“25.” Dark Shadows. ABC. 29 July 1966.
David intercepts Victoria’s letter and starts to read it. Roger finds him and chews him out for doing so. David’s reasons were that he was convinced there was something in the letter about his being sent away.
Victoria, meanwhile, is trying to convince Elizabeth that her nephew is a murderous creep. Elizabeth refuses to believe her. Roger comes in and informs Victoria about David’s rifling through her mail.
Later, David and Victoria are talking. David blurts out that he did not in any way try to sabotage his father’s car. Victoria points out that she didn’t say anything about Roger Collins or his car.
Roger and Elizabeth are discussing other matters. Roger is convinced that Devlin sent the detective to check Victoria’s background. Elizabeth makes it clear they are to stick to their cover story, i.e. that Victoria was hired purely at random, lest she start poking around the house.
Roger finally gets to the point and asks why Elizabeth hired Victoria of all people. She was the one, it seems, who first mentioned Victoria’s name to Roger. How did she know of this orphan girl when she hasn’t left the house in eighteen years? Elizabeth counters by saying Roger was the first person to mention Victoria’s name. Roger gets a good chuckle from this. He agrees to follow Elizabeth’s plan but only to an extent. He’ll go along with Elizabeth’s scheme only if she tells him the whole truth. Elizabeth points out that he is no position to barter. Either he goes along with her plans to the letter or else she’ll cut him out of the family.
Roger finds Victoria tutoring David. He sends his son away so he and Victoria can discuss the letter. Roger is of the opinion that Devlin hired the detective (Wilbur Strike, from the first episode) to simply mess with the Collins Family. Since she isn’t a Collins, what could be the point of that, Victoria counters. Roger says an unnamed donor contacted him regarding Victoria. Roger orders her to throw away the letter and not worry about it. He goes off, ranting about Devlin still being free.
Victoria, however, is unable to find the letter. Searching, he goes through David’s drawers. She fails to find the letter but she does find something of greater importance: the missing bleeder valve from Roger’s car.
Questions asked: So why did Elizabeth hire Victoria? Who is the donor? What is Elizabeth hiding?
Review: And twenty five episodes in we finally have someone ask a direct question! It is promptly ignored but at least Roger tried. We also have proof that David is a maniac but where does the story go from here?