Summary
“A Common Enemy in Evil” is an action-packed opener that effectively lays out the particulars of a new Castlevania story.
Episode 1 of Castlevania: Nocturne, “A Common Enemy in Evil”, embraces the show’s mandate as a sequel series about Richter Belmont by opening with his Batman-style origin story.
While you can already see the tell-tale quality of the four-season Netflix series coming through here, reassuring fans that nothing has been lost in the shift in focus, the premiere nonetheless lays its cards on the table with a new setting and story taking place generations after the events of the main series.
Castlevania: Nocturne Season 1 Episode 1 Recap
We meet Richter, a descendent of Trevor and Sypha from Castlevania, in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1783, where his mother, Julia Belmont, is trying to spirit him away, presumably to safety.
No such luck, though, as Julia is confronted by a vampire named Olrox, who wants revenge on Julia for one vampire-hunting reason or another, leading to a tastily animated scuffle in which Olrox transforms into a giant monster and skewers Julia to the ground.
Richter, in the manner of all great fantasy heroes, witnesses this, tries to intervene and finds himself woefully underpowered. Olrox promises him – and, by extension, us – a confrontation between the two of them down the line.
A Vampire Messiah
Until then, we cycle forward through time to nine years later, where we’re introduced to a grown-up Richter and Maria Renard in an expository revolutionary meeting in the woods of The Vendee in Western France.
Another action sequence lays out the germs of the present-day plot. The local vampires seem to be amassing at the chateau of the Marquis in anticipation of something, apparently the return of their Messiah, whom they refer to as the Devourer of Light, who will “eat the sun” and probably want the rest of the humanity as an entrée.
Richter and Maria seek the help of the Abbot of Machecoul, Emmanuel, who is apparently no friend to the revolution, whom he describes as a “Godless mob”, but is willing to investigate the claim that the Marquis might have offered his wealth and privilege to the undead.
He does, though, mention the subtlety of evil, virtually guaranteeing his own heel turn later, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Eat the rich?
This premiere makes no secret of what’s going on up at the chateau, by the way. In the montage set to Maria’s narration earlier, the upper-class revelers at a masquerade all had suspiciously long canines, and when we see Jacques, a member of the revolution, being ambushed down a dark alley, he’s taken right there to be turned by sulking aristocrats who’re moaning about peasants.
It’s “eat the rich”, but in reverse, essentially.
Castlevania: Nocturne Season 1 Episode 1 Ending Explained
The third and final action sequence of “A Common Enemy in Evil” introduces two new characters, a new plot element, and reinforces the threat of the forthcoming messiah.
The new characters are Annette and Edouard, who arrive from the island of Saint-Domingue in the nick of time to save Richter and Maria from some monstrous beasties they identify as “Night Creatures”. They’re specifically looking for Richter in relation to the Vampire Messiah.
Night Creatures and Forgemasters
Night Creatures are demons grafted onto reanimated human corpses, which is a complex necromancy procedure that can only be performed by dark mages known as Forgemasters. So, there must be a Forgemaster nearby (are we assuming the Abbot or is that just me?).
In the final scene of the episode, Olrox arrives by ship and meets a fellow vampire named Vaublanc. “You can tell your messiah I’m here,” he utters rather smugly.
You can stream Castlevania: Nocturne Season 1 Episode 1, “A Common Enemy in Evil”, exclusively on Netflix.
