What Yuliy should do is stay away. Leave Sakhalin and stay far, far away from the Ark. After all, it really looks as though the vampires can’t get to it without the last remaining Sirius. So y’know, he should go live out the rest of his peaceful life away from all the violence and bloodshed. Maybe even marry Ryoko and just tend to gardens for the rest of his life. Adopt that poor girl who lost both her father and mother. More importantly, the vampires don’t seem to have much time left on their side. Whatever disease they’re afflicted with, it looks like they’re near the end of their rope. That’s why they’re going all out to find the Ark, and if Yuliy would just stay away, Yevgraf and his entire race would be screwed. Too bad we wouldn’t have a show if our hero did that.

— But first, Yuliy has to deal with the loli vampires. They’re a nuisance, but he eventually sees an opening against one of them (Tamara, apparently). He’s about to finish her off, but he hesitates when he sees the look of abject fear in her eyes. Y’know, that look a person would get when they realize that they’re about to die. Considering how the vampire lolis have been giggling nonstop since this battle started, shit ain’t so funny now, is it? Unfortunately, our werewolf boy is not a killer. Mikhail was right about Yuliy; he’s not cut out for this line of work.

— Yuliy’s hesitation eventually allows Tamara to escape. When Bishop finally catches up, the loli vampires realize that there’s nothing left that they can do so they depart.

— The old man in the woods is shocked to hear that Yuliy is Alexei’s son, but he’s also not the least bit pleased. Well, that’s not very friendly at all.

— We then cut to the rest of the Jaegers, and they’re not headed for Sakhalin nor London. Instead, Willard is looking for a certain something in the ruins of Dogville. Not sure what, though. Dorothea wonders if Yuliy would still be with them if the professor had mentioned stopping by the kid’s former home, but Willard doubts that. In a sense, this is a coming-of-age story for Yuliy (and hilariously enough, this is true for Ryoko as well), so he needs to find his own way in life. This may very well mean forging a path that is wholly separate from the Jaegers, and as a sort of father figure in his life, Willard accepts that. He also accepts that partly because of his guilt, but either way…

— Back at the old man’s place, he sounds rather surprised that he had been attacked by vampires. Then again, if he had never met a vampire before, then I can’t blame him. After all, the Slaves in this show look nothing like your traditional bloodsucking monster.

— Anyways, the old man was once on a mission to track down the Ark (I suspect he’s the former Japanese soldier who went MIA), and this eventually led him to Alexei. Hell, the old man even visited Dogville once. Nevertheless, he insists that he has nothing to tell Yuliy. Whatever secret he’s protecting, he intends to hold onto it until he dies.

— At Bishop’s behest, Yuliy leaves the old man alone for the night. At first, the kid is worried that the vampires would attack the old man again. Bishop reasons, however, that they could’ve killed a long time ago if this was what they truly wanted. Rather, the vampires were waiting for Yuliy specifically. Our hero is confused, because he can’t see why they would want him so badly. Still, considering how he’s the last remaining Sirius on this entire planet (presumably), this should be a big clue that Yuliy might just be playing directly into their hands by trying to locate the Ark. Ah well, this train’s already left the station. There’s no stopping it now.

— The next morning, Mikhail overhears the loli vampires making their report to Yevgraf, so he knows that Yuliy is in danger. Welp, this was his brilliant idea after all. If he hadn’t gone on and on about how their father protected the Ark, and now it’s Yuliy’s duty to do the same, his kid brother wouldn’t have come all the way out here and make himself a juicy target for Yevgraf.

— When Yuliy and Bishop decide to grab some grab, the kid is stunned to see a certain familiar face. Ah, it’s Ryoko, our lovably lovesick fool! You can tell that she’s been talking Hideomi’s ears off. Hell, I’m just surprised that the soldier is even tolerating her presence. Isn’t he on a dangerous mission? And he’s just going to let a civilian tag along?

— So Ryoko’s original plan was to head straight to London, but when she saw that her father was following her, she ran away in a panic. She saw Hideomi and just climbed on the same boat as the guy on a whim. As she tells her story, the Major just has this exasperated look on her face. Then when the girl gushes about how this mistake meant she got to see Yuliy again, the guy has this look that seems to say, “Are you hearing what I’m hearing?” But of course, our hero seems too dense to realize that the rich girl has a crush on him.

— Anyways, Hideomi confirms that the old man in the woods is that same former Japanese soldier who was on a mission to recover the Ark for the glory of the empire. Not only that, the major Western powers are after the same artifact (as well they should). Hideomi personally claims that he wants to decide for himself if the Ark is something he should try and take back to Japan. This results in a staring battle between him and the last remaining Sirius. Meanwhile, Ryoko is just plain confused.

— Still, it shouldn’t take long for the girl to suss out what’s going on. She knows that vampires are involved. Hell, according to her letter to her father, she supposedly left the the safety of her own home to try and learn more about this vampire threat. So it’s clear that Ryoko isn’t that worried about her own safety.

— Afterwards, she and Yuliy finally get to have a private conversation for once. I think this is their first one-on-one since they last bumped into each other in her garden. He asks her what fathers are like since he hasn’t seen his since he was a baby. The girl then rambles on and on about what her father means to her, so Yuliy comes to the conclusion that Mikhail had been trying to fill those same shoes. In the end, his conversation with Ryoko only seems to convince him more than anything that he needs to take over for his father and protect the Ark. I doubt, however, that his father would willingly tear himself away from his loving family just to see his youngest son eventually follow in his footsteps.

— Elsewhere, Mikhail tries to leave Yevgraf’s ship in order to warn Yuliy to stay away. Unfortunately, the vampires are onto him.

— One of the Slaves, however, suddenly falls deathly ill from the vampire sickness. He then goes nuts and tries to attack Yevgraf directly, but of course, this is pointless. Still, the Royal is concerned that there might be other infected vampires on the ship. Hm.

— When we next see the good guys, they’ve all convened at the old man’s hut. This time, Hideomi tries to reason with the former soldier, but he doesn’t get very far either. Again, the old man insists that they all just leave him alone. He even tells Yuliy to go back home to his village. Unfortunately, he has no idea that there’s really no village to go back to.

— Yuliy unknowingly claims that the vampires are about to find the Ark, so he needs to know where his father is. Sorry, my boy, but they’ve already found the Ark. They’re just waiting on you.

— Still, this manages to engage the old man’s sympathies. Hell, when he looks into Yuliy’s eyes, he sees his former friend. As a result, he spills the beans on everything. He not only tells them why Alexei had come all the way out here, but also that his former friend had sacrificed himself to protect the Ark. Finally, he hands Yuliy a map that would lead the kid straight to his father. Welp.

— Apparently, Alexei and this former soldier were like best friends. They were so close that the old man couldn’t leave his buddy behind. He just gave up on his own personal life and stuck around in Sakhalin. Odd. He also salutes the group as they depart.

— We cut to Willard and his team, and they’ve finally made their way to Dogville. While the professor digs around the ruins for whatever it is that he’s looking for, the rest of the team will bury the dead. That’s nice of them. I must confess I’m not particularly spiritual, so to me, a dead corpse is a dead corpse. Burying them won’t make any difference.

— The next day, we see Ryoko frantically knocking on Hideomi’s door. Apparently, Yuliy and Bishop have already departed for the Ark, and of course, there’s no reason for our hero to let the girl and the Major come along. He doesn’t trust the Major, and there’s no way he would want to put Ryoko in direct danger.

— Hideomi apparently has a super sharp memory, however, so even though he doesn’t have the map to the Ark, he still remembers where to go. As a result, he plans on following them. What’s even sillier is that it sounds like he doesn’t mind bringing Ryoko along. I mean, yeah, I’ve already accepted that the girl herself is crazy enough to continue poking her nose where it doesn’t belong. But why is a Japanese soldier okay with this?

— When we cut to Yuliy and Bishop, the latter is worried that the former is gonna screw up and let a vampire live again. Our hero claims he didn’t pity the loli. Rather, he just hated her eyes. Eh.

— In the post-credits scene, the two get out of their car to finish the rest of the trip on foot. Unfortunately, they don’t get very far before they run into Klarwein and his army of bondage freaks. I wonder where he found the time and the body parts for this little side project.

— After a few rather exciting episodes, this one slows down quite a bit to get some exposition out of the way and set the stage for the final chapter of the series. It’s not a bad episode, but I mean, we’re not exactly tuning into Sirius the Jaeger for its thought-provoking conversations or heart-rending character drama. The show has some awesome animation, a classic conflict between vampires and werewolves, and of course, one crazy human girl. So when we get these slower episodes where people mostly just talk it out, all I can say is “Meh.” At least we got that over with.