The finale of Talamasca: The Secret Order finally delivers on the season’s promise, pulling together multiple storylines into a satisfying conclusion.
So, let’s delve into it, shall we?
1985
We start the episode in 1985 Amsterdam, where an unnamed vampire is brought into the Talamasca for murdering two vampires. However, that particular crime isn’t really why he’s there — he’s been chosen to turn an unnamed girl into a vampire, because he is “just good enough and no better.”
On the Run
In the present day, we pick up right where we left off at the safe house with Doris and Guy. Doris sneaks out with her book, with Guy chasing after her and actually managing to find her quickly. It might be his first real sign of being a decent spy (but not the last before the episode is up).
Meanwhile, Jasper’s had a very bad night. Since Olive was fed the wrong safehouse location last week by Helen, that means he’s slaughtered the witches aboard the houseboat for nothing — there’s no sign of Doris, Guy, or the 752.
When the police arrive to investigate the houseboat murders, Detective Ridge gets sent away from the crime scene but catches a lucky break by literally running into Guy and Doris on the street, and brings them in for questioning. At the station, Detective Ridge drops a bombshell: DNA from Keves’ murder scene belongs to Helen, whom Guy has been seen all over town with.
While all this unfolds, Helen is on her own mission, still desperate to find her sister whom she hasn’t seen since they were separated as children. She visits Dr. Jameson from the Talamasca of her childhood, who finally reveals what she and her sister were being tested for as children: memory skills. Specifically, her sister’s exceptional eidetic memory.
The 752
And here’s where everything clicks into place. Helen’s sister Emma changed her name and became Doris. Because of her perfect memory, young Emma/Doris was tasked with memorising all the materials and secrets of the Talamasca before they burned the physical records — making her the organization’s own personal archive. As many fans suspected, the 752 isn’t a book at all. It’s a person.
But there’s more to this mystery than that, as it’s revealed Doris is also the girl from the opening scene, turned into a vampire to become an immortal, eternal vessel of information for the Talamasca. While the show has held some of its cards perhaps too close to its chest at times, this is a genuinely exciting twist, that ties together almost every major plot point from the season (Helen’s long-lost sister, the 752, Guy and Doris’s relationship, and Keves’ murder) into one elegant knot. Looking back, the hints were there all along (particularly with the flashbacks with Emma showing off her exceptional memory), but the reveal still lands with real impact — I saw hardly anyone on social media tracking this theory, and I didn’t figure it out until a few moments before it was revealed. That’s exactly what a good plot twist should do: surprise you while feeling completely inevitable in retrospect.
So what’s actually in the book Doris has been carrying, if it’s not the 752? It’s a scrapbook of Keves — which Olive discovers when she poses as an MI-5 agent to extract Guy and Doris from the police station and claim her “prize”.
After fighting off Olive, Doris finally tells Guy everything. She reveals her vampire nature (complete with violet eyes — an interesting nod for Interview with the Vampire book fans who know that’s Daniel Molloy’s eye color). The Talamasca made her a vampire, but deliberately chose the weakest one they could find to turn her, ensuring she’d be immortal enough to preserve their secrets forever but too weak to fight back or escape.
She met Keves as a child and became her protector — part mother, part older sister. When Doris learned that Archie had murdered Keves, she killed him. The Helen DNA at the crime scene? Identical twins, identical DNA. It’s a devastatingly tragic backstory that underscores the Talamasca’s true legacy: not the preservation of knowledge, but the systematic destruction of lives in service of it.
Jasper’s New Purpose
Speaking of the Talamasca destroying lives: Housman, the agent who orchestrated Doris’s turning back in 1985, reveals he’s been allowing Jasper to run rampant through the Amsterdam motherhouse because it served his larger purpose. Now that they have a lead on Doris’ whereabouts, that illusion of control is stripped away, and Jasper is taken prisoner — but not before he kills Owen.
Book fans know this scene draws on some lore from The Vampire Chronicles books about iron restraining vampires, as they bind Jasper in chains and set his revenants ablaze (except Checkers, who lives — if that’s the right word — to terrorize another day).
Jasper is dragged back to Talamasca headquarters, led in those iron shackles to the same basement from the episode’s opening. Here, Housman assigns him his new fate: creating more vampires. Jasper is brought to a room filled with dozens of sedated bodies, all waiting to be converted. Is this part of the Great Conversion, which book fans will also be aware of? Sure feels like a nod to it.
I do wish we understood Jasper’s feelings about siring vampires better. We’ve seen him create revenants without remorse, and he’s spoken longingly about how there aren’t enough vampires in the world. But is this mass turning meant to be his nightmare or the first time he’s ever agreed with the Talamasca? The chains still around his wrists certainly imply this isn’t his dream come true, but not knowing how he feels about this act and moment underscores some of its power.
All Aboard
Guy and Doris make a desperate attempt to escape via train, planning to meet Helen for their passports and a clean getaway — but Talamasca agents have tracked them to the station.
In a devastating act of sacrifice, Helen only sees one way to get Guy and Doris out safely: To falsely confess to the murders of both Keves and Archie, drawing all attention to herself so Guy and Doris can slip away on the train in the chaos. Before she’s taken into custody, Helen gets one impossibly brief moment with her sister — their first meeting since they were separated as children. Elizabeth McGovern and Céline Buckens make this reunion feel powerful, conveying decades of loss and love in a handful of seconds without dialogue. It’s the emotional high point of the entire season.
Through quick thinking and a bit of sleight of hand — plus an assist from Guy’s psychic abilities — Helen manages to slip them the passports. Guy may have finally graduated from that five-page PowerPoint presentation after all, and become a real spy.
Helen’s sacrifice might not be permanent, though. Detective Ridge reveals she’s just received intel proving Olive was an imposter, along with flight records showing Helen was boarding a flight during the murders she just confessed to committing. It’s an obvious setup for a potential Helen/Ridge partnership in a potential season two, and hopefully if that happens, they give Ridge more to do.
Later, aboard a boat to parts unknown, Guy and Doris think they’ve made it to safety. But the Talamasca is still tracking them, just keeping their distance — they want to see where the pair leads them. That destination appears to be Guy’s mother, whose whereabouts Doris claims she thinks she knows. And with that tantalizing thread left dangling, we finish off the first season of Talamasca: The Secret Order.
Final Thoughts
I genuinely enjoyed this season. It’s not prestige television or trying to be the next great drama — but it is a stylish supernatural mystery that shows some real potential. The central mysteries resolved in a truly satisfying way, weaving together nearly every dangling thread into one cohesive revelation. Of the big questions, only the question of Guy’s mother remains unanswered, clearly being saved as the foundation for a potential second season.
The series does impressive work expanding Anne Rice’s universe beyond Interview with the Vampire and Mayfair Witches, pulling from deeper The Vampire Chronicles lore while sprinkling in fun tie-ins for IWTV fans (including guest appearances from Eric Bogosian as Daniel Molloy and Justin Kirk as Raglan James).
Jasper definitely emerged as the season’s breakout character — charismatic, dangerous, and further proof that vampires simply have more fun. Fandom has understandably latched onto the Guy/Jasper dynamic with enthusiasm, and whether or not the show ever takes it in an explicitly romantic direction, I truly hope a possible season two leans into their chemistry. Their scenes together were electric in a way that elevated the entire show, consistently delivering the most entertaining moments of the season.
A special note on Nicholas Denton, though, who deserves real credit for making Guy Anatole work as well as he does. Playing the bewildered everyman surrounded by vampires, witches, and centuries-old conspiracies could easily be a thankless role — even with his psychic abilities, he’s essentially the straight man in a supernatural ensemble, and that’s rarely the flashiest part. But Denton brings genuine warmth and vulnerability to Guy, making him feel like a real person stumbling through extraordinary circumstances rather than just an audience surrogate. He sells Guy’s growth from hapless amateur to someone who might actually survive this world, and more importantly, he made me genuinely invested in whether he does. Based on interviews, it’s clear the cast adores working with him, and that chemistry shines through, even in moments when the writing wasn’t always quite there.
Now, if they could just tighten up the pacing, we’d really have something special on our hands.
Talamasca: The Secret Order airs on Sundays on AMC+, and on Sundays at 9pm ET/PT on AMC.
