Dracula's Van Helsing nun Sister Agatha is the best thing on the BBC show with everything going for it
There is plenty to love in Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat’s gothic horror miniseries ‘Dracula’. It can be Claes Bang’s cocky, deliciously evil performance of the titular Romanian Count. It can be the show’s absolute dedication to camp. It can be the on-the-nose dialogue. But one thing that everyone would agree on is that Sister Agatha (Dolly Wells) with her power-packed performance is the best thing on the show.
First of all, in the Gatiss-Moffat version of the Bram Stoker horror classic, Sister Agatha is more than meets the eye. She is, in fact, a version of a character from the book. She is Van Helsing.
As interesting as that may be, however, it is almost irrelevant considering how this nun is more bad**s than any nun on television -- or most people ever, for that matter.
She is unlike any nun you’ve seen. She is cynical, faithless and scientific. She calls her continued existence in a nunnery “existing in a loveless marriage to have a roof over my head”.
Anyone who hadn’t paid attention to her before this would be bound to drop everything and dedicate their lives to her fandom. She has snark, wit and a ruthless sense of humor.
But she’s also very intelligent, well-read and more importantly, brave. When Dracula arrives at the monastery, she does not just make sure he was incapable of entering the premises, she also did not for a second flinch under the gaze of the blood-thirsty vampire.
Instead, she chided him and likened him to a dog that would occasionally arrive at their doorsteps for scraps. She actually has the audacity to tell him, "I'm all your nightmares at once, an educated woman with a crucifix."
Moffat, on writing her character, said: “And that character immediately leapt to the top of the script. You just thought ‘Oh my God, that’s great.’ And very, very quickly we just thought well… that’s Van Helsing, isn’t it? We don’t need anyone else. We just need the nun. And then you think, nuns are more or less dressed in a superhero outfit for fighting vampires, aren’t they? They’re wearing a sodding cross! Why didn’t Bram think of that one?”
And she is a bit of a superhero. Yes, she is a nerd with all her vampiric knowledge, but she knows how to use that at the right time. And in the meanwhile, she never ever buckles under pressure. Really, if the Count can't scare her, who can?
'Dracula' is available for viewing on Netflix.