, 1968

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] A séance has been held

at the great house at Collinwood,

a séance which has suspended time and space,

and sent one girl on an uncertain

and frightening journey into the past,

back to the year .

There each of the Collins ancestors resembles

a present day member of the Collins family,

but the names and relationships have changed,

and Victoria Winters finds herself a stranger

in a sea of familiar faces.

She finds herself both witness and participant,

as the ancient agonies of the Collins family slowly unfold.

- Well, I'm happy to see you up and busy

at such an early hour.

Which was well worth the whole nights journey

to be welcomed by this charming bit of domesticity.

- A little bird flew to the window.

It hovered there for a moment, and then flew away.

- What are you talking about?

- The first bird of the morning.

- Are you telling me that you've been like this all night.

- Nights, days.

Are there still nights, still days?

- If this is what I knew I was coming home to,

I could easily have extended my stay.

- Yes.

You shouldn't have come back.

- I will ask Abigail to see you to your room.

- It flew straight to the sun,

this bird of the morning.

- I'm afraid, you will have to excuse me.

- Yes, go.

But first, there's something I must tell you.

- I'm sure it can wait.

- Yes, it can wait.

It can wait forever

because nothing will change it.

She's gone.

Sarah.

Our little girl is dead.

[eerie theme music] ♪♪

And I was so relieved.

- How can you say that?

- Oh, she was suffering so.

Her little body consumed by fever,

every breath an agony and then it was all over,

everything ended.

Everything.

- I can't believe it.

- Yes.

That's what we must do, not believe it.

- Pretend it never happened. - No, that's not what I meant.

- We must call her. Sarah! Sarah!

She'll come running down the stairs, laughing,

through the doors, into my arms.

Please. Go away.

Leave me alone.

- If I had known I would have been here.

- Would you? - Of course, I would've. You know that.

- Why would you have been here?

- She was my daughter!

- Daughter! Son! Wife!

What do they mean to you?

- Please, Naomi. This is no time to argue.

- I know.

I'm sorry. I know you can't help it.

- Miss Winters was right. - Miss Winters?

- What did she have to do with it?

- She warned me.

- Warned you?

- She knew that Sarah was going to die.

She told me.

She told me it was destined

that she would die on her eleventh birthday

unless some miracle could change the past.

- The past?

- I can't explain it. I don't want to.

All I know is that she told me

to watch over her carefully until after her birthday.

- She knew that Sarah was going to die?

- She tried to save her.

She warned me. I did what I could.

- She k*lled her. - No.

- She tried to save her but nothing did any good.

I told you.

She ran away. We couldn't find her.

- Of course, you couldn't.

- You needn't have even tried. - How can you say that?

- I would have done anything to save her.

- How can you save a child

once a witch has placed a mark of doom on her?

- No. That's not how it was.

She told me this to save her.

- Nonsense.

- I tell you it's true.

Why would she have said anything if she wanted to harm Sarah.

- Have you no mind at all?

Can't you even recognize

a not very clever ruse when you see it?

- I don't understand.

She said this to divert

attention and suspension from herself.

- That's not true.

- Then explain if you please

how she knew that our daughter was going to die.

- I can't explain,

and you wouldn't believe me even if I tried.

- Of course I wouldn't.

I'm sure your inventions

would be even less than imaginative than Miss Winters.

Why in heavens name do you insist on defending this woman

- who has k*lled your own child? - She didn't k*ll her.

- She tried to save her,

and I have nothing more to say on the subject.

- Because there's nothing more that need be said.

All that remains is retribution and revenge.

- That's all that really matters, isn't it?

To you, it's revenge.

- Do you think that I would allow

someone to do this to my daughter?

- To your daughter or to you?

You want revenge not for what was done to your daughter

but because of what was done to you.

She was yours. Your property.

- I refuse to listen to you when you're hysterical.

- Revenge.

Yes.

But where is the pain, the sorrow, the grief?

Nowhere. Only revenge.

- I see no need to hear another word of this.

- No, Joshua. Wait.

- What is it?

- I--I don't want to be alone.

No, that's not true.

Please leave me.

- I'll send Abigail. - No!

- I want to be alone.

I am alone.

They're both gone,

my daughter, my son, my children.

- Will you please get a hold of yourself?

This will help nothing.

- I know that.

It won't help. Nothing will help.

Joshua, if it interests you, Sarah is in her room.

I dressed her in her light blue dress

that she's to wear on her birthday.

I brushed her hair.

You will find her there at peace at last,

if it interests you to say goodbye to her.

♪♪

- Then--then my warning didn't help?

- Not in the way you intended, I'm afraid.

- I don't understand. - Your warning I'm convinced

- was not meant to help Sarah but yourself.

It was purely a diversionary tactic.

- What do you mean?

- Why did you k*ll my daughter?

- No.

- What has the Collins family done to you

that you should wish this upon them?

- I tried to save her.

- You knew about her impending death.

- Yes. And I warned Mrs. Collins.

I thought maybe somehow the past could be changed.

- That's what my wife said, the past could be changed.

What exactly do you mean by that?

- I've already explained but no one believed me.

- I suggest you try with me.

- You least of all would be believe me.

- You realize of course that your life is in danger.

- My life?

- I think you understand.

- But I'm not a witch.

- I'm waiting for an explanation.

How did you know my daughter was going to die

if you are not a witch?

- Because--

- Because-- - I am not a patient man, Miss Winters.

- Because I come from another time,

another century.

- Indeed.

For the first time, I'm beginning to believe you.

Please continue.

- I come from a time in the future

and somehow I found myself trapped here in the past.

- I'm extremely interested. Do go on.

- You think this proves I'm a witch don't you?

- I'm waiting for you to continue, if you please.

- I loved Sarah. I wanted to help her.

- You come from another time in the future,

now, continue from there.

- From what I've read of the Collins family history,

I knew that Sarah was destined to die on her eleventh birthday,

and I thought if she could just live past that day--

I can see you don't believe me.

There's no point in saying anything else.

- I see you have a window in your cell.

- Yes.

- It's almost the hour of sunset.

Do you like sunsets?

- Yes.

- Then I suggest that you gaze out of your window

and look at this one.

And If the sight of a sunrise is of special pleasure to you,

I suggest that you rise early in the morning.

- Why do you say that?

- Enjoy your beloved sunrises and your glorious sunsets.

- There will be few left for you to see,

I will see to that.

- No.

- And perhaps, as you gaze at the streaks of red

blazing in the sky,

you can contemplate not only the fires of hell

to which you will surely be damned,

but the fires of this earth,

- the death of witches-- - No!

- That will take you to the fires of the next!

- No! No!

♪♪

- The funeral is over.

Everyone has gone back to the house.

- I knew she would die.

- Everybody is blaming Miss Winters for it.

It was a terrible hullabaloo starting up in town.

- Tell them the m*rder*r is here.

- You didn't k*ll her.

- You know better than that.

She saw me as I really was

and she ran into the woods terrified.

- If hadn't it been for that storm coming up.

- If it hadn't been for me.

- That's not how Miss Sarah saw it, I'm sure.

- Perhaps I should give myself up as the real m*rder*r.

- You know you can't do that.

- I cannot allow Miss Winters to suffer in my stead!

- If you really want to help, there's a way.

- I know.

Give myself up to the people in the town.

Barnabas Collins only recently dead.

- Please listen.

I can help her escape.

Only I've got to have some money

or jewels.

If I could get some jewels.

- Yes.

- I could get her far away from here.

- No. - I know a way.

- No.

No. You must not.

It might not work.

We might be caught and you, too.

- It's worth try, ain't it? - No!

- There is only one way. - What?

- Tonight. I must go into the village.

- No, you can't.

- I will give myself up and free Miss Winters.

- You know what happens

if you're not back here before sunrise.

- Yes, I know.

It will mean the final end of everything.

- I won't let you do it.

- You cannot stop me.

- Wait. Listen.

There's someone there.

- I know.

- Who is it?

[gate closes]

- Sarah.

Sarah.

- My mother.

[bell ringing]

- Naomi.

You should not have come back.

- I want to be with Sarah.

Please let me stay.

-I must take you home.

- My father.

- This is my home. - Please, you can't stay.

- They're here now. Both of them.

- You know better than to talk like that.

- They're both here.

[whispering] - Mind what you're saying.

Naomi, what if someone were to hear you?

No one, no one must know that Barnabas is also buried here.

You know that.

If they knew that we had buried him here

and he was suspected of having the plague,

they would exhume his body.

- Please. I don't want to hear.

- They would burn it

and cast his ashes out to the sea.

- No.

-Then be silent about it. -I can't help it.

- Come away with me now. You can do nothing here.

- I could do nothing before for either of them.

- No one could help them.

- But I did fail to save them from their deaths.

I also failed to save them from you.

- From me?

- Your coldness and bitterness.

- Please. We must not stay here.

- Yes, we must.

We must stay here, you and I.

- No.

- Yes.

It's cold in here.

- Come away.

- Why wouldn't you let me bury them in the earth?

- Their life was stone and now stone forever.

- No more, I beg you.

- Joshua, what is it?

- My children, my poor lost children.

- Joshua, come, I'll take you home.

- And we must never return. Never.

- Come, we'll go home.

- Father, Mother.

Don't go. Don't go.

♪♪

No.

I cannot go to the village now and wait for the sunrise.

- I wouldn't let you do it.

It would've destroyed you.

- It would've destroy the family forever

to have them know what I am.

I could never have that.

- Trust me.

I'll see that Miss Winters escapes.

- Yes. You will do that, won't you?

- I swear.

- I know I can trust you. - I said you could.

- No harm will come to Miss Winters.

- Good.

Well, I'll wait for the sunrise here

then you will come back to me then.

- Sunrise.

Don't you mean the sunset?

- No.

The sunrise.

- I don't understand.

- How beautifully she slumbers.

She is at peace.

And so, at sunrise, shall I be at peace.

- You're thinking of something.

- Go now and come back at dawn.

But during the night, you must do me some service.

- Whatever you say.

- Find a branch of a tree, a holly tree

and from it fashion a pointed stake.

- What?

- Make it of such a length

that it will pierce through a man's heart.

- What are you saying?

- You know very well what I'm saying.

- I won't do it.

- You will come back at sunrise.

I will already be asleep.

- You will take the stake and you will drive it-- - No!

- You will drive it into my heart.

- I can't. I won't. - You'll do as I say.

- But it will destroy you forever.

- I am already destroyed.

What you will do is to save me from an eternity of agony.

- How can I destroy you?

- If you are my friend.

- I am.

- Then do it.

- No.

- Free me.

Bring me peace at last.

Let me join those who are at rest.

Do not condemn me to wander forever in endless agony.

Give me to the waiting arms of the sleeping dead.

End my torment, please, I beg you.

I beg you!

Let me hear you say the words.

Yes!

Say the word.

- Yes. - Yes.

- Yes.

Yes.

♪♪

[eerie theme music] ♪♪