This week we get a lot of blood and guts and sadness, so I’m forcing a little levity into the recap. Who can focus on presents with all this gore? Leave it to Shiki to try to ruin Christmas!

(If you don’t celebrate Christmas or resent the idea that Christmas is all about gift-getting, just imagine yourself trying to enjoy some other special occasion with this kind of madness in the background. Are you imagining it? It sucks, right? I know. I know!)

So the townspeople are searching the vamp stronghold and they’re all, oh man, where is everybody? And then they find one! And sunlight hits his skin and he EXPLODES!!!!! Well, not really. But kind of. A little explosion. So they stake him.

It’s rinse and repeat across the complex – they find vamps hidden and they drag them out and stake them. There’s lots of blood and mess and screaming. During the search, the Doc’s mother is found. She’s not a vampire, she’s been bloodily murdered as a sort of dig at the Doc (“your kind isn’t worth drinking…also DON’T MESS!”). We’ve been pretty well groomed to dislike the mother, but it’s still sad to see her dead like that. Sorry, Doc. That’s rough.

The Doc, of course, is kind of a genius (he’s a DOCTOR after all) so he follows a trail of bloody footprints upstairs. It’s Atsushi, apparently, who’s killed the Doc’s mom and his daddy is PISSED. Atsushi begs for forgiveness but Pops stakes him. And weeps. Aw, jeez, this episode is sad.

They bury all the bodies and Doc notes that there’s only twenty in the grave (…twenty mournings?) and he’s SURE there are more vamps than that running around. But where are they? The underground tunnel! Luckily Poseidon, King of the Sea, lives in Sotoba and has knowledge of the town’s irrigation tunnels. He’s all set to lead the mob to the pump house when he EXPLODES!!!!!

Well, kind of. Mr. Not-A-Vamp shoots him. And then he yammers on to Yuuki about how Shiki aren’t really any worse than people. I mean, people do crappy things to other people, and hunt people, and hurt people. Same difference! See, Mr. Not-A-Vamp wants to be a Shiki SO BAD. Which is weird, considering how much time he spends around Shiki. What’s taken them so long? What’s wrong with this guy that they don’t want him on their team, officially?

Meanwhile, night has fallen! Sunako wakes and immediately demands that they go find Seishiru (Mr. Not-A-Vamp) because he’s bound to have gone off his rocker. DING DING DING! Tell the little lady what she’s won, Bob!

Remember Toru and Butch Nurse and Ritsuko?Remember how they’re off away somewhere together? And he’s trying to convince Ritsuko to eat Butch Nurse but she won’t? Well, she still won’t. Or – she doesn’t want to. But it’s harder and harder to resist that sweet sweet blood. She tries to distract Toru while the door is open so Butch Nurse can get away, but Toru swats her aside like a skeeter. Ritsuko, crumpled on the floor, gives a valiant speech about her love of nursing and helping people, causing Toru’s tiny heart to grow three sizes so he lets Butch Nurse leave (also, this poor woman is in her freakin’ nightie – somebody let her borrow a shirt for goodness’ sake!).

Back in town, a few more vamps have been staked, and a few vamp-helpers have been discovered to be human, but under a vampy spell. Doc is not super excited about killing these helpers (remember, his buddy Monquette is one of them), but he hopes if they’re kept apart from the vamps long enough they’ll come back around. We’ll see.

Sunako continues to hide out with her domesticated Monk and CEHD, entertaining them with a morbid explanation of how much it would suck to be staked. Turns out, our little killer is afraid to die. That’s understandable, I guess, but I don’t feel that sorry for her. Something about this girl rubs me the wrong way, all the time, no matter what she’s doing. Even when she’s begging for her life and crying. Boo-freaking-hoo, lady.

The sun rises on another day in town. Doc is exhausted, out of ideas, struggling to keep his hold on the mob and his own sanity. Then a villager wanders into the shrine, sunken-eyed and sad. Doc’s spider sense tingles, but it’s too late. The villager shoots and kills a random lady that we don’t much care about (wow, Shiki, way to up the ante) before my favorite bearded behemoth takes him down.

Only two episodes left. Two episodes for the Doc to pull it together or lose it forever. Two episodes for Yuuki to make himself relevant again. Two episodes for the Monk to finish his novel. Two episodes for whatever is coming to come.

Are you ready?