Our main character Reginald took the backseat on Reginald the Vampire Season 1 Episode 4.
Instead, we got the much-needed backstory of how Angela and Maurice’s feud started.
The emotions ran high as Maurice visited his mom’s last place of residence, leading to memories getting unburied.
Maurice’s feud (dare we say, hate?) for Angela originates in these memories, and all gets revealed during his trip down memory lane.
Interestingly, this story takes the forefront of the hour, with present-day antics shelved for the time being. Flashback episodes don’t always go over well, but this one stayed on par with the quality of the rest of the series.
We still received some of the present-day storylines featuring the titular character.
Reginald continued to stress about the upcoming Vampire assessment, but the only problem? Maurice went missing.
No one knew where Maurice went (except, of course, the audience), which left Reginald in a tricky position.
Eventually, we saw Mike volunteer to take over for Maurice with the training; after initially telling Reginald to flee town.
Mike’s change of heart toward Reginald stemmed from his own “second chance,” which may have something to do with his bargain with Angela alluded to in Reginald the Vampire Season 1 Episode 3.
Speaking of Angela, the present-day Angela got a visit from a fellow vampire from a different vampire community, Eve.
Eve seemed to be an old friend of Angela’s, but their relationship got strained by the end of their meeting.
Eve intended to take advantage of Angela’s shortcomings (letting a plus-size vampire be made in her community under her watch) for her benefit. Angela already seemed a bit vengeance-focused, which will probably make things worse.
Angela got even more enraged by this and took the next step to enact her plan to eliminate Reginald before the assessment: bringing in Nikki.
Nikki constantly gets referred to as someone extremely dangerous within the overall vampire community. But what is she? Another vampire, or something worse?
Whoever Nikki turns out to be (and whatever her powers may be). Hopefully, we won’t have to wait long to figure out those answers.
The meat of the episode involved Maurice and his journey to the past. He visited his mom’s last place of residence and that awakened memories within him.
In the 70s, Maurice and Angela were living together, and it was all going wonderfully — until Maurice killed someone in a vampiric rage. That someone? A police officer.
The murder activated Angela’s flight response (which makes a lot of sense), and she planned on moving them to Paris for a short time (a decade or 2), but Maurice needed to stop somewhere: his mother’s.
During this fateful stay at his mom’s house, Angela acted like a brat, but she also realized that he wouldn’t leave his family behind for so long. So she did the unthinkable.
She turned Maurice’s mother into a vampire. Maurice nor his mom expected this, and Maurice’s mom couldn’t handle the change mentally. Despite Maurice’s warnings and pleadings, his mom walked straight into the sunlight, which turned her into ash almost instantly.
This trauma explains a lot about Maurice and Angela’s situation in the present time. They are cold to each other, but Maurice still harbors a grudge (rightfully so) against his former girlfriend.
Maurice vowed to kill Angela on that fateful night. Someday. Somehow, he planned on killing her.
And now, who knows when that will happen? His revenge mission against Angela mirrors something Angela said to him early on in the episode: You’re acting on vengeance, not justice.
Another exciting aspect of this episode came from the neighbor.
At first, this neighbor seemed to be a polite man who wanted to get to know Maurice, whom he thought bought the house.
In the 70s, a young boy would always be at Maurice’s mom’s house for dinner. This boy had some trauma, so he didn’t talk much.
Maurice’s mom acted like a second mom to him, ensuring he got dinner due to his mom’s death and his dad’s drinking.
The neighbor and this boy look relatively similar, but it’s revealed that they are one and the same. But this boy witnessed something horrific: Maurice’s mother getting burned to ashes.
He trained himself since then to become a bonafide vampire hunter.
He equipped his house with all the vampire-hunting necessities; wooden stakes, holy water blessed by the pope, and a crossbow, and consumed a specific herb for years that prevents him from being glamored (and makes him poisonous if Maurice feeds on him).
Maurice was devastated by this because this man let vengeance take over his entire life, and nothing Maurice did could fix that. he couldn’t glamor him to make him forget, even though he tried.
This man’s fate added more fuel to Maurice, and the nagging question of the episode: is vengeance worth it? Is dedicating your whole life to vengeance actually living?
Hopefully, more of these more profound questions will appear in the series, opening up exciting conversations between him, Reginald, and Angela.
Another exciting aspect of the vampire mythos that the show will be using.
The neighbor prepared a devil’s trap for Maurice, a trap (usually a pentagram) that would stop a vampire, or something similar, in its place.
After stepping into the circle, however, Maurice moved about freely, thus debunking the theory.
We enjoyed getting more information on how Reginald the Vampire will tackle vampires as a whole, and hopefully, we will learn more about how they work in this world.
We already know that they debunked the “inviting a vampire in” rule, so who knows what else they might do!
So, Fanatics, what did you think of the episode?
Did you enjoy learning about Maurice’s troubled past with Angela?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and remember you can watch Reginald the Vampire online here on TV Fanatic.
Michael Stack is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.