Dracula Episode 108
“Come to Die”
Written By: Harley Peyton
Directed By: Brian Kelly
Original Airdate: 10 January 2014
In This Episode…
Jayne and Browning are convinced there is another elder vampire hanging around London. She targets a hooker who admits that it was Dracula who summoned her there. Jayne tries to get the location of his nest. The hooker opts to shoot herself in the head with Jayne’s gun, rather than give up her master. Jayne takes this information to the Order, who doesn’t believe her: Dracula is just a myth, a tale to scare children. Jayne relates the history of “Dracula” to them (and to us): Vlad Tepes served on the council of the Order of the Dragon. He was excommunicated, but the sentence of death was considered inadequate, so they turned to the occult. Dracula, the first vampire, was created - not sired - by the Order of the Dragon. Browning insists that Jayne present proof that it is Dracula who walks among them. Jayne finds a couple more vamps, tortures them by forcing holy water down their throats. One talks: he doesn’t know where Dracula is, but knows that he can walk in the sun, which shocks Jayne.
Jonathan is going through a crisis of conscience. He feels horribly guilty about what he did to Shaw, but doesn’t see a way to fix it. His friend gives him a gun because he thinks he is in danger. Jonathan’s next stop is the hospital, where Mina is working in Van Helsing’s lab. Her father had just been there, asking her about her relationship with “the American.” He is not judgmental, even after Mina admits that Grayson has a “magnetic effect” on her. But she “loves Jonathan, he is like family to me,” which is the weirdest description of a fiancee I have ever heard. Anyway, Jonathan comes in after Mr. Murray has left, so Mina is already feeling a bit guilty when Jonathan brings up Grayson. But his issue with Grayson is what he manipulated Jonathan into doing to destroy Shaw. “He is the closest thing to evil I have ever seen.” Mina asks why he remains in his employ, and Jonathan simply says he “has his reasons.” So he won’t quit, but he warns Mina to stay away, lest she get infected by his evil.
Grayson and Renfield are discussing how to get his resonator out of police custody. Grayson wants to use violence; Renfield wants to try bribery. Grayson agrees, and Mina shows up suddenly. Grayson quickly dons his American persona and Mina gets straight to the point: Jonathan is terrified of him. He doesn’t terrify her, but “I don’t know you as well.” Grayson admits that sometimes he has to be ruthless, but only as much so as those he goes up against. I’m not sure what Mina was hoping to hear, but it wasn’t that. “We will not be used up by you.”
During this time, Lucy is going over wedding swatches with Jonathan, who is distracted because he is late for work. Lucy admits she doesn’t care about the swatches and admits she can’t get him out of her head. He sits beside her and she puts her hand on his, which startles Jonathan. He insists that this will pass, it must pass, for Mina’s sake. Lucy agrees never to speak of it again with one condition: they seal it with a kiss. He relents and leans in, intending for a kiss on the cheek, but Lucy forces a lip lock. He pulls away, and Lucy plants the next seed of doubt in his mind, mentioning all those times Mina went to Carfax Manor - it was to see Jonathan, wasn’t it? Of course it wasn’t, and Jonathan goes straight to Mina, again at the hospital, and accuses her of looking for excuses to spend time with Grayson, especially her recent trip to Carfax Manor. She defends herself by saying she was looking for the truth, which only upsets Jonathan further, that she didn’t trust him. This is basically the Victorian way of accusing someone of having an affair. Mina is mystified and hurt, but insists nothing is going on between her and Grayson. Jonathan doesn’t believe her and storms out.
Mina finally gets ready to leave work, taking a vial of blood that Van Helsing had hidden away in a secret cubby in the wall. As she leaves she hears the creak of footsteps, and is suddenly set upon by Davenport’s man Hackett, and two other goons. She tries valiantly to fight back, but she is no match for the three men, and they throw her down a flight of stairs. When she wakes (and by “wakes” I mean opens her eyes, but barely) she is tied to the table in the center of the operating theater with Hackett threatening her with a vial of sulfuric acid. Before he can start drizzling it over her face, Grayson shows up and goes apeshit on them. He rips Hackett’s acid arm off his body; he slashes the throat of another man; he breaks the neck of the third. Then he returns to one-armed joe and drags him into another room for what we can only assume is a horrifically violent dismemberment, judging by the screams and the wet sounds of flesh ripping. Mina is trying to pay attention but her injuries are too severe, and she passes out. The next day, Jayne and Browning find the three thugs impaled on an iron gate. “Evidence enough for you?”
Morning comes, and Mina is in the hospital, Jonathan sitting vigil over her. Grayson comes in and directs all questions to Mr. Murray. Mina wakes, and Grayson emits a sigh of relief. He instantly starts asking her about who did this to her. Jonathan is irked by the fact that Grayson seems to be taking control of the situation. When Mina mentions the man with the birthmark, it clicks for Jonathan and he runs out, proclaiming he needs to go to the police. Grayson follows, finally acknowledging him and telling Jonathan that the police won’t take him seriously because he is a “nobody.” Jonathan decides he will confront Davenport himself.
Jonathan lets himself into Davenport’s house and confronts the man in his living room. He thinks that this was retaliation against the Shaw incident, and Jonathan is furious that he would bring Mina into this mess. Davenport plays dumb and suggests that Grayson sent him here, that he put ideas in Jonathan’s head. “Can’t you see what he is up to? Either way he wins. You kill me, you go to jail. I kill you, he still gets her.” Davenport wants to prove that Grayson adores Mina by showing him the painting, something that Jonathan does not want to see. He suggests that Grayson only hired Jonathan so he could get closer to Mina. Jonathan is enraged by this accusation and shoots Davenport dead. Then he sees the painting and it sets his mind reeling. He goes straight to Lucy’s house and, without a word, kisses her passionately. The two end up in bed together.
Grayson is alone with Mina. While she sleeps, he pines for her. “You make me want more than I can possibly have.” That Mina is a good sleeper - she doesn’t stir. Back at home, and Grayson stares blankly into the fireplace. Renfield announces that Davenport is dead and hands him the file. Grayson doesn’t even look at it, just tosses it in the fire. His mind is on Mina/Ilona. “Harker worked out exactly as you planned,” Renfield says.
Dig It or Bury It?
Dracula has just gotten better and better. I am almost afraid to enjoy it too much because I don’t know that it will return for another season. I think that the show really benefits from playing down the business angle. It is there and still important, but Victorian business practices are not exactly dynamic television. Now the business stuff is there, but way in the background, and we can focus on lust and greed and… oh yeah: VAMPIRES.
I am a little bit troubled by the notion of Grayson being behind the plot that ultimately led to Jonathan killing Davenport. I certainly wouldn’t put it past him, but I am having a hard time tracking back Grayson’s involvement. I feel as though the theft of his painting was genuine, so he had to come in with Hackett. Maybe the men that he tells Davenport about has nothing to do with Mina’s kidnap; it was just a ruse to confuse the audience, and Grayson made an off-screen deal with Hackett.
Plus - and I don’t know why - but it always tickles me when a movie monster rips the arm off a victim. Always.
Prophecies?
“War” begins - I guess between Dracula and the Order?