Dracula Recap: 5 surprising twists from Blood Vessel episode.

2. Duchess Valeria of Hungary

We meet a very charming elderly Duchess who is en route to England to meet the mysterious Mr. Balaur. Duchess Valeria (Catherine Schell) is not a character in Bram Stoker’s classic novel, so what role does she play in the series?

Mr. Balaur has agreed to buy the rights to our duchess’ life story. It seems she has come down on her luck and needs the monies that her story will bring to continue living in the lifestyle she is accustomed too.

At dinner, she meets our charming Count, who seems very familiar to her, but Valeria can’t quite place where she met him, but he makes her so comfortable in his presence that she lapses back into her native Bavarian. Dracula excuses himself and goes in search of Portmann (Anthony Flanagan), a Bavarian sailor he met earlier when boarding The Demeter.

Yeppers, Portmann is toast. After assimilating Bavarian, he goes back to the charming Duchess and resumes their conversation in Bavarian. Valeria is so happy to converse with the lovely Count; she recounts a childhood memory from when she was 13-years-old, and Dracula finishes the story. In shock, Valeria remembers why he looks familiar, and before she can regain her wits, he flashes them to that memory while draining her of her life’s blood.

We knew Dracula wanted to live among the English Aristocrats as one of them, the Duchess, although poor knew how to live as an Aristocrat. Knew the rules and what to say or not to say, so it seems our Count wanted her memories as well.

1. The Mystery Invalid in Cabin 9

There have been references made through the entire episode about a mystery invalid in cabin 9. Only Captain Sokolov (Jonathan Aris) had access to the cabin and had been ordered by the mysterious Mr. Balaur to take care of the mystery guest.

However, with the rising fear of the crew because passengers and crew members are disappearing, they want to know who the passenger in cabin 9 is. Captain Sokolov is forced to search the cabin, and when they open the door, they find Dracula inside with none other than Sister Agatha. She is lying pale and weak in the bunk from loss of blood, but he tells them she is responsible for all of the deaths. Desperate for someone to blame, ignoring her weakness, they tie her to the mainmast to hang her.

They don’t, of course, because she eloquently explains that it’s Dracula that is the monster. It seems Dracula was turning her into one of his brides, but since the crew was shy of being a mob, he decided to give Sister Agatha to them as a scapegoat. A nice man isn’t he?

Summary

Every one of our new characters was not in the movies or the novel but was invited in one way or another aboard The Demeter by Mr. Balaur. He isn’t in the films or book either, however, a Balaur is a Romanian myth about a multi-headed Dragon that was evil. Dracula is Romanian for “Son of the Dragon.” It seems our Vampire has a sense of humor.

He had turned The Demeter into a place of gathering for people he needed something from to set up his new life in England.

Three episodes of Dracula available to stream on Netflix