The finale of Castlevania: Nocturne Season 1 begins, appropriately, in darkness. In the eighth and last episode, “Devourer of Light,” darkness eclipses the sun, with just a ring of light visible around its edges. Will the vampire messiah Erzsebet Báthory (Franka Potente) be triumphant in her mission to enshroud the world in an endless night? Can Richter Belmont (Edward Bluemel) and his friends possibly prevail against her powerful vampire cabal? From creators Clive Bradley and Kevin Kolde and directors Sam and Adam Deats, the eight-episode animated series has reached its cliff-hanger apex, and we’re here to break it down. Read on for an explainer about that surprise Season 1 ending.

Castlevania: Nocturne trailer

What happens in the Episode 8 finale of Castlevania: Nocturne?

First, a quick refresher: When Season 1 begins,  we’re in Boston and it’s 1783, 300 years after the first Castlevania series. We meet young Richter, born into the Belmont family tradition of vampire hunting, just as his mother, Julia (Sophie Skelton), is about to send him off to France where she believes he’ll be safer. Then 250-year-old vampire Olrox (Zahn McClarnon) shows up, seeking vengeance on Julia for killing his lover. He slays Julia in front of her son, whose life he spares — for the time being, anyway. Leaving him to shoulder his trauma alone, Olrox warns Richter he’ll be back for him when he’s older.

Fast forward to Episode 8: During the French Revolution, workers are rising up against the upper classes. Meanwhile, Richter’s joining forces with other young allies — Annette (Thuso Mbedu), freed from vampire-enforced enslavement in the Caribbean and Maria (Pixie Davies), who’s fighting both inequality and vampires — to face off against the most formidable villain of all, Erzsebet. The so-called vampire messiah is dead set on her apocalyptic mission to blot out the sun, casting the world in an eternal night so her cabal of vampires rule forever. But are they too late? At the start of Episode 8, after drinking ancient blood, Erzsebet’s powers magnify when she’s dramatically transformed into Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of war. “I am the mistress of dread,” she proclaims. “Lady of slaughter. She who mauls.” She’s got the feline countenance, blood-red mane, and fearsome size to show it. And the night is only growing darker.

Does Maria survive in Season 1 of Castlevania: Nocturne?

“What the fuck has happened to the sun?” Richter asks his compatriots, Annette and Tera (Nastassja Kinski), Maria’s mother. Is it just an eclipse, they wonder, or is it magic, a sign of Erzsebet (aka “the devourer of light who will eat the sun”)? Either way, there’s no time to lose: The three vow to rescue their friend, Tera’s daughter Maria, who’s held captive by demonic howling night creatures and a priest. Swords clashing, they fight their way past guards to get inside the cathedral where Abbot Emmanuel (Richard Dormer) has been devil forging with Erzsebet’s fearsome second-in-command, Drolta (Elarica Johnson). Bound and gagged on a table, Maria’s about to be sacrificed by the Abbot, who’s wielding a knife above her when the vampire hunters burst in. 

The Abbot pauses practically in mid-air, and later, after Tera appeals to him, reprimands them. “Have you forgotten the eclipse? Did you think it meant nothing, the eating of the sun?” “I thought it might just be for mood,” Richter retorts, deadpan. “It is pretty spooky.” But the newly transformed Devourer of Light herself is hungry for more than just the sun. When Erzsebet-as-Sekhmet shows up, she recounts ancient human sacrifices from “the midsts of time,” long before any of their own memories begin. This time, she’s after a different kind of sacrifice: Erzsebet and Drolta want to transform a human into a vampire “to give her eternal life.” As Drolta menacingly stalks the cathedral, her hot pink hair erupting around her in flaming tendrils, Tera makes a mother’s sacrifice, volunteering herself for the transfer — even as Maria protests. But in her eyes, it’s the only choice: To spare her daughter’s life, she’ll agree to be turned into a vampire.

Erzsebet bites Tera’s neck, sealing the deal and rendering her no longer mortal — though Tera’s move doesn’t necessarily save Richter, Maria, and Annette. They flee the premises, but their long-term protection is uncertain. When the Abbot (who’s just confessed that he has feelings for Tera) implores Drolta to let them stay free, he realizes too late that he’s struck a false bargain. “They’re revolutionaries, Father,” she says. “We’re here to crush them. I thought we agreed about that.” And then she flies off in search of them, her hair whipping behind her.

Who’s the mysterious pale stranger in the Castlevania: Nocturne ending?

Soon enough, Drolta finds the trio out in the world and makes her swift descent. Her sights are set first on Richter, and his friends freeze in horror as she swoops down, aiming her sword at him. One centimeter closer, one split second later, and Richter would surely be dead — but just then, a sword is plunged into Drolta’s neck, from far above. She expires, snarling her last ugly snarl, the life visibly extinguished from her body, leaving her a smoking shell of a monster on the ground. 

Who was that pale, practically translucent stranger who arrives out of the dark sky to save Richter? “I am Alucard,” he announces ominously. Viewers of the first Castlevania series will recognize him as the immortal son of Dracula Tepes (Graham McTavish). Three centuries ago, Alucard (James Callis) valiantly opposed Dracula’s genocidal reign of terror against humanity, and joined forces with Richter’s ancestor Trevor Belmont (Richard Armitage) and Sypha (Alejandra Reynoso) to fight against his own father. But after defeating Dracula, Alucard vanished from the world and hasn’t been seen for centuries. Until now, even Richter doubted his existence. “I thought you were just a myth,” he says. 

Alucard reminds the vampires lingering in Drolta’s wake that thousands like them have died before him, and the hooded cabal slink away and retreat, leaving Richter and his friends momentarily safe. Drolta’s apparently dead, but Olrox lives on and so does Erzsebet, now with her new vampire, Tera, and it’s hard to imagine she’s happy about this latest plot twist.

“I hope I’m not too late,” Alucard says cryptically, forebodingly, and perhaps knowingly in the very last moments of Season 1, Episode 8. Why has he chosen this moment to finally return? What’s he been up to during all those missing years? And what might his sudden re-emergence mean for what’s to come next for Castlevania: Nocturne?

Will there be a Season 2 of Castlevania: Nocturne?

The good news, with all that’s hanging in the balance, is yes. Vampires live forever (most of them, anyway), and Castlevania: Nocturne will live on for another season too. No word on when the just confirmed Season 2 will arrive, but stay tuned for news here.

And while you’re waiting: Stream all eight episodes of Castlevania: Nocturne Season 1 now.