VAN HELSING – Season 1 Episode 11 – SPOILERS

At the farmhouse where Susan grew up, Vanessa and the gang camp in the attic. (No one is home when they arrive. Susan’s mother has died and her dad is nowhere to be found.) They find an elaborate ham radio setup and when they turn it on they get a clear signal from someone named Gordo broadcasting from Salt Lake City. Gordo says that Salt Lake City is also vampire-infested, but theorizes that Denver might have fewer vamps, being a mile high and all. After Gordo signs off, they do not check to see if anyone else is broadcasting.

Salt Lake City sits at an altitude of 1300 meters, only 300 meters lower than Denver. The volcanic ash cloud from Iceland in 2010 rose to an altitude of 9,000 meters and that was only a level 4 blast. It is unlikely that Denver’s altitude would greatly affect the amount of sunlight penetrating the ash cloud.

Vanessa wants to go to Denver to look for Dylan. According to google maps there are two practical ways to get there from Seattle, and the northern route is most likely blocked because it passes too close to the Yellowstone caldera and will have been partially obliterated by the blast. They’re gong to need a vehicle if they go to Denver. The southern route is about 2200 kilometers long and passes through Salt Lake City.

Mohamed suggests that they search for Dylan at a nearby vampire work camp first, since that is where the vampires took human prisoners from Seattle. It is uncertain if Vanessa will go along with this idea.

Rebecca seems to function as an adviser to Dimitri. He keeps her around (though he does not trust her) because she has promised him that Dr. Sholomenko‘s research will lead to the two of them being able to walk in the sunshine with their children. The credits for this episode indicate that there should be a scene with vampire children, but that was either cut, or pushed forward to a later Season One episode.

REBECCA: “We will walk in the sunshine together. And soon. Once we have captured the woman, our blood mixed with hers…”
DIMITRI: “You have been promising me this for years now, even before we knew of the woman. You promised me hundreds more years of walking on the earth with my children. Night and day. I wonder if you make these promises with the knowledge that they are false. Maybe you are simply buying more time. If so, what for?”
REBECCA: “Please don’t lose faith in me.”

Turns out that Sam was the finger- stealing serial killer. This was not entirely a surprise, given his excessively violent nature. He kills Susan, ending the two most interesting human couples (himself and Mohamad, Susan and Vanessa). The only potential human pairing that seems to be left is Vanessa and Zorro. (Susan dubbed Theo Zorro last episode, and the nickname does seem apt.) The vampires are now much more interesting, with Rebecca amd Sheema a possible vamp/human combo, and the reluctantly human Doc might still become emotionally entangled with Axel, who might not have been killed, but turned into a vampire.

When a vampire is restored to human form by Vanessa, all the physical complaints that were healed by their vampirism come back. (See previous post.) Also, vampires seem to age more slowly. Does that mean that an ancient, if bitten by Vanessa, will quickly show their real age? If their age is several centuries, will they turn to dust immediately?

Vanessa showed an amazing lack of foresight when she failed to kill Sam. He was (predictably) turned vamp by a feral and after that his leg wounds quickly healed. He returned to Susan’s grave and bit a finger off of the body. Now he will probably join forces with some Ancient or other and tell the vampires where our heroine is headed.

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NOTES

Mark Acheson (Susan’s dad) will be Hal in MARRYING THE FAMILY, a comic mocumentary about the events leading up to a wedding being planned by the bride’s mother (Nicole Oliver). Oliver told Stuart Derdeyn of the Vancouver Sun “As an actor, this film was a dream because Taylor [writer Taylor Hill] put together an ensemble that can really work together instinctively. It’s like doing improv where the central tenet is you never say no and always say yes. There were times that we just kept going to the point we could all hardly keep from losing it on set.” The film premiered at the 2016 Vancouver International Film Festival, and is currently being submitted to other festivals.

Christian Convery (vampire child) will play the 4 year old David Haller in the upcoming TV series LEGION. The series is based on the X-MEN character named Legion, a mutant with psionic powers who was diagnosed as schizophrenic at an early age. The eight-episode series will premiere on FX sometime in February 2017. A trailer is available on YouTube. — And Convery is David in the Hallmark movie CHRISTMAS LIST, which is about a fashion designer (Alicia Witt) who locates a box filled with trinkets from her childhood, including an old list of things she wanted to do for Christmas that she drew up as a young girl. When her boyfriend is called away on business, she becomes determined to fulfill all the wishes on that list. CHRISTMAS LIST is based on the novel “The Christmas Bucket List” by South African author Ella Fairlie, and will next air on the Hallmark Channel 30 November at 6pm, and Saturday 3 December at 2pm.