Hemlock Grove season 2 premiered this morning at 12:01 a.m. PST, and now we have a recap and our initial reactions to episode 2, “Gone Sis.”

Note that this recap contains spoilers for the first episode of Hemlock Grove.

If you were concerned that Hemlock Grove season 2 wouldn’t quite live up to the bloody standards of season 1, you can rest assured right now. Within the first five minutes of this episode, we see Roman and a prostitute enter a hotel room ready to get down to business. As Roman sees the bruises on her back, however, he becomes uninterested. She goes to get her pimp and leaves the two men to work it out so she can get her money.

Roman has other plans, though. He attacks the man and drinks his blood, destroying half the room in the process. Getting his fill, he places a towel to the guy’s neck and grabs his cigarette. The man is somehow still alive, and Roman doesn’t seem to concerned about rectifying that situation. Instead, we roll right into the opening credits.

Welcome back to Hemlock Grove.

Next we meet newcomer Miranda, who is fleeing an old boyfriend. She’s ignoring his calls and heading into Hemlock Grove, happy to be starting anew. That is, until a truck comes up and starts ramming her from behind. She makes a narrow escape, only to have the truck cut her off at a different intersection and plow right into her.

As Roman pukes up his last meal into the toilet at his lavish home, Miranda rings his doorbell asking him to call a tow truck for her. She’s bleeding from a head wound, and it’s obvious the sight of it makes Roman uncomfortable/possibly hungry. He allows her to call the towing company and invites her to stay until they get back in touch with her.

The next morning we see Olivia Godfrey, who is a shell of her former self. She’s watering plants and limping around with the help of a cane. When a bird flies into the window and dies, she looks visibly upset.

Across town, we get our first glimpse at Peter, who has a job — wait for it — at a towing company. Before he can hop in his car and leave, a man named Andreas pulls up and surprises Peter. Turns out Andreas is there to see Destiny, Peter’s fortune teller of a cousin.

Though Destiny seems excited to see Andreas, not all the Rumanceks are in a good place. Peter’s mother Lynda is in jail, and when Peter tries to see her, he’s told her visiting privileges have been taken away because she assaulted a correctional officer. Though Peter doesn’t believe she’d do anything like that, there’s nothing he can change about the situation.

Meanwhile, Dr. Pryce is helping Olivia move through physical therapy. After everything she went through in the season 1 finale, we’re surprised she’s in even this poor state of health. But it turns out that Pryce has been playing God again, and he’s giving her injections to help her recovery. One side effect of those injections? Empathy. “Quaint waste of time. Is there something you can give me to make it go away?” she asks.

After Peter gives Miranda the bad news about her car, we see Roman buying a horse. Don’t worry, this will make sense later. When he returns to his office in the White Tower where Dr. Pryce does his work, Olivia visits and warns him about his thirst for blood. She tells him that it will increase day by day until he can no longer control it. She begs him to come to her before that happens.

She then pays a visit to Dr. Pryce’s labs, where we see a Russian scientist inspecting lab-grown organs. She doesn’t take too kindly to Olivia’s visit, but Pryce invites Olivia into another room for a “snack,” meaning she’s getting another injection.

Our first look at Norman Godfrey, Letha’s father, is a sad one. He’s self-medicating with alcohol at work, meeting with Marie, his ex-wife, and talking about her decision to sue Godfrey Industries. He advises against it, not wanting the memory of Letha to be tarnished and being worried about the consequences of poking a sleeping giant. Marie doesn’t care, though. She needs answers about her daughter’s death.

Peter drops Miranda off at Roman’s house, but he doesn’t seem too comfortable letting her go. It’s obvious he’s worried about what Roman is becoming and what that could mean for the fate of Miranda. When he goes to bed that night, he has strange dreams that are hard to interpret at first glance.

And just in case you forgot about Roman’s daughter: she still exists. And she’s none too happy. Roman keeps her locked away in a soundproof room, and while she’s being taken good care of by the nanny, the baby is miserable and Roman seems hesitant to comfort her in any way.

Destiny helps Peter interpret his dreams. She drinks another disgusting Gypsy concoction, replete with a healthy gob of her cousin’s spit, and steps into her bath tub. She has a vision of the water turning dark purple and a snake winding its way up her legs. We can see a dark substance moving through her veins, causing her to vomit it up and pass out. Things aren’t looking so good for Peter.

Roman isn’t doing much better. He’s insisted Miranda stay with him until she gets her car back, and she reluctantly agrees. After they’ve traded sob stories at the dinner table, he shows her his horse, Beautiful Dreamer, and tries to make a move on her. Was he looking for some action, or just a quick meal? We’ll never know, as Miranda decided to turn in for the night. Poor Roman. Lucky Miranda.

Norman shows up in Dr. Pryce’s office and asks him what he’s covering up about Letha’s death. Ever the stoic man, Pryce gives nothing away, but Norman isn’t convinced. He threatens Pryce with a lawsuit he and Marie are filing, telling Pryce he’ll have to account for everything that goes on at Godfrey Industries. That should take Pryce’s God-complex down a notch.

Destiny pleads with Peter to forget about his dreams, but he can’t let it go. She’s terrified for him and whatever “big bad shit” she felt during her vision. He draws one of the signs he saw in his dream, which reads “Gone Sis,” and Andreas tells him the sign is for Wagoneer Oasis, a motel of sorts with a reputation for accommodating lonely truck drivers. Peter heads out to track it down.

As Miranda gets ready for her shower, we see a close up of her tattoos and have to wonder if they’ll become significant. Roman is still struggling with his cravings, and it looks like it’s becoming even more difficult to stay away from the mysterious stranger.

A drunk hobo stumbles around in the woods, coming upon a man chanting in another language and anointing another. As the hobo makes his presence known to the two men, they turn around and we see them wearing white, expressionless masks just like the ones Peter saw in his dreams. They go after the hobo and kill him instantly.

Peter visits the Wagoneer Oasis with a look of trepidation on his face. Meanwhile, we see Roman feeding off of the prized stallion he bought earlier in the episode.

What did you think of Hemlock Grove season 2, episode 2, “Gone Sis”? Have you watched any other episodes yet, and if so, how do you think it stands against season 1? Let us know in the comments!