Episode Title: “Come to Die”
Writer: Harley Peyton
Director: Brian Kelly
Previously on “Dracula”
Episode 1.07 “Servant to Two Masters”
NBC’s “Dracula” is one of the most frustrating shows I’ve ever seen on television. It single-handedly pushes people away with its pacing, while providing enough meat to bite down on (no pun intended). The intricacies of the show’s characters and the set pieces keep me coming back. With only two episodes left, what logical conclusions can the show come to? Can Dracula (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) defeat The Order of the Dragon? Will Mina (Jessica De Gouw) finally fall under his spell? Will Lady Jayne Wetherby (Victoria Smurfit) die at the hands of The Order for cavorting with Greyson? And will somebody actually give a damn about Jonathan Harker (Oliver Jackson-Cohen)?
Dracula’s role with regard to the order has transformed, as the season has gone on, from boring subplot to an obsession that fully engulfs all of Dracula’s life. It’s their presence (and Mina’s) that drives his need to walk in sunlight, his refusal to consume blood, despite a serum that will not cure that hunger, and his want to become everything he’s not. They’ve also pushed this as the one thing that he needs be to get what he wants in life – the destruction of the Order and Mina’s heart. He can only have them if he embraces who he is fully. He’s become the sympathetic villain, whether he intended to be or not.
“Come to Die” finds our protagonist confronting all of that, going to great lengths to fight it all, even if it means going through Renfield (Nonso Anozie), as this weeks preview clip shows. It’s more than love for Greyson, it’s reliving the past. He goes so far as to park is carriage outside her residence just to watch the light from the windows. In those moments, he is Jay Gatsby, trying to erase time and change what he cannot. When Mina confronts him later in the episode, it releases a primal rage that few would be able to quell, and yet it’s a human that does. Anozie’s role continues to be more and more powerful each week. He’s become a physical conscience, and he genuinely cares for his employer. He cares so much that he allows Greyson to throw him to the floor, into stairs and finally a table.
Lady Jayne has become a character worth liking of late. She dumps Alexander Greyson upon an evening visit, citing his love for Mina as the reason. Last week’s dance gave him away; it was pretty obvious. More so, when the Order needs information and vampires dispatched, they send her. She commands her action sequences, transcending gender to be a formidable warrior. When Browning (Ben Miles) sends her out for information, it’s revealed that Dracula has returned by a newly turned vampire. It should seem so obvious by now, but still the Order and Lady Jayne are thick headed. Sometimes, I wait for Joseph Gordon Levitt’s character from “The Dark Knight Rises” to come on screen to tell them it’s Greyson! The man knew who Batman was, it shouldn’t be this hard to figure out who Dracula is!
This episode should be commended for finally making some moves. A lot of those moves were made by Jonathan Harker. Last week saw Lucy Westerna (Katie McGrath) putting the moves on Harker, at the insistence of Lady Jayne. This week, Harker moves on them. Lord Thomas Davenport (Robert Bathurst) sends men to attack Mina, and before they can do permanent damage, they are dismembered gruesomely by Dracula. Upon learning of her attacker, Harker confronts Davenport, killing him accidentally before he can reveal the painting of Mina… well, past life Mina. When Harker sees the painting, he immediately goes to Lucy, and compromises his marriage. This becomes the turning point of the show, revealing its full hand.
There are a few things that aren’t clear, though. Like how Abraham Van Helsing (Thomas Kretschmann) fits into the whole picture. He has a bit of a fallout with Drac concerning the serum, but Renfield, ever the mender, calms the situation. It would be a tragedy to see him fall into the background these last two episodes.
My greatest fear is that Mina’s role will be confined in these last two episodes, with her injuries keeping her in the hospital. She’s no Lady Jayne in terms of toughness, but as a pivotal character, she deserves better than a sideline’s glance. Mina’s always been a strong female lead, but even now as it’s winding down, it’s difficult to place her. Greyson’s influence will become even greater, that’s a given – how much of that resistance falls away with Harker’s actions compromising the wedding.
NBC’s “Dracula” put together a solid episode where a lot of big moves were made, and yet, it never felt rushed in any way. What can be expected from the next two episodes? The Order’s part will have to head to the forefront. The previews indicate Harker’s induction into the Order, making me wonder if this was imminent from the start, that Harker’s path was always going to lead to this. We know he’s proficient with a gun, but in a fight against a vampire, does he honestly stand a chance? Probably not, as he’s always been portrayed as weak. Likewise, what kind of body count can we expect toward the end.?It has to be high, given the nature of the characters at hand.
The greatest lesson learned in history is that those who don’t study the past are doomed to repeat it. History follows a line and it never deviates. In Bram Stoker’s story, we have our lines. A series of them, straight, somewhat narrow, and they always need to be considered. If anything, NBC’s “Dracula” has been the road less traveled, but even those roads become familiar after a certain length of time.
