Season 4 of Netflix's Castlevania brings the series to a close on an explosive and shocking high note while managing to give satisfying endings to each of the show's fan-favorite characters. A runaway success, the show is an adaptation of one of the most influential horror-inspired video game franchises of all time and draws its narrative specifically from Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse. The first two seasons of the show follow the trio of Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, and Alucard (a.k.a. Adrian Tepes) as they journey across the land of Wallachia in order to stop a grief-stricken and vengeful Count Dracula from destroying the region where his wife was burned at the stake.
This season picks up right where season 3 left off, with Trevor and Sypha attempting to cleanse the leftovers of the deceased Dracula's army from the land, and Alucard resolving to help protect the defenseless villagers of the town Danesti. Elsewhere, Dracula's trusted Forgemaster Isaac raises an army of Night-Creatures to help him take revenge on the people responsible for his master's demise: the cunning vampire queen Carmilla and the Forgemaster Hector, the latter of which being enslaved and forced to fill the ranks of the former's army in order to help her wage war on humanity. And in the midst of it all, the mysterious Count Saint Germain returns with his own ulterior motive: opening up a portal to the Infinite Corridor.
Castlevania has been a brilliantly written love letter to fans of the series since 2017, and now season 4 closes the final chapter out on this version of the story while opening the door to new incarnations down the road. The show's ending manages to pack in quite a lot of fan service and emotional resonance and introduces a few shocking twists along the way.
How Dracula and Lisa Survive
Introduced in season 3, it's revealed that Count Saint Germain, the eccentric occultist who helped Trevor and Sypha close a portal to Hell, has been desperately working with several different characters in order to help bring about the return of Count Dracula himself. While everyone else wants to see Dracula return in order to finish the bloody work he began upon the Earth, Saint Germain has his own special reasoning: He wants to trap Dracula's soul along with his wife Lisa in the body of a Rebis, a perfect alchemical fusion of man and woman, a creation that would help him control the Infinite Corridor and find the love of his life.
However, when Saint Germain successfully plucks the two of them out of Hell, it's revealed that his compatriots Varney and the Alchemist are actually both Death, an ancient entity who has been manipulating Count Saint Germain's plan since the beginning. Saint Germain resolves to help Trevor Belmont defeat Death, but the spell he used to steal Vlad and Lisa Tepes from Hell works. By the end of the series, the two of them have been returned to life in the Wallachian countryside, given a fresh start by the ritual.
Castlevania's Death (Grim Reaper) Explained
In the video games, Death is a primordial being created from the evil within the hearts of human beings and is actually partly responsible for the events which turned Dracula into the Dark Lord that he is. However, his explanation in the show is slightly different. Castlevania's Death is not actually a neutral harbinger of death the way that he's portrayed in most popular culture, but instead an ancient elemental entity that chooses a form similar to that of humanity's depiction of the Grim Reaper. In actuality his nature is most like that of a vampire: he's a purely evil creature that exists to feast on the souls of the newly deceased.
Death has appeared in every major Castlevania entry except for Castlevania: The Adventure and Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge, and in each installment, he's portrayed as a loyal follower and soldier to Dracula. The show honors this by having Death be the true architect behind the plot to resurrect Dracula, as Death stood to benefit greatly from Dracula's massacre of Wallachia.
How Trevor Beat Death (& What Dagger Did He Use?)
After Varney revealed his true identity as Death in the penultimate episode of the series, Trevor Belmont decided that it was up to him to destroy the creature once and for all, bringing his legacy as a monster hunter full circle. While it was certainly a harrowing battle to watch, it was one in which Trevor ultimately triumphs, using the Morning Star to keep Death's massive form at a distance before delivering the final blow to the monster's head using a blessed dagger he found in the keep underneath Targoviste. While the show tells viewers that the blade was once used to wage war with God himself, it feels like a deliberate reference to the holy dagger subclass of weapons that make an appearance in every incarnation of the Castlevania video games.
What Happens To Each Main Character
Each of the show's trio of main characters gets a fitting ending within the context of their arc over the course of the last four seasons, leaving both them and viewers in a satisfying place by the time the dust settles. Alucard opens the gates of his father's castle to the village of Danesti, renaming the settlement "Belmont" to honor the memory of his friend, who seemingly perishes in a flash of light during his battle with Death. Throughout the series, Alucard struggled with the guilt of killing his father as well as the crushing loneliness of his existence as a dhampir, so him finally making attempts to connect with the rest of civilization feels well-earned for him.
Sypha, distraught over the apparent death of the love of her life, at first wants to rejoin the Speakers, revealing to Alucard that she's pregnant with Trevor's child. However, Adrian convinces her to stay in Belmont and help them settle into the area. Luckily for the both of them (as well as the audience), a mysterious rider on horseback wanders into the village, revealed to be none other than Trevor Belmont himself, who survived his final battle against Death after Saint Germain used his dying strength to open a portal to the Infinite Corridor for Trevor to escape into. The last we see of the show's beloved main characters are Sypha and Trevor finally declaring their love for each other, setting up the long-standing lineage of the famous Belmont monster hunters.
Carmilla and Lenore's Deaths
Over the course of the last two seasons, audiences have watched in horror as the vampire queen Carmilla and her sisters - Lenore, Morana, and Striga - have been using the enslaved Forgemaster Hector to amass an army big enough to take over the world and use human beings as cattle. However, season 4 pulls out a shocking twist by having the Forgemaster Isaac launch a devastating sneak attack on Carmilla's castle, massacring most of her forces and trapping her in her throne room using traps strategically placed by Hector. While she puts up an incredible fight, Carmilla is inevitably pitted against Isaac and his army of Night-Creatures and resolves to kill herself instead of letting a human being do it for her. She uses her sword to inflict a mortal wound on herself, triggering a massive supernatural explosion that destroys most of her castle in the process.
Morana and Striga watch the destruction from afar and decide to abandon their posts, but Lenore isn't quite so lucky. When Isaac arrives at the castle, she's trapped in a spell by Hector, who forces Isaac to keep her alive so that he can take care of her in the aftermath of her sister's death. Not content with living an eternity without her sisters in a joyless existence of constant change, Lenore decides to pass on by exposing herself to the morning sun for the first time.
Why Isaac Didn't Kill Hector (& What's Next)
Since the end Castlevania season 2 of the show, Isaac has vowed that he would get revenge on Hector for his role in Dracula's untimely demise. And throughout much of season 3, Isaac's journey was all in service of that goal. However, along the way, his chance encounter with the ship captain on his way to Genoa made him reconsider his convictions, causing him to realize that with Dracula gone, his path forward in life could be whatever he decided it should be. This is why by the time he finally reaches Carmilla's castle he's decided not to kill Hector, realizing that his former partner had suffered greatly already and that Isaac had the capacity to forgive him.
After killing Carmilla and destroying her forces, the question of Isaac's motivations is once again in the air. While he started out the show with the same resolution to destroy humanity as Dracula, his personal experiences have seemingly convinced him that there is beauty and purity worth saving left in his people. Using his magic and the army of Night-Creatures he has at his disposal, Isaac may have decided to try and lead humanity into a brighter future to atone for the things he's done in his past.
How Castlevania's Ending Compares To Dracula's Curse
While the story of Castlevania is borrowed heavily from Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse, the show surpassed the main narrative of the game back in season 2 when the trio successfully kills Dracula. The game ends shortly after Dracula is defeated, concluding with the iconic image of Dracula's castle being destroyed (as is the case for many games in the series). In the generally accepted canon ending of Dracula's Curse, Trevor and Sypha marry each other and give birth to Christopher Belmont, starting the bloodline that would eventually lead to the legendary Simon Belmont from the first game in the series. Alucard, however, goes into a self-induced slumber that leads directly into his inclusion in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, arguably the most acclaimed entry into the series.
Trevor and Sypha's story plays out relatively similar to the ending in the game, with the two of them declaring their love for each other in the face of their future as parents. Alucard's ending is different from that of the game, choosing instead to portray a more hopeful and adjusted vision of the character than one who willingly chooses to isolate himself from the rest of society. And shockingly enough, instead of ending with Dracula's permanent demise, the series decides to resurrect Dracula and his bride from the dead, giving the Dark Lord a happy ending never before seen in any of the video games. After four incredibly animated and genuinely rewarding seasons, Netflix's Castlevania ends in a way that's both fresh and satisfying for newcomers and longtime fans of the franchise alike.