What is a recap? A miserable little pile of spoilers!
Last episode, the war council was crumbling into factions amongst itself, with unfortunate consequences for Godbrand, while our three heroes were growing emotionally closer by their own proximity.
Today we’ll dive into the fifth episode of Castlevania season two, “Last Spell.”
1. Decoding Sypha
During their time in the massive Belmont Hold, our three heroes have been slowly changing their connections with one another. While at first, Sypha was closer with Alucard due to his polite nature, his reserved behavior in the Hold has left her keeping her distance in many ways, though still being friendly. By contrast, she is now closer to Trevor, who also showed another side of himself, one of heightened enthusiasm and kindness. She even defended Trevor from Alucard when the latter made jokes about his immaturity. Most notably, these comments were made out of earshot from the monster hunter, so it was not merely for his benefit, but also a show of her own feelings.
On another note, our scholar discovers the benefits of writing down what they learned so as not to let it decay in individuals’ memories, and even prefers it over individual memories alone, a far cry from her origins as a Speaker who would balk at such a concept. She shows extremely in-depth knowledge of not only oral languages, as would be expected of a member of a nomadic people focused on spoken history, but of written ones as well, including such languages as not only Enochian (as revealed when she opened the Hold’s door several episodes ago), but also other lost tongues such as High Remembrance, Chaldaic, and “Adamic,” the language spoken by Adam and Eve and all of those who communicated before the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. Of course, given she self-identifies as a scholar of magic, rather than using the term “magician” herself, perhaps it is to be expected that she would be very intelligent and well-read, for sake of learning techniques through her studies.
2. The Braila Decision
Due to the pressure by Carmilla, not to mention his own desire for peace amongst the vampires, Hector brings Isaac out into the daylight to discuss strategy, aware that Dracula doesn’t care how their job gets done so long as it is done at all. He compares vampires to animals, mostly to unruly cats who need herding, still seeing them as “pure” and devoid of true malice, unlike humanity. Interestingly, his original comparisons are to community-based animals such as wolves and bats, both of which are associated with vampires as forms they can turn to (though wolves are less known than bats in direct association). Isaac agrees to stop pressing the issue of Arges, noting that not only would it get Carmilla to stop scheming (uh… not a chance), but perhaps they would even get Godbrand to smile, though he is well aware of the man’s death due to having caused it presumably the day before.
(Speaking of the departed Viking, the episode opens on a bit of black comedy with Isaac scattering his ashes from a battlement of the castle itself. What made this comedic is that just inside, from an angle that could easily have seen him, Carmilla is complaining about not being able to find the hedonistic berserker, notably the last time he was spoken about directly in the story.)
After their discussion, Isaac visits to Dracula’s quarters to speak with him, and tells Dracula of it all. When asked about if there were traitors, Isaac is very serious, noting that he would destroy any hints of treachery before Dracula ever heard of it (not an empty promise, given what he did at the end of the previous episode with Godbrand). Isaac believes Hector to still be loyal, but to want the infighting to stop. Amusingly, Dracula is aware of how Hector’s habit of bringing dead animals back to life could unnerve his parents, such as a reanimated cat doing tricks for their son. Together, they equate Hector to a child who is easily controlled, but agree that it is perhaps best to just go ahead and settle the issue of Braila to get some peace and quiet.
Continued belowOnce Hector and Isaac both come to the room, accompanied by Carmilla (who by all right would likely not have been brought in most cases, but doesn’t seem to really care about being polite if it doesn’t get her what she wants). Upon further discussion of Braila, Dracula just agrees, noting that he does not care how the humans die, just so long as they all do.
3. Dracula’s Ambivalence
Dracula at present has been shown time and again to be rather ambivalent about the goings on of his crusade, a situation noted by all of his named generals at one point or another. Privately, he confides with Isaac that he was not always like this. There was a time when he relished every detail, going over intelligence for days and delighting in death. However, while he did love it and was more selective in his choices of victims in such cases as the disrespectful merchants of Kronstadt (who he had killed forty of but spared the rest of the town), he has grown tired over the months or years, and by the present merely wants an end to humanity altogether, no matter how it is achieved.
The monstrous behavior of Dracula himself harkens back to legends, and brings to mind Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula that is the source of much in regards to popular fiction around vampires. One element in particular comes to mind, his cloak seeming to be “spreading out around him like great wings.”
While the outcome is still brutal and disturbing, even the horrific violence has a sense of tragedy. Yes, he is still treated as a monster, but also one who has lost his will to continue, practically just going through the motions.
4. Not-So-Stunning Betrayal
Surprise! Carmilla, no longer needing to be kind with Hector, stops pretending altogether and declared to him that she sees herself surrounded by “animals, children, and weak old men.” While Hector is not the latter, she identifies him as a mixture between the former two, perhaps a “puppy” (not to be confused with his own puppy, little Cezar).
As for why she wasn’t treating him as a person anymore? Well, why should she even bother? By bringing her into the meetings and working in accordance with plans that the entire council, especially Dracula, knows are hers, he implicated himself in her plot. If he were to turn against her at this point, he would be stuck between two different, very powerful enemies far beyond his mortal capabilities even with his Forgemastery. The only way to survive, then, is to see her plan through to the end as a servant, rather than as an equal.
5. Raising the Stakes
Back to our heroes, Sypha finally finds a locking spell that the Belmonts had been working on to try and keep Dracula’s castle in one place, and begins working on putting it together in conjunction with Alucard’s work repairing a “distance mirror” used to watch far-off locations. Perhaps this is the eponymous “last spell” of the episode itself, being the potential last one worked on by House Belmont before its destruction?
However, they are not as safe as they assumed, as the night creatures requested by Carmilla finally arrive, and begin attempting to bash their way into the Hold to destroy it.
