Castlevania Season 4 Episode 1 - “Murder Wakes It Up” Review

“Belmont and Sypha continue to battle beasts loyal to Dracula, but it's getting old. Meanwhile, Alucard receives a guest.”

After Season 3 dropped in March 2020 (right before the start of the US lockdown for COVID-19), Castlevania returns with Season 4. Just a reminder: this is a mature series, so swearing, brutal fighting, dismemberment, and some nudity is to be expected throughout it. Be ready for the splatter zone, and make sure the kids are asleep before watching this one.

A recap to refresh everyone's memory about what happened in the last season: The betrayal that Alucard suffered trying to take on students; St. Germaine's entrance into the Infinite Corridors; the mysteries of Lindenfield with the Judge and the Night Creature Cult; Isaac's struggles with Faith and his desires; the “relationship” of Hector and Leonre that emerged; and the plans of Camilla and her council for a land grab. Makes me remember the haunting last line from Belmont, “We've spent a couple of months living in your life [...] And now, we're living in mine.” Got all that? Better hope so. Annoyingly, the Netflix recap only seems to play once and can't be re-watched if you navigate away from it for ANY reason. (Like, say, because you're trying to write a summary of it as you watch.)

The episode begins with a flashback to 6 weeks earlier, with Trevor and Sypha leaving Lindenfield at the end of the last episode. Then it goes forward a week with Trevor and Sypha fighting Skeletons in a massive forest controlled by a Necromancer Vampire because Trevor had to pee (making it officially worse than any San Diego Comic-Con line, but only just and on par with the women's restroom line there). Three weeks before the present time, they're in a desecrated church, with a Vampire offering up Souls to resurrect Dracula. This cycle repeats, with the stress of the repeated attempts to resurrect Dracula coming to the fore. It all slowly leads back to where everything began for the series, with the death of Dracula's wife in Targoviste. We meet 2 new characters who will undoubtedly return later on in this 10-episode season. Some of the players are in place, but it will be a while before we see their moves.

It was a good episode to start the season on. Overall, it offers some of the characters a look back into the bleakness of their world and the toll of the forces in the world hellbent on bringing Dracula back into it. The story devices used for this episode definitely worked well. Trevor and Sypha having the majority of the episode makes sense. Bringing the story forward just one week at a time helps the viewer process just the wearying effects of the near constant battles. Plus we get to see the toll it takes on the normally calm and diplomatic Sypha. It sets the stakes well for this part of the story so we understand the basics of the challenge that they are looking down the barrel of.

Alucard getting only a little screen time makes sense when we finally see him again. He lives a more predictable life, and a lot more is said with a few visuals than with expository dialogue. Far better to show that little than spending the time showing him lapse deeper into depression since the end of last season. He does get a funny moment or two at least. We see a start with him, but the exact nature of what is to come is hard to say from this episode alone. There were also signs of his famous outfit from “Symphony of the Night” here.

The biggest thing we get out of this episode is simply how things will start building up for this season. Since we saw nothing from Isaac, Hector, or Camilla and her council, we can assume that we'll be learning more about them soon. Just a question of when.