Castlevania season 2 finale recap: End Times signals a new beginning

The season 2 finale of Netflix series Castlevania examines the hardship of killing one’s own father, and how its characters (and the series) will move past Dracula’s death.

After slaying Dracula (Graham McTavish), one might think Castlevania could be over. After all, Dracula is one of the most recognizable monster names in the biz. However, Castlevania‘s main heroes, Trevor Belmont (Richard Armitage), Sypha Belnades (Alejandra Reynoso) and Alucard (James Callis) make it clear that the story’s not over.

Although Alucard has inherited both his father Dracula’s castle and the Belmont estate, he must deal with the grief of having murdered his parent. Belmont tries to console him, telling him to make the property his home, not his grave. Still, there’s a sense that Alucard’s grief will be revisited in future episodes. Will it conquer him the way his father was driven to madness over the death of his wife (Emily Swallow)?

The future for Isaac, Carmilla, and Hector, and Dracula’s vision

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Heroes aren’t the only ones moving on. After being magically transported to a desert-scape, we see Dracula’s loyal servant Isaac (Adetokumboh M’Cormack) dealing not with inner demons but outer pests. Yes, some lowly human beings have not only found Isaac but are threatening to capture and sell him. Quite understandably, Isaac slashes, stabs and whips them, then decides to turn them into a burgeoning army of the undead. He is, after all, a forgemaster, and this is just what forgemasters do.

The question is, will he just leave it at that? Probably not, but Castlevania is capable of characters with complex motives, who may be capable of change. Isaac may despise humanity, and may have sided with Dracula in his quest to destroy all people, but who knows just what he’ll do? Perhaps he’ll mostly stay by himself until something riles him up. Either way, he’s a force to be reckoned with.

Meanwhile, Carmilla (Jaime Murray) has less complex motives. She sees the death of Dracula as an opportunity. In fact, it was her plan all along. Now she has enslaved the other forgemaster, Hector (Theo James), who will be like her pet. The two set off to Styria. While we don’t know exactly what her plans are, we can guess she has designs on world domination. In fact, it’s implied that she may be more cruel and unusual in her power-seeking that Dracula ever was.

Unfortunately, she probably will not resurrect Godbrand (Peter Stormare), a Viking vampire warlord who delivered mayhem with panache. You are missed, Godbrand! Of course, Dracula himself will be missed by many, and it’s easy to argue that his character was a bit underutilized. One of course wonders if he’s really, truly, 100% vanquished, as other popular carnations of Dracula seem to be capable of returning.

In any case, his plight was both demented and understandable at the same time. Like many people, he looked at humanity and said, “You know what? I don’t like this,” and decided “enough is enough.” It’s not the recommended course of action for anybody out there, and kind of has him sinking to humanity’s level himself. Still, Castlevania was not too cowardly for complexity, which makes this show good, even for those who weren’t previously Castlevania video game fans. It seems Isaac will carry his humanity-conquering torch. The question is, how far will he run with it? Dracula’s plans seemed to get dramatically cut short. Maybe it takes a more human face to lay more humans to waste?

Belmont and Sypha

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This Castlevania season doesn’t end entirely sour. Sypha doesn’t want to go back to her old life, and Belmont agrees to accompany her on future adventures. In fact, they head out sort of romantically on a horse-drawn carriage. It may be too early to sing, “Belmont and Sypha, sitting in a tree,” but it does seem a relationship is being forged. Still, it’s obvious that the future will test whatever bonds they’ve established. Between Isaac, Carmilla, Hector and even Alucard, some type of craziness is bound to happen. While Alucard weeps in his new castle, something wicked awaits next season.

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