Summary
“You Don’t Deserve My Blood” delivers on large-scale action, but also emotion, as several characters reach important turning points in their personal stories.
This recap of Castlevania season 4, episode 6, “You Don’t Deserve My Blood”, contains spoilers.
Isaac’s assault on Carmilla’s castle is one of the better action set-pieces that Castlevania has produced across its four seasons — a large-scale, energetic, and characterful sequence with real character and plot implications. Carmilla is enraged. Lenore is understandably worried for Hector’s safety. But the Devil Forgemaster has prepared. He has been communing with fellow scholars about potentially reviving Dracula, and he has booby-trapped the castle, both of which we got hints of in the premiere. All of this Hector explains to Isaac when they finally come face to face, but Isaac isn’t there to kill him. He says they have been children, and it’s time for them to grow up. He requests that Hector tell his night creatures to stand down, which of course he can’t because of the control ring, so Hector uses Isaac’s knife to slice off his ring finger, thus severing Carmilla’s control. Hector’s escape tunnel will take Isaac straight to Carmilla’s quarters.
There’s tremendous imagery here in “You Don’t Deserve My Blood”, perhaps most especially Isaac’s shimmering reflection in the blood that spills down the steps leading to Carmilla, his monsters flanking him. The stage is set for a showdown, and we certainly get one. Carmilla, even weakened and outnumbered, is formidable. She hacks her way through the monsters and leaves severed body parts strewn everywhere. “You don’t deserve my blood” is her line, a parting barb as she plunges her sword into her own chest rather than be killed by Isaac and his minions.
Morana and Striga return to the castle to find it in smoking ruins, having felt the surge of energy from Carmilla’s death. They assume, incorrectly, that Lenore must have bought it first, so they decide against trying to retake the castle, instead heading west, together.
Isaac and Hector also have a decision to make in Castlevania season 4, episode 6 — to help resurrect Dracula, or leave him to sleep? Isaac believes Dracula earned his rest, and that he and Hector could, and should, move forwards. Hector just wants to be left alone, with Lenore, and have the freedom to read and make things, not to serve others blindly or because he had no other choice. That’s the future he wants, and it’s one Isaac is willing to let him have. He, too, has been thinking about the future. For perhaps the first time, he believes he has one. He is suddenly interested in living, and building a way to live. All these old bones will be his foundation.
