Episode Title: “Of Monsters and Men”
Writer: Katie Lovejoy
Director: Nick Murphy
Previously on “Dracula”:
Episode 1.05 “The Devil’s Waltz”
“Of Monsters and Men” is “Dracula’s” mid-season finale, and while it seems laughable that a show with ten episodes in its season is getting a mid-season finale, it could also be a sign that NBC still cares for it?
December is for spending quality time with family around fake evergreen trees and the nostalgia of an overweight, cookie eater bringing you presents for no particular reason at all. TV is largely abandoned, as networks give us classic childhood favorites like “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and the twenty four hour beat down that is “A Christmas Story” on TBS. There’s simply no room for regular programming!
NBC’s caring is most likely for a different reason. This week, NBC announced that Daniel Knauf, head writer and executive producer of “Dracula,” and creator of HBO’s “Carnivàle,” would be adapting Joe Johnston’s film, The Wolfman, into a series. Could NBC be turning into the “Universal Monster Network?” Is the nostalgia factor there to make this a worthwhile venture? Possibly, but NBC’s struggles with the Friday night, ten o’clock spot this time of year cannot be cured with more of the same. If “Dracula” does come back for another season, it will not survive in the slot it currently occupies.
This week, the Order of the Dragon plans to out Alex Grayson/Dracula (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) through a daytime rendezvous. To this point, the Order are portrayed as dimwitted. Sure, Lady Jayne Wetherby (Victoria Smurfit) has the hots for our main man Drac, (Oh man did she look pissed when he was doing “The Devil’s Waltz” with Mina last week.), but the rest of the Order are generally clueless. Though, judging by this episode, Lady Jayne may have a new muse in Lucy Westerna (Katie McGrath). The Order seems like the head of a corporation that has no clue about the products it sells, but makes all the decisions anyway. How much more obvious does it need to be to them that Greyson is a vampire, since he doesn’t appear in daylight… ever?
The mythology of “Dracula” has become a bit of a sore spot for the show. Dracula’s inability to walk in daylight is the show’s obsession, and one of the least and most interesting aspects of the character. When it’s used to display Dracula’s vulnerability, it’s masterful. But it is used for that purpose too rarely. The rest of the time, it’s toted as a bleak infatuation that no one else seems to care about. The only ones that do notice are members of the Order. To the rest, it could be interpreted as an eccentricity of the character; when you’ve got money, all the rest is inconsequential. The only thing driving him in this pursuit now is Mina (Jessica De Gouw).
As much as I hate to admit it, scenes with Jonathan Harker (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) have become barely tolerable, and with “Of Monsters and Men,” (A really odd choice for the episode’s title, considering the band that shares its name and the music they play) I dare say they’re now intolerable. He’s the epitome of a pawn piece on a chess board, though he could be mistaken for the entire row. In a sex scene at the beginning of the episode, he talks of eloping instead of traditional marriage, only to be talked down by Mina. The whole scene, the exposition, and Harker just being there frustrated me. It really is amazing how a show can take such a central character to the novel and turn him into a complete hack job.
Mina returns to science, reexamining the blood she discovered a few episodes ago. This time, she injects a dead rat with the blood, and though she never witnesses it, reanimates. Mina confronts Abraham Van Helsing (Thomas Kretschmann), he tries to shrug it off, claiming it to be a parasite. Within the exchange, Mina says something so profound and foolish that it makes me love the character even more. Van Helsing asks: “Do you wish to cure cancer?” Mina replies: “No. I want to cure death.” Within that single statement, is the embodiment of all that Mina represents. She’s vulnerable, smart, foolish, cunning, and quite simply, the best character on this show. She may well find her cure for death, but it will have grave consequences and it already walks the Earth.
The science experiments to start Dracula’s dead heart have reached their climax. Van Helsing’s experiments from last week are continued, but they are turned up to eleven. A crude electrical structure has been designed. When Dracula is displayed upon it, he becomes a mockery of Christ. It’s the crucifiction, but by electricity; his Antichrist like figure is lays there in a loin cloth. The scene is very uncomfortable to say the least.
The Order’s plan to get him into the open succeeds. He’s able to remain in the sunlight for a few minutes, but the Order of the Dragon is not fooled by his sudden departure.
“Of Monsters and Men” proves to be a solid episode, pushing the “Dracula” in the right direction. If the show can avoid the things it does poorly, like business transactions and keep Harker’s screen time to a minimum, the show would be much better off. However, “Dracula” has managed to turn it around in these last three episodes, something I never expected. Is it completely reanimated like its main character? Not just yet, but it has the body to do it now.
The anatomy of Dracula has never been explored in this way, but I have to ask, without the science would the story be as compelling? Fox’s “Almost Human” suffers from the same syndrome with its science fiction. I’m anxious to see if “Dracula” can push past that and be a great show. Perhaps the break will help ease viewers minds to it. Until then, it’s time to return to the coffin until January 3rd.
