Castlevania S02E06: The River Review
Medium: Television
Release date: 10/26/2018
Review date: 9/27/2024
Score: 5/10
I'm struggling a bit with what the point of this season, or really this entire show, is. Camilla's betrayal just kind of happens, Dracula losing all his troops just kind of happens; I feel like these beats would be more exciting if I felt more invested in the narrative, but I just don't. Trevor's big extended fight scene this episode was neat I guess but the show's continued lethality issue combined with its unwillingness to portray Trevor for even a single moment as not the coolest, most competent person to ever live meant the whole sequence, while nicely animated, felt a bit pointless because it's not like the show would actually put Trevor into real danger, so it's hard to feel the stakes of the situation. I also felt like Camilla's soldiers weirdly advanced ballista/bridge machines felt very out of place; honestly, I felt like the show wanted me to think the whole “turning the river into holy water” bit was really clever, but since no character we actually care about was ever at any real risk from it harming them (all the vampires manage to hop away from getting splashed), so it was hard to feel particularly invested in any of it. At least Team Kill Dracula is actually finally near Dracula by the end of the episode (but there are only two more episodes left too so who even knows how much time there is remaining for them to even do anything this season). The whole episode felt pretty pointless.