Van Helsing - S1E6 - Nothing Matters

Previously on Van Helsing, “Fear Her”

Van Helsing - S1E6 - “Nothing Matters” | Starring: Kelly Overton, Jonathan Scarfe, Christopher Heyerdahl, Rukiya Bernard, David Cubitt, Vincent Gale, Hilary Jardine, Aleks Paunovic, Alison Wandzura

It is said that there’s nothing more dangerous than a caged animal, particularly one with an axe to grind. Continuing on from last week, Axel and his motley crew are still stuck behind bars at the bequest of Brendan the Usurper. Tensions run high especially when Catherine attacks the group when Callie’s life is put at risk because of booby traps laid by the original team. Brendan calms her down and then orders Axel to show him the location of the rest of the traps. When Axel refuses, fists are thrown, and Axel is marched back to the cell. Using a handily acquired pocket mirror, Sam is able to lip read their captors’ plans – they are to be executed. Time is running out for them all.

Vanessa and Susan escape from Julian and his minions, but not before Vanessa is seriously wounded. Whatever creature attacked them managed to do some major damage to Vanessa, something she can’t immediately heal from. Susan manages to get them both back to the hospital. We learn more about Susan, too. She too had a child, so she feels the same sense of loss as her friend. You get the impression that Vanessa wouldn’t make it back safely if it wasn’t for Susan.

Straight away, Vanessa is forced to deal with the change of leadership at the hospital, but while she says she’ll remain neutral, she hatches a plan with Doc, who’s been temporarily released to tend to Vanessa’s wound, to get the group free. Warning Callie to hide somewhere safe, Vanessa orchestrates the escape plan: Flesh, via an air vent, relays her scheme – escape the cage, knock off the generator, and then attack Brendan and his resistance team in the dark.

What happens next is wholesale slaughter. You get the sense that Axel has been waiting for his moment for some time. He goes all Rambo on Brendan’s people, a veritable one-man army, using whatever weaponry he can get his hands on – a knife, a rifle, anything – until it’s just Brendan and a couple of others left standing. They take their own place in the same cell. Now their fate is up to Axel and his band of not-so-merry men. There are two choices: execution or exile. It is decided to send Brendan and the rest of the survivors back out into the city. When Callie begs Vanessa to let them stay, the wounded woman says she can’t or won’t change the group’s mind. Callie runs off, leaving Vanessa in tears. This is the second child in her care that she’s lost, and it’s all too much for her. If she had any hope of keeping the little girl safe, that too was taken away from her: Callie leaves with the exiles, dashing through the door just as it was about to be locked closed.

Beyond the confines of the hospital, Campbell’s team’s attempt to hijack weapons from the vampires’ hoard at the bank is sabotaged. It was a trap all along. Campbell accuses Sheema of betraying them to Rebecca, who allowed Sheema to take the blueprints back to the resistance group. Rebecca attacks them, wanting to know the whereabouts of Taka. Campbell doesn’t know who or what Taka is, and even if he did, he wouldn’t tell her. He signs his own death warrant and goes out in a puff of arterial spray. That just leaves Sheema. What will Rebecca do to her? And when will Mohamad come to his sister’s aid?

An interest event at the end of this episode: Doc is tending to Vanessa and accidentally cuts her finger. She licks the blood off her wound and seems to like it – a lot. Is she still experiencing a sort of blood lust? And if she is, does Flesh have the same level of pangs, too? An intriguing development.

So we’re back to where the show started. Vanessa, Axel, and the rest are in the hospital. Brendan and what remains of his group are outside, battling to stay alive, and the vampires are planning something. What remains now is for Vanessa to decide whether she should continue to search for Dylan, or fight alongside Axel and keep his group alive and moving. Van Helsing needs to make a decision soon, otherwise the remaining episodes of the season could be in danger of stagnation.