Episode Title: “Let There Be Light”
Writer: Cole Haddon
Director: Tim Fywell
Previously on “Dracula”
As NBC’s “Dracula” winds down to it season finale, the show it has become is leagues away from the one it was when it started. This was a show where the lead character had no clue who he was, and for the most part, his supporting cast was far more interesting. As the season progressed, Jonathan Rhys Meyers finally honed in on what this vampire turned entrepreneur was to be, with all of the emotional depth that makes Dracula such a memorable character. The supporting cast took form and led to the emergence of unpredictable power players and wild cards that stand out as more than just set pieces. The show is far from perfect, but it carries a kind of charm that is hard to ignore.
Cole Haddon steps in as writer of the final episode of the season, which throws up a few red flags. Haddon is partially responsible for the lackluster pilot episode, “The Blood is the Life.” An episode that threw everything at you, including a vampire kung-fu scene (I’m thankful that there hasn’t been another one to date). The description of the episode also had me a bit on edge. If anything, “Let There Be Light” looks like it’s trying to accomplish too much in an hour’s worth of time. Instead, it balances itself perfectly, and leaves the show in a perfect place for a second season.
The weakest aspect of the show to date has been the relative lack of a mythology. It’s as if the mythology excludes those that have never read Bram Stoker’s novel; that Dracula’s past is common knowledge, having seeped into the collective conscious. That may be true to a certain extent, but it doesn’t excuse the fact that the only legend established in Dracula’s past is the relationship he shares with Ilona (Jessica Du Gouw). In that sense, it seems like a cheap cop out – they had free reign over the mythology and could have formed it anyway they wanted, and did in the modern sense. But without more to build on, it’s hard to relate to certain aspects of Greyson’s character even after ten episodes.
Greyson’s resonator, or as I like to call it, the Nicola Tesla rip off machine, is on full display. He enters the building where the resonator is housed like he’s Willy Wonka. A band plays him off, and the character has never looked this hopeful before. It’s kind of sad considering all the bad things that play out through the episode.
The Order of the Dragon is finally making a move on the vampires of the city. They’ve employed a new seer to locate them all using the blood of Christ collected in a glass jar. The science/religious parallel are played up really well in this episode. Both of them have technology at their forefront. The glass vile represents a religious technology powered by a vastly different source than Greyson’s resonator: faith. The seer is able to locate many vampires and individual members of the Order are sent to dispatch the undead spawn. Lady Jayne Wetherby (Victoria Smurfit) leads the charge.
Abraham Van Helsing (Thomas Kretschmann) fully gives in to his thirst for vengeance. That vengeance extends farther than just Browning (Ben Miles) and his children. In his haste, he destroys the lot of his work done for Dracula, including the day walking machine. And poor Renfield (Nonso Anozie) is stabbed when he catches Van Helsing destroying all of the equipment. Browning meets his own demise at the hands of his newly turned vampire children. It’s sweetly poetic and reciprocative. When Browning’s children step out of the shadows, you immediately know what he does not. What’s more creepy than vampire children? As Van Helsing steps out of the building, now on fire, the screams of Browning’s children bring him to his knees. A kind of last laugh, and a haunting reminder of the price of his actions.
Jonathan Harker’s (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) rash decisions seem to get the best of him. His plan to sabotage the resonator has dire consequences for many of the on-lookers. As a new member of the Order, it’s unclear whether the betrayal of Greyson is at the hands of the Order. Partially because until the very end, the Order doesn’t even realize that Greyson is a vampire. He also shares no scenes with the Order in this episode, but through the deaths of many innocent people, Harker is now a formidable villain, and a cunning one at that. He’s not a true warrior in the same sense that Lady Jayne is, but the smartest villains can do maximum damage with their minds alone.
The war unleashed by the Order comes to an unlikely end. The seer reveals Dracula to be Grayson and Lady Jayne jumps at the chance to kill him. The battle between her and Dracula is brief, but poetic in the way that Browning’s death was. I’m sad to see Victoria Smurfit go; it always is to see a strong female lead lost to plot development.
“Dracula’s” season finale was a fantastic mix of plot resolution and new development. It didn’t waste much, but what it did weighs heavy. Mina was relegated to the damsel role that she’s assumed in the last three episodes. Lucy Westerna (Katie McGrath) was also wasted, her only scenes revolving around killing her mother with the new vampiric talents bestowed upon her. I’m anxious to see if both female characters are given a greater role, if “Dracula” is renewed for another season.
The set up for next potential season seems more in line with Bram Stoker’s novel. Van Helsing and Harker look to be the new enemy of the vampire, and Mina and possibly Lucy to become part of Dracula’s camp. Even with factions seemingly set, the show is still unpredictable in direction. Will it play out exactly like the novel or will the story take on a new direction? Or will the show be replaced with Daniel Knauf’s “Wolfman?” With this explosive finale, it would be stupid of them not to bring back “Dracula” for a second season.
