#I'm sorry but my favorite flavor of Mizrox is the one where they're toxic af... just... exquisite 😗👌✨

[ifishouldvanish]

"The devil is easy to cheat."

So... I keep thinking about Mizrak and Emmanuel's conversation in the churchyard in S2E3, where Mizrak tries to appeal to Emmanuel to repent and turn against Bàthory. It's an interesting one, and worth a rewatch or two or three or seven. But the more I chew on it, the more I keep going back to the dialogue in the finale. Back to That Whole Scene™. Just, feeling this itch that there's something there. Some kind of dots to connect. And I think I'm ready to synthesize my thoughts here.

In episode 3, Emmanuel tells Mizrak, "You wouldn't question me if you'd glimpsed what I have of the other side. If you heard it sometimes in the twilight. Quiet laughter. Hell. Waiting. Whispering your name."

The laughter part is interesting, right? Like he's clearly describing Old Man Coyote/Mephistopheles. But of course to Mizrak/the audience at this point, it's the Capital 'D' Devil—or at least his own guilty conscience driving him mad. But then Maria kills him, and we actually see Old Man Coyote collect his soul.

Anyway.

Later on in S2E7, when Mizrak gets hurt, Old Man Coyote appears again. And he's laughing, and Mizrak knows that laughter must be what Emmanuel was talking about. Must be the devil. He must be damned.

So let's hop back to the finale, to the scene where Olrox turns him. Mizrak asks him, "You've seen the devil then? Waiting for me?

And Olrox tells him, "No, not the devil."

Because he knows it's not the Capital 'D' Devil, but Old Man Coyote/Mephistopheles.

But he also says, "And I think he was waiting for someone else."

I am absolutely convinced that "someone else" is Olrox himself.

Because let us go back to S2E5, when Olrox returns to the Night Creature-O-Matic. He's studying the book, and Old Man Coyote/Mephistopheles appears. Olrox says:

"I know what promises you make, and how tempting they are. And I could make good use of a powerful patron. But this doesn't belong in this world. And nor do you."

At this, Old Man Coyote leaves. This scene establishes that Old Man Coyote is trying to get Olrox to barter with him. But Olrox is clearly not willing to in exchange for whatever promise of power Old Man Coyote is tempting him with.

I am absolutely convinced that when Mizrak gets wounded, Old Man Coyote is waiting for Olrox. Expecting that if he wasn't willing to barter his soul in exchange for power, surely he will for love. Surely he'll give in and strike a deal in exchange for Mizrak's life.

So. Back to the Turning Scene. Again.

Olrox's insistence that it's not the devil, that he was waiting for someone else probably sounds to Mizrak like he's just trying to comfort him in his last moments. He kinda brushes it off with, "Still. The devil will be waiting. [...] I'm afraid, Olrox."

Which brings us to:

"There's no need to be afraid, my love. Not the devil, at least. The devil is easy to cheat."

I think Olrox's use of "the devil" here is him basically adopting the name Mizrak knows this entity by. Mizrak understands Old Man Coyote to be the devil, so he's using that language so Mizrak will understand: There's no need to be afraid of the "devil" he sees/hears. That "devil" is easy to cheat.

On first viewing, this read to me as, "You, Mizrak, can cheat the devil, and I'm going to help you. You can't die and go to hell if you're immortal."

But on subsequent viewings, it reads to me as, "I, Olrox, can cheat the devil. I can have my cake and eat it too. By turning you, I get what I want (to keep you alive/not lose you) without having to pay the devil's price."

Which I LOVE, because it makes it all sooooo much more messy. The former lets you squint your eyes and shrug and say, "Yeah, it's not exactly a GOOD thing that Olrox turned him, but what else was he supposed to do?? Mizrak was gonna go to super hell!!"

But the latter??? Ohohohoooo man.

Mizrak wasn't actually about to be sentenced to eternal damnation (that we or Olrox know of, at least). The devil wasn't waiting for him. The devil was waiting for someone else and Olrox KNEW THIS and still turned him. Not to protect Mizrak's soul/life, but to spare himself the pain of losing the man he loves again.

I've seen it said that the reason Olrox just lies back as Mizrak climbs over and bites him is because he expects that Mizrak will be upset about being turned, at least initially. But how much more appropriate does this body language become through the lens of a much deeper sense of guilt over what he's done? Of a subconscious need to punish, self-sacrifice, or otherwise try to absolve himself of that guilt? To "pay the price" on his own terms, so to speak?

And maybe Mizrak will be convinced he was going to super hell. Maybe this belief will bring him to sort of begrudgingly accept his new life as a vampire. But it will be a secret that casts a shadow over their every interaction for eternity. How long can Olrox keep that secret? How will Mizrak react should it ever to come to light? How badly will it hurt when Olrox loses him anyway—not because of death, but because his own scheme, once exposed, will likely prove to be a betrayal their relationship can never recover from???