Dracula - S1E3 - Goblin Merchant Men
Previously, on Dracula: “A Whiff of Sulphur”
In an American History X-style stomping, Dracula (the old timey one, not Grayson) is chained up and getting a beatdown from the Order of Dracul. He also gets a goat’s skull full of blood in the mouth and his throat slit from ear to ear—but shortly later, hanging from chains in the ceiling, we learn that the Order has just made him into an abomination with endless life and a wicked allergy to the sun. The priest who taunts him from the floor turns out to be remarkabley short sighted when Dracula breaks his bonds and bares his now abominable teeth at the priest. I think we can only assume what poking a blood-drinking bear will get you.
Back in “present” times, Grayson admits to Renfeld that he suspects Lady Jayne is a vampire hunter, but he is more than willing to seduce the truth out of her. Renfeld hands him a letter stating that, per the overhead threats of exposing him, Laurent has just made Grayson the majority shareholder in the British Cooling Company.
Harker watches Lucy (in her signature retina searing combination of fuchsia and neon orange) knock on Mina’s door as he carriages by, but doesn’t stop to say anything. Lucy coerces Mina into accompanying her to boring old Paris to mend her broken heart.
In a mental institution, Lady Jayne approaches Mina’s father, Dr. Murray, about a new drug treatment for some “close relations” of hers, maybe a pair of them with psychic abilities? Murray throws his renowned discretion out the window and runs to Van Helsing with the news, who in turn immediately tells Grayson. In an unnaturally close conversation, Van Helsing offers to make a syrum for them, but one that is of lesser strength, but Grayson has a better idea.
At the same time, Harker and Renfeld, like a pair of mob goons, strong arm one of the British Cooling Company’s shareholders into fulfilling Grayson’s mysterious order for “product”. When they leave the office, Renfeld then tears Harker a new one (mildly, in a Victorian English kind of way) for defending his very large and novel blackness to the man, and also for not having his head in the game. To atone, Harker is given a list of people that Grayson would like him to befriend, and later probably blackmail.
Sir Laurent admits to Lord Browning that Grayson got his share of the British Cooling Company because he is, erm, blackmailing him. Browning is less than sympathetic, though, and reminds Laurent that the Order offers no protection for sissies, or for people that sell all their shares to the enemy.
Grayson takes a break from getting “information” from Lady Jayne to follow the sound a creepy voice whispering his name through her house. Through a couple of secret doors, he discovers her basement training ground and the vampire lady from episode 1, still locked in her cage. Vampire lady begs Grayson to kill her, and gentleman that he is, kisses her hand instead. The walk back from the basement gets him all upset at the treatment of his people, and he is about to take out his rage on Lady Jayne’s sleeping body when she wakes up; she entices him to take out his anger in a different way.
Harker, doing the bidding of Grayson, acts out a comedy of errors with a table of Order-lys as they send each other fancy bottles of wine in a fancy restaurant and toast to their new friendship from across the room. Lucy and Mina, however, are getting dressed up for a night out on the town—apparently Paris fell through, probably when Mina gave Lucy some sad face.
She perks right up when they get to the Officer’s Club and proceed to get toasted. When they arrive back at home in the very early hours of the morning, Mina discovers mystery roses waiting on the doorstep for. Grayson, who has spent the entire night watching her door like a creeper, has to dash away from the rising son before he can watch her read the card that he didn’t even put his name on. And Mina, bright young thing that she is, can’t figure out who the flowers are from even though the card reads a direct quote from a conversation she and Grayson had the day before. When he gets home, Grayson takes his frustrations out on Van Helsing, who is supposed to be developing an SPF 4000 so that Grayson can finally walk in the sun like a regular man.
Laurent pulls the old dine-and-dash out of his Young Lover’s bed, scared that the Grayson will reveal him and that the Order won’t protect him. He looks in on his kiddo (his childe, not his boyfriend) one last time, then turns himself in to the Order at what can only be their stained-glass headquarters. He is tried and found guilty of putting his own interests before the Order, that bastard, and is summarily (and ironically) impaled with a ceremonial sword.
Lucy and Mina, out on the town again, hit the local absinthing hole, where they chase the green fairy and pseudo make out and watch everyone else have a grand ol’ time. Mina stumbles down the hall to a door, which she opens onto a courtyard in broad daylight—the same courtyard where Dracula was converted to a vampire so many centuries ago! This is some sort of hallucination, right?
She makes her way back to the bar and turns down a drink from an adorable rogueish stranger, and then for good measure also laughs in his face. Seems men—or this man, at least—doesn’t care for her slumming in his bar and then daring to turn him down, and just as it sounds like he might be starting to threaten her (it’s really hard to tell with this Victorian dialogue), a hand clamps onto his shoulder and throws him across the room. It’s Grayson to the rescue!
Up on a moonlit balcony, Mina thanks Grayson for his bravery and then unloads all of her Harker-related problems onto him. In another unnaturally close conversation (Victorians must be notorious for ignoring personal space), Grayson admonishes Mina for drowning her sorrows and explains that the people they’re meant for can sometimes come as a surprise; just as he’s really about to invade her personal space, as Lucy walks up behind them to announce that her carriage has arrived.
Harker has been a busy little beaver spy, and reports that managed to have lunch in one day with almost everyone on Grayson’s list. Grayson is only slightly interested in the news; he’s more interested in discussing Harker’s breakup with old whats-her-name. Harker describes Mina’s stubborness in wanting to be a doctor, but instead of commiserating, Grayson calls him a fool (but not a hypocrite).
Mina wakes up from her alcohol-induced slumber to Lucy caressing her face, but instead of reciprocating or even finding that strange, she instead realizes she’s late for Van Helsing’s class and runs out of bed. Van Helsing gives her a hangover cure, and then a subsiquent lecture, but ultimately gives Mina a second chance and makes her his assistant for the term. Maybe she should have missed more classes! Once she leaves, Van Helsing reports to Grayson that the syrum for Lady Jayne (and therefore the Seers) is ready.
Dr Murray gives an errand boy an envelope to deliver, and boy runs to the address on the envelope. The Seers, back from the trauma of last week, psychically track Grayson to Lady Jayne’s bed. Grayson, knowing that they’re watching him, bites Lady Jayne on the arm. The Seers fall down paralyzed; it’s all very convoluted and unexplained, but the envelope that the boy delivered to them had Van Helsing’s syrum on it. The syrum somehow got into their system and paralyzed them. Van Helsing shows up to explain the details to them, and also goes into the gory details of his family being burned alive because he disobeyed the Order. He doesn’t want the Order to find Grayson because he is still useful, so he destroys the Seers WITH A HAMMER. He takes a hammer to their skulls while they’re still awake so that the syrum residue in their brain can’t be traced back to him.
Harker, taking Grayson’s pep-talk to heart, shows up on Mina’s doorstep with a heart-felt apology. In a most unconventional twist Mina runs after him into the street and proposes, and he seals the deal with a kiss and an engagement necklace. Grayson, playing the part of the creeper again, watches them from his carriage as they celebrate in the street. He returns home to tell Renfeld of his good deed, surprised at his newfound feeling of…what is this, happiness? Renfeld tempers the happiness with words of warning, and together they share a drink and recount Dracula ripping out his first throat.
Lady Jayne and Browning discover the bodies of the Seers, pounded to a pulpy flesh, and realize that it must have taken great power to track the trackers. London will now be overrun with vampires…for some reason.
Young Lover Daniel Davenport weeps over a photo of him and Laurent together—why would he have a photo if they were having a secret relationship?-while he loads his pistol. Downstairs his father Lord Laurent is listening to his Victrola when he hears a gunshot. He follows the noise and opens the doors to Daniel’s room to find him with a hole in his temple. Luckily Daniel left a note, fingering Grayson as the reason for his newly found deadness.
