Summary
“Back in the World” is a bonding exercise for Alucard and Greta, as Isaac and his army finally reach their destination.
This recap of Castlevania season 4, episode 5, “Back in the World”, contains spoilers.
As it turns out, you can’t journey through the Infinite Corridor without bringing a rather pungent smell of rotten magic with you, or at least you can’t if you want to get around a well-trained nose like the one Greta has. I like Greta, immediately. You clearly can’t pull the wool over his eyes (or nose), and she has little patience for Saint Germain’s “learned man of letters routine”. After several episodes spent watching Belmont and Sypha cut a swathe through the various demonic denizens of Castlevania, it makes a nice change to see Alucard do the same. As in the games, Alucard’s sword-and-board fighting style is a different proposition to Belmont’s whip and Sypha’s spells. It gives the action a different feel, even if his treetop tussle with a gooey spider feels like something of a callback to Belmont’s similar one with skeletal warriors in the premiere.
“Back in the World” is something that Hector says to his newly-formed night creatures as they’re taken away to be made useful — a process that, by the way, Lenore feels is blasphemous and disgusting. She’s also worried about Carmilla spending so much time alone, scheming. Her conquest — which she’s planning to extend beyond Europe — will eradicate the need for diplomacy, and thus the need for Lenore. There’s a similarity in how Carmilla lied to Lenore and how Dracula lied to Hector. Perhaps absolute power and the goal of eradicating all mankind makes folks dishonest?
Leading Danesti’s citizens from there to Alucard’s castle, through woods dangerously infested with night creatures, is a chance for Alucard and Greta to bond. It’s also a good excuse for action. Alucard’s brutal one-on-one with a chubby caterpillar thing is a standout. His castle emerges through the trees like an oasis in the desert. But who is he welcoming into his home? And for how long will it remain his home?
As ever, Castlevania season 4, episode 5 checks in on Belmont and Sypha in Targoviste, where the latter is taking issue with Zamfir depriving the starving populace of the only food they have in order to feed her “invisible king and queen”, and the former is theorizing that if there is an extensive enough network of underground caverns and tunnels to hide the royal court, then there’s probably enough room for the vampires to hide down there as well. As if to prove his point, a night creature bursts from the ground beneath his feet and sets about Zamfir, staking some kind of magical pin through her collar. Some kind of corrupting, controlling device, one assumes? We can go with that.
The cliffhanger ending of “Back in the World” is Isaac and his monster army descending on Carmilla’s castle. His express instructions are that Hector must be kept alive. That’s some revenge he wants to see to personally.
