Tainted Love finally tells the story that I've been waiting years for - the love triangle between David Collins, Amy Jennings, and Hallie Stokes. When the show was originally on the air, obviously they were all too young for any kind of romantic entanglements; however, after the show ended, and I continued to think about the show over the decades, I honestly wondered which girl David would eventually end up with. As much as I loved the character of Hallie Stokes, I still had a soft spot for Amy and hoped he would eventually end up with her. But, when Amy returned to Collinsport over the course of these audio stories, and she was married and had two children, I realized that there was no chance of her and David getting together. And then her husband was killed. Leaving her a widow. And single.
Enter Hallie Stokes.
This audio story picks up shortly after the events of the Bloodlust mini-series, as David and Amy are coming to grips with all that has happened. David still feels guilty, even though he was possessed and had no control over his actions, and Amy is still trying to figure out how to raise two growing boys on her own. Then a stranger shows up, accusing them of having his wife, of hiding her from him. Just as he attacks, however, someone appears and utterly destroys the man. That someone is Hallie Stokes, returned to Collinsport as a bona fide demon hunter.
Yeah, okay, that sounds kind of hokey, but when you remember that this is Dark Shadows, where the supernatural is common place, perhaps it is not quite as ludicrous as it sounds. As the story unfolds, we discover that a demon is trying to crossover, using individuals who have lost something important and are completely obsessed with recovering whatever was lost, and, as misfortune would have it, all roads lead to Collinsport. Specifically, that cave at the bottom of Widow's Hill where Angelique was living during the Bloodlust min-series. But as David and Amy grow closer, Hallie seems more and more intent on driving them apart.
It's pretty obvious from the outset what direction the story will take. The writer, Daniel Collard, does not in any way try to downplay or use subtlety with regards to the "villain" of this tale. However, Collard does nicely connect this tale to a number of other audios - as this picks up shortly after Bloodlust; Hallie references meeting Amy on a train, which occurred in Carriage of the Damned; Amy mentions her meeting with Sabrina Jennings, which occurred most recently in Deliver Us From Evil; and there is talk of Maggie Evans' marriage to Joe Haskell, which is part of the plot in the upcoming 50th audio story.
Without giving anything away, I will say that the ending was not what I was expecting, nor was it something I particularly liked. I realize that stories in soap operas like this will not always go the way I want them to, but this one just seemed too much out of character and left me wondering why they chose to go in this direction. I assume as I continue to listen to the ongoing stories, it will eventually all play out and I'll (hopefully!!!) have an explanation.
Overall, I would have to say this was not one of their better stories. Yes, I enjoyed the characters together again, and yes, it was great to actually see Amy and Hallie come face to face after all these years; but the story seemed a bit forced and contrived, almost as if it was written only for the reason of reaching the specific conclusion it did.
RATING: 6 hidden strips of bacon out of 10 for bringing together the youth of the original Dark Shadows for a story that resolves (??) the question of who will end up with David in the end...
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