Van Helsing: For Me – Death Times Two (Review)

“For Me” starts off with Mohamad still outside the hospital. He witnesses the deaths of Brendan’s diminished group.  Mohamad also sees Dimitri’s elite death squad of vampires move in on Julius’ followers and kill them all. Before  Catherine bleeds out, she tells Mohamad that Van Helsing made it back to the hospital.

Julius takes his group of vampires and attacks the hospital. Between Axel’s boobytraps and concentrated firepower from the Marine, Nicole and Sam, the vampire invaders end up retreating.  Julius suffers massive losses and he opts to “fight another day” when he spies Dimitri’s death squad approaching

Vanessa Van Helsing dies again.  This is the second time she has died since the series began. Doc brings her around with a little CPR and a shot of adrenaline.  She forces John to help operate on Vanessa’s open leg wound.

She finds a vampire tooth in Van Helsing’s leg and the moment Doc removes it, Vanessa’s leg begins to heal. Later Nicole separates from the rest of the group while Axel leads his group away from Dimitri’s vampires.

The small band of survivors position themselves behind a corridor of UVH lights. A vampire enters the hallway and starts breaking the lamps.  Van Helsing recognizes him as the vampire who killed her the first time.

The group retreat as Nicole faces down three vampires on her own.  One follows her into a room and after failing to kill the creature she puts the gun in mouth and pulls the trigger.

Axel and the rest withdraw to an alternate escape route.  John is a douche throughout the retreat.  He finally decides that he is going to shoot Flesh. Van Helsing talks John down and takes away his gun.

The diminished group go downstairs to a re-inforced ambulance that Axel had set up for an escape.  Dimitri’s death squad are blown to bits by yet another Axel boobytrap.  Mohamad watches the group drive off and tries to catch their eye.

This episode of Van Helsing focussed on the schisms between the two factions. Nicole and John were/are the trouble-makers in Axel’s group and in the vampire hierarchy Julius and Dimitri are at war.

Dimitri is the stronger of the two and he knows how to delegate. He sends his death squad of elite vampires to kill everyone and bring Vanessa to him. Julius may fight in the trenches with his crew but he is not organized enough to get Van Helsing or to defeat Dimitri’s squad.

John actually manages to redeem himself a bit in this episode. He helps the doc and as a result Vanessa begins healing properly. John may lose it a bit later on, but  Van Helsing does get through to him and he opts to not kill Flesh.

Callie’s fate is not known, Catherine tells Mohamad that the little girl let go of her hand, and the child may be the only member of Brendan’s group still alive.

Mohamad is still separated from Axel’s band of survivors but the young man has proven to be pretty adept at working on his own.  Sam is convinced that the flare in the sky came from his old friend and he is right.

Thus far it looks like the arguing between different vampire leaders may be their undoing.  Add to this constant infighting those military troops and that impressive firefight across town and one, if not both, of the leaders could be in deep trouble.

Van Helsing has died twice now.  Hopefully the last hope of mankind can manage to stay alive long enough to fight off the remaining vampires before they can settle their differences and unite.

Rebecca is mentioned in this episode and there is also talk of her “pet.” This must be Mohamad’s sister Sheema and it remains to be seen just what Dimitri’s sister might be up to. So far she has been using Sheema to track down and eliminate the human resistance. Could she be also be  out to capture or destroy Vanessa?

John’s move toward being more of a team player and less of a major douchebag did not last too long. However, it may well be that the  shock of losing his wife is diminishing somewhat. He could still turn out to be a valuable member of the group.

Nicole’s death was fairly ironic. At the risk of sounding too tacky, the woman spent most of her time shooting her mouth off and being a major pain in the bum. It seems fitting that she chose to kill herself via a pistol shot in the mouth.

Doc obviously has something going on.  Before she administered the painkiller to Vanessa via the IV she popped some pills and chewed them up before turning around. Between that and her sucking the blood off her finger last week, it seems like the good doctor could be hiding something.

Now that Axel’s  vampire killers have left the claustrophobic atmosphere of the hospital, things should get very interesting for everyone.

Van Helsing airs Fridays on SyFy. Tune in and catch this vampire tale with a difference.

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
• Hilary Jardine  –  Susan
• Sarah Desjardins  –  Catherine
• Alison Wandzura  –  Nicole