Back in the World

Warning! This article contains spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.

"When I began this journey, I had a very simple plan. That plan has evolved. The plan is now conquest. Kill everything you see! Except Hector the forgemaster. He is for me alone. Begin!"

— Isaac

Back in the World is the fifth episode of the fourth season, and the 27th episode overall, of the Netflix original series, Castlevania.

Synopsis[]

With Greta's help, Alucard sets out to guide the villagers to his castle for protection. Sypha pushes back on Zamfir's leadership. Isaac makes a move.

Plot[]

Between Danesti and Dracula's castle[]

Alucard guides Greta, Saint Germain, and all the other refugees back toward his castle. Greta believes they should have gone during the day but Alucard disagrees since the night creatures can act in the daylight. The night creatures being ordered by vampires' actions are too targeting. Alucard hopes to move their group before the monsters receive new orders.

Saint Germain isn't so confident that their trip will be safe, annoying Greta. Greta claims she can smell magic after leaving in the forest for so long. Saint Germain denies this and claims to be a mere scholar. Greta says she's disappointed since he'll be useless without the skills to wield a knife. While Greta circles around, Saint Germain expresses his desire to reunite with someone special soon.

Alucard stops walking and takes a position atop the trees to look outward. He flushes out a spider-like monster and battles with it. The chaos causes the refugee march to speed up and spread out.

Carmilla's castle[]

Meanwhile, at Carmilla's castle, Hector removes an arrow from the eye socket of his next subject. He's annoyed the vampire soldiers just left it in the corpse rather than taking it out. Lenore tells him to hurry, but Hector expresses the need to be delicate while performing his work. Hector proceeds to use his hammer to create a new demon, who's marked and added to the growing army.

Before his next subject arrives, Lenore states how disgusting the whole process is. She's bothered by something and Hector notices. Lenore admits that Carmilla's schemes have gone far beyond her expectations. Their last conversation resulted in Carmilla ultimately admitting that she intends to take over the entire world.

Lenore comments how she feels like she has nothing more to do since there is no diplomacy involved in making humans stand in line to be bled. Hector shows interest and sympathy in Lenore's problems, and Lenore says that's why she likes him - he is actually capable of listening to her. Hector points out that all this bothers Lenore because Carmilla lied to her. Carmilla lied to Lenore in the same way Dracula lied to Hector.

Between Danesti and Dracula's castle[]

Back on route to Dracula's castle, Greta encourages her people to fight their way through the monsters. She and Alucard lead the way and cut the beasts down, leading the group to safety. While they continue walking, Greta explains her family history to Alucard. Before long, they're attacked again by several night creatures.

Against a particularly powerful demon with the ability to spew acid, Alucard decides to act alone. He tells Greta to hang back and trust him to do the job he's been tasked with. Using his vast arsenal of abilities, Alucard kills the beast and once again clears the way to safety.

The group reaches the castle by dawn, and Greta is less than impressed. Alucard is insulted that she would call his childhood home ugly as sin, but Greta simply can't shake the cold aura surrounding it.Saint Germain recognizes the Belmont Hold and claims this could be the most important location in the modern world. Accepting his role in servicing the displaced people, Alucard welcomes them all to his home.

Targoviste[]

In Targoviste, Sypha is horrified that the community hasn't come together to fix anything. They don't know what to do, so she tries to guide them. Sypha finds Zamfir asking for a food tribute for the court and stops her. She convinces Zamfir that the people can't be left to die and tells everyone they need to clear outbuildings. Trevor watches impressed as his girlfriend rallies the community.

Trevor wonders about the mysterious underground court and where they could be hiding. The catacombs must be extensive enough to hide from vampires somehow. While he's searching for an entrance, a night creature appears from underground and attacks him. It attacks Zamfir directly after and attaches a tracking device to the back of her neck collar. Sypha gets the monster off of Zamfir and kills it with an icy spike.

Old Magician's town[]

Elsewhere, in Isaac's new base of operations, the Forgemaster is finally ready to take his revenge on Carmilla and Hector. Isaac announces that his plan has evolved from revenge to conquest. He rallies all his monster soldiers to kill everything in Styria, telling them to leave only Hector for him to deal with.

Cast[]

Quotes[]

– Alucard: We may call them night creatures, but they operate perfectly when in sunshine.

– Saint Germain: But surely the vampires who command them are disadvantaged by daylight.

– Alucard: Their night creatures are clearly being instructed. The attacks are too targeted.

– Alucard: We live in hope, yes.

– Greta: And our chances of making it to your castle before we're spotted and those fresh orders are given?

– Saint Germain: Oh, somewhere between slim and none, I would imagine.

– Greta: (sternly) When I want to hear from you, I'll throw a coin in your begging bowl. (Saint Germain bows his head and takes a couple of steps back. Greta closes her eyes, still annoyed.) All this and a magical tramp.

– Greta: We live next to the spirits of wood and stream, the things that come with the storm and the smell of magic. You smell of it. He reeks of it.

– Alucard: What does it smell like to you?

– Greta: On you, it's sweet like spices. On him, it's rotten.

– Saint Germain: Yes, it's--it's rendered me quite deaf (Alucard chuckles). I am but a scholar, madam. The scent you detect are entirely down to Alucard having recently used soap and my having to fight your chickens for access to pond water.

– Greta: And losing.

– Saint Germain: And indeed losing. I am a man of books. Your earthy peasant ways are quite beyond me. My skills lie in other directions.

– Greta: Pity. I was hoping you were good with a knife.

– Hector: (to the Styrian soldiers) Could you seriously not have considered taking the arrow out of his brain?

– Lenore: Just pull the thing out.

– Hector: The barbs on the back of the arrowhead tear the flesh open if you yank the thing free.

– Lenore: You do know he's already dead?

– Hector: Would you want to wake up with an arrowhead filling your eye socket? (He carefully remove the arrow from the corpse) There. Now... let's trying for a moment before bringing the next on in, shall we? (Hector begin forging the corpse into a night creature) You're back in the world. Take a breath. This is your place now. These two will mark you out and take you where you need to be. Next.

– Lenore: Can I just say... that I find this whole blasphemous process disgusting?

– Hector: Then why are you sitting there watching it?

– Lenore: Because I want to hate it properly?

– Hector: Don't you have anything better to do?

– Lenore: (Annoyed by his comment) No. Wait outside until I call you. (The soldiers nodded as they leave)

– Hector: What's wrong Lenore?

– Lenore: Nothing's wrong. What makes you say something's wrong?

– Hector: I've got eyes and ears. I know when something's wrong.

– Lenore: When Carmilla's left on her own for too long, she starts to scheme, and that works out really well for us. Styria might be the oldest stable vampire community in the world, certainly the only one run by women.

– Hector: I'm overjoyed.

– Lenore: Shush. Morana and Striga are away. I've been busy taking care of some of Morana's work and spending time with you, and Carmilla's been on her own a lot. Now do you know how Styria has lasted so long.

– Hector: Because you're all very clever vampire sister?

– Lenore: You've been paying attention. Yes, but also because we didn't overreach.

– Hector: Vampires are thristy, Lenore. It's what define you. There's always more blood to be drunk somewhere across the field.

– Lenore: But we didn't do that, not really. But I don't know, and it's... It's leaving me feeling a bit lost. Like my place in our system has been erased. I think you were the last problem I had to solve.

– Hector: (Holding up his left hand) Yes. Thanks again for that.

– Lenore: Oh shush. You were having fun

– Hector: Well, right up until almost the end. But you're making another point.

– Lenore: This is why I like you. You're capable of actually listening to me.

– Hector: Maybe you'll reach you other point before I die of old age.

– Lenore: The four of us support each other. But soon I'll have nothing to do. Nothing to offer. There's no diplomacy involved in making humans stand in line to be bled. All the humans. And not just in Europe.

– Hector: Oh?

– Lenore: She showed me her maps. I made her angry, I think. She showed me maps of the world.

– Hector: I know, I know. A giant human pen from here to Braila. I've had the lectures.

– Lenore: Not anymore.

– Hector: (sighs) She's been scheming.

– Lenore: And she showed me maps of the world, Hector.

– Hector: The world.

– Lenore: The pen was about securing our survival and safety for centuries to come. It was an insane idea, but we could stretch and make it work. But now she sees weakness everywhere. And we were a strong and stable community in a world that lost many of its vampire leaders at Braila.

– Hector: So what you're saying is if it's there, she's going to drink it.

– Lenore: She said she had one plan: To annex land from here to the sea. She promised me that was her plan, and then she was left alone, and then I made her angry and she showed me her maps. I think she lied to me.

– Hector: Just the way Dracula lied to me.

– Saint Germain: Dragan, you bloody fool. If this little show you're putting on gets us all killed, this was for nothing.

– Saint Germain: (in awe) Dracula's castle. Astonishing. It's really quite--

– Greta: Ugly as sin.

– Alucard: It's not ugly.

– Greta: It's ugly. And it's sad. And it's cold. Bad things happened here.

– Alucard: That's my childhood home you're talking here.

– Greta: (pragmatically) Well, that explains a lot. Sorry. Some places just have a chill on them. Maybe my people and I can warm it up a little.

– Saint Germain: (smiling) It's magnificent. (turns around to look at the hold next door.) And there. The Belmont Hold, I believe. This, my dear lady, may be the most important place in the modern world.

– Alucard: (walks toward the castle.) At this moment, it is the best defense I can think of. (warmly toward Greta.) Welcome to my home. (She walks past him with her eyes closed as he looks on.)

(Meanwhile, in Targoviste, a villager opens a window and pours their waste out on the ground just as Trevor and Sypha walk in front of it.)

– Sypha: You know what bothers me so much?

– Trevor: (unamused) No. It's just another lovely day in **** town.

– Sypha: (scoffs) Three things.

– Trevor: Oh, good. A list.

– Sypha: One, you're still a terrible human being.

– Trevor: (clearly used to being insulted.) Never claimed to be anything else.

– Sypha: That doesn't make it better. Two, you're right.

– Trevor: I may faint dead anyway.

– Sypha: (elbows him) Shut up. We've been running from event to event, reacting instead of planting our feet and just acting. But I've also been caught up in the adventure. And it's making me forget things.

– Trevor: Such as?

– Sypha: (closes her eyes and stops walking.) Third, this mess. (She and Trevor watch the villagers set up camp in the middle of town. One lets her horse drink from a bucket, another is preparing dinner with a pot over a fire, and the third, a young man, is drinking directly from the well with his hands.)

– Trevor: Well, they're doing what they can.

– Sypha: No, they're not thinking.

– Trevor: They're in shock. (The man tastes the water and spits it out.)

– Sypha: Oh, I know. But it's still a mess. Look. I come from a people who have weaved a community across the world, and I know you know what that community does. It fixes things, and it remembers. All I see here are people who've forgotten. (Her eyes shift to the side.) Wait. (She walks toward three men that are digging.) You. Yes, you people. No, don't look at me like that. Listen, you cannot put latrines that close to where you sleep and cook. You'll all get sick. This isn't hard. Where are you storing your food? (One of the men point at Zamfir. She is talking to a villager carrying a bag at the top of the stairs. Sypha confronts her.)

– Zamfir: (attempting to extort this villager.) The court needs this. You will by God give tribute to your rulers.

– Sypha: (angrily) Oh, hell, no!

– Zamfir: (notices her) What?

– Sypha: You want these people to give up what little food they can find to your invisible king and queen?

– Zamfir: It's not safe for them up here.

– Sypha: And it's not safe for these people to give up eating.

– Zamfir: (frowning) Don't get in my way.

– Sypha: I realize that we are on the same side, but you need to understand that I can kill you by looking at you. I also realize that these people need to organize.

– Zamfir: They need--

– Sypha: They can't help you until they help themselves. Otherwise, your invisible king and queen will rule over nothing but bones. Do you think that's what they want?

– Zamfir: Well--

– Sypha: (forcefully) Do you?

– Zamfir: No.

– Sypha: So you can give me a hand. (talks to a villager.) Are these carts yours? (He silently points at another walking next to him.) No? Those are his? We need to pull them around. Have these buildings behind us been cleared?

– Zamfir: They're abandoned.

– Sypha: (walks toward her) You are cleverer than that. This city is overrun with night creatures. They're coming from somewhere. First rule is to make your shelter safe. Can some of your fellow fighters help these people clear these buildings? (An impressed Trevor watches Sypha take action with a smile. He chuckles and sighs. He walks away from the area to ponder about where the vampires could be hiding.)

– Trevor: If there's an underground court, then there's got to be a series of catacombs under the city. Like Gresit. Because if there was just one underground location, it would have been found by the vampires already. They have to have been hiding inside an extensive network of tunnels and spaces. Hmm. (He walks toward a larger building.) Extensive enough that the bloody vampires are nesting down there, too. (He kneels down in front of a wooden door.) Hmm. Mm. (He knocks on it.) And these things must be everywhere. (A night creature resembling a bat breaks through the door. It shrieks and hurls toward Trevor, knocking him down. It flies toward the area in the city where Zamfir and Sypha are helping the villagers gather their food supplies before seizing the former by her throat. He holds a nail with glowing light green vines and sticks in the back of Zamfir's neck. Sypha runs toward the night creature and tackles it. Zamfir watches them fight while the nail clips itself onto her collar. Sypha conjures a giant icicle and stabs the demon in the mouth, killing it instantly.)

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Storyboards and key art[]

Castlevania Season 4 Ep 05 Storyboards & Cleanup