Dracula - Episode 3 - Recap - Goblin Merchant Men
Dracula - Episode 3 - Recap - Goblin Merchant Men
NBC's Dracula comes back with its third installment, and it keeps up the path forged by the first two episodes. In this re-imagining of the classic novel, Dracula is pretending to be an American businessman named Alexander Grayson, bringing technological marvels of all manner to London. He becomes entranced by an associate's lover, schemes for business stuff, and teams up with a vampire hunter to take down an ancient cult.
Our buddy Dracula is tied up to a pole by a chain around his neck. He's being beaten to a bloody pulp until the sun is gone, and then a cruel ritual is begun. He's fed blood and has his throat cut. Just before losing consciousness, he sees a vision of his murdered wife. Then, he's hung by chains in front of a cross-shaped window. Wuh oh, that sunlight won't be good. No, it isn't. This little sequence is actually the origin. We're seeing Vlad Tepes being made into the vampire Dracula.
Drac wakes up after bedding some mystery blonde (probably the same one as last week, and probably a vampiric thrall of his) to the mysterious whisperings of some presumably magic stuff. Nope, it's actually just a prisoner of his begging for death. No big deal, he leaves her and crawls back into his sex bed. This bed seems like a bad place to be though, because the very next night, some ghost witches spy on him somehow. Van Helsing stops them though, so no biggie. His murders the heck out of them after paralyzing them with poison.
Dracula is still stalking his business pal Jonathan Harker's ladyfriend Mina, but the sunlight prevents this. See, the vampire thing means no sun. He goes to Van Helsing to demand a better solution. Van Helsing's been providing an injection to allow daytime travel for Vlad, but not for very long. There's a big absinthe party some time later, and Drac shows up to rescue his stalking target from a nefarious flirting artist. Weirdly, Dracula plays relationship counselor here, even though Mina is played by the same actress as Drac's long-dead wife. Mina and Jonathan kiss and make up, then get engaged to be wed. Dracula spies this and seems upset, which is weird because it's sorta... his fault.
The experience of watching this show is probably not unlike the experience of attending one of Mina's absinthe parties. It's disjointed and incoherent, but filled with wonderful sensations. The images are pretty. The cast is good-looking and well-dressed. The score is nice. The set pieces are cool. The plot though... I've got such a hard time following it that writing these recaps is becoming difficult. The jumps between scenes (and the seemingly unrelated subplots) make one's head spin a bit, and the effect is exacerbated by the insertion of weird dream sequences. I imagine this is intentional somewhat, as it's hard to tell the difference between a dream, a flashback, magic, or a drug-induced hallucination. I'm hoping as the season continues that the plot will make itself more apparent. I suspect the full-season order is partly to blame, as the creative team has plenty of time to stretch, instead of having to get ratings up front in order to keep from being cancelled. Anyway, check out this preview below!