Episode 47: Sacrificial Lamb

Tuesday, August 30, 1966

My name is Victoria Winters. I can still remember the words I heard the night I arrived at Collinwood: “Welcome to the beginning and the end of the world.” They had no meaning for me then, but now they seem terribly real. As real as the mysteries of this strange dark house and the troubled souls who live within its walls.  As real as the passing minutes and the growing fear they bring.

Carolyn finds Liz playing the piano. 

She asks her to play more. It’s only ten past eleven, Carolyn says. Not even the witching hour.

Liz has a feeling of impending disaster. She tries to call Bill Malloy, but he doesn’t answer. 

Carolyn thinks it’s a little late to be calling. Is she afraid something happened to Bill?

Does it have anything to do with Uncle Roger?

She tells Liz about the row she had with Roger over the pen. Roger was talking about doing terrible things to protect themselves. He said, “I refuse to be anyone’s sacrificial lamb.”

Liz goes upstairs to talk with Roger.

Who is, of course, at his office. He’s calling Bill Malloy. No answer. Burke says to let it ring.

Sam says it’s eleven-thirty. If Bill was going to be there, he would have been there a half hour ago.

Burke says Bill had information about his manslaughter conviction.

Burke wants to talk about that instead of the weather or the price of sardines. No one admits anything. Burke tries to call Bill again, and then decides to go to Bill’s house and bring him back. Sam and Roger better be there when he returns.

Liz is worried that Roger isn’t at home. Carolyn has made tea.

Liz says it’s cold in the room and Carolyn says it’s “the chill of doom.” Liz isn’t amused. She thinks the best thing for Carolyn would be to walk out the front door and never look back. 

Carolyn is not interested in that solution. Liz wonders if the lamb has gone to the sacrificial alter.

Sam tells Roger that Burke won’t find Bill at home.

How does Sam know that?

He knows Bill. If Bill were home, he’d answer the phone.

Roger thinks Sam would feel a lot safer if Bill never showed up. This makes Sam angry.

“I could kill you.”

“That wouldn’t solve your problem.”

Roger wants to know what Sam would say if Bill did show up. Confess to being an accessory after the fact? No one can touch them as long as they stand together.

Burke returns. “He’s either out or dead,” he says.

His car is parked in front of his house.

Roger says Bill often likes to walk, so that doesn’t mean anything.

They wait. It’s close to midnight. Roger and Sam want to leave. 

Burke doesn’t want to let them. Bill said he would be there.

Roger says he’s not waiting for someone who’s obviously realized there’s no reason for the meeting after all. He and Sam both deny knowing anything.

Roger tries to return the fountain pen Burke gave Carolyn, but he finds he doesn’t have it on him. He offers to give Sam a ride home. Burke tries to call Bill again as the two of them left.

Carolyn and Liz reminisce about a Halloween. 

Liz suggests Carolyn go to bed now. It’s almost midnight. “The witching hour,” Carolyn says. She goes upstairs.

The clock strikes twelve.

Roger arrives home. Liz wants to know where he was. He tells her at a business meeting—but it was personal. 

She wants to know if Bill Malloy was there. He came to see her earlier. He said Roger was responsible for the accident that sent Burke to prison. She wants to know if Bill spoke to him about it.

Roger is insulted that Liz suggests he would have done that. He says he was responsible for Burke going to prison. He testified against Burke. And every word was true. 

Roger tells Liz she should arrange for a meeting with the two of them and Bill, and he’ll answer every question the two of them put to him. He tells Liz she should go to bed.

          

Cast, In Order of Appearance

Victoria Winters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alexandra Moltke 

Carolyn Stoddard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nancy Barrett 

Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joan Bennett

Roger Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Louis Edmonds

Burke Devlin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mitchell Ryan

Sam Evans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Ford

Fashion by Ohrbach’s

Directed by Lela Swift

Story created and written by Art Wallace