Now when I mentioned in my last review that things were going to pick up, that was no joke as things seriously began to heat up this episode. I found myself engrossed from start to finish and I didn’t want things to end, which is saying a lot about this episode. The show has had its share of ups and downs in the beginning but this is by far the best episode of the show and things can only get better as we reach the end…hopefully.
Lady Jayne (Victoria Smurfit) has been keeping herself busy as London has been becoming quite crowded with the undead, and it leaves very little time for her relationship with Mr. Grayson (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). The one thing in this show that has bothered me a bit are the abilities of the vampires. They seem very underpowered and Lady Jayne was able to track down and kill many vampires throughout this single episode. She has had no trouble making you believe that she has some sort of supernatural powers herself… a la Buffy the Vampire the Slayer. Needless to say, now that she knows Dracula is in London, her upcoming showdown will be an epic battle.
Dracula himself has been having a lot of trouble lately. In the last episode his machine unveiling was sabotaged, leaving his company in a state of crisis. Now his business is being avoided by politicians and business people, not only because of what happened but also because Browning (Ben Miles) seems to have an iron grip over the political machine of London, as Renfield (Nonso Anozie) puts it. Van Helsing (Thomas Kretschmann) is not thrilled about this either since they were to use the company to systematically bring down The Order. This leads to Van Helsing bypassing Dracula’s orders of not involving himself directly with The Order and kidnapping Browning’s kids. This will probably not bode too well for him once Dracula finds out.
Dracula’s problems do not end there as Mina (Jessica De Gouw) cannot stand the sight of him and thinks of him as a monster, thanks to Harker making her aware of his shady dealings. But of course when Mina gets attacked, it is Dracula who comes to her rescue and profess his love to her (while she is unconscious of course), leaving Mr Harker in a difficult position.
Jonathan’s (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) character development over the course of the season has been an interesting one and probably one of the dramatic; at first I didn’t really prefer his storylines and thought that his character was truly lacklustre but as we get down to the end, things have ramped up. Knowing that Alexander and Mina were growing closer together, Harker distrusts Mina; however when he found out about the attack on Mina, he went to Davenport knowing that his men were the ones responsible. In a fit of rage Harker shoots Davenport after he pleads for his life and tries to turn his anger towards Grayson. This leads to Harker discovering the painting of Ilona/Mina in Davenport’s office.
This revelation leads to him sleeping with Lucy, having now ventured down a road that he can no longer look back on.
This episode truly was exciting and although there were many things going on in it, I never wanted to peel myself away for fear that I might miss something exciting. This (for now) is my favourite episode in the show and probably the best episode they have aired, as there was a lot of action and new revelations coming to light. Stay tuned…