Castlevania Season 4 Ep 8 Recap and Review – Death Magic

“Varney and Ratko discover their plan is working – but who gets the credit? Also, Zamfir finally takes Belmont, Sypha and Zamfir battle Varney, Ratko and their unholy army. Alucard's castle falls under attack, and Saint Germain shares his scheme.”

Just a reminder: this is a mature series, so swearing, and brutal fights ahead. There will be viserca and lots of blood.

Things have been building up for a little while now with the events in Castlevania. One major conflict has been resolved, but two others have been building for a little while now. This is the episode where all that comes to payout. The two conflicts are the assault on Targoviste's Underground Court and on the Castle.

Seeing the final results of the work that Saint Germain has been working on is something. He begins casting the spell to literally pull Dracula out of Hell. It gives the stakes a boost which were already high with the assault on the castle. Then we have the character realization of what Saint Germain has been up to when Alucard and Greta have the townsfolk retreat back into the castle. The glowing sigils that guide the souls for the spell. Plus, seeing the power that a Vampire Legion can muster is impressive. The large beasts with the flame breath are something to be scared of for sure.

As for the fight in the Underground court, Zamfir making the choices she did was a good bit of redemption for her. She'd shown a lot of neglect, in a sense, toward the people. She had a little left to learn about being a noble and seeing to the people. Seeing her, Sypha, and Trevor fighting the Night Creatures as well as Ratko and other, unnamed, vampire. Sypha using the holy way in the sluiceway through the court shows a brilliant mind for just eliminating these creatures. Plus, when Sypha actually gets angry, she uses an amazing amount of magic to quickly clear away the surviving assailants within the Underground Court. All the action here is the bigger fight than what is happening around the Castle, a bit of a surprise given its a smaller scale conflict.

When Varney steps on through the mirror to arrive at the side of Saint Germain, it sent chills down my spine. It's easy to find of Varney as a simple braggart, but never write off someone who is very much playing a long game. Usually they have a few more cards up their sleeve than you might think. Also, why does Varney have white eyes? Just the pupils, with a white iris around it. It's been bugging me since the start of the season when he got introduced. The way things are going, those eyes might just be a clue that's easy to overlook. The episode ends with Sypha and Trevor stepping through the mirror Varney used, instantly bringing them back to Dracula's Castle. There is still the matter of Varney and Saint Germain for the series to resolve as well. But that is all for next time.

We saw a lot happening in this episode with all its combat. A lot of the Night Creatures we've seen have come back in this episode. The flying creatures, revealed to have two variants, as well as the spider creatures from the forest. A few odd others appeared as well. Seeing the sorcerers within the carriage that Dragan's forces use magic to enhance the strange two legged beast that had been pulling them along. Also, the strange creature to be revealed to have immense combat potential with its durable hide fending off all attacks. This series has been doing a good job of taking advantage of all the monsters that they have available and putting them all to use. On the other side, we have strange vampire sorcerers who have been working on what we have to assume is going to be the Rebis, a vessel to contain the souls of both Vlad and Lisa. That helps make a lot more sense of the morbid combination of both male and female parts. This is a curious change from the actual goal of alchemy with the Philosopher's Stone , or any perfected item. In a sense it's the same... looking for something to be an object of contradictions. Then again, the ultimate goal of Alchemy IRL changes from region to region. The European tradition is mostly after transmuting common (lead) to something more valuable (gold), or good old fashioned immortality.

The stage is set for the final arcs of the story. Let's see where it all goes.

Final Tally for the Episode:

The Dead: A Mountain

Soul Powered Spells: 1

Two-Weapon Fighter: 1