Mother’s health suddenly takes a turn for the worse, and Yen is missing. With his problems mounting, Daimon leaves Gabriella to have a difficult conversation with a student.

Things actually start to make a little sense this time out as various bitty and seemingly unrelated parts of the plot come together and the show dabbles a little with showing instead of telling.

Mother’s health sharply and suddenly deteriorates, with her slipping into a coma. In the real world, this is obviously a source of concern for Daimon. Inside her head, we get to visit the worst night of Victoria’s life only everything isn’t quite as it seems. As events unfold over and over, small changes start to add up as it becomes clear that Victoria isn’t alone in her head. But can she really trust that her oldest nemesis shares a common foe with her?

Back in the real world, the search for Yen bleeds into what’s occurring with Victoria, as it turns out that the hint given in the previous episode was correct, explaining an awful lot about what’s happening to Victoria. The question is, can Ana and Daimon find him in time, do they want to put a stop to what he’s doing, and if they do, will that cause issues for them down the line?

With Daimon’s hands tied up with all this, he leaves Gabriella to speak to Bryce, the student who was last possessed by Magoth, and who he has now apparently let free to wander the world, relying on him to keep his experience secret. This seems… highly irresponsible, but it does leave Gabriella something to actually do, putting her compassion and empathy to good use as she reaches out to the troubled young man. Of course, his worries mirror her own to a degree. Having seen the setup of The Blood, she remains troubled by what they’re doing and whether it’s really the best way. Added to her concern at Daimon’s casual dismissal of Bryce, it’s clear that if and when she does end up replacing Dr Hastings, there will be fireworks to say the least.

It’s nice to finally feel like the show is actually going somewhere instead of being all style and little substance. There’s still a bit too much info dump dialogue going on in places, but it’s much less noticeable than previous episodes, and the plot really is starting to come together at last. I’ll be interested to see what it does next.

Verdict: Finally getting itself in gear and much better for it – more of this please. 7/10

Greg D. Smith

Click here for Greg’s previous reviews of he season