COLLECTION 7 DISK 4, AFTER WATCHING IT AGAIN

Saturday, May 18, 2013 1:17 AM

I have watched Collection 7 Disk 4 again.

Naomi said something like i used to think about tragedies that you got over them & life went on, but now i know you don't and it doesn't.

About love. In this disk, it's revealed that Joshua loved both Naomi & Barnabas, without them knowing it. He could feel love but he couldn't show it, not in such a way that they felt it. Is that how he escaped the curse? The wiki says yes.

Learning that her husband loved her all this time even though he coiuldn't show it was not enough to stop her suicide. Neither was the prospect of adopting Millicent and Daniel, which Joshua wanted to do and which might have brought them together, had she lived. Would Millicent recover from Lt. Forbes, given enough time? Maybe she would have, if Naomi had lived.

http://darkshadows.wikia.com/wiki/Joshua_Collins

According to the Wiki he lived til 1805. Ten years after chaining Barnabas into his coffin. I'm not sure when, if ever, in Collection 1 the plaques by Joshua, Naomi and Sarah's graves are clearly shown. But the official story seems to be that he survived because he was unable to love Barnabas. At least, he may have felt love, but he coudn't show it.

I think Joshua personifies a kind of love that was rebelled against during the 1960's. The patriarch of the family who provides for them financially, but whose love is not perceived by them. Joshua Collins is everything the 60's generation was rebelling against. He's also the quintessential WASP, lacking warmth. This kind of love was derided by the middle or upper class kids who became hippies as "plastic."

This is a theme close to the heart of the series.

This episode was directed by Dan Curtis himself.