As the episode begins, we see a sleek black coffin surrounded by candles. The coffin lid opens and a young man sleeps inside. Someone places a stake on the man’s chest and bashes the other end using a sledgehammer. After the intro, Daniel Harrow (Ioan Gruffudd) reads his son’s alleged note in which he tells Daniel how much he wanted to see him but couldn’t find a way. Then, he uses Lyle Fairley’s username and password to delete the DNA results. He gets a call from Bryan Nichols (Damien Garvey) and meets with him immediately. They chat briefly about Daniel’s car and his rough night before Daniel asks Bryan if he recovered any more footage from the shipyard. Bryan says no and he encourages Daniel not to get his hopes up because it is looking unrecoverable.

Then, Daniel’s attention turns to the nearby house which he says looks like a haunted house. They go inside and Daniel is impressed by the furniture and other items inside. They soon learn that whoever lived there had a thing for vampires and drank blood. Daniel checks the body and learns that the man had fangs before finding garlic in his mouth. The man has been identified as 29-year-old online antique dealer Sebastian Wells (Ashley Harris). The body was discovered by a delivery driver who came to pick up a table. None of the neighbors hear anything. Since the coffin lid was hinged, Bryan believes it was opened and closed repeatedly. Daniel checks the man’s body again and finds yellow rose petals which are normally stuffed in a vampire’s chest to guarantee their demise after the heart was removed.

Then, he learns that the heart is gone and a religious necklace is found instead. They visit the church where they believe the necklace came from and speak to Reverend Joshua Mercado (Scott Johnson). Josh is shown a picture of the necklace before they go inside and confirm that the necklace is missing. He says he never locks the doors so everyone has access to the church. They never had any problems before so Joshua wasn’t worried about it. Joshua says he was at home in the presbytery the night before, but nobody can confirm that since he was alone. He knows about the murder on Blackburn Street. The Reverend knows about Sebastian being a vampire but he didn’t know him well. He suspects that Sebastian was a troubled soul. Bryan says hell get Scientific to dust the cabinets for prints and he wants a list of parishioners.

Josh agrees to cooperate before he complains about a young boy’s dog digging up the church’s yard. The young boy gives him the middle finger before fleeing the scene with his dog close behind him. Daniel returns to the office and prepares for Sebastian’s postmortem. Dr. Lyle Fairley (Darren Gilshenan) says he is meeting with a color consultant for his new upstairs office which belonged to Maxine. When Renae (Miriama Smith) enters, Bryan introduces himself, but she isn’t very friendly. She says there is no problem and she believes she is replacing the problem. Then, she reminds Daniel that he has work targets he needs to meet and she suspects everyone to stay on top of their quotas. When she leaves, they talk about her being a charmer. Then, Daniel puts on some music before joining Edwina (Faustina Agolley) and Grace (Jolene Anderson) for Sebastian’s postmortem.

Lyle decides to watch the operation for Harrow’s performance report. They check the fangs before Daniel requests Grace bring up the CT scan of Sebastian’s skull. There are screws in his upper jaw confirming that the fangs are indeed dental implants. They find some type of burn on his neck. After checking his chest wound, Daniel finds multiple scars in the cubital fossa of the man’s left arm. He suspects they’re needle penetrations. Grace confirms they’re on his right arm too and questions whether it was possible drug abuse. Daniel wants to order a full toxicology test to find out. Next, they locate a tattoo on his left calf that translates to eternal life. Daniel wonders if Sebastian was a devoted lifestyle vampire. Lyle’s color consultant arrives so he leaves. Daniel asks for blood and urine samples.

He checks Sebastian’s ribs and finds cuts directly where the heart had been removed. It isn’t consistent with a narrow blade so Edwina says it might’ve been a stake to the heart. The precise nature of the cut makes Daniel believe the person responsible has worked with bone and tissues before. They check the man’s stomach and finds out he has been drinking blood. If Sebastian had been consuming human blood regularly, his liver would’ve been badly damaged because the liver can’t break down the iron in human blood. Sure enough, Sebastian was suffering from severe liver cirrhosis. Nevertheless, Edwina’s test confirms that the man was not drinking human blood. Daniel decides to move in for a closer look while Grace gets a call and learns that someone is coming. When the call ends, she tells them there is something she needs to take care of before leaving.

Daniel checks Sebastian’s neck and asks for the urine sample. He rushes out of the building and holds the urine up to the sunlight. He says there is only one blood disease that causes acute sensitivity to sunlight and chronic liver disease. When Edwina asks what condition he is talking about, Daniel says it is Erythropoietic Protoporphyria. It is an extremely rare blood disease that causes the patient’s skin to become incredibly sensitive to UV light. When exposed to UV light, their blood will start to boil and it attacks the nerve endings in the skin. It rips them apart causing a sunburn-like mark to appear on their skin. Sufferers of the condition need to spend their entire lives indoors and they require frequent blood transfusions to remove the porphyria toxins. That is why Sebastian had marks on his arms. Many years ago, sufferers drank animal blood and avoided daylight but were often persecuted and killed.

Daniel wants his theory confirmed and wants to check to see if CIB has found a missing heart. When Edwina leaves, Daniel encounters Ben Patterson (Tim Ross) who introduces himself as Grace’s husband. Grace joins them and tries to escort her husband out of the building as quickly as possible. Lyle arrives and Daniel finds out he already knew about Grace’s husband. Since Daniel has finished his last autopsy, Lyle wants him to get started on M300176 which is scheduled to be processed today. Daniel gets a call from Bryan who reveals they’ve found the contact details of Sebastian’s mother. She is on her way in. Ursula (Alison Whyte) is allowed to see her son right away and admits she knew something was wrong with him at a young age. She took him to the pool and he started screaming for no reason. He ended up having blisters on his skin and couldn’t go outside during the day.

She knew about his coffin and fangs. She says he was a good boy and can’t understand why someone would do something like this. Bryan asks her about Sebastian’s friends and they track them down immediately. They met Sebastian in an online vampire forum and they don’t think anyone from their group would’ve wanted to harm him. They were protective of him because he had a rough childhood. Unfortunately, the locals thought he was a weirdo and they often harassed him. It is revealed that Sebastian got the blood from his girlfriend Monika (Ally Harris). They visit Monika’s place of work and find out that she was named employee of the month at the butcher shop. She would know how to handle a knife and met Sebastian when she made deliveries at his place. They were together a couple of months and Monika didn’t turn up for work this morning.

Nobody knows where she is and this includes Monika’s flatmate. Then, Bryan tells Daniel he has spoken to the Met about the addresses for his son’s mother and it will take a bit longer than expected. Daniel is asked if there is anything else he can think of to speed up the process, but Daniel claims there isn’t. When Daniel returns to the office, Fern Harrow (Ella Newton) is waiting for him because he hasn’t been answering his phone. Fern wants to see her brother but Daniel explains her brother is still alive. They walk along the street and discuss the boy’s claim that he is Daniel’s son and Fern wonders if he is telling the truth. Daniel says he didn’t want to lie to her again and has to help James if he is telling the truth. Later that night, Daniel drinks and looks through old pictures before calling Grace. Renae asks if she is going to answer it but Grace says it can wait.

Grace tells Renae she needs to take off a few days for personal reasons and she never had to tell Maxine why, but Renae reminds her that Maxine isn’t in charge. Grace is told to submit a request for leave form and she’ll judge it on merit. Grace knows Renae doesn’t remember her before reminding her she used to hire surgical rooms at Sunderland Private. Renae was sent to look for efficiencies several years ago and her audit got the place closed down. Although the place was losing money, Grace argues some of her friends lost their jobs and some haven’t worked again. Grace knows Renae is there to find cuts and someone is going to lose their job. She wonders who it will be but Renae isn’t willing to tell her. Later, Daniel gets a call letting him know that she is ready and he should bring cash.

Daniel meets the man, pays him, and gets a fancy car. Daniel is impressed that most everything in the vehicle is original but he won’t ask the man how he got the items. He is encouraged not to set it on fire again before turning it on and driving away. Monika is found and brought in for questioning. She can’t remember where she was two nights ago. She is asked about her bank account details which show a $28,000 transfer two nights ago. She claims it was a gift from Sebastian before Daniel asks about her 18th-century Georgian glass necklace. She says Sebastian was generous before saying they dated for a little while and broke up because she liked to tan. She learns about his death and refuses to answer any more questions until she has a lawyer. Later, Edwina reveals that the lab results have confirmed Daniel’s theory. She asks him about Monika before Daniel confesses he doesn’t think she killed him.

She doesn’t seem like the type who believes in vampires and that doesn’t match the killing. They talk about how vampires used to burn, eat, or bury the heart in sanctified grounds. That statement leads Daniel to a startling discovery and he soon finds himself at the church. He tries to find Joshua before running into the boy and his dog. The boy admits that the Reverend doesn’t like him or his dog Cannoli. He goes on to say that Joshua doesn’t like anyone who doesn’t attend church and that includes the vampire guy. Daniel questions that and learns that the boy saw them arguing two nights ago when Sebastian caught him leaving hate mail at his door. The dog digs up a heart. Daniel looks around more and finds a stake that could be the murder weapon. Both items are taken back to the office and it is confirmed that the stake is the murder weapon.

Bryan admits he has seen everything and that Joshua is on his way to CIB now. Lyle confronts Daniel about the autopsies he should’ve completed by now. He threatens to use the red pen if Daniel doesn’t get the autopsy started in five minutes. Daniel performs an autopsy on an older woman while Edwina and Lyle watch and assist. They discover what appears to be a vampire bite mark on the woman’s neck, but Lyle says it is a snake bite. Lyle says she would’ve survived had it been a vampire before the woman jumps up and scares everyone to death. Renae is not happy that a 65-year-old woman was somehow admitted to the morgue alive. Daniel lets Lyle explain. He says Ruth Kovacs (Marta Kaczmarek) was bitten by a snake at her home and her husband called the family physician who was unable to find a pulse so he declared her dead at the scene.

Her pulse was suppressed by snake venom which wasn’t sufficient to kill her. Instead, she was in a death-like coma. Lyle reminds her that the examining doctor signed her extinction certificate. When Renae says Ruth needs to be escorted home, Edwina volunteers to take her. Then, Renae tells Daniel and Lyle to get a statement from the doctor because she wants it in writing that QIFM is not responsible. Daniel talks to the doctor and learns that Ruth’s husband wouldn’t stop yelling at him so he couldn’t check her vitals. He kept says Ruth had been bitten by a Varcolac and that intrigues Harrow. Daniel remembers the book in Sebastian’s home that had Varcolac on it and says it means vampire. Them, he learns that Andrei works as a vampire at the local St Hilary’s church.

Daniel realizes something is wrong just before Edwina takes Ruth back to Andrei (Alfredo Malabello). Edwina tries to leave but Ruth tells him to put the kettle on for her. Daniel rushes to their place so he can save Edwina. Andrei attacks her from behind before going after Ruth too. Daniel tries to get in touch with Bryan but he doesn’t answer. Daniel makes it in time to prevent Andrei from jabbing a stake through Ruth’s chest. Edwina gets up and admits she won’t volunteer for anything again. After that, Daniel talks to Bryan about everything that has happened. Andrei confessed to killing Sebastian because he was upset when a vampire moved in and thought he killed Ruth. Sebastian’s mother is allowed to look at her son’s body once again. She learns Daniel has children and believes he understands that you love them no matter what.

Later, Daniel runs into Grace and learns she is going to Sydney for a few days before she owns a house there with her husband. She didn’t want to drop all of this on Daniel with everything going on with his son and whatnot. Daniel argues it is best for her to sort it out since he can’t get involved with a married woman and ruin his reputation. She tells him to call in case he needs to talk before leaving. When Daniel returns, Lyle, Bryan, and Renae want to talk to him about an email. They go inside and talk about the Lyle receives from the DNA office this afternoon. Daniel learns that they might not be able to release the body from the shipyard as quickly as they thought because the boy’s DNA doesn’t match Daniel’s. Then, Daniel denies anyone trying to contact him in the last few days.

Bryan shows him a video of someone jumping a fence at the police compound and searching the stolen vehicle. Bryan suggests more than one person was at the shipyard when the victim fell to his death and says they need to find this guy. He might be involved in the victim’s death. Daniel returns to his boat and finds the lights on. He goes inside and finds the young boy down there. He turns around and calls Daniel his dad.

 

Harrow Review

Generally, a lot happens during a normal episode of Harrow but the main story moves at a snail’s pace 90% of the time. The show has had great success following this formulaic approach but I usually like it more when it focuses on the main storyline. Nevertheless, the investigation into the death of the vampire Sebastian was fairly interesting and entertaining.

I liked the twists and turns there at the end although they were a bit convenient. I am eager to learn more about Daniel’s son and what happened at the shipyard. I can’t wait to see what type of odd investigations they come up with this season.

The episode was pretty good and I really liked the scenes of Daniel getting his car back. The episode scores a 7.5 out of 10. Previous recaps of Harrow are available on Reel Mockery.