Young Dracula “Fight or Flight”

Season Five, Episode One (and spoilers do follow)

It is back. The British not-such-a-children’s show Young Dracula began its fifth season this week with “Fight or Flight” taking place months after the end of season four. As per usual, things have to some extent been reset. The situation of the series has undergone some definite changes, while others (most obviously the Count’s attitude toward his daughter) return to their default.  Likewise, as with the previous three seasons, a new story ‘arc’ begins.

b03qgljp_832_468Garside Grange is no longer a school, while Magda has taken Wolfie back. Whether either one will ever return remains to be seen. Ms. McCauley, presumably, has gone as well. She’s certainly nowhere visible. Since last we heard she’d been mind-wiped to forget all she knew, her return seems as unlikely as that of Erin–Vlad’s former love interest (slayer turned vampire).

Vlad has been traveling and he stops by for a visit. Naturally enough his father, Count Dracula, wants him to remain.  Our title character intends to leave almost immediately. Scheming immediately ensues.

We know of course Vlad ends up staying, because otherwise no episodes will follow. As a result, is the season premier a formulaic piece of fluff? No. For multiple reasons. How the Count will keep Vlad from leaving makes for standard fare.  In this case, he doesn’t.  Oh he engineers a delay, to be sure–or Ingrid does in return for cash and her own private apartments. Something else ends up keeping Vlad at Garside Grange. Enter one of the major plot threads of the fifth season–a SECRET. A big one. A secret about young (almost 18) Vlad that his father will do nearly anything to keep.  Even from Vlad.  Especially from Vlad!

This dovetails nicely with other plots in their infancy. Ingrid,  having achieved a seat on the High Council, wants to advance. She aimed the recently opened post of Minister of Education (“I live in a school” she notes). But a young male vampire with considerable computer skills named Warnock got the job instead. Given that he stands in Ingrid’s way, her flirting and plotting begins at once!

Which brings us to the Scots tech guru–Piers–who helps set up Ingrid’s computer and then hack into Warnock’s files. Not the easiest thing to do, and he has a price–a date with Ingrid! And yes, he’s figured out she’s a vampire (or “biter” to use the in-show vernacular). His reaction to her fangs is “I am loving those by the way.”

Brave. Brilliant, yet daring enough to be stupid. Smart enough to take precautions. I foresee fireworks.

So is there some romance for Ingrid? Maybe a drop or two of love in her life? One can  hope. But it also sets up a possible triangle amid the intricate web of lies and secrets with which the season has opened. Likewise the first episode ends on a series of cliffhangers, including Ingrid’s upcoming date with Piers as well as a sudden and serious downturn in Vlad’s heath.

To recap. Garside Grange is no longer a school. Vlad wants to leave but cannot, and is sick on top of that. A secret even he doesn’t know about himself has come to light, while two men–one Breather, one Biter–have entered into Ingrid’s life. Unluckily for them, they stand in her way. For now. Erin, McCauley and Wolfie  have left. And next week’s episode is titled “Who’s The Daddy?”

By david

David MacDowell Blue blogs at Night Tinted Glasses.  He graduated from the National Shakespeare Conservatory and is the author of The Annotated Carmilla. and Your Vampire Story (And How to Write It) as well as a theatrical adaptation of Carmilla.

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