Ron Does Stuff

Things aren’t looking good for our heroes! Drolta got Sekhmet’s body, Maria’s possibly turning evil, and Alucard is somewhere in the Seine. What are we to do?

Drolta flew away with Sekhmet’s body at the end of the last episode, with Alucard in the Seine, Richter frustrated, and Annette struggling with deciphering what it is exactly the spirits want her to do. But just like the previous episodes, this one starts with a flashback and we’re back in Egypt again. We find out the Erszebet has been partaking of Sekhmet’s blood for 175 years now, if I’m understanding it correctly, and she has not once been consumed by its power.

Back in the present day, Alucard is pissed at their failure and blames Richter for it, and he does have a point. Since getting rid of Sekhmet’s body is already a dead end, Alucard instructs Annette and Richter to destroy any vampire nests in Paris so that they only have to worry about Erzsebet’s coming forces.

Meanwhile, Maria is having her own dark night of the soul after murdering her father. Juste tries to make her understand that life is still worth living even after all the horror that they’ve encountered, but what Maria gets out of it is that maybe she should become a vampire as well and be with her mother forever. Tera stops her from doing this, though, and leaves Maria alone to give both of them a chance to find themselves again. Now I gotta admit that storylines like this usually get me easily, but there’s just something missing from it to make me fully connect with it. I can’t articulate it but it’s just failing to land for some reason.

Edouard’s singing isn’t helping out either. I don’t know why, but his singing hasn’t really connected with me either even back during the first season. It just seems like it was added there as affectation and not for much else. And I know his singing plays a part in both the plot and characterization but it just comes off as superficial whenever it’s being used.

The use of actual people from the French Revolution also starts feeling gimmicky, even though it’s been obvious since the first season that this is where it’s going to head. Right now it just feels like it’s trying to make the story deeper than it actually is, when something as simple as Dracula grieving over his dead wife lends the narrative a depth that this show sadly lacks.

I don’t know why the show is losing me at this point, but it just feels like its rushing developments for the characters. I’m not finding the Annette/Richter romance particularly moving and actually find it much more compelling when Annette finally figures out what it is the spirits are asking from her. I guess it’s a good thing these episodes are short!