Talamasca: The Secret Order Finale Recap: A New Hope?

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With so many unoriginal shows on TV, I appreciate that Talamasca: The Secret Order tried something different, even if it followed the frustrating pattern of delaying any real plot development until the end of its first season. The season finale, “The 752,” doesn’t actually deliver on the initial promise of the show—like Guy being a skilled spy, or explaining what the Talamasca organization actually does. Instead, it introduces a new storyline that’s far more compelling, which ironically makes the entire first season feel poorly planned and ultimately disappointing.

I’m talking about what the episode “The 752” reveals about Doris. Up until now, she’s been a pretty dull character – presented as mysterious and secretive without much personality. She’d occasionally say vague things just to hint that you can’t trust anyone. But in this episode, she finally takes action! After escaping the safe house, being questioned by the police, and nearly being abducted by Olive while she was disguised as an MI5 agent, Doris brutally attacks a hired thug, tearing his throat with her fangs. Then, she looks at Guy with an innocent expression, blood dripping from her mouth.

It turns out Doris is a vampire, and a very special one at that. When she was a child, her incredible memory caught the attention of the Talamasca, an organization that took her from her family and tasked her with memorizing their entire library. They then turned her into a vampire to ensure she’d live forever as a living record of all that knowledge. She’s essentially a 752-year-old archive. I probably could have figured this out from the show’s earlier scenes, but honestly, the Talamasca’s mysteries never really grabbed me. When Doris tells Guy, it takes him a full thirty seconds to process the information – he looked genuinely overwhelmed! Some things never change.

The show’s compelling portrayal of Doris might say more about how well-developed she is compared to other characters than about the quality of the writing itself. Her backstory and internal struggles definitely make her the most fascinating person on the series! While her reluctant vampire storyline feels a bit reminiscent of Interview with the Vampire, Doris is more akin to characters like Eli from Let the Right One In or Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (though thankfully, she avoids relationships with teenagers!). She’s a loner, hiding in the shadows and using her limited abilities only to defend herself and those she loves.

This is a really interesting development! While the idea of a vampire hiding from the sun isn’t new, it’s fresh within this series, and Céline Buckens brings a surprising depth and inner life to her character, Doris – more than I’ve usually seen on this show. She even delivers some genuinely funny physical comedy, like when she dramatically collapses in the trunk of the stolen car while weakly explaining her need to avoid sunlight. Doris is the first character in Talamasca that I’m actually invested in, and I honestly don’t understand why the story focuses on Guy – who feels more like a stand-in for the audience than a fully developed character – instead of her.

Just when the show started to become interesting, it shifted focus back to Guy, reminding us he’s the main character. He dominates every scene, repeatedly demanding answers from Doris about her identity and his own trust issues. The reveal that Doris is actually Helen’s identical twin sister – a twist reminiscent of the movie Orphan – feels less like a development for Helen’s character and more like a way to create more dramatic, but ultimately unearned, moments between Guy and Helen. The show seems unwilling to give Guy any compelling qualities, yet he remains the central focus, which makes it hard to see an interesting future for the series as long as that continues.

Regarding the show’s future: although Talamasca hasn’t been officially renewed for another season, the ending of “The 752” strongly suggests the creators are hoping to get picked up for continuation by leaving many storylines unresolved. The episode doesn’t answer any of the show’s initial mysteries – like what the Talamasca is, what they want, or what happened to Guy’s mother. Instead, it finally explains the meaning of the ‘752,’ a plot point introduced just three episodes earlier. The season ends with Helen being wrongly arrested for murder, Guy and Doris sailing off to an unknown location, and Jasper being kidnapped and forced by the Talamasca to turn people into vampires – a motivation that remains unclear.

I keep making this same observation in my recaps, and I apologize if it’s getting repetitive, but the show is now relying on a constant stream of shocking, yet ultimately meaningless, cliffhangers. It reminds me of the later seasons of The Vampire Diaries – it feels like the writers are prioritizing cheap shock value over developing a consistent story, interesting characters, or even a basic theme. It’s lost even the mindless fun of earlier episodes; it just feels hollow.

Surprisingly, despite everything that happened, I still have no clear sense of what the second season of Talamasca will be like. While the show sets up some interesting storylines, I’m not confident it can actually provide satisfying answers to the questions it raises, or that it will even try.

I’ve been trying to figure out why Talamasca should be renewed, and I only see two good reasons. One is to see if they develop Doris into a main character, which this episode suggests they might do. The other, and more importantly, is to see if a bigger budget would finally convince Nicholas Denton to work with an accent coach. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.

Observations of the Order

In a surprising turn of events, Guy Anatole, a consistent winner, lost this week’s award for the most dramatically over-the-top line to Houseman, a new character who’s also poised to be a major villain next season! Houseman won for saying, “My name is Houseman, and I am the one … who watches.”

Choosing my favorite moment from this episode featuring Guy Anatole is tough, so I’m going to break it down into two parts: what happens within the show’s world and what happens behind the scenes. Within the show itself (‘The 752’), I loved the bit where it took Guy four slow-motion flashbacks to figure out Helen had hidden the fake passports in the woman’s purse. As for behind-the-scenes moments, I really enjoyed when Nicholas Denton mistakenly called his co-star “Boris,” and the show’s creators decided to keep that blooper in the final version. You can find it at the end of the scene that takes place in a small British shop if you want to listen closely!

I believe Doris would be a strong co-lead alongside Guy because, similar to him, she often makes risky decisions without a clear purpose or benefit. For example, she repeatedly exposes herself to sunlight – whether by leaving windows open at the safe house or by traveling above ground on things like trains and ferries – even though a delay could be dangerous.

It seems like there’s a bit of a flirtation happening between Guy and Doris. The show also strongly emphasizes that Helen acts as a mother figure to Guy, and that Doris and Helen are twin sisters. It feels like all of this is setting the stage for Gabrielle’s appearance on Interview next season.

Throughout this season, I’ve found the Talamasca organization confusing. Despite being central to the show, their structure, goals, and values remain unclear. This is partly because the story follows an agent working outside official channels who then goes AWOL, and the show intentionally keeps their inner workings shrouded in mystery. However, since the show is about the Talamasca, it’s frustrating to know so little about how they actually operate – I feel like I know more about the daily life at a fictional TV show! Hopefully, season two will shed some light on this.

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2025-11-24 06:58