The count invites all the others, both youth and adult to his villa.
This is a plot to let Victoria Danglars and Gerard Villefot know that he knows about their secret love child.
The count also reveals to Albert that he has contracted a degenerative disease.
Franz overhears a conversation with the Count and learns the name Gankutsuou.
Albert is accidentally poisoned. It was meant for Valentine, who is now in a bad way. We know it's her stepmother.
Andrea Cavalcanti, the Count's other protégé, implies things, mysteriously.