Death Magic
Episode 8 of Castlevania Season 4 marks the beginning of the end. Ratko and his forces arrive and make short work of the humans cowering underground. Blood is spilled but Belmont quickly interjects and helps fight back. While this is going on, Saint Germain opens the portal to the Infinite Corridor, using the sacrificed souls outside Dracula’s castle as fuel. What he clearly didn’t bank on however, is Alucard getting involved and fighting so valiantly against the hell beasts raining down on the castle. However, the dark forces have more than a few tricks up their sleeve. A strange fire-breathing behemoth arrives and begins igniting the world into a crescendo of angry flames. The forces are just too great and despite Alucard’s best intentions, the men and women are forced to retreat inside the castle. With the doors shut, Alucard and the others do their best to barricade up the area and prevent anyone from entering. Alucard however, notices ominous red lights coming from his childhood room. Upon closer inspection, he finds Saint Germain using this room to open the portal to Hell and bring Dracula and Lisa Tepes back. In fact, he’s going to take them both and place their souls inside the divine hermaphrodite body. All of this is, of course, a ploy to bring back the woman he lost in the Infinite Corridor. Interestingly, Saint Germain also happens to be wearing one of the slave rings that Lenore had for Hector. Unable to pass through the magical barrier, Alucard heads back down to the main hall as the doors are breached and open up. Alucard manages to thwart the fire-breathing titan, launching his sword deep into the mouth of this creature and watching as it rips the titan up from the inside out. However, there are still more warriors to try and defeat. Meanwhile in the underground. Zamfir sacrifices herself to save a few of her townsfolk. As she bleeds out, Zamfir promises that her people will prevail, allowing Belmont the time needed to kill Ratko. Unfortunately it comes at a heavy cost, which sees Belmont weakened and Zamfir bleeding out. Varney seizes his opportunity and finds the skeletal remains of the royals. After kicking one of them over, the curtain behind them peels away to show shards of glass hovering in mid-air. It’s the mirror, and this serves as a portal to jump through into Alucard’s castle – and right next to Saint Germain as he works. Belmont and Sypha see this too and hurry over. As the glass continues to change and distort, they head inside and await whatever terror may be lurking on the other side for them.
The Episode Review
With fighting breaking out on two fronts, Castlevania delivers a solid episode of action, encapsulating our characters in a whirlwind of tension and drama. The chapter does well to balance both fights out too, with lots of intriguing possibilities for the rest of the season. However, there has been a feeling of imbalance to a lot of the material this year, with Carmilla’s defeat a little underwhelming compared to the build-up her and her sisters had last season. Despite that though, the fighting is far from over and it seems everything is converging onto Dracula’s castle for the final fight. Despite some questionable plot elements, the season has been incredibly exciting and the action has been brilliant throughout. This episode features a fair amount of it too, leaving the door wide open for the final two episodes.
