Original Airdate: November 8, 2013
Last week we saw Alexander Grayson getting his players ready in the great chess game that he’s playing with the Order of the Dragon. With help from Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker, Grayson is ready to make the next move. Of course, the Order isn’t going to take this lightly.
We begin this week with a scene from Dracula’s past. He is chained up and surrounded by knights who beat and torture him. After passing out, he awakens in a chamber full of hooded men. A chalice made from an animal head is held up in benediction, and then the contents are poured into Dracula’s mouth. As he gags, they slit his throat. He doesn’t die, of course. While he transforms he sees a vision of his wife, Ilona. Later on, Vlad Tepes wakes up in a cell. He is dangling from the ceiling and light pours in from a cross-shaped window. A monk tells him that he has been cursed to live forever.
Back in the present, Renfield finds Grayson playing the piano for the first time in a century. He’s contemplating Lady Jayne’s role within the Order of the Dragon, given that she’s a vampire hunter. Grayson desires to find out what he can about her. Renfield informs him that he’s received a letter from Lord Laurent—Grayson is now the majority stockholder of British Imperial Coolant.
Lucy pays Mina a visit. She wants her friend to get over the “twit” Jonathan Harker (and help with her own loneliness) by going out to play.
Dr. Murray visits the pysch ward at the hospital. Lady Jayne wants his help working with a few “close relations.” He is happy to offer his services to her.
Renfield and Harker visit the metallurgy plant. The proprietor does not want to give all of their product to a single client, so Renfield fires him. He calmly informs the man that Grayson owns the company now, and he has the power to act on his behalf. The man reluctantly agrees to their request. Outside, Renfield gives Harker a list of people to get to know on Grayson’s behalf, and then he tells Harker to never defend him again. Renfield is ever the enigma.
Dr. Murray meets with Van Helsing, seeking his help with a concoction to cure his new patients. Van Helsing is able to find out that Dr. Murray is working with Lady Jayne, so later on he reports this information to Grayson. Grayson surmises that she needs this medicine for her seers, so he suggests that Van Helsing gives it to her. This will only help to draw the Order out to the open.
Mr. Browning wants to know why Lord Laurent sold his shares to Grayson. Laurent was between a rock and a hard place, having been discovered in a secret club with Lord Davenport’s son. Now that he has betrayed the Order’s wishes, Lord Laurent is without their protection. His eyes widen at the implication.
Grayson awakens from Lady Jayne’s bed. He is hearing voices. He goes to a hidden doorway and finds a secret chamber. It is full of weapons, and an intricate design has been painted on the floor. In a darkened corner he finds a starving female vampire who begs him to kill her. He shushes her and then kisses her hand. It looks like he drains her and then, high on her blood, returns to Jayne’s bed. As he creeps up to her, she grabs his neck and whispers his name.
Lord Davenport is dining with Daniel and some friends. They see Harker dining alone, and they summon a waiter to send a bottle of wine to his table with their regards. The waiter says that Harker sent them a bottle of wine, too. His is much better than theirs.
Lucy is helping Mina get ready for their night on the town. Mina knows her friend was near Harker’s old house, and she asks if she saw him. She didn’t. Later on, with thoughts of Harker gone from her mind, Lucy and Mina get drunk at a fine club while the young men watch them intently.
Lord Laurent gets dressed while his lover, Daniel, is still in bed. Daniel suggests that they flee London and find a place where the Order can’t reach them, but Laurent reminds him that such a place doesn’t exist. He knew that signing over his control of the company would put them at risk, but he would do it again and again if it meant keeping Daniel safe.
“Finally,” Renfield mutters as the inebriated Lucy and Mina return home. The sun is about to rise and they need to leave. But Grayson wants to stay long enough to see Mina read the card he left. She picks up the red roses as Lucy reads the card that offers congratulations on her recent accomplishment. Mina looks up as Grayson’s carriage pulls away. When Grayson arrives home, he goes straight to the study where Van Helsing is working. He demands to know how long it will be before he is able to walk in the sun. Van Helsing reminds him that he has been working on Jayne’s serum, and that the present cure gives him just over three minutes in the sun. It isn’t enough, Grayson growls. It needs to be fixed, now. He will walk in the sun.
Lord Laurent watches his son sleep as a toy carousel spins next to his bed. His son is grasping a toy soldier. Laurent goes to meet Browning and face the Order. The trial begins and the sentence is the same that has been handed down for generations. “Will you accept the blade?” Browning asks. “I will,” Laurent says. Browning stabs Laurent with a sword, and Laurent grabs at him as he chokes on his own blood.
Mina and Lucy continue their celebrations in an absinthe bar. Mina goes down a hallway and finds herself outside in a courtyard with a beautiful cherry tree. She looks back to see that the door she left from isn’t even attached to the building. The door slams shut. Mina wakes up on a chaise with a man who offers her more absinthe, but she has reached her limit. The man hits on her with every line he can think of, and when she rejects him, he starts insulting her rudely. When he threatens her, he is thrown across the room by Alexander Grayson. Don’t mess with Mina.
Outside, Mina thanks her savior. She wonders why he’d be in such a place. He likes the music. He can see that something is bothering her. It’s Jonathan. Grayson says he can’t believe he’d ever hurt her, so she explains what happened and says that she doesn’t know how to fix it. “Sometimes the people and places we are meant for take us by surprise,” he says. Lucy arrives and compares them to the characters from Wuthering Heights. Lucy is ready to leave. Mina bids Grayson goodnight.
The next day, Harker gives Grayson a rundown of the people he met with, including Mr. Browning. Grayson says that he heard through the grapevine that he broke up with his girlfriend. In the interests of keeping his study from being a funeral parlor, Grayson convinces Harker to open up to him. Harker admits that he has known Mina a long time but doesn’t like the idea of his future wife having a career. Grayson calls him a fool for thinking that his wife shouldn’t try to climb the ladder of success as much as he is. Harker hears Grayson calling him a hypocrite, but as Grayson points out, Harker is a man in love, and being a fool and being a hypocrite are often the same in that situation.
Lucy watches Mina sleep. She touches Mina’s cheek to wake her up, telling her friend that she’s thinking. She’s inspired by Mina’s desire for independence. Mina realizes that she has missed Van Helsing’s class. He offers her a serum to cure her hangover, and then drills her to see if he has made a mistake. When she apologizes profusely, he tells her to report the next day as his assistant.
Van Helsing goes to Grayson in his factory and tells him that Jayne’s serum is ready. It is sent to the hospital, and Dr. Murray gives it to a boy to deliver. The boy runs out, running right past Van Helsing.
The Seers are able to locate Grayson once again, but as they see the vision of Grayson feeding on Jayne. They start to have seizures. Van Helsing walks in, calmly telling the duo that they are paralyzed. He asks if they know what it is like hearing the cries of loved ones as they die. He tells them that he was punished for bring disobedient, and now he has to protect the vampire until his work is done and the Order has been brought to justice. Now, he could kill the Seers with drugs, but that would cause undue suspicion. Therefore, he has to bash their heads in. He promises that it will be quick. Grayson smiles in his bed.
Harker goes to see Mina. They apologize to each other. He sees now that he should have been protecting her and her vision instead of trying to change her. He leaves, and she runs after him, giving him a hug and telling him that he forgot the most important thing. She wants to marry him and be his wife. He has been wanting to ask so many times, he says, and this time he doesn’t have a ring so he offers her the cross necklace he is wearing. As they kiss and dance in the street, Grayson watches from the shadows.
Later on, Grayson tells Renfield that he performed an act that brought great happiness to someone other than himself. He brought Harker and Mina back together. And truthfully, it feels good to have done the good deed. Renfield correctly surmises that Grayson also did it to keep Mina close to him, like gravity.
Browning and Jayne are shocked to see that their trackers have been killed. Tracking the trackers has never happened before. Soon, London will be full of vampires.
Daniel is having a very difficult time dealing with Laurent’s death. While the phonograph plays downstairs, Daniel shoots himself in the head. His father finds him dead on the floor, along with a note that explains everything. His father sees the picture of Daniel and Laurent on the desk, and in the letter he reads that Grayson is responsible for everything that happened. Looks like Alexander Grayson just gained a new enemy.
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Be sure to leave your comments below!
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