For Love

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

"I told you before, I won't let you do it. I grieve with you... but I won't let you commit genocide."

For Love is the seventh episode of the second season, and the 11th episode overall, of Netflix's original series, Castlevania.

Synopsis[]

The battle lines are drawn. Comrade against comrade, father against son and two new lovers against the world.

Plot[]

Belmont Estate, 1476[]

Trevor, Sypha and Alucard prepare to leave the library, but the staircase is a wreck. Trevor believes that they will need ropes to ascend, but Sypha creates a column of ice that she uses to raise them to ground level. After they step off, Sypha sends the ice column flying into the forest because she does not want to ruin the books in the library when they melt. Outside, they lay eyes on Dracula's castle and head for the entrance.

Dracula's Castle[]

Dracula and Carmilla's forces continue to battle inside until they notice the arrival of Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard. Trevor gives out the battle orders. While he terrifies them, Sypha will disorient them, and Alucard heads over the top while they support him. The battle is fierce. Trevor uses the Morning Star to kill the vampires while Sypha produces flames and ice magic. Alucard uses his sword and ability to transform into a white wolf to kill their opponents. Soon, all the vampires and Dracula's generals are dead but the trio soon find themselves facing night creatures.

Dracula and Isaac retreat into the vampire lord's study, fighting off Carmilla's forces as they go. Isaac informs Dracula that the castle has been breached by Alucard and his companions and promises to defend Dracula to his death. Marveling that Isaac would sacrifice his own mortal life for the sake of Dracula's immortal one, Dracula says his faithful servant has a soul, and perhaps that is more worthy of saving than Dracula's dusty collections of books and scientific apparatus. Undaunted, Isaac says he chose how to live his life and has the right to choose how he dies. Dracula replies that his only regret, then, is that he must take that choice away. Reassembling the shards of a magic mirror in his study with a wave of his hand, Dracula seizes Isaac and hurls him through it, teleporting him away from the castle. Isaac screams in protest and runs back to the portal, but Dracula waves farewell and closes the portal before Isaac can reach it, leaving him alone and bereft in the desert.

Dracula turns from the mirror and faces Alucard, who tells him the war is over. Dracula asks how his son thinks he can stop him, since he couldn't do so before. Alucard rejoins that he is not alone this time, as Trevor and Sypha enter to either side of him. The trio attacks, but Dracula is more than a match for the three, shrugging off attacks but taking some injuries. Even a direct strike with the Morning Star does not kill him, although it does wound him. Bellowing that he has had enough, Dracula conjures a gigantic ball of magma and sends it rolling towards them. It takes their combined strength to turn it back, creating an explosion that drives Dracula and Alucard through the wall, leaving a burning hole that forces Trevor and Sypha to find a different route to help Alucard.

Dracula and his son continue to fight throughout the castle, smashing through walls and rooms as they combat each other. Dracula shouts that his son is a fool for trying to stop him, but Alucard responds that Dracula has been dead since the day his wife was murdered, and the horrors he's wreaked since then have not been a war, but merely "history's longest suicide note." Grabbing a wooden stake, Alucard lunges and stabs his father through the chest but misses his heart, and Dracula strikes him through the wall again. They smash through several chambers of the castle before they end up on one of the catwalks of Isaac's forge chambers. Alucard uses his ability to move faster than the eye can follow to land multiple blows on Dracula, retreating before he can counterattack. However, Dracula eventually uses his enhanced hearing and reflexes to intercept one of Alucard's attacks, catching him by the throat and repeatedly smashing him against the stone catwalk. They both plummet through the floor into another passageway and another room.

Wounded, Alucard can barely stand, and his father prepares to finish him off... before his vision clears and he realizes where he is: Alucard's childhood bedroom. The room still carries the colors he and Lisa lovingly painted, and the toys they hand-crafted for their baby boy. Seeing a portrait of himself, Lisa, and Adrian on the wall, Dracula finally grasps the depths of his own madness. He whispers that of all the gifts Lisa gave to him, the one even more precious than her love was their son - and now he is doing his utmost to destroy that gift. Realizing what he has become, Dracula admits Adrian is right: he died when Lisa did, and all he wants is for it to be over. He lowers his hands and offers no resistance as Alucard breaks a post off his childhood bed and stabs his father in the chest with it. This time, Alucard's aim is true, and the stake goes straight through his heart and out his back. Dracula's flesh begins to melt away, and he whispers, "Son..." Alucard whispers back, "Father...".

Trevor and Sypha rush into the room just as the dying Dracula reaches out to his son one last time as if to embrace him, and Trevor decapitates Dracula. Sypha finishes their task by incinerating the corpse, leaving nothing of Dracula behind except his wedding ring. For a moment, she and Trevor are not sure how to console Alucard on the death of his father, reminding him that killing Dracula was the only right thing to do, but it is all right for Alucard to mourn his passing. Sadly, Alucard says his father has been dead for a long time.

Descending the castle steps, the trio exit into the bright sunlight.

Cast[]

Quotes[]

Trevor: I terrify them, Sypha disorients them, Alucard goes over the top and we support him.

Sypha: Yes.

[Alucard unsheathes his sword while his scabbard is in midair. The sword quickly floats above his right shoulder.]

Alucard: Begin.

Dracula: The Morning Star whip... well played, Belmont. But I am no ordinary vampire to be killed by your human magics. I am Vlad Dracula Ţepeş, AND I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!

Dracula: (laughs) You mean to stake me?

Alucard: You want me to.

Dracula: What?

Alucard: You didn't kill me before. You won't kill me now. You want this to end as much as I do.

Dracula: DO I?!

Alucard: You died when my mother died, you know you did. This entire catastrophe has been nothing but history's longest suicide note!

Dracula: My boy. I'm... I'm killing my boy. Lisa... I'm killing her boy. We painted this room, we... made these toys. It's our boy, Lisa. Your greatest gift to me, and I'm killing him... I must already be dead.

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Storyboards and animatics[]

Castlevania Season 2 Episode 7 Rough Animation

Danny Araya

Trivia[]

An arrangement of "Bloody Tears" can be heard in this episode while Trevor, Sypha and Alucard battle the generals inside the castle.
During the battle between Alucard and Dracula, a wall is destroyed and a piece of meat can be seen. This is a reference to older games where the player could find healing items in breakable walls.