Quentin Collins - Quentin II

Quentin II

The second Quentin Collins was actually the first one featured in the series, and is arguably the more popular of the two versions among fans, owing primarily to the fact that he is a werewolf. He was born in 1870, and had three siblings, two brothers, the eldest Edward (Louis Edmonds), the youngest Carl (John Karlen), and older sister Judith Collins (Joan Bennett). He had loved two children like his own, his niece and nephew, Jamison (Henesy) and Nora (Denise Nickerson). This version of Quentin was the great-nephew of the first Quentin Collins and whose lineage includes several supporting characters peppered throughout the series, including his great-grandchildren Amy (Nickerson), Chris, and Tom Jennings (Don Briscoe).

In December 1968, Quentin originally appeared as an angry malevolent spirit haunting the playroom in the west wing of Collinwood (along with the ghost of his lover Beth Chavez). Quentin and Beth's spirits befriended the children David Collins (Henesy) and his friend & distant cousin, Amy Jennings. David strongly resembled Jamison Collins. Eventually, they took possession of both children and used them to serve their own interests.

In an effort to save his family, the former vampire known as Barnabas Collins, used the cosmological principles of the I Ching to send his spirit backwards through time to the year 1897 (Unfortunately for Barnabas, this meant becoming a vampire once again as such was his physical state during that time period). This series of episodes is commonly referred to as the "1897 flashback".

Like the first Quentin, the second also was secretly involved in the occult and practiced witchcraft. He was a member of a witches coven headed by his best friend, the Collins family lawyer Evan Hanley (Humbert Allen Astredo).

In 1897, Quentin had earned himself a reputation of being the black sheep of the family – due largely in part to his marriage and subsequent abuse of a girl named Jenny (Marie Wallace). Quentin's affair with his brother Edward's wife Laura (Diana Millay), and his running off to Egypt with Laura resulted in Jenny Collins going insane. While Quentin was away, Jenny had two babies, a boy and a girl. Along with Beth Chavez, Edward and Judith Collins conspired to keep Jenny hidden from the rest of the family by imprisoning her inside of the tower room at Collinwood. Edward and Judith wanted to keep any knowledge of the babies from their father and the rest of the world. To that end they gave Jenny's children to Ms. Filmore in Collinsport, who would raise the children as her own. Amy, Chris, and Tom Jennings are descendant from the female child (Lenore Filmore).

When Quentin returned from Egypt in the spring of 1897, his wife was nowhere to be found. He turned his attention to his grandmother Edith Collins (Isabella Hoopes), who was ill and near death. Quentin hoped that she would leave the Collins wealth and control of Collinwood to him. When she dies, in an attempt to make that hope a reality, Quentin had Jamison Collins steal the will from the lining of Edith Collins' coffin. The will left everything to Edith's favorite, Edward. Quentin was only guaranteed a room at Collinwood for the rest of his life, but given no money. So Quentin went so far as to have Evan Hanley get Sandor Racosi (Thayer David) to make a fake will.

Quentin was being haunted by the ghost of Edith, and thought that Barnabas Collins was plotting against him. Being suspicious of his mysterious cousin from England, and believing he would try to interfere in his plans, Quentin and Hanley did a black magic ritual asking for help to defeat their enemies. Using the innocence of his young nephew Jamison as a focal point, they manage to summon a powerful spirit. The ritual resurrected from Hell the powerful witch Angelique (Lara Parker). But due to her own interests in Barnabas, Angelique wouldn't help.

Barnabas Collins stole the fake will, and had Sandor now under his vampiric control to change it, leaving everything to Judith Collins. Angelique warned Barnabas about Quentin being out to destroy him. Quentin had Jamison steal Barnabas’s cane which he then uses in a ritual to cause Barnabas great pain. Had Barnabas been mortal instead of a vampire, the ritual would have killed him.

Soon after, Quentin's insane wife Jenny escaped from the tower room and stabbed Quentin to death. Quentin possesses the body of Jamison. Barnabas, not wanting to fail at his mission to save the future Collins family from Quentin's ghost, asked Angelique to restore Quentin to life. However, Angelique was jealous of Barnabas latest love interest Rachel Drummond. So, she turned Quentin into a zombie, and had him try to take Rachel back to the grave with him.

Due to Jamison's strange behavior of acting like Quentin, Edward Collins decides to send Jamison and Nora to the Worthington Hall Boarding School operated by Reverend Gregory Trask. Barnabas tried to resurrect Quentin, but the ritual failed because Quentin wouldn't leave Jamison's body. Yet, Barnabas was able to save Rachel. Reverend Trask's prayer was apparently answered when Quentin was restored to life, and Jamison was no longer possessed by Quentin, although Angelique was apparently the one that actually used her powers to do it for her own reasons.

After returning from the dead, Quentin had increased paranoia about Jenny trying to kill him again. It was at this time that Magda (Grayson Hall) and Sandor Racosi (Thayer David) discovered that Jenny was still alive. It turns out that she was Magda's sister, a gypsy that had run away from home and married Quentin. None of the Collins family had known that she was a gypsy, so it was a shock to Judith, Edward, and the rest of the family.

Magda threatened to curse Quentin if he did anything more to hurt her sister. Quentin, however, was more worried about Jenny hurting him or his beloved Beth Chavez. When Jenny catches Quentin and Beth kissing, she attacks him with a knife. In self defense he kills Jenny. With the help of his brother Edward, in order to protect the Collins name, Jenny's death is covered up as an accidental fall down the stairs. Magda finds a button from Quentin's suit in Jenny's hand, and can easily tell that Jenny didn't die from a fall, but was strangled. So she makes plans to curse Quentin.

Quentin, believing that he is already cursed, and thinking he's haunted by the ghost of Jenny, goes to Magda and tries to get her to lift the curse. His sister Judith gave him $10,000, in return for him signing away his right to live at Collinwood. Magda and Sandor took the money, and said the curse was lifted, having a drink to the agreement. Then Magda throws the money back at him, and informs Quentin that the drink he just had contained the curse.

Quentin soon discovered that he had inherited a curse that transformed him into a werewolf whenever the moon was full. He had no memory of what he done as a werewolf. The transformation itself was painful and unbearable for Quentin. He was tormented by the blood of innocent victims he found on him the morning after. Barnabas, sympathetic to Quentin's plight, tried to help him overcome the curse, but to no avail. He did, however, succeed in altering Quentin’s destiny, preventing the creation of the future timeline where Quentin’s spirit plagued Collinwood.

Quentin was hopeless, and had contemplated suicide as the only way out. But Magda, having discovered that she had not only cursed Quentin, but also her sister Jenny's children for all eternity, decided to try and help find a cure for Quentin. Magda had heard of a magical hand possessed by a gypsy tribe controlled by King Johnny Romano. Magda went off to find the magical hand of Count Petofi, and stole it. She returned to Collinwood, with the hand, in hopes of lifting the werewolf curse from Quentin and his first born male descendants. However, the hand's powers were uncontrollable, and did as it pleased.

Then, the powerful warlock Count Petofi, and his servant Aristede arrived in Collinsport, looking for his all powerful hand. After causing much trouble for the Collins family via possessing Jamison Collins with his own spirit, Barnabas and Quentin were pressured into giving his hand back, or risk Jamison dying, and with him the entire future of the Collins family. So they gave Petofi back his hand.

Reverend Gregory Trask had become supsicious of Quentin and his strange behavior. He discovered Quentin with chains in his room, and Quentin confessed that he was the werewolf, and wanted to be killed. Trask, wanting to make sure Quentin was the werewolf, took him to a cell in the basement, and waited for the moon. Yet, Quentin didn't change that night. Upon arriving back at his room, he met Count Petofi, who showed Quentin his portrait, and that it had changed into the werewolf instead of him. Petofi said he would expect the debt of curing Quentin to be paid at some point in the future.

Not only did the portrait cure Quentin of lycanthropy, but he was also rendered immortal due to the efforts of the artist Charles Delaware Tate (Roger Davis), whose powers were a gift of Count Petofi. In a pastiche of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, at the request of Count Petofi, Tate painted a portrait of Quentin Collins. So long as the portrait remained intact, Quentin would remain forever young, and the portrait would change into the werewolf instead of Quentin himself.

Quentin soon discovered that the price Count Petofi expected to be paid was his now immortal body. Count Petofi wanted to escape the gypsies, who wanted his powerful hand for themselves. Petofi used his powers to swap bodies with Quentin. Using Barnabas Collins' method of time travel, the I Ching wands, Petofi travelled 70 years into the future. In Quentin's body he would be forever young, and free from any threat from his gypsy enemies. However, something went wrong with Petofi's spell. The powers returned to the hand in his old body. Quentin used the powers of the hand to reverse the body swap. Before Petofi could swap bodies again, Quentin left Collinsport. Petofi apparently died in a fire at Tate's studio before he could possess Barnabas Collins' body, whom he realised also existed in the future.

Quentin was still alive and wandering the streets of Collinsport by the year 1969. An amnesiac calling himself Grant Douglas, he reunited with Barnabas Collins and soon regained his true memories. He worked closely alongside Barnabas and his trusted companion Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall), and aided them against the likes of Angelique and the Cult of the Leviathans.

During this time, Quentin discovered that his lycanthropy had passed along his family line, affecting his descendant Chris Jennings (Chris' twin brother, Tom, ironically enough became a vampire).