This Friday, May 14th, the fourth and final season of Netflix’s spectacular video game adaptation Castlevania finally arrives.
The season pretty much picks up following the events of Season 3 as Dracula’s influence looms large, so Belmont (Richard Armitage) and Sypha (Alejandra Reynoso) investigate plans to resurrect the notorious vampire while Alucard (James Callis) struggles to embrace his humanity.
The show keeps its dark tone and wonderfully grim mythology and adds to its lore, as all the stories we’ve followed in the previous three seasons begin, slowly but surely, to converge to bring everything together for the grand finale. Not only that, we keep getting wonderfully animated and gruesome action sequences that pits the most unexpected characters against each other and deliver a quite literal bloody spectacle.
Alucard
Among the many arcs in this final season, Alucard’s is definitely the most compelling one. After being the events of Season 3, he has isolated himself in his father’s castle afraid of how humanity will treat him, but when night creatures start to run rampant on a nearby village a call for his help comes his way he decides to help the people is find a new safe home, and by proxy helps himself be accepted by humans.
Alucard has ironically always been the most human character in the show, his story exploring themes of loneliness, loss, and grief, this final season continues the exploration of those themes and does the character justice delivering on a very emotional arc for him, at one point some one tells him: “Get used to people, and they’ll get used to you.” and this line encompasses Alucard’s story and how in great part all he ever sought was belonging. However, Alucard is not all doom and gloom, he may be the most badass character in the entire show and he showcases some of the best and most heart pounding action sequences.
Belmont & Sypha
Belmont and Sypha are, in the meanwhile, travelling across the land in an attempt to stop Dracula’s rebirth. Their story can feel scattered and lacking in urgency in the early episodes of the season, due to their distance from the main plot. It is however compensated due to their character interactions and genuinely sweet love story, having a kind of “buddy cop” dynamic helps in bringing levity after some great some action sequences and dramatic reveals, being so different but so good together is what makes them work as good characters and as a couple to.
Eventually they obviously have a part to play in the main story, perhaps the biggest, as they meet back up with their old pal Alucard when the fate of the world is at stake. Belmont being the main character has many show-stealing moments in the later half of the season and faces the biggest challenge of his life.
Isaac
One of the stories and characters that unfortunately do not get their due is Isaac, his gathering of a night creature army for a big coup against the vampires gets a promising continuation from where we left him in Season 3, but after a grandiose moment and some interesting reveals about his true intentions, he quite literally vanishes from frame never to be heard from or mentioned again, making it feel like he has no actual conclusion and his story is left to be finished. Maybe that was the intention, but the writing never makes it clear enough, and even if it did; it is underwhelming all the same to say the least.
The Council of Sisters
The Council of Sisters of Carmilla, Morana, Striga have their involvement, but they never really play apart in the main story and are kept as side characters through the season, a big downgrade from the big part they have played in previous seasons. Lenore is the one exception, hers and Hector’s story plays organically as a doomed romance filled with sorrow, and while it seems like it’s own side story that leaves little to no impact on the grand scheme of things, it at least has a conclusion that feels fitting to their overall writing.
Overall Thoughts
The final season of Castlevania features the strengths the show has always had: great characters, gorgeous animation, spectacular action sequences and expansion of lore, changing our understanding of the world and the mythology. It offers all that plus some great reveals; twists and turn that is bound to surprise die hard fans of the show. It unfortunately disappoints on giving a satisfying and proper conclusion to every single character and story point set in motion.
While the very ending might feel too optimistic and not “daring” enough, for lack of a better term. A surprisingly tender final scene and all its main players getting to the place they belong in finishes their arcs in the right way, and that’s a good last note on which to say goodbye to the world of Castlevania and the story of Belmont.
Grade: B
About Castlevania Season 4
In the epic final season of Castlevania, Wallachia collapses into chaos as factions clash: some attempting to take control, others attempting to bring Dracula back from the dead. Nobody is who they seem, and nobody can be trusted. These are the end times.
