It has been six weeks since the tragedy that befell the sleepy village of Lindenfeld.
Five weeks ago: Trevor and Sypha found themselves beset by a hoard of reanimated skeletons, puppets of a vampiric necromancer. They are handily disposed of.
Four weeks ago, they are ambushed by night creatures. Sypha, however, manages to defeat them all in a single fell swoop with a rotating blade of ice. The ruins nearby contain an old portrait of Dracula, which the creatures were protecting.
Three weeks ago, they interrupted a ritual by a vampiric priest to cast a resurrection spell. According to Sypha, the spell, which was incomplete and doomed to fail, was meant to return Dracula to life.
Two weeks ago, they were beset by a mob of Fleamen. During the melee, Sypha vents about the corrupting influence Trevor has had on her: ever since meeting him, she has become as brash and foul-mouthed as him.
One week ago, they stumbled upon crazed villagers preparing to sacrifice children. After they save the children from their captors, they study the altar where the ritual was being performed, which included a statue depicting a personification of death. More pertinent to them, however, is the flagstone at the foot of the altar, which could only come from one location...
Now, Trevor and Sypha find themselves in Targoviste: the city where Lisa Tepes was murdered, and where Dracula began his campaign of genocide against humankind. Now, the city sits largely abandoned, its buildings empty and crumbling, and the few remaining refugees living in fear and squalor. It is deep within the hold of a garrison where Trevor and Sypha find vampires who had remained to feed on the frightened citizenry. After the vampires are killed, Trevor finds a peculiar weapon: an ornate dagger that is magical in nature. Trevor theorizes that the vampires were looking for tools, but Sypha finds herself troubled by the fact that they were unable to do something about the vampires sooner. Trevor is also troubled by the fact that he seems doomed to live out the rest of his life stopping any attempts to resurrect Dracula.
All the while, two vampires observe them from afar. One of them, Varney, curses the fact that his dreams of power under Dracula were ruined by them while his companion, Ratko, silently (but annoyedly) listens.
Meanwhile, at Dracula's old castle, Alucard emerges to relive himself next to the corpses of would-be trespassers, having locked himself away in isolation after being betrayed by Sumi and Taka. He is greeted by a horse whose rider had perished to deliver a message to him, beseeching his aid in protecting the village of Denasti from the night creature hoards. While Alucard had just about given up on humanity, he nonetheless decides to answer the summons. Out of respect for the perished rider who gave all to deliver the message, Alucard gives him a proper burial before making ready to disembark from the castle...
Tropes for this episode include:
- All for Nothing: One of the attempts at resurrecting Dracula was a Vampire Wizard who was going to bring him back using Human Sacrifice and Runic Magic. If Sypha's observation is to be believed, the ritual itself is full of errors and would not have worked.Trevor: I wish I could fucking kill you twice!
- Bait-and-Switch: A glorious one where Alucard after walking into his castle surrounded by impaled corpses, realizes he's turning into...Belmont.
- Dead Guy on Display: Alucard has added half a dozen more staked corpses to his front lawn, at least one of them appeared to be a night creature though.
- Decomposite Character: According to Trevor, The Grim Reaper is not Death itself. It's just a malevolent spirit that feeds on Death and people mistook it for the real deal.
- Determinator: The horse carrying the perished rider from Denasti with a message calling for help.
- Downer Beginning: Things have not been going well for our heroes since the end of Season 3...
- After the events in Lindenfeld, all Trevor and Sypha have done since is wander from one fight to the next, killing night creatures and those either doing evil in Dracula's name or trying to resurrect him, making his death feel like a temporary victory that could be rendered pointless at any moment. While Trevor is concerned he'll have to spend the rest of his life making sure Dracula stays dead, Sypha has become more cynical, foul-tempered, and begun using profanity— something she never did at any point in the past three seasons— and openly vents to Trevor over the toxic influence she fears he's having on her.
- Thanks to Sumi and Taka's betrayal, Alucard has become a bitter recluse and locked himself up in his father's castle, with a growing number of night creatures and wannabe vampire hunters lined up on stakes outside the front doors as a warning to leave him the hell alone. He's also been drinking enough to give Trevor kidney failure, as his very first scene involves him drunkenly shambling outside to take a piss in front of Sumi and Taka's rotten corpses while complaining that he should drink less since it's coming out as scabs and wax.
- Due to the Dead: On Trevor's side, he closes the eyes of a paladin who had died. On Alucard's side, despite being an alcoholic wreck who has given up on humanity, he gives the unknown messenger a proper burial.
- Establishing Character Moment: Varney is introduced pointing out the obvious that Trevor and Sypha are in Targoviste, and then scolding Ratko for pointing out the obvious that their companions were killed by them. He then whinges on about how he was supposedly Dracula's most loyal and trusted supporter despite the fact that he was ordered to occupy a ghost town while dressed in tatters, establishing that he is not as important or impressive as he thinks he is.
- Eye Scream: Trevor is lifted up by a muscular cultist who shrugs off his blows. Trevor kills him by pushing his thumbs into his eyes.
- Foreshadowing:
- The statue of Death that Trevor and Sypha find in this episode, and their discussion about his nature, sets the stage for his appearance at the end of the season.
- Sypha's curse-filled blowup catches Trevor completely off guard. During it, Sypha shouts out "You did this to me!" at Trevor while she complains about how she's turning out like him after being with Trevor for so long. The "you did this to me!" line could be inferred as a pregnancy joke, which as it turns out, Sypha is indeed pregnant with Trevor's child, her mood swings coming about because of it. Considering his reaction, it's likely Trevor figured it out before Sypha did.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Sypha propels several spears through an opponent and pins him to a wall.
- Lady Swears-a-Lot: Sypha starts cursing up a storm like Trevor, having broken down from months of fighting monsters with him.
- Missing Reflection: It's subtle, but Alucard's reflection in the mirror is somewhat see-through because of his vampire heritage.
- Neck Snap: Trevor kills a cultist by strangling him until his neck snaps.
- Title Drop: "It's a spell. Murder wakes it up."
- Where It All Began: Targoviste was the city where Lisa Tepes was executed, the first city to fall in Dracula's war against humanity, and Trevor and Sypha's latest stop in their travels.
- Would Hurt a Child: The most recent group of evil doers Trevor and Sypha run into are a Cult who kidnapped a group of children with the intent of sacrificing them in honor of The Grim Reaper.
