1912 flashback and people digging for something – with a
charismatic man convincing people to keep digging past exhaustion. But they do
strike… blood. A blood well. That charismatic digger then attacks his fellows
with a pick axe
Well that could have been a not-too-subtle environmental
activist metaphor or it was just Dusk
Till Dawn.
In the present, Aiden, Carlos and Scott and some minions
find that bloodwell. Carlos uses the obsidian club key to open it, exposing a
huge lake of blood (Malvado senses it open).
We have another flashback of how the bloodwell was made
and why Kate wants it – just in case we’ve had trouble catching up. Which has
been a major problem with this whole storyline
Richie is still being tempted by Malvado to take over his
empire. Malvado going to El Rey (whatever that is) requires a whole lot of
blood – the blood well. Preferably without Carlos tainting it and becoming uber
powerful off it first. And Malvado still wants Santanico. The plan is for
Richie to steal the tanker full of blood from Carlos after he has extracted it.
Now they just need to know where it is – so they ask Kate
(who was traded last episode). Richie insists on being the one who does the
blood-sharing-images thing. He gets a quick recap of everything she’s been up
to and the location of the bloodwell. Richie also takes Kate of Malvado before
he can turn her.
Kate very much wants to know what is going on with Richie
who is full of guilt and trouble – he tries to get her to get out of the car.
No way is she going to be dumped; she lays down the law, she is going to the
bloodwell. She also calls him out on his motives and tries to further push the
brothers back together – only to learn that Seth and Richie are in this
together. She has a wonderful naïve moment of thinking the Geckos have a grand
plan which will ensure everyone is super duper happy.
At the site, Aiden and Carlos are happily loading up
their tanker though there’s some tension between Aiden (and his new Culebros
women – because of course he has a fanclub and walking sex objects) and Carlos.
Carlos has clearly been letting his ego run wild.
As they wait to move in, Kate realises that Richie is not
planning a happy future for them all. Kate is furious and he puts it down to
what he has to do – throwing in the bodies she’s buried as proof that she should
know all about that.
She runs to Carlos and co to warn them about Malvado’s
plotting. She gives them about 10 seconds warning before Richie attacks with a
big vampire killing gun. He’s all alone and Carlos’s new girlfriend holds a gun
to his head.
We need another Flashback apparently – to 2008 with the
Gecko brothers in a strip bar with lots of gratuitous naked lap dancers
randomly talking business in their long winded fashion. I think the take away
from this is that they both have different ideas of how to do business
Santanico finds Paloma – and she tells Santanico that she
handed herself over to Malvado so he could turn her into Santanico #2.
Santanico is not amused, but Paloma does have information for her about
Malvado’s plan to go to El Rey.
They go to his office and Santanico tells Paloma she
knows she’s already been turned – with flashbacks to the times Santanico warned
her about. Paloma turns on Santanico, having completely fallen for Malvado’s
mind tricks, and calls Santanico “ungrateful.” She intends to be the new
goddess (though she does make a point that Santanico was going to make her her
slave). After taking a nasty dig at Santanico’s tortured past, she attacks –
and Santanico kills her, after apologising with more really powerful and on
point flashbacks of their time together. And Malvado arrives
He wants her to come with him to El Rey – which she
rejects (of course) and also rejects the name he gave her. She isn’t Santanico,
she is Kissa. She puts Richie’s defection down to Malvado’s mind tricks – and Malvado
bites her. Her veins turn black as she is filled with his venom – and paralysed,
unable to move except to blink while he gropes her. He gives her visions of her
walking in the sun, apparently a vision of this El Rey she is going to. He asks
her name – and she says “Santanico”. Well that defiance was short lived.
Seth is still trying to rob the whole warehouse full of
cash. One man against a whole load of Culebras. Predictably it all goes wrong.
He is captured by the four-armed culebras who likes skinning people and Greely
(now all skinned) happily tells Seth that Richie took Malvado’s deal and
turned against them.
Seth escapes due to luck and a poorly laid out prison. They
make a run for it – and Greely abandons him when he suddenly collapses with a
migraine and Santanico speaking in his head.
Malvado and Santanico catch up with a guy who is waiting
for “El Rey’s” payment from the blood well, his glass somehow magically
connected to the well and seeing how many souls have been released from it. And
make himself a Bloody Mary at the same time
They go from the bar to the preparations to go to El Rey
(who is a person, place or who even knows because “the king” is so vague) and
Santanico again says her name is Kissa and stabs Malvado in the neck. Yes! About
damn time.
And she rips off half his face – which is Malvado’s party
piece.
Malvado: “you’re a bitch.”
Kissa: “true, but I’m not your bitch.”
They fight – Seth arriving with weapons for her to match
his huge claws. El Rey guy looks quit unconcerned by the fight. Malvado seems
to win the fight, threatening to rape Kissa – but Seth manages to stab him in
the back while he’s distracted and Kissa guts him – ripping a snake out of his
bowels. He begs her for mercy, professing his love and wish to be with her
forever and how he cherished her – she kills the snake. With its death, he also
dies.
Malvado goes to ash. El Rey guy drives off.
Back at the well Richie and Kate end up captured while
Carlos wants to know what Malvado offered. Kate still makes the plea for the
blood of the well to be used by Culebros like Scott who don’t want to kill.
Kate breaks free and runs to the pump… and Carlos shoots
her.
I feel this season needed more time – more episodes. I
think there’s just so much I don’t understand – the council of vampires. El Rey
(who or what is that?) The actual blood well, who this guy is Malvado has to
pay tribute to to go to El Rey. It’s all desperately crying out for
development. Richie and Seth have changed paths and motives so many times I can’t
even keep up. What actually happened to Carlos in the Labyrinth and what that
means – so much that screams for more exposition
And development – Kate has had a rapid growth but it hasn’t been explained enough to see why she was so willing to murder last episode. Santanico and Paloma were screaming for more time together, they had a truly excellent dynamic
We seemed to end up with a lot of characters hanging
around – Carlos’s girlfriend, the bald guy with the keys to El Rey (person, place or subtle nod to the network?), Greely all
involved but none of them really having enough time to truly develop and cement
into the plot. It’s like they have this huge epic plot line and world setting
and character arcs but they just didn’t have time to do it all – or they were
far too distracted with the Geckos’ brother drama.
I’m still not even sure why they needed Aiden, his notes
and the map to find the well – didn’t Celestino already know exactly where it
was? Wasn’t there already a record of where it was, hidden as an oil well?
I am really glad that Kissa (yes I changed what I called
her after the character insisted on her real name) finally got her revenge but
it felt a little… anticlimactic. She has spent so much of this season being
sidelined and then her last fight was his natural weapons versus weapons Seth
had to bring her, it was over so quickly and she only managed to win because
Seth surprised Malvado. It didn’t feel like the victory she deserved.
