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Geek Girl Authority
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
THE LIBRARIANS: THE NEXT CHAPTER Recap: (S01E09) And the Feast of the Vampir
With their six months winding down, the Belgrade team on The Librarians: The Next Chapter has very little time to hit some bucket list items before returning to their mundane lives. In 'And the Feast of the Vampir,' Connor (Bluey grabs Charlie (Jessica Green) for a fun little day trip to the original vampire story town, Kisiljevo. Seriously, look it up. RELATED: Catch up with our recap of the previous The Librarians: The Next Chapter episode, 'And the Hangover From Hell' Things get complicated when he finds an actual vampire, even more so when he gets bitten. And there's also the matter of some vampire hunters in town, and Lysa (Olivia Morris) putting the castle up for sale in Belgrade. Charlie feels bad when she loses track of him. Guardians gotta guard, y'know. Meanwhile, Vikram (Callum McGowan) acts a bit giddy when he cracks open his vampire-fighting arsenal. We're always learning new things about the team on The Librarians: The Next Chapter . Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic The Librarians: The Next Chapter, 'And the Feast of the Vampir' A man walks through a foggy, medieval-looking town at dusk. Spooky music plays as he climbs some stone stairs and enters a dark tunnel. A couple approaches him, fangs gleaming in the moonlight. They caution him that it's dangerous to be out after dark in this town. The man runs away and stumbles, falling to the ground. A man holding an axe stands in front of him. Axe guy warns the couple that they probably shouldn't be out either. The couple tries to run, but the axe guy isn't alone, and his team catches them. Facing the sharp end of the axe, the fanged man sputters that it's all a joke and spits out his fake fangs. The team is disgusted and lets the couple run home. The leader reminds them that the festival has just begun. They know there's a real vampire around. They plan to find him. At the Annex, Charlie and Vikram are cataloging artifacts. Vikram finds it boring, insisting they should be out fighting evildoers. Lysa and Connor carry more artifacts in. Some of them need to be stored in the Restricted Section, where the most dangerous ones are kept, secured with failsafes. Vikram insists on personally delivering an item to the Main Library, leaving the others to wonder at the fact that their six months are almost over. RELATED: TV Review: The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 1 Lysa's expecting a broker to come see her about selling the castle. Connor and Charlie promise to stay out of the way during the walk-through. Lysa offers Charlie a position as her head of security when her IPO launches. A little later, Connor creeps into the Annex when it's empty. He's about to activate the magic door when Charlie catches him. He invites her to come with him. Kisiljevo Vampir Festival They arrive in Kisiljevo, Serbia, for their Vampire Festival. Connor explains that this is the birthplace of vampire mythology. They had the first recorded sighting of a vampire in the 1700s. Before Dracula became famous as a fictionalized character in the 1800s, newspapers reported that a farmer named Petar Blagojević died, was buried, then walked into his house, demanding a new pair of shoes from his wife. Allegedly, the town dug up his body the next day and dealt with it, putting the vampire's existence to an end. Connor reveals that he wrote a paper hypothesizing that Petar survived. He based it on a series of deaths that fit a pattern. His Petar paper resulted in his dismissal from Stuttgart. Getting into the spirit of the festival, he and Charlie shop around and pose for photos. As they start towards home, Charlie points out that finding Petar would be mud in the eye of the academics who laughed him out of teaching, forcing them to admit he was right and let him back in. Connor admits the thought had occurred to him. RELATED: Olivia Morris Shares How The Librarians: The Next Chapter Hooked Her From Page One Someone watches them from a distance as Charlie gets a text from Mrs. Astolat (Caroline Loncq). Before they go, Charlie decides she needs another bloody (cherry-flavored) snowcone. Connor continues on his own. He catches sight of the watcher and follows. At the base of a castle wall, he sees a cloaked figure transform into smoke and flash to the top of the embankment. He immediately drops his bag and starts climbing the embankment — how many things has he climbed this season? — but when he gets to the top, the cloaked figure startles him and he falls backwards, landing hard on the ground far below, not moving. Needs Sharpening Charlie arrives at the Annex looking for Connor and finds Vikram. She tells him about losing Connor in Kisiljevo at the Vampir Festival. Vikram's shocked that they went to Visiljevo without proper vampire-fighting tools. He opens up a chest of weaponry and talismans. He and Charlie gear up and head back to Kisiljevo. Upstairs in the castle, Lysa meets with the broker. The broker is determined to spin the castle's issues as benefits. Lysa looks uncertain. Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic In Kisiljevo, Connor drinks a red drink from a glass held to his mouth as he wakes from unconsciousness. The man helping him is the man from the first scene who ran from the fake vampires. Connor jumps to his feet. The man tries to calm him, explaining the drink is just to restore his electrolytes. He introduces himself as Petar (Pavle Jerinic). Connor's phone is broken, so he can't call anyone. RELATED: Read our Foundation recaps Petar Blagojević Connor realizes Petar is the Petar, Petar Blagojević. He gets very excited. Petar sits him down and explains that after Connor fell, the only way to save him was to bite him and turn him. Connor panics, feeling his neck. He finds the bite site, but there's only one puncture wound. Petar points out that he only has one fang. In the Victorian era, some people believed taking out a vampire's tooth would cure them. Petar assures him it didn't work. He says, 'It cured the cure.' Charlie and Vikram arrive in Kisiljevo via magic door. They walk through the keep, discussing the situation for a while, until two large men put bags over their heads and carry them away. In his apartment, Petar explains that when they took his one tooth, it prevented him from recirculating his blood. With both teeth, he could feed without changing the victim. With only one tooth, everyone he bites gets turned. However, Connor's change isn't complete until the first nightfall. Connor jumps at the chance to get back to the Library and find a way to reverse the process. Petar reminds him that it's still day outside. They'll both burn up if they're exposed to sunlight. He says that without his other tooth, there's nothing to be done. Connor asks him what happened to his tooth. Tested Charlie and Vikram are debagged, tied to chairs back-to-back, in a large-pillared crypt of sorts. The vampire-hunting team surrounds them. They think Vikram is a vampire and Charlie is his familiar. Charlie and Vikram offer to take a test, like standing in sunlight, to prove that he isn't a vampire. The hunters scoff, referencing Blade , The Vampire Diaries, and Twilight as examples of daywalkers. RELATED: Dean Devlin Dishes on The Librarians: The Next Chapter 's Magical Homecoming In a car completely covered with newspaper sheets to block the sun except for a peephole on the windshield, Petar and Connor drive to retrieve Petar's tooth. Petar warns Connor that he shouldn't share his situation with his friends. When Petar changed, he hurt the people he cared about because he couldn't control himself. Petar tells Connor that he traded his tooth for safe passage across a bridge. Connor wonders who would take that trade, then realizes they're going to meet a troll. While the vampire hunters confer, Charlie wonders why Vikram isn't bothered by Lysa selling the castle and didn't react when she told him Lysa offered her a job. She asks him if he knows something about the team's future that she doesn't. He doesn't answer. The hunters return. Charlie demands to use the washroom. While she's gone, the lead hunter stuffs a bulb of garlic into Vikram's mouth. At the washroom, Charlie knocks out her guard. Trolled The troll interrupts Connor and Petar's conversation about life as a vampire. His heart isn't into his threatening posturing, though. He complains that no one uses his bridge anymore, so he's out of practice. Also, he lost his phone, so he can't even transition to online trolling. Connor offers his broken phone in exchange for information on the vampire's fang. The troll says someone building a vampire memorabilia collection stole it from him. Connor gives him the phone and jumps in the car. He tells Petar the tooth is in Kisiljevo and to drive before the troll realizes the phone doesn't work. In the keep, Connor jumps in with a tour and asks about the tooth. The guide says the collection doesn't have one anymore. Connor looks closely at the case and finds a card reading, 'Item removed for research by F. Carsen of the Metropolitan Library.' He realizes the tooth is in the Library. As he leaves, Charlie grabs him. RELATED: 5 Great Books About Libraries and Librarians She's focused on saving Vikram and doesn't give him a chance to explain. When she crosses a sunlit room, he hesitates and goes in the other direction. Charlie tries to stop him from leaving. Connor sees a couple of the vampire-hunters and gets their attention. He apologizes and runs as the hunters approach Charlie, and she prepares to fight. She quickly dispatches them. Connor finds the magic door and ducks through. When Charlie catches up, he's deactivated it. The Main Library Connor finds the entry for the vampire fang. As he's memorizing the location, Lysa happens to pass by with her broker. She sees him set off for the Main Library access. Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic In the crypt, Vikram engages the lead hunter in conversation, noticing Charlie sneak in a door and take out one of the guards. Charlie knocks out the leader, too, then frees Vikram. She tells Vikram about Connor shutting the magic door. They head for the magic door that's not magic at the moment. Without the magic door, they need another way to escape the hunters. Petar jumps out and offers to drive them somewhere. Connor finds the Main Library. Excalibur catches him. Although suspicious at first, Connor's obvious awe wins him over, and he directs him to the fang's location. RELATED: On Location: The Belgrade Fortress on The Librarians: The Next Chapter In Kisiljevo, Petar, Vikram, and Charlie get turned around and lost. When they stop to orient themselves, the vampire hunters surround them. Connor enters the restricted section to retrieve Petar's tooth. That sets off an alarm, and a suit of armor comes to life. It tests Connor with three riddles. Connor gets the first two right, but Lysa's timely arrival helps with the third. They head back to the Annex to use the magic door. Connor forgets to grab his cloak. In the Neck of Time They arrive in Kisiljevo just in time to hear the tour guide announce an unscheduled vampire beheading ceremony that's about to happen in the courtyard. Connor realizes he's got no cloak, so the sunlight in the courtyard will burn him. He and Lysa split up. She distracts the vampire hunters until Charlie's able to get free. Connor creeps around the side, sticking to the shadows, and gives Petar his tooth. RELATED: Read our Leverage: Redemption recaps He asks Petar to bite him to reverse the change. Petar draws his attention to the lead hunter who is about to behead Vikram. Connor rushes to save Vikram, whose pillory is in direct sunlight. When the sunlight has no effect on him, he turns to Petar for an explanation. Petar laughs maniacally, now transformed into a fully evil vampire. Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic Petar Blagojević, Again, But Not for Long Darkness falls over the keep. Petar's eyes flash red as he removes his hood. He rises into the air and thanks Connor for helping restore his powers. He grabs the lead vampire hunter to feed on. Connor offers himself, asking Petar to turn him into a vampire. When Petar goes to bite, he begins to foam at the mouth. The team realizes it's a failsafe. The Library placed a capsule of something poisonous to vampires inside the tooth in case it was ever used again to hurt someone. RELATED: Read our recaps of The Librarians: The Next Chapter Petar flashes into ashes. Vikram retrieves the tooth. The tour guide gets his group back on schedule. Back at the Annex, Charlie patches Connor up while Lysa calls the broker and cancels the sale. Charlie confronts Vikram about their conversation earlier. She tells him that he's stuck with her as his Guardian for a long time. Vikram shoots a quick look at Anya's portrait. He begins to say something to Charlie about going somewhere, then changes his mind and changes the topic to food. New episodes of The Librarians: The Next Chapter air on TNT on Mondays at 9 pm ET. New TV Shows This Week (July 13 – 19) Diana lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she invests her time and energy in teaching, writing, parenting, and indulging her love of all Trek and a myriad of other fandoms. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. You can also find her writing at The Televixen, Women at Warp, TV Fanatic, and TV Goodness.
Geek Girl Authority
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
THE LIBRARIANS: THE NEXT CHAPTER: Vikram Breaks Out the Buffy Vibe in Sneak Peek Clip
Any show with a credible creature/artifact-of-the-week template needs to get its vampire game on eventually. Next week, on The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 1 Episode 9, 'And the Feast of the Vampir,' the team travels to Kisiljevo, Serbia, which is canonically the birthplace of vampires. Seriously, look it up. RELATED: Catch up with our recap of the epic previous episode of The Librarians: The Next Chapter , 'And the Hangover From Hell' In the sneak peek clip below, Charlie (Jessica Green) returns to the Annex looking for Connor (Bluey Robinson) after they visit Kisiljevo. Vikram (Callum McGowan) is unimpressed that they didn't arm themselves appropriately for possible vampire encounters. Image Credit: Courtesy of TNT The Librarians: The Next Chapter, 'And the Feast of the Vampir' We don't often see the Annex's arsenal. Besides Vikram's walking stick sword (and Cupid's bow and arrows, I guess), the season's been generally weapon-light. When the team has needed to fight, they've mostly used tech or items of opportunity. Vampires need more preparation, I guess. For obvious reasons. Image Credit: Courtesy of TNT Curiously, Connor didn't think to take precautions against vampires before their trip. Mind you, Charlie's description of Kisiljevo doesn't sound like they were on a reconnaissance mission. Snow cones? That doesn't even sound Serbian. RELATED: TV Review: The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 1 Everyone once in a while, Vikram breaks out a talent that seems incongruous with his rogue Librarian gravitas. His dance moves in Season 1 Episode 4, 'And the Thief of Love,' and his metal vocals when jamming with Gregor's Hammer in Season 1 Episode 8, 'And the Hangover From Hell,' really upped his 2025 street cred. Here, his skills with a hatchet remind us that his 19th-century weapons training must have been extensive. Image Credit: Courtesy of TNT What's the Market Like For Castles? The clip contains one incidental line from Vikram that reveals that, although Lysa (Olivia Morris) didn't return home with Suki (Daniela Norman) after the bachelorette-party-that-wasn't, she is still moving forward with the plan to sell the castle. That presents all sorts of logistical issues. How does one stage a castle for sale? Can you fill a castle with a baked cookie smell? How long do you run an open house (open castle?) for if the looky-loos want to explore every room? And, of course, the big question is, what happens to the Annex when some non-Library person or corporation buys the castle? RELATED: Read our recaps of The Librarians: The Next Chapter In the meantime, it looks like it's all hands on deck to rescue Connor from a Serbian vampir. Hands carrying crossbows and hatchets, that is. The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 1 Episode 9, 'And the Feast of the Vampir,' airs on TNT on Monday, July 14 at 9 pm ET. On Location: The Belgrade Fortress on TNT's THE LIBRARIANS: THE NEXT CHAPTER Diana lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she invests her time and energy in teaching, writing, parenting, and indulging her love of all Trek and a myriad of other fandoms. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. You can also find her writing at The Televixen, Women at Warp, TV Fanatic, and TV Goodness.
Malay Mail
30-06-2025
- General
- Malay Mail
Before Dracula, there was Blagojevic: Serbian village stakes claim to ‘world's first vampire' as locals revive 1725 ‘blood drinker' legend
KISILJEVO (Serbia), June 30 — At the back of an overgrown cemetery in a tiny Serbian village, a mysterious 300-year-old headstone marks the grave of the first recorded vampire. Pushing through thick scrub, local historian Nenad Mihajlovic pulls back branches to reveal the gravesite. According to locals, it is the long-lost burial site of Petar Blagojevic, known as the father of vampires. Backed by historical record, Mihajlovic and his fellow villagers hope Kisiljevo, about 100 kilometres east of the capital, Belgrade, can stake its claim as the cradle of vampires and suck in tourists. It was here, in the summer of 1725, well before Irish writer Bram Stoker made Transylvania Dracula's infamous home, that villagers exhumed Blagojevic's body, suspecting him of rising from the grave at night to kill locals. 'Petar Blagojevic was found completely intact,' recalled Mirko Bogicevic, a former village mayor whose family has lived there for 11 generations. 'When they drove a hawthorn stake through him, fresh red blood flowed from his mouth and ears,' said Bogicevic, Blagojevic's unofficial biographer. 'He was probably just an ordinary man who had the fortune — or misfortune — to become a vampire. All we know is that he came from Kisiljevo, and his name appears in records from around 1700,' he added, holding a copy of the Wienerisches Diarium, the imperial Viennese gazette dated July 21, 1725. The article marks the beginning of the Kisiljevo vampire. This photograph shows a copy of the 'Wienerisches Diarium', the imperial Viennese gazette dated from July 21, 1725, in Kisiljevo on June 23, 2025. — AFP pic Drinking blood Based on accounts from Austrian doctors and military officials, it was likely a mistranslation that gave rise to the myth, said Clemens Ruthner, head of the Centre for European Studies at Trinity College Dublin. 'There's an old Bulgarian word, Upior, meaning 'bad person'. I believe the villagers mumbled it, and the doctors misunderstood, writing down 'vampire' in their report,' Ruthner said. The Austrians, who were dispatched to the border region of the Habsburg Empire to investigate a series of unexplained deaths, then saw blood coming from the body. 'They assumed blood drinking. But that's wrong — it's not what the villagers said.' Instead, people described victims dying from suffocation, detailing symptoms that closely match with a high fever caused by a serious infection, according to Ruthner. He suggested an anthrax outbreak may explain the strange deaths. 'Vampirism, like witchcraft, is, in anthropological terms, a common model for explaining things people don't understand — especially collective events like epidemics.' Three centuries later, few have visited Kisiljevo, a sleepy village nestled between cornfields and a lake, but some locals are determined to change that. Lost through time and superstition, Blagojevic's grave was rediscovered using a suitably arcane method, hunting for 'energy nodes' with a dowsing rod. 'This tomb, whose gravestone has weathered over the centuries, showed signs of something very unusual,' Mihajlovic added, gesturing to the stone believed to mark the alleged burial plot. 'Right next to where we are standing, something truly strange happened — the dowsing rods literally plunged into the soil. The dowser had never seen anything like it.' But the alleged bloodsucker is no longer there — once dug up, his body was burned, and his ashes scattered in a nearby lake. Mirko Bogicevic, 68, local resident and village's chronicler, passes by graveyards in Kisiljevo on June 23, 2025. — AFP pic Reviving the legend Beyond the demonic undead, promoting other folklore has a 'huge potential' to lure tourists and investors to the region, Dajana Stojanovic, head of the local tourism office, said. 'Our region is rich in myths and legends — not just the story of Petar Blagojevic, but also Vlach magic and unique local customs,' she added, referring to the semi-nomadic traders and shepherds who once roamed the Balkans. 'Every village has its traditions.' However, for Mihajlovic, it is about presenting an accurate history of his town — one he firmly believes in. 'We have a fully documented account of an extremely unusual event — one officially identified as a case of vampirism,' the 68-year-old history professor said. 'I personally believe in the authenticity of that report.' He isn't alone. Bottles of rakija — Serbian brandy — infused with garlic and chilli are still kept in a few homes around the village. Just in case. — AFP
South China Morning Post
30-06-2025
- South China Morning Post
Before Dracula: sleepy Serbian village stakes claim as home of the original vampire
At the back of an overgrown cemetery in a tiny Serbian village, a mysterious 300-year-old headstone marks the grave of the first recorded vampire. Pushing through thick scrub, local historian Nenad Mihajlovic pulls back branches to reveal the gravesite. According to locals, it is the long-lost burial site of Petar Blagojevic, known as the father of vampires. Backed by historical record, Mihajlovic and his fellow villagers hope Kisiljevo, about 100km east of the capital, Belgrade, can stake its claim as the cradle of vampires and suck in tourists. It was here, in the summer of 1725, well before Irish writer Bram Stoker made Transylvania Dracula's infamous home, that villagers exhumed Blagojevic's body, suspecting him of rising from the grave at night to kill locals. A quiet street in Kisiljevo. Photo: AFP 'Petar Blagojevic was found completely intact,' recalled Mirko Bogicevic, a former village mayor whose family has lived there for 11 generations.
