Titled: “He’s Coming”
Vanessa and Mohamad find themselves in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse against Sam while heading to a vampire-controlled camp; Sheema discovers a secret that could bring down a cell of the Resistance; Julius takes a meeting with Dmitri.
As we approach the end of the first season,Van Helsing continues to entice viewers with its finely crafted narratives and deftly directed story arcs. Tonight simply extends that trend. Much of this dialogue driven penultimate episode revolves around Vanessa working out her personal demons as she begins the long awaited trek to find her daughter, but the sudden complications emanating from Mohamad’s turnabout force her to reevaluate how, when and if she’ll ever reunite with her daughter.
Directed by Amanda Tapping, “He’s Coming” establishes a dark tone from the start spending nearly nine minutes to establish the new dynamic among Vanessa, Mohamad, and newly turned Sam. Though I understand it has its place, I’ve never been a fan of the frenetic editing style favored by many contemporary directors, so being able to comfortably observe Vanessa and Mohamad engage in meaningful conversation reveals sides of both we rarely see. Leading the way to a safe haven, he tells her “I was different before all this,” as they settle down in the cabin he claims to have visited when he was a boy scout. However, now that we’ve seen the entire episode, the veracity of that statement appears questionable, but that’s one of the appeals of his character — whether or not he was ever really a scout is irrelevant. When he tells Vanessa that he had no choice as Dmitri leads her away, his explanation rings hollow, and we realize that we know just as little about his true nature as we did when we first met him back at the hospital. His words have meaning; it’s just that any pathos he engendered has disappeared now that we can’t trust anything he says……
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