Serendipitous Shadows!

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Hey, gang,

Did you ever notice how Barnabas was apparently blessed with great good luck on "Dark Shadows"?  The guy is finally freed from his coffin in the spring of 1967 (after being locked up there for nearly 170 years), and he lucks out by being released from that coffin by a schlub like Willie Loomis, albeit an apparently very knowledgeable schlub, who, in the space of only a few days, clues Barnabas completely into the workings and customs of the 20th Century and, is also able to get Barnabas some great looking and great fitting threads (apparently, right off of the rack at Brewster's Department Store!).

Another time when Mr. B. lucked out, was when he and Vicky were involved in that automobile accident on the way to the Eagle Hill Cemetery and were taken by ambulance to the Collinsport Hospital.  I mean, how extremely serendipitous was it, that the great Eric Lang, noted emergency room physician (and mad scientist extraordinaire!) just happened to be on duty on the same night that Barnabas and Vicky were admitted to the hospital? 

What if, instead of Dr. Lang, another doctor had been on duty that night at the emergency room, say, someone like Dr. Murray Leibowitz or Dr. Vijay Patel, or perhaps even Dr. Vinnie Boombotz (the late, great Rodney Dangerfield's personal physician)?   Oh, how fate could have taken an extremely cruel and bad turn for Barnabas if any other doctor had been on duty that fateful night!   No doubt, DS actor John Karlen and his boyhood buddies in the old Redhook section of Brooklyn would have said that Barnabas was "S.O.L" (or "'you-know-what' out of luck").

As it was, Mr. B. was very fortunate that he crossed paths in the emergency room that night with the only doctor in the entire world who could (and would) offer him the chance to escape Angelique's curse by means of his new and remarkable life force exchange experiment.

Similarly, wasn't it extremely fortuitous for Barnabas that Sam Evans, upon Dr. Dave Woodard's recommendation, sent his amnesiac daughter, Maggie, to one Dr. Julia Hoffman for treatment after Maggie's terrifying and mysterious escape from her unknown kidnapper?   Once again , Mr. B. lucked out when Maggie's doctor was much more interested in meeting, and eventually trying to cure, Maggie's tormentor, than she was in helping Maggie to cope with the terror and extreme psychological trauma which she had undergone during her imprisonment by the real live vampire.

Can you think of any other serendipitous/fortuitous occurrences for Barnabas or any of the other DS characters?

Bob

 

[MagnusTrask]

Always throwing the 49th hexagram by pure chance, that was always the big one for me...

[Uncle Roger]

As I recall, Barnabas and Julia just happened to be reading about werewolves when Chris Jennings started attacking the local day players.

[MagnusTrask]

On the WP though, it seems that Barnabas has only just thought of his werewolf idea after weeks of attacks, and has just revealed his idea to Julia, who seemed totally taken aback by it.

[Bob_the_Bartender]

As I recall, Barnabas and Julia just happened to be reading about werewolves when Chris Jennings started attacking the local day players.

And wasn't it odd that, after three particularly brutal and gruesome murders in and around Collinsport, the good Dr. Hoffman, after some initial misgivings, was then so anxious to help Barnabas to find a cure for poor Chris Jennings, while everyone in town and, for that matter, at Collinwood, were still in such great danger with a werewolf in the immediate area?

[Uncle Roger]

One truly has to suspend disbelief. 

[MagnusTrask]

Barn used her personal committment to him as leverage to get her help with Chris.  She continued to be uncomfortable with it.  But Barnabas had a plan to stop Chris from damaging anybody, the police wouldn't have, short of Julia going through the whole thing of convincing them werewolves exist, getting them to use silver bullets, etc..