Spoilers for City of Blood Season 1 follow. Zeno turns on Szen because they want different forms of control over Berlin. Szen believes vampires need public acceptance; Zeno believes fear and dependence are more useful. Their disagreement becomes fatal when he leaves her exposed to the sunrise.
The killing is not a sudden betrayal without a political purpose. It clears Zeno’s path to build a system around the blood tax while preserving the public shift that Szen’s treatment of Bea has already helped create.
- Release date: September 16, 2026
- Episode: Season 1, Episode 8
- Genre: Horror thriller
- Streaming on: Disney+
Szen wants coexistence to look possible
Szen’s decision to turn Bea is horrifying, but it follows her broader strategy. A public vampire critic becoming one of the undead can be presented as evidence that humans and vampires might live together. The finale shows how quickly that symbolism begins to influence public conversation.
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In Szen’s view, reduced fear makes a new political order easier to accept. That is not benevolence: Bea has been stripped of her choice to serve the plan. Still, it differs from Zeno’s approach, which treats anxiety itself as the most reliable tool of rule.
Zeno wants Berlin to be dependent
Zeno’s deal with Oliver Lawal gives the difference a concrete shape. The proposed climate protection promises security, but the price is a state-enforced blood tax. The plan does not need ordinary people to love vampires. It needs them to accept dependence in exchange for safety.
That is why Szen becomes an obstacle after the immediate crisis. Her belief that vampires should be accepted through reassurance competes with a system that works best when citizens feel there is no safer alternative.
The conflict gives their alliance a purpose beyond personal rivalry. Both characters are pursuing power, but they disagree about the emotional condition that makes power durable. Zeno’s victory means the city’s future will be organized around extraction, not persuasion.
Morning becomes Zeno’s weapon
Zeno says goodbye using the line “eternity is not meant for everybody,” then ensures that Szen is caught by daylight. He does not simply remove a rival. He removes the person whose political philosophy could weaken the order he wants to build.
The method matters, too. Sunlight turns a supposedly eternal being into someone vulnerable to an ordinary force of nature. Zeno’s execution makes a practical point to anyone left watching: power in this new Berlin will belong to the person who controls the conditions of survival.
Szen’s death does not undo her influence, since Bea’s transformation has already altered the public mood. The finale therefore ends as a handover: Zeno survives with a harsher version of the project ready to expand. Is the blood tax the show’s clearest sign that Berlin is already lost? Tell us in the comments.
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