Castlevania Season 4 Ep 5 Recap and Review – Back in the World, to Live in Hope

“With Greta's help, Alucard sets out to guide the villagers to his castle for protection. Sypha pushes back on Zamfir's leadership. Isaac makes a move.”

Just a reminder: this is a mature series, so swearing, and brutal fights ahead.

The opening act with Alucard alone was something beautiful. Seeing him being, human, was delightful. Also, just how close Greta was hitting with the truth of Saint Germain. This would be inter-cut throughout the episode. Hearing more of Greta's history, the loneliness of Alucard and seeing the clever ruse of Saint Germain. Just getting to know Greta better alone was worth watching this episode.

It felt like Saint Germain was letting something slip, muttering about Dragan, his co-conspirator in the middle of the episode. But the careful herding of Alucard and the villagers from Danesti by Saint Germain and Drakan only becomes apparent when you take a few steps back. Carefully managing to harass the group, make it seem random, but with complete and utter purpose. A real enough threat to merit significantly better defenses, but careful enough attacks to minimize the losses without anyone realizing the purpose behind it. Also, the comments on the magic with Alucard and Saint Germain Greta made. She rightly notices the stench of death from the key while Alucard has his enchanted items and his own magic.

The time with Lenore and Hector was telling. What we saw in the last episode left a much bigger impression on Lenore than expected and she passed that along to Issac. We also saw the blood bond ring in action as Hector forged a Night Creature for the Sisters. The forces are beginning to gather now.

There's more happening here, it's just a question of how it'll play out. The “loss of purpose” of Lenore is telling. She's a loose end now without a clear goal like she had before. Her ambitions had been simple and she saw them as very manageable. She's started to see what Morana and Striga saw a few episodes ago: Camilla is overreaching, settling them up for an eternal conflict. Unfortunately, she thinks that diplomacy is possibly a thing of the past.. She could be right but there is a lot she could do yet. While not as ambitious as Camilla, she still understands how to get plenty done. And then Hector... he's either waiting for something or doing what he needs to. Given what we've seen, it's better to assume he's an agent for Varney within Styria.

The time with Sypha, Zamfir, and Trevor, it was brief. It's telling to see that Sypha does more for Târgoviște in minutes than Zamfir and her faction did in all the years since. Trevor also clearly sees what going on and is doing his part to eliminate the Night Creatures and Vampires. Zamfir doesn't seem to have any real clear goal beyond supporting this hidden court. Nothing deeper here to comment on, just the set-up for the next episode.

Finally, we reached the last one of the storyline, with Issac. His scene wrapping the episode was simple: declare war on Styria to get to Hector. Very much he seeks vengeance on the traitor Hector.

The final tally for this episode:

1 disemboweled dog

5 decapitations on 1 creature (NEW RECORD!)

0 dick jokes

This was the first episode to bring all 4 story lines together. We know of the immediate collision of Hector and Issac's forces. The plans initiated by Saint Germain have just completed their next phase, and are ready to begin the penultimate phase. Which means what Varney has been pulling together is nearing completion.

There are two things I can very much appreciate about this episode. The first is the talking between Alucard and Greta, about what happened with the siblings who came to train with him. Just the respect for the audience in not needing to retell everything. The second is the deceptive nature of this episode. It has plenty of exposition, hell, that's the majority of it. The fights are spectacular enough to get you swept up in them and not notice how brief they are.

At the end of all of this, just know I'm more than ready to watch the next episode... just as soon as I finish this review. So... now!