Summary
“Blood is the Only Way” capably raises the stakes in time for the finale.
In Episode 7 of Castlevania: Nocturne Season 1, Countess Bathory proves why villains tend not to have many humanizing qualities – they’re liable to have them used for coercion. In Episode 5, we learn that the Abbot is Maria’s father. In “Blood is the Only Way,” the Countess learns this too, realizing she can use this fact to control him and make him swear allegiance to her.
Spoilers follow.
Countess Bathory wants the Abbot to prove his loyalty by sacrificing someone he loves, and his daughter will do nicely.
Orlox and America
Keeping Abbot on-side, pumping out an army of vile Night Creatures, is a vital component in Bathory’s takeover of European aristocracy. Once that’s done, she intends to have Orlox be her guide into America, which will become her next conquest.
As always, Orlox seems less than enthusiastic about this proposition.
On the heroic side of things, Tera is very much receiving the short end of the stick.
Maria is understandably a little frosty with her mother about having kept her parentage a secret all these years. And when Richter returns to save the two of them from a vampire attack, he’s also a little off with Tera about keeping Juste’s presence a secret.
Cooler heads prevail, though, especially since it’s important to come up with a new plan for taking on the Countess. Enter Orlox.
The Abbot chooses a side
After the gang theorizes that they can thwart the Countess by preventing the Abbot from creating more Night Creatures, Orlox arrives to confirm that the Abbot uses a giant machine for these purposes. He gives Tera a book written in Enochian, the “language of Hell”, which she can decode to figure out how to destroy the machine.
Maria makes a mistake, though. With the news of the Abbot being her father still rattling around her ears, she visits him to warn him of an impending attack. She wants him to flee to safety so that he can attempt to be her father after the heroes have taken out the Countess, but he instead takes the opportunity to capture her instead.
This is a bridge too far for Mizrak, who hasn’t been happy about any of the goings-on thus far, and he goes to report the Abbot’s actions to Tera, Richter, and Annette.
At the end of the episode, Tera figures out that the machine the Abbot uses to create the Night Creatures cannot be destroyed. It is from Hell, and the only way to deal with it is to send it back there. However, that’s a fairly feasible plan.
However, they also need to rescue Maria and deal with the ramifications of Countess Bathory’s sun-blotting ceremony, which has darkened the skies and allowed Drolta to achieve her true form.
The stakes have been suitably raised in time for the finale, and there’s still everything to play for.
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