WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Castlevania Season 4, available now on Netflix.
Season 3 of Castlevania ended with Saint Germain shouting "I'll see you again!" to Trevor and Sypha from the other end of the Infinite Corridor, and this cliffhanger left fans wondering what happened to the enigmatic alchemist. Finally, Season 4 has provided answers, and Episode 4, "You Must Sacrifice," details everything Saint Germain went through.
Upon his Season 4 debut, Saint Germain stumbled out of an outhouse in a daze and introduced himself to Alucard and Greta. Through a series of flashbacks, audiences saw everything he had been up to since the end of Season 3, but Castlevania went even further back to show his origins.
Germain became listless and jaded after advising nobility for so many years. Only when he met the woman of his dreams did his life find new purpose. With this unnamed woman, Saint Germain found an equal, and together they learned about the Infinite Corridor, a route to other worlds, but this went south, as he lost her to the Corridor, and showing this moment underscored how fundamental this quest was to his identity.
Returning to the moment where Trevor and Sypha said goodbye to him in Season 3, Saint Germain then traveled through the Infinite Corridor. Fantastical locations whizzed by at a breakneck pace in a psychedelic version of the Bifrost from Thor. Here, Saint Germain was powerless to control anything until he managed to stop at the library where he lost his love.
She was not there, and instead Saint Germain found a mysterious alchemist. She told Saint Germain that he needed to become more powerful if he was to control the Infinite Corridor and find his lost love. To do so he would have to create a Rebis -- a fusion of body and soul between a male and female -- by resurrecting Dracula and Lisa. The alchemist shamed Germain for being too cowardly, so Germain eventually relented and sacrificed everything to find her.
In essence, Germain sacrificed his soul and went beyond the limits of his morality. Since the events of Season 3, he traveled the world doing whatever it took to get information on Dracula, including going on a murder rampage. While at first he was horrified by his malicious misdeeds, he justified them until they became routine. He went from town to town playing the part of a weary traveler, only to subsequently manipulate and kill those in his way.
Later, he partnered up with Varney, (who is revealed to be Death) due to their mutual interest in bringing Dracula back. When they orchestrated an attack Danesti, Germain felt slight remorse but reneged because it was unfair that those villagers had lives and he didn't. With the people of Danesti in danger and on the run, Germain not so innocently suggested to Alucard that they would all be safer in Dracula's Castle.
Despite his transformation into a villain, Castlevania treated Saint Germain as a tragic figure, one who'd do anything out of true desperation. He was manipulated into cooperating with Death, forsaking all decency and humanity within him just to tell his soul mate he loves her. However, even when he was able to get a glimpse of her through the Infinite Corridor, she turned her back on him.
Castlevania excels when exploring the complex morality of its characters. People are not born heroes or villains, and everyone in Castlevania is dealt a bad hand. It's the choices they make when responding to those circumstances that determine who they really are, and Saint Germain is a perfect encapsulation of that philosophy.
Castlevania stars Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont, Alejandra Reynoso as Sypha Belnades, James Callis as Alucard, Theo James as Hector, Adetokumboh M'Cormack as Isaac, Jaime Murray as Carmilla, Jessica Brown Findlay as Lenore, Bill Nighy as St. Germain, Jason Isaacs as The Judge and Rila Fukushima as Sumi. The entire series is available now on Netflix.