Dracula review and recap: Episode 2, “Blood Vessel”

In Dracula episode 2, the bloody demise of Dracula’s vessel The Demeter as it transports him to England.

Dracula’s second episode, “Blood Vessel” opens with Dracula and Sister Agatha Van Helsing playing a game of chess.

It’s a slightly different beginning from the ending of episode 1 where Sister Agatha surrendered her life in exchange for Mina Murray’s. We know from the previous episode that Sister Agatha has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a need to understand Count Dracula’s motives. So, seeing them talk while playing a game of chess makes perfect sense as Sister Agatha is trying to find Dracula’s weakness. Dracula also appears to be sizing up Sister Agatha.

As they battle over a chessboard, Dracula entertains Sister Agatha with his travel aboard the Russian ship The Demeter. Now, the Demeter is normally a cargo ship and doesn’t usually carry passengers, but on this fateful voyage, they find themselves carrying seven passengers (which includes Dracula) plus a mysterious person in cabin nine.

Two of these passengers are women, and that makes the sailors nervous as many of them are superstitious. Women on ships were considered bad luck.

Dracula is hiding out in plain sight, not the least bit concerned about being discovered. He even joins the aristocratic passengers for dinner, an odd behavior that Sister Agatha calls him out on.

It seems Dracula actually likes people and enjoys their company, something Agatha didn’t believe. initially. During their repartee, it is revealed that Dracula is addicted to blood and realizes that he needs to control that addiction if he wishes to live in England. Interacting with his food on a nightly basis, he is hoping to curtail or control his addiction.

As Dracula acquires his victim’s knowledge when he drinks their blood, he is also very careful about whose blood he takes. When he was introduced to Duchess Valeria (Catherine Schell) of Bavaria, and she slipped easily into her own language. He excused himself to promptly drink the Bavarian sailor Portmann’s (Anthony Flanagan) blood to learn the language.

During the conversation with Duchess Valeria, we soon learn Dracula knew her when she was a teen. We also learn that he can transport his victim’s into a dream while he drains their blood so that they don’t know what he is doing.

The next morning the crew discover that both Portmann and the Duchess are missing. The remaining shaken passengers gather into the dining room and talk about the possibility of a murderer on board. The discussion turns to why such well off English Aristocrats would find passage on a lowly cargo ship.

Soon, it comes out that a mysterious Englishman by the name of Mr. Balaur is responsible for them all being on the ship in one way or another. The missing Duchess sold her life’s story to Mr. Balaur, and it was Mr. Balaur who arranged for Lord Ruthven (Patrick Walshe McBride) to meet his lovely new bride Dorabella (Lily Dodsworth-Evans). It seems Lord Ruthven needed her money as he was more interested in his servant Adisa (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) than he was his bride.

The other passenger Dr. Sharma (Sacha Dhawan) and his daughter’s passage was also arranged by the enigmatic Mr. Balaur who is his employer.

For those who don’t know, a balaur is a dinosaur that lived in Romania and evolved into Romanian folklore about a many-headed Dragon. Dracula means “Son of the Dragon”. In conclusion, Dracula arranged for all these passengers to be onboard the Demeter. What is also interesting to note is that “Demeter” is a Roman Goddess and presided over the cycle of life and death. She was known as the Goddess of Harvest. It seems our count loves symbology.

Back to our regularly scheduled show, mounting fear fed by superstition stirs the sailors to mutiny when the lovely Dorabella disappears followed quickly by another crew member. A never-ending fog created by Dracula follows the ship hiding the sun. Combined with people continuing to disappear, they are primed to blame someone for their predicament. They all converge upon the mysterious person in cabin nine, and when they bust down the door, they find Dracula inside with Sister Agatha.

The whole beginning of the episode was a dream Dracula gave Sister Agatha while he fed on her, but now he was throwing her to the wolves. The crew wanted a victim and he gave them her,  ignoring the captain’s explanations and Dr. Sharma’s logic. The crew ties her to the main mast and plans to hang her.

Sister Agatha pale and weak from loss of blood is still able to gallantly defend herself in a manner that gets through the revenge-filled minds of the remaining crew. Agatha convinces them that it is Dracula who is the monster they are looking for.

Dr. Sharma is hiding in his cabin with his daughter when Lord Ruthven shows up in his cabin to prepare the way for Dracula’s arrival. Dracula has been drinking the young lord’s blood, but he wants Dr. Sharma’s knowledge. Lord Ruthven, trying to speed things along, threatens his daughter with death if Dr. Sharma doesn’t sacrifice himself to Dracula.

His daughter has other plans and removes herself from the equation by drinking poison, and Dr. Sharma quickly follows suit. Dracula’s plans have been destroyed, and Ruthven takes the blame.

Soon, Dracula has killed everyone except for Captain Solokov (Jonathan Aris), Piotr (Samuel Blenkin), Olgaren (Youssef Kerkour), Adisa and Sister Agatha. She repeats what she did in episode 1, surrounding themselves in a circle of bible pages rather than communion wafers, around the mainmast and wheel.

Dracula can’t enter, but he’s content to lounge against the stairs and taunt our survivors into losing their cool, which they do. However, while Sister Agatha who is becoming undead keeps Dracula occupied, Captain Solokov, who is mortally wounded after Dracula’s attacks, crawls to where the gunpowder is and lights it.

At the last minute, Dracula realizes what’s happening, and we see the ship blowing up. Piotr and Olgaren are watching the fireworks safely from their lifeboat.

Dracula is dead right? Wrong! We watch his casket fall to the bottom of the ocean, and we see him escape from the coffin and walk across the bottom of the ocean to the shore. There he is immediately surrounded by official-looking people with searchlights on him, and he’s met by a woman who bears a strong resemblance to Sister Agatha.

Yes, he is now in the future and these people not only know who he is, but they were expecting him. The woman addresses him as Count Dracula and then asked him what took him so long.

It’s an interesting development, to say the least. Now, let’s start episode 3, the final episode of the first season.