Summary
Castlevania: Nocturne has a happy-ish ending in Season 2, though not an entirely conclusive one. Episode 8 is clearly designed for emotional payoffs more than action, but it has its fair share of drama too.
Season 2 of Castlevania: Nocturne provides a surprisingly tender ending that in many ways avoids a lot of the more potentially pesky narrative decisions. Everyone survives and ends up with a new, personally meaningful objective, the bad guys are vanquished, and the day is, at least for the time being, saved. But Episode 8, “A Line of Great Heroes”, also provides some subtle hints that peace is unlikely to last, and very much leaves things open for Season 3 without making the mistake of leaving this plot completely unresolved.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of drama here too, but the finale is clearly devoted more to emotional payoffs than to elaborate action. And it works. After spending two whole seasons with these characters, it’s nice to see them get their send-offs – if they turn out to be send-offs at all, I suppose.
Annette’s Sacrifice
The finale begins after the dramatic events of the penultimate episode, in which Drolta drank Sekhmet’s powers directly from the veins of Erzsebet Bathory and unceremoniously booted her drained corpse into a nearby hedgerow. With Annette out of commission after being possessed by Sekhmet’s spiritual soul, Juste and Maria worse for wear, and Mizrak taking shelter in the arms of Olrox, it’s only Richter and Alucard who’re left standing to take on the new Big Bad.
The fight between these two and Drolta is superbly animated and reaches a stalemate of sorts until Sekhmet, through Annette’s body, intervenes. This soul is appalled by its stablemates having been stuffed into the innards of an “obscenity” like the night creature version of Drolta and wants to unite the whole to finally bring about an end to the abomination. This will, of course, kill Annette, which has been fairly obvious since she became possessed in the first place.
Richter wades through the resultant firestorm with his ice powers to encircle Annette’s body and beg Sekhmet to spare her, even at the cost of the world, but Alucard talks him out of it by reminding him that this isn’t what Annette would want. And so, he lets go.
Annette’s Resurrection And Drolta’s Defeat
James Callis as Alucard in Castlevania: Nocturne S2. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024
Luckily, Richter’s uncharacteristically open confession of his feelings reaches Annette in the spiritual plane, where she’s able to fight her way through – passing the united souls of Sekhmet going in the other direction – and to freedom, stopping for a brief hug from her mother on the way. I’m making it sound more ridiculous than it is; it’s actually quite a lovely sequence, rich both thematically and visually, but that doesn’t sound as good written down.
However, there’s still Drolta to worry about. Even though she’s now divorced from Sekhmet, she’s still an unusually powerful night creature, and she’s able to disarm Alucard and skewer him to the ground with his own sword. Thankfully, Richter being in love makes him, like, three times as powerful, and he’s able to no-sell most of Drolta’s attacks and give her headbutts so powerful that they splinter her forehead with crackling electricity. With a bit of an assist from Olrox in full serpent form, and Alucard, who tosses over his sword, Richter is able to create a giant ice blade and cleave Drolta in two with such force that the resultant shockwave slices a chunk off the building behind her.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. The guys are victorious, and Richter even decides to let Olrox live for the time being as a thank you for helping out. Nice gesture.
Parting Ways
Edward Bluemel as Richter Belmont and Franka Potente as Erzsebet Bathory in Castlevania: Nocturne | Image via Netflix
With the battle in France – the supernatural one, anyway – all but over, Richter decides to accompany Annette and Edouard to Saint-Domingue, where there remains a world to be won, through force if necessary. Plus, it’s the honeymoon period, so he couldn’t exactly let Annette go home alone.
Predictably, Edouard sings us out from the bow of the ship while Annette and Richter get busy below, and this is the soundtrack for a final montage that summarizes what happens to the rest of the characters.
Olrox bites Mizrak – who is terrified of dying and going to Hell for his sins – to spare him from death. When he wakes the next morning, he angrily bares his teeth at Mizrak and aggressively mounts him. I’m not sure whether this means he kills him or it’s a sex thing. It’s a little unclear.
Meanwhile, Alucard decides to remain in Paris with Juste and Maria to see the outcome of the revolution, which involves beheading anyone who fought with the vampires – rightly so, as far as Maria’s concerned, but you can tell from Alucard’s askance glance that he’s a little worried she’s becoming a nutcase.
In the crowd, we get a brief glimpse of Tera, that very vaguely defined spectral menace smirking behind her. The villain for another season maybe?
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