NBC’s new drama DRACULA premieres tonight with it’s first episode called, “The Blood is the Life.” Golden Globe winner Jonathan Rhys Meyers (“The Tudors”) stars in this provocative new drama as one of the world’s most iconic characters. It’s the late 19th century and the mysterious Dracula (Rhys Meyers) has arrived in London, posing as an American entrepreneur who wants to bring modern science to Victorian society. He’s especially interested in the new technology of electricity, which promises to brighten the night — useful for someone who avoids the sun.
But he has another reason for his travels: He hopes to take revenge on those who cursed him with immortality centuries earlier. Everything seems to be going according to plan… until he becomes infatuated with a woman who appears to be a reincarnation of his dead wife. Victoria Smurfit (“About a Boy”), Thomas Kretschmann (“King Kong”), Jessica De Gouw (“Arrow”), Oliver Jackson-Cohen (“Mr. Selfridge”), Nonso Anozie (“Game of Thrones”) and Katie McGrath (“Merlin”) also star.
On tonight’s show new to England, Alan Grayson hosts a lavish party. He becomes fixated on Mina, a beautiful young woman who looks like his dead former love. Newly engaged to Mina, Harker grapples with worries over providing Mina the life she deserves.
Tonight’s episode looks like it is going to be great and you won’t want to miss it, so be sure to tune in for our live coverage of NBC’s Dracula at 10:00 PM EST! While you wait for the recap, check out our sneak peek of tonight’s show below!
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page for Updates
A hole is knocked into a crypt and a rope thrown down. It is Romania 1881. A man lowers himself down and then another. They have found a body that looks like it was tortured and left to die. There are paintings on the wall of blood and torture. One says “after all these long years.” They chip away at the tomb and the man says “how thirsty you must be.” One of the men finds gold tablets and says they’re rich. But his partner in crime stabs him and lets him blood onto the macerated corpse saying “the blood is the life.” The blood brings the creature back to life. Its flesh fills in and it wakes! Dracula lives!
Later, Dracula bathes in steaming water in a candlelit chamber and then dresses in fine clothing. It is London 1896. His butler tells him the guests are all there and they were all photographed upon entry. He tells him the prototype is ready. Dracula tries out his American accent and it passes muster – he is Alexander Grayson – an American industrialist.
Guests pour into a fabulous party. Jonathon says the glass he holds is worth more than he makes in a week. Lucy says it’s worth more than he makes in a month. Mina asks Jonathon how he pried her out of her laboratory to come to the soiree.
Several guests agree that the party is gauche and overdone and that he may as well have plastered the wall with pound notes – and say it is typically overdone. Grayson’s butler welcomes them to Carfax manor and introduces his boss to applause. Mina and Grayson’s eyes meet and he has a flashback to them lying in bed together. He shakes his head to clear the memories and welcomes everyone to his home.
Jonathon asks if Mina is all right and she says a ghost must have walked on her grave. Grayson directs his butler to find out who Mina is, everything about her and who she’s with. Jane introduces herself to Grayson and her companion as well. He excuses himself from their company to mingle. A handful of lords and ladies introduce themselves to him. He talks to them about some of their patents that he would like to purchase. They rebuff him rudely and call him an interloping colonialist.
Jonathon tells Grayson that he would have done better to approach their bookies since they are terrible and indebted gamblers. Mina comes up on them and Jonathon introduces them. She says she swears they’ve met and Grayson says he has the same feeling. Renfield (the butler) tells him it’s time and reports that Jonathon is a reporter and Mina is a scientist at a local hospital.
Renfield approaches Jonathon and reminds him the press was not invited and he says he’s there on a social basis. But he invites him to come by the next day for an exclusive interview with Grayson. After a drumroll, Renfield announces Grayson will share his latest invention.
Grayson tells the crowd that his father told him of the dark ages and that he thinks they never ended. He hands out glass bulbs as he talks and tells them he’s found a way for them all to come out of the darkness. He says where Edison and Tesla failed, he has created power from the magnetosphere. He has harnessed and amplified it – he has made free, safe, wireless power. Beneath them, engineers rush to activate equipment.
The crowd discusses it and some of the lords are concerned it will crush their petroleum interests. Grayson calls for more power and Renfield calls down to the facility underneath them. They crank it up and Mina’s lightbulb begins to glow in her hand. Then all of the lightbulbs everyone holds begin to light up. Grayson laughs. The ballroom is set aglow by all of the lights held by the party goers!
Lightning shoots through the facility and Renfield tells Grayson they are having technical difficulties. He asks for a few more seconds but the engineer has to shut down what looks like a giant Tesla coil. The lights extinguish and the crowd gasps. Grayson tells the crowd he hopes the demonstration was “illuminating.” They applaud.
Lucy approaches and introduces herself to Grayson. Mina is there and Grayson says she looks shaken. She asks what she’s just seen and he says it’s the future. He reminds Jonathon to see him tomorrow and his gaze lingers on Mina as he walks away. Jonathon says he seems taken with her and she tells him he’s jealous.
Lady Jane finds Grayson and she tells him his performance was operatic. He says he’ll take it as a compliment though he’s sure she meant it otherwise. She invites him to join her at the opera opening and he tells her he has his own box. She says she’s sure he’d enjoy it more in hers. He rebuffs her and she walks away.
One of the lords approaches him and tells him he knows he’s a fraud and will never do business in London. He walks away as Grayson watches smiling.
Jonathon types at a small desk and his roommate tells him that Mina won’t wait for him forever and he must propose to her soon. Lucy talks about how tedious Jonathon is and how exciting Grayson is by comparison. Jonathon’s friend tells him Mina could do better. The girls hear a noise outside the window and the dogs are barking but they don’t see anything.
The argumentative lord is dropped off by his carriage and as he is unlocking his door he is taken and there is a splash of blood. Grayson says the man was a pig and Renfield chastises him for ripping the man apart. They are looking at photos of the lords that are in a secret society that involves fraud, murder, torture, rape and slaughter – the Order of the Dragon – that has been around for 500 years.
He says they have ben torturing and burning whole villages and now they do dirty work in business, politics and oil. Grayson says their greed for oil will be their undoing. He says their technology will cut off their money supply and their power and there will be no more Order of the Dragon. Grayson looks at a photo of Mina and seems lost staring at her.
A man picks the lock of a house on a dark London street. He enters the home. He finds a coffin in a candlelit room waiting on burial. It is the lord Grayson killed. The man shoves garlic in the corpse’s mouth and pulls out a large knife and slices at the lord’s neck. He walks out carrying a large case and goes into an outfitter’s business where he sets the case down. A woman picks it up and carries it upstairs. She brings it into a room and opens it. We see it’s Jane and another man. He asks if there were signs of vampiric feeding and she says there was too much damage to the neck to tell for certain.
He asks how long has it been since there was a vampire in London and they agree it was 8 years – the Whitechapel killing (aka Jack the Ripper). He discusses that he mutilated the victims to cover up signs of feeding. Jane says they have to assume that Clive was targeted. She wants to put guards on the other high council members as a precaution. They agree to say the lord was killed by a dog. He tells her to take the head with her.
In a lecture hall where Van Helsing is lecturing and Mina is listening, a Mr Campbell disrupts the class whispering at a front page story. He takes the paper and tells them to discuss it outside of class.
Jonathon comes to Carfax Manor and Renfield tells him Grayson will be with him soon. They shake hands and Grayson invites him to sit. The handshake they exchange seems to have left a mark on Grayson’s hand – perhaps it was the ray of sun. Grayson kicks his chair out of the sunlight and sits in semi-darkness.
Jonathon asks why Grayson chose England and he says it’s the home of his ancestors. Jonathon asks if it wasn’t because Edison ran him out of the US. Grayson says his mind is on the future but he’s from an ancient family. He tells Jonathon we are on the verge of a great change as a species. Jonathon writes visionary, egomaniac, delusional on his notepad. Grayson says he’s there to help man evolve into a new species.
Mina comes to see Van Helsing after class. She tells him that she knows the high score on the final exam will be allowed to serve as his research institute. He tells her that her exams scores are high but her surgical expertise is limited. She tells him the moment the scalpel touches skin she begins to falter. He tells her she must believe in herself and her ability to heal others. She tells him she does believe in herself. He tells her the heart never lies. She walks out of the university with her colleagues into the darkness. She is alone and Grayson watches her from the shadows. She looks through a book as Grayson sneaks up closer. She turns but doesn’t see him. Instead it is a girlfriend she was waiting for.
A passing woman smiles at him and Grayson heads after her. Moments later the woman is moaning in ecstasy as he feeds from her.
Jonathon and Mina come to the opera as they’ve been invited to sit in Grayson’s box. He says he’s trying to get him to write up a great interview. Mina tells him that for all Grayson has Jonathon has something he never will – her. Jane walks past as many of the other stand back apart from her and watch her walk through.
The theater goes dark and the opera begins. Jane watches alone from her box through opera glasses. Grayson stands behind the curtain and looks over at his own box where Mina and Jonathon sit. He whispers to Jane that the view is better back there and asks her to join him. She comes to sit close to him and says the view is astonishing. She asks if anyone saw him and he says her invitation specified discretion. She sits on his lap and he throws her skirt up and runs his hand up her thigh. He kisses her neck as he looks across at Mina. He touches her between the legs as she gasps. She bites her lip and there’s a drop of blood there that he laps up and kisses her deeply. He continues to stare at Mina while he kisses Jane.
Two of the lords discuss Grayson and how he swooped down on Clive’s widow and bought up all his gambling debt and used it to get her husband’s interest and a seat on their precious board. They are outrages but there’s not much they can do about it. They are dropped off at a house. Grayson watches from a roof where he is suddenly attacked. He slits the throat of the hunter that attacked him and tells him – before you die you will soon be joined in hell by your brothers as I destroy your order. The man says – you are Dracula and then his life’s blood runs out of him and down the rooftop.
Jane is in a room training with knives and punching bags. There is a woman in a cage in the room and she tells him she’s just a fly who’s attracted by rot. She demands she tell her her sire’s name. She threatens to throw her in a lake in the cage and the woman tells her it doesn’t matter because soon there will be more and more and more.
Grayson comes home and pours a drink. Van Helsing comes into the room and Grayson says he wondered when he would see him. He tells him that the Order of the Dragon must be handled differently. He tells him the only way to crush them is to take their vast wealth. He says he will not have their work undone by Grayson’s lack of discipline. Grayson grabs him up by the neck, chokes Van Helsing and asks him to give him one reason he shouldn’t kill him. Van Helsing says that without him he would still be rotting in the iron box. Grayson releases him and he tumbles to the floor.
Van Helsing tells him they have to stick to the plan and reminds him the Order took his entire family from him. Grayson says they cannot be bound by what they lost but on their vengeance. Grayson sees in his mind when his wife was taken from him by the Order. As he relives it in his mind, Mina wakes scared. This is cool – in most Dracula lore, Van Helsing and Dracula are enemies – here they are teamed up. That’s a nice plot twist!
THE END!
What did you think of the new series? Love it or leave it???
