Van Helsing: Coming Back – Inside Information (Review)

Van Helsing “Coming Back” gives a bit of backstory through visuals; Vanessa’s apartment has police tape over the front door showing that civilization had not crumbled until after she died. It also proves Axel’s point, Van Helsing was not ready to go outside.

Inside the hospital, one of the survivors has been murdered. Set up to look like a suicide by hanging, the body is missing a finger and she was strangled to death. Doc almost misses the evidence.

The survivors are still not comfortable with one another nor are they bonding very well.  John is still a douchebag and the dead girl only heightens the existing stress between members of the group.

Vanessa lights a fire as a diversion in the restroom so she can escape and find her daughter. Mohamad  comes along as he knows the door code and he has a sister; Sheema,  to find.

More is learned about the vampires in this episode. Mohamad reveals to Van Helsing that the brand on his neck is a sign that he was the property of a feeder.

There is discontent amounts the hierarchy in the vampire ranks.  Dimitri may be the leader now, but it appears that a disgruntled Julius was there first.

At the start of the episode a young black girl, Sheema, watches through a grate as a female vampire has sex with a young man and then kills him. The vampire senses the girl’s presence but Sheema leaves before getting caught.

There is a human resistance movement trying to gain traction.  (This bit was a tad “overblown” as the man who pushes for the group to take action  makes it sound like the vampires have been in charge for decades instead of a few years.)

Sheema talks to the man and assures him all is not lost.

Back at the hospital fingers of suspicion point to Flesh and Doc as the possible murders of the dead girl.  John also, rather unwisely, accuses Sam’s friend Mohammed. Sam takes offense at this and John’s nasty attitude about his deafness and grabs him by the throat.

Oddly, John refuses to look at Sam during the subdued attack.

Outside the hospital, Van Helsing and Mohamad stop at the apartment. As Vanessa retrieves a shotgun, she notices bloody footprints leading outside the apartment.  Clearly her daughter Dylan was alive after Vanessa died.

After a meal of canned peaches and some sharing of information the two head outside. They come across a small band of survivors, out-of-towners, who are being attacked by feeders.

Vanessa steps in, against Mohamad’s wishes, and saves the group. There is one injured person among the members of the group and a small girl.  Van Helsing tells Mohamad to take the survivors back to the hospital and that she will hold off the feeders who are organizing around them.

Reluctantly Mohamad leads the survivors away and Vanessa waits to fight the approaching vampires.

Van Helsing takes out quite a few feeders before being overpowered and taken prisoner. The vampires know not to feed on her and as she is taken away, “In the Year 2525”  begins playing.  Vanessa is shown wearing a bite guard as the feeders take her away.

This is an impressive scene that brings up a very interesting question. Unless the writers have made a complete boo-boo, aka written a huge and somewhat gaping plot hole, the feeders have inside information about Van Helsing.

The only vampire/feeder bitten by Vanessa was Doc. Inside the hospital.  In front of the survivors and no one else.  How do the feeders know to keep Van Helsing from biting?

They cannot, obviously, know that Vanessa can cure their vampirism by means of biting unless someone in the group is a plant.  Added to this line of speculation is the missing finger and the murder staged to looked like a suicide. All this means that someone in the group is an outsider.

Doc thinks the finger is a souvenir but perhaps it is a small snack for the feeder in survivor’s clothing.  The two best suspects are Mohamad (who gave up the search for his sister pretty easily and who is, self admittedly, some feeder’s property) and his accuser John.

Of course it may not be John, just being a colossal douche and an a**hole does not instantly mean he is the mole of the group.

With Vanessa now a captive of the feeders, Axel will eventually go after his “assignment” although he has stuck with the group for now. On a sidenote, the dynamic between the Marine and the doctor is a bit strained after her rescue. A bit disappointing but not too surprising, Doc does has a slightly skewed view of things.

Van Helsing airs Fridays on SyFy.  Tune in and see how the savior of humanity will be saved herself.

Cast:

• Kelly Overton  –  Vanessa Van Helsing
• Jonathan Scarfe  –  Axel Miller
• Rukiya Bernard  –  Doc
• Christopher Heyerdahl  –  Sam
• Trezzo Mahoro  –  Mohamad
• Paul Johansson  –  Dimitri
• Vincent Gale  –  Flesh
• Aleks Paunovic  –  Julius
• David Cubitt  –  John
• Naika Toussaint  –  Sheema
• Hannah Cherry  –  Dylan
• Macie Juiles  –  Callie