Angelique Bouchard Collins

Angelique Bouchard Collins, usually known as simply Angelique, was a villainess on the TV Gothic horror-soap opera "Dark Shadows". She is primarily portrayed as a powerful witch driven by her vacillating love and hatred for the series' eventual protagonist, Barnabas Collins.

The character was played by Lara Parker, and appeared within several storylines of the series which originally aired from June 1966 through April 1971. Angelique was originally introduced to explain how Barnabas Collins became a vampire, but she proved popular enough in her own right to make many return appearances.

The origin of Angelique

The earliest record of Angelique is from 1692 where she went by the name of Miranda Du Val. It is revealed that Miranda was given her powers by powerful warlock Judah Zachary. During this time Judah was brought to trial, where the prosecuting attorney was Ammadeus Collins. With all other potential witnesses too terrified to come forward, Miranda agreed to testify against Judah at his trial in exchange for her freedom. As a result, Judah was convicted and beheaded, but not before vowing revenge on Miranda and the Collins family.

1795

When governess Victoria Winters was transported back to the past, she soon met Barnabas Collins, followed by his fiancée Josette du Pres and her maid, Angelique Bouchard. Few realized Barnabas and Angelique had had a short fling while Barnabas was in her native Martinque. When Barnabas fell in love with Josette, he told Angelique they could be no more. Angelique used her powers to get her revenge. At first she tries to kill Barnabas by causing him to choke. When she sees him near death, she can not bear to continue the spell. She casts a spell on the family servant, Ben Stokes, that makes him her slave. With Ben's help, she begins her plans to destroy Barnabas' love for Josette. Through a love spell she makes Josette fall in love with and marry Barnabas' uncle Jeremiah Collins. Jeremiah and Barnabas had a duel, which ended in Jeremiah's death.

Despite Josette's deception, Barnabas still loves her. Angelique continues to scheme to gain Barnabas' love. She casts a spell on Barnabas' beloved sister Sarah that makes her very ill and takes her to the brink of death. Angelique makes a bargain with Barnabas that if she cures Sarah, Barnabas will marry her. She brews a tea that she tells Barnabas may cure Sarah. She then removes the curse from Sarah. When Angelique reminds Barnabas of their bargain, Barnabas tries to get out of the deal saying that he was too upset to think clearly. Angelique agrees to release him. Barnabas is moved by Angelique's devotion to him and agrees to marry her. Joshua Collins, Barnabas' father, is firmly against the marriage and tries to bribe Angelique to leave Collinsport. When she refuses, Joshua agrees to the marriage but only after a proper mourning period for Jeremiah. At first Angelique agrees to the stipulation, but she begins to fear that she will lose Barnabas. First she raises the ghost of Jeremiah Collins to haunt Josette and Barnabas. However, she is still afraid that Barnabas will change his mind so she pushes for the marriage to be performed immediately. Barnabas agrees and Joshua disowns him and tells them to leave Collinwood. Naomi Collins does not want her only son to leave, so she deeds him the Old House which has been in her name.

At first the idea of living in the Old House is very exciting to Angelique. As soon as Barnabas leaves for the minister, however, the ghost of Jeremiah appears to her and she is unable to return him to the grave. Jeremiah tries to stop the wedding, first by kidnapping Angelique. When Ben Stokes finds her, Jeremiah tries to scare the minister away from the house by knocking over furniture and being generally ghostly. After the ceremony he turns the champagne into blood. Later, he puts Josette's music box in Angelique's bedroom. When Barnabas finds Angelique playing the music box he becomes upset and walks out. The ghost of Jeremiah confronts Angelique one more time so she can not follow Barnabas.

Unable to sleep, Angelique wanders the halls of the Old House and discovers that Victoria Winters is hiding in her old room. Jealous and a bit afraid that Victoria may be controlling the ghost of Jeremiah, Angelique plots to have Victoria's hiding place discovered. First she sends a message to Sarah Collins in Victoria's voice calling Sarah to the Old House. Sarah tells her aunt and father that Miss Winters is calling her and they follow her to the Old House. Barnabas allows them into the house but will not let them search for Victoria. While the adults are talking Sarah slips away to Victoria's room and takes her to a place to hide. Angelique is undaunted for Barnabas agrees to allow the witch-hunting Reverend Trask to perform a ritual to cleanse the house of witches. Barnabas agrees because he does not believe that Trask has any power. However, as Trask performs his ritual, Angelique performs one of her own making Victoria believe that the house is on fire. Victoria flees the Old House and is captured by Trask. Unknown to Angelique, Barnabas passed the room where she was casting her spell and hears her. At first he does not pay much attention to the incident. Later, when Angelique says she was in another part of the house during Trask's ritual, Barnabas begins to suspect that Angelique is the witch that has been plaguing his family.

Barnabas confronts Ben Stokes about the identity of the witch. Ben is unable to say her name but writes the letter "A" in the dust. Barnabas then shot Angelique, and while injured and assuming she would die, she placed a curse on him and all he loved. A few moments later, a bat flew into the room and bit him. Angelique's wounds were not as serious as she had expected and she regretted her decision, but her attempts to remove Barnabas' curse failed and he died. When she went to his coffin to stake him, he strangled her.

Although she was technically dead, her spirit appeared to prevent Ben Stokes from staking Barnabas (as Barnabas had asked). Later, Barnabas bit Josette, with the intention of turning her into a vampire. Before he could complete the transformation though, Angelique's spirit lured Josette to the peak of Widow's Hill and showed her a vision of herself as a vampire. Terrified at the thought of what she would become, Josette leapt to her death. Finally, Angelique's spirit was able to assume corporeal form long enough to testify at Victoria's witchcraft trial, testimony which helped convict Victoria for Angelique's own crimes. Victoria was hanged, but a time paradox caused her to return to her normal time (1968).

Cassandra, vampirism, 1796

When Victoria returned to 1968, Barnabas bit her, afraid of her possible knowledge of his secrets. At an old antique shop, Victoria bought a portrait of Angelique, which Barnabas unsuccessfully tried to destroy. Meanwhile, Barnabas was cured of his vampirism by a Doctor Lang. Victoria became enamored of Dr. Lang's assistant Jeff Clark, who was a lookalike for Peter Bradford, her love interest in 1795. It soon became apparent that 'Jeff Clark' was really Peter, who had willed himself into the future in order to be reunited with Vicky. Angelique successfully willed herself into the future as well, using the portrait as her 'gateway': the portrait transfixed Roger and he tried to kill Lang. When this failed, the image of Angelique on faded from the canvas, and Roger surprised everyone when he brought his new bride, Cassandra (really Angelique with a short black wig) to Collinwood. Cassandra succeeded in killing Lang, but his secret project (creating a Frankenstein-like creature, Adam, which shared a life force with Barnabas) lived on. Cassandra devised a "dream curse" to wend its way through the subconscious of various Collinsport residents. Victoria was the last person to suffer the curse, and tried her best to keep the dream from Barnabas. To spare her pain, Barnabas made her tell him the dream. He was bitten by a vampire bat, but instead of reverting to his curse, as had been Cassandra's intention, Barnabas lived.

Diabolos had previously sent warlock Nicholas Blair (Humbert Allen Astredo) to keep an eye on Angelique's plans. When she tried to kill Adam, Nicholas, who had plans for Adam, took away her powers and she rapidly aged into her true age of several hundred years. She vanished, only to return as a vampire, a further punishment from Nicholas. (The abrupt disappearance of "Cassandra Collins" was not dwelled on by her husband, or the Collins family though. Several times, the brunette-wigged "Cassandra" had been seen by Collinwood residents in compromising positions with lawyer Tony Peterson. Although she had just put a spell on Tony to further her plots, it was assumed that she had become disenchanted with being Mrs. Roger Collins, and simply run out on him.) Nicholas used her to bite Joe Haskell (Joel Crothers), boyfriend of Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott), whom Nicholas wanted for himself. Angelique also bit Tom Jennings (Don Briscoe) repeatedly until she turned him in a vampire, then Victoria's boyfriend Jeff Clark (Roger Davis) and finally Barnabas himself. As much as she tried, she still could not make Barnabas love her. Eventually Angelique betrayed Nicholas to Diabolos, revealing that the warlock had fallen in love with Maggie Evans. Nicholas was soon after destroyed.

In 1969, the time paradox flared up again and both Jeff/Peter and Victoria were returned to 1795 (now referred to as 1796). Barnabas used the I Ching to return to his 1796 body to rescue Victoria. There, he encountered Angelique, who xplained that she had been restored to human form (non-vampiric, but still with her witch powers) and sent back to her original point in time by Diabolos, as a favor for exposing Nicholas' treachery. Although Vicky had been hanged, Angelique had used witchcraft to keep her alive in suspended animation, in order to torment Barnabas. Ben Stokes set Angelique on fire, destroyring her, which freed Victoria from the spell. Victoria and Peter then quietly fled from Collinwood to live out their lives in 1796, and Barnabas returned to 1968, assuming he had seen the last of Angelique.

1897

In 1897, Quentin Collins (David Selby) and Evan Hanley (Humbert Allen Astredo) used black magic to try to summon a power to defeat Barnabas Collins (who had travelled via the I-Ching to the past to find out why Quentin's ghost was haunting David Collins (David Henesy) and Amy Jennings (Denise Nickerson) in 1969). In response to their summons, Angelique appeared, and began manipulating Rachel Drummond (Kathryn Leigh Scott), Barnabas' newest love interest, until Barnabas gave Rachel an amulet for protection. Quentin was stabbed to death and Barnabas asked Angelique to bring him back to life. Instead, Angelique made him a zombie and told him to take Rachel to the grave with him. Eventually, she resurrected Quentin permanently. To protect Quentin from phoenix Laura (Diana Millay), Barnabas agreed to introduce Angelique as his fiancée. After various schemes and plans on both sides, Laura tried to kill Barnabas, but Angelique stopped her. Laura then destroyed Angelique, or so she thought, but actually only destroyed a double Angelique had created of herself. Laura set a room on fire and tried to die with her children, but Angelique cast a spell which caused Laura to age away to nothing. Later in the storyline, everyone found out Barnabas was a vampire, making him a wanted man. Meanwhile, Quentin had been cursed as a werewolf and begged Angelique to find the hand of Count Petofi and cure him. In return, he agreed to marry her, and for some time she was his fiancée. Anglelique next became jealous of Kitty Hampshire (Kathryn Leigh Scott), who was revealed to be the reincarnation of Josette (she had willed herself into the future in much the same way that Peter Bradford was able to appear in 1968/69 as Jeff Clark). Angelique also created a doppleganger for Barnabas which was staked, thus making everyone assume Barnabas was dead and allowing him breathing room. Angelique returned periodically to help Quentin battle Petofi, but after Quentin departed from Collinwood, she felt no desire to remain there.

Lady Kitty realized that she was really Josette, and like Jeff/Peter did, faded back to her original timeline. In an uncharacteristic move, Angelique used magic to enable Barnabas to travel even further into the past, back to 1796, and save her from the very tragic event that Angelique originally engineered. After which, she vanished, hinting that she would no longer pursue Barnabas or the Collins family. (Unfortunately, Angelique's good deed was undone by the Leviathans, who used Barnabas to transport their leader from 1796 to 1969, and Kitty, believing her true love had deserted her, committed suicide.)

Leviathans

In 1970, Barnabas and several other Collinwood residents were mentally enslaved by the mystical Leviathans, who were seeking to return to Earth. Meanwhile, an amnesiac and still-young Quentin showed up in Collinsport. Julia deduced that Quentin's immortality was tied to an enchanted painting done of him. When Julia sought out the painting, she discovered it was owned by a certain Sky Rumson (Geoffrey Scott), whose wife was Angelique! No explanation was given to account for her activities since she last appeared, but Angelique insisted to Julia that she had given up witchcraft. As an indication of how much she had changed, she allowed the Collins family to hide out at her home from the Leviathans (after Barnabas turned against them, the Leviathans vowed retribution against him and everyone he loved), despite the fact that she feared the Collins family would recognize her as Cassandra. Angelique truly loved Sky and stayed loyal to him until Nicholas Blair, who had returned to aid the Leviathans in their plans for world domination, told Sky (who was a Leviathan agent) to kill here. Sky tried to set her on fire. Angelique used her powers to choke Sky and fled. Jealous of Barnabas' continued affection for Maggie Evans (who looked just like Josette), she cast a spell to make Maggie and Quentin fall in love. To get revenge on the Leviathan leader Jeb Hawkes, Angelique cast a shadow which would get bigger and bigger until it killed him. Desperate, Jeb agreed to do whatever she wanted him to do, which was to put the shadow on Nicholas. Nicholas died instantly, thus giving Angelique her long-awaited revenge against an old enemy. Afterward, she disappeared once again. (Chronologically, this would be Angelique's last appearance on "Dark Shadows.")

Parallel time 1970

The Angelique in this timeline was not the same as the Angelique in the regular "Dark Shadows" timeline. She knew of no Barnabas Collins, as in this timeline he had died in the 19th century and Angelique was from the 20th century. Angelique was raised with her twin sister Alexis (Parker in a dual role) by their drunken, mad scientist stepfather Timothy Stokes (Thayer David). Angelique had married Quentin, the head of the Collins family, and their marriage, while responsible for a son, Daniel, had been fraught with conflict. Angelique had flirted with any number of men from the effete composer Bruno Hess to Trask the family butler, frequently enraging Quentin, and intimidating the other members of the Collins family who lived on the estate. Angelique died during a séance in what was ruled by family friend and doctor Cyrus Longworth to be a stroke.

The storyline began six months after her death. Angelique's room, complete with a large portrait, served as the room which connected regular time and parallel time. Quentin returned to Collinwood with his new bride, Maggie Evans. Angelique's faithful servant, Julia Hoffman, hated Maggie and constantly reminded her she could never compare to "the first Mrs. Collins". When Maggie saw Quentin with a woman who looked just like Angelique, she snapped and fled Collinwood. This woman was Alexis Stokes, Angelique's twin, who was good-hearted and not interested in witchcraft, causing her to be estranged from everyone in her family. Many people suspected Alexis of being Angelique back from the dead, but she insisted otherwise. Alexis also demanded to know whether her sister died of natural causes or if she was murdered. Quentin, Alexis, and Cyrus opened the tomb and were shocked to see a perfectly preserved Angelique. The two men wanted to burn the corpse fearing she might return from the dead; eventually Alexis agreed, but asked for a few moments to say goodbye to her sister. When they left, Alexis touched Angelique's hand. To her horror, Angelique's eyes opened, and Angelique revealed she could sustain her own life by draining others of their life force. Alexis was her first victim, and Angelique went back to Collinwood posing as Alexis, after witnessing the destruction by fire of her sister's lifeless body.

Angelique used her powers to make Quentin bring Maggie back to Collinwood, then pretended to be Maggie's friend while secretly sabotaging her (such as having her wear a ball gown Angelique once wore). Angelique also helped insane John Yaeger (Cyrus after a medical experiment gone wrong) kidnap Maggie. Around this time, Barnabas (from the regular timeline) broke free of the coffin in which he had been imprisoned since his arrival in parallel time, and soon grew suspicious of "Alexis". Barnabas used his powers on Angelique's portrait - Angelique began to feel a burning on her neck and ran into the room to see what was happening. He told her he knew she had to be Angelique. She told him she suspected he was from the regular timeline (most of the people in parallel time had seen glimpses of the other timeline when Angelique's room would periodically change back and forth to the deserted room of the regular time), which he denied. She had also heard about a "curse" he suffered from. Working with Hoffman, she tried to unravel his mysteries. While she was out of town, Hoffman found out Barnabas was a vampire and went to stake him in his coffin. Dr. Julia Hoffman, the version of her from the regular timeline and a close friend of Barnabas', heard about these plans and made it into the parallel time just in time to kill her doppelgänger. Julia then posed as Hoffman and spied on Angelique for Barnabas.

A more pressing concern for Angelique was her frequent need to absorb the life force of other people. She eventually went to see her stepfather, who told her he had a woman named Roxanne Drew (Donna Wandrey) comatose in order for Angelique to absorb energy from her without needing to feed from various people. Barnabas and Julia stole this young woman's body, planning to kill her. Barnabas was captivated by her beauty and decided instead to slowly try to revive her from her comatose state, thus allowing her to live while slowly but surely draining Angelique of life.

Angelique balanced this crisis with her constant attempts to destroy the lives of Maggie, and -- after she read a journal entry from Cyrus which said Quentin had killed Angelique at the séance -- Quentin. She convinced each that the other was responsible for the supernatural events causing so many problems at Collinwood, and she convinced Maggie that Quentin had killed Angelique. She used her powers to strangle Bruno Hess and frame Quentin for the crime, then convinced Quentin to escape from prison, thus making him look more guilty.

Eventually, Angelique discovered Julia was posing as Hoffman, and imprisoned her where she thought no one could find her, but Barnabas found Julia in time. Meanwhile, Quentin and Maggie learned of all the lies and deceptions and Quentin's name was cleared. Roxanne was fully revived, and Angelique died. Angelique did at least get revenge on the man who had killed her. Roger Collins, who had always been obsessed with Angelique, confessed to "Alexis" that he had killed her sister. Angelique absorbed his life force, although it was not enough to keep her alive. In revenge for his daughter's destruction, Timothy Stokes set Collinwood ablaze, while Barnabas (crossing back with Julia to his own time via the parallel time room) was separated from Roxanne by a wall of flame.

1840

Once again, a ghost from the past traveled to present time (1970) to possess David Collins. Julia and Barnabas had to fight off an army of zombies, and Julia fled via a time-warping stairway to the year 1840. She posed as Barnabas' sister (using the same ruse Barnabas had done in 1967 - claiming to be a long-lost cousin from England), and freed Barnabas from the coffin he had been chained in in 1796. Julia had assumed that the Barnabas she was freeing would be the redeemed, heroic version she had become accustomed to in 1970. Unfortunately, this Barnabas was still evil and bit Roxanne Drew. Soon enough though, the spirit Barnabas from 1970 possessed this body and worked with Julia to try to figure out how to stop the chaos of 1970.

Sure enough, Angelique (now going by the name Valerie) showed up at Barnabas' tomb with her gypsy manservant Laszlo. Apparently "Valerie" knew nothing of timelines; this was the Angelique from 1795 who had gone to Barnabas' tomb every year to see if he was still imprisoned. She was extremely jealous of the Roxanne. Valerie promised to use magic to spare Roxanne, if Barnabas would pledge himself to her for all eternity. Barnabas assented, but it became apparent that he was more interested in Roxanne than Valerie. Thus, Valerie facilitated the complete transformation of Roxanne from human to vampire. She also had Julia kidnapped and held prisoner. Barnabas eventually rescued Julia, and Roxanne was killed via direct sunlight.

It was during this timeline that Valerie met up once again with Judah Zachary when his disembodied head was brought to Collinsport by Desmond Collins. Valerie soon began working with Barnabas in his efforts to find Judah, who was responsible for the problems in 1970. Through a long sequence of events, Judah took away all of Valerie's powers, thus turning her into an ordinary human being. Fortunately, before her powers were revoked, Valerie began to show true signs of compassion. Included in her good deads were testifying for Quentin at his witchcraft trial, and removing the vampire curse from Barnabas. Barnabas realized after all the years of fighting and hating that he truly did love Angelique. Sadly, before they could begin a life together, a crazed Lamar Trask shot her. She died in Barnabas' arms as he told her how much he loved her. (Note: this storyline and its outcome wildly contradict previous established "DS" history, among other ways in killing off Angelique when she was already seen to survive to the modern day. It's possible that Barnabas and Julia's actions altered established history, but the alterations and effects were never explored, as the series was never again set in the modern day.)

"Night of Dark Shadows"

In 1971, Lara Parker starred with David Selby and Kate Jackson in the MGM picture "Night of Dark Shadows". Parker once again played the role of Angelique, this time being the wicked witch wife of Charles Collins (Selby), who, after being hanged for witchcraft, returned centuries later to turn Quentin (also played by Selby) into his ancestor Charles.

1991 revival

While the role of Angelique is most often identified with Lara Parker, she was played by Lysette Anthony in the 1991 NBC revival of "Dark Shadows". Angelique's role in the revival was limited to an adaptation of the 1795 storyline.

Books

In 1998, Lara Parker made her writing debut with the novel "Angelique's Descent", which focused on Angelique's early years in Haiti and her love affair with Barnabas Collins. In 2006, she released a sequel, "The Salem Branch". She also wrote the introduction to the novel "Dark Shadows: Dreams of the Dark" (1999), written by Stephen Mark Rainey and Elizabeth Massie. This novel also featured Angelique prominently.

2004 revival

In 2004, Warner Bros. Television filmed a pilot for a "Dark Shadows" revival which was not picked up as a regular series. Bosnian-born actress Ivana Milicevic played the role of Angelique.

Big Finish

In 2006, Lara Parker reprised the role of Angelique for a series of radio plays with Big Finish Audio.

Powers and abilities

Often reckoned with—particularly by Barnabas Collins and Victoria Winters—Angelique was depicted as having a wide and formidable assortment of powers throughout the course of the series. When faced with physical threats, she could immobilize others with a mere gesture of her hand, halting those who attempted to approach or flee. Additionally, she could rob a person of their ability to speak, create a force of pressure around one's throat, or intensify the beating of the human heart to a dangerous pace.

At times, Angelique displayed popularly ascribed voodoo-like powers in which she could affect another person by possessing a certain object or by making a small mark on them. She once used this ability to thwart an experiment by repeatedly impaling a doll that was linked to one of the scientists.

When Angelique needed information or a servant able to perform feats beyond the powers of living mortals, she was able to call the dead back from their graves. Resistant ghosts were threatened with the curse of never being able to return to their resting places. Occasionally a ghost would use this opportunity to take care of unfinished business, particularly if it would threaten Angelique.

Angelique also possessed the means of casting curses on individuals. This included the ability to delay some of the aforementioned physical impairments, which would only take effect if the target attempted a certain action. At the center of a well-known story line was a "dream curse"—a nightmare that invaded the sleep of whoever possessed it until they described the dream to someone else. The curse would be passed from person to person until it was either removed, or ended with the individual whose ears it was meant for.

In addition, Angelique could use steady eye-contact to exert a degree of hypnosis on someone, and could temporarily throw people into docile trances. With unbound hands, Angelique even proves capable of dispelling flames, preventing herself from being vanquished by them.

Curiously, even though she is easily able to enact spells to make Josette and Jeremiah Collins, and later Maggie and Quentin, fall in love with each other, she never attempts to use magic to make Barnabas (whom she is romantically obsessed with) fall in love with her. As a general trait, Angelique uses her magic for vindictive, destructive ends and not for actual material gains. Her powers, rooted in black magic, can only harm but not benefact anyone.

Although very formidible, Angelique did have limitations. While she was able to raise a revenant of Jeremiah Collins from the grave, she was ultimately unable to control the undead creature and it turned against her. Furthermore, she was unable to remove the vampire curse from Barnabas once she had placed it upon him. (Although in another contradictory moment in the 1840 storyline, "Valerie" is able to remove the vampirism curse with no trouble.) She is not as powerful as the warlocks Judah Zachery and Nicholas Blair, both of whom were able to remove her magical abilities, and to control her. She is shown to be wary of but ultimately stronger than the famed witch hunter Reverend Trask. The mysterious entity Diabolos is more powerful than Angelique, Nicholas, or (presumably) Judah.

External links

* [http://www.laraparker.com/ Lara Parker Official Website]