VAN HELSING – Season 4 Episode 13 – SPOILERS

In the Dark Realm, Dracula (Tricia Helfer) sits Jack and Violet down and tells them an alternate tale of their origins. According to Dracula, the two were conceived on the same night with two separate human mothers. Their father was Willem, and he did this at the Dark One’s behest. (She instructed him through his dreams.) Is Dracula’s story a plausible one?

In the first season of VAN HELSING, Dimitri (Paul Johansson) employed Dr. Sholomenko (Duncan Ollerenshaw) to find a way for vampires to have children. As far as we know, he did not succeed. It follows that, if vampires can impregnate human females, the offspring created from such a union would not be vampires. Violet and Jack are not vampires, but they can do the same things that Vanessa and Scarlett could do (heal rapidly and cure vampirism with a bite), and Willem/Hansen did not have those abilities. So Dracula was probably lying, and Hansen was telling the truth.

Dracula opens a portal using the written instructions carried by Violet, and escapes from the Dark Realm, taking the form of Jack (Nicole Muñoz), whom she imprisons in a sarcophagus. Violet jumps through the portal after her, but doing so sends Violet into convulsions, and she is unable to immediately tell anyone what happened. PseudoJack convinces the President to trust her, then gets the President alone, kills her, and, disguised as the President, frees Bathory. The two of them depart in a helicopter, presumably for D.C.

**The helicopter used in the episode is a Sikorsky VH-60n (the same type normally used by the President of the United States). It has a range of 2,220 kilometers. The distance between Fort Collins and Washington, D.C. (as the crow flies) is about 2,400 km, so a refueling stop will be necessary.

Ivory (Jennifer Cheon Garcia Warn) and Violet (Keeya King) are saved from death by their rapid healing abilities (of which Dracula is apparently unaware), but are left behind in Fort Collins, and will be in a bit of trouble for trying to blow up the President’s helicopter. Meanwhile the boys (Julius, Axel, and Colonel Nicholson) have gone off looking for Doc. (The President, before being killed, told them Hansen had sent Doc to work with the Sunshine Unit, which is headquartered nearby.)

On the way, the three find a patch of orange vegetation, and Julius (Aleks Paunovic) makes the mistake of touching the stuff. Then a large Daywalker attacks them, and Colonel Nicholson is killed. Julius and Axel kill it, but afterward find that their wounds are no longer healing. They collapse on the doorstep of the Sunshine Unit’s headquarters, and may or may not be dead. The security camera above turns toward them after they are unconscious.

Dracula is headed for the White House, but it is unclear just what she plans to do once she gets there. Also, it is unlikely that she had time to dispose of the President’s body, and it seemed like she took Bathory (played in this episode by Anna Galvin) on the helicopter with her, so no one is left behind to do that for her.

Here’s an interesting coincidence. Just before the 2016 election, SUPERGIRL (in Episode 2.3, which first aired 24 October 2016) portrayed the female American President as an extraterrestrial in disguise. Season Five of VAN HELSING will likely air around the time of the 2020 election and will portray a female President as Dracula in disguise.

NOTES

Tammy Gillis (Monica in “Dark Ties“) will be Detective Debbie Harris in “Idsinga, Parts I and II” (Episodes 3.2 and 3.3 of THE DETECTIVES), in which a bizarre tip about a missing man from Toronto’s Gay Village opens an investigation into an international cannibalism ring, and police zero in on a local suspect named James Brunton, who is living in Peterborough. Detective Hank Idsinga is played by James Tupper, and Dave Rose will be Bruce McArthur. (Each episode of THE DETECTIVES features a different detective telling the story of a real case in Canada that not only challenged them like no other, but also had a lasting impact on Canadian society.) The show won a 2019 Canadian Screen Award for Best Factual Program. “Idsinga, Parts I and II” will air on CBC on 16 and 23 January .

VAN HELSING has been renewed for a 13-episode fifth and final season. Production will begin “early into the new year”, and Season 5 will air on SyFy “sometime in 2020”.

Jennifer Copping (Quaid in “Nothing Matters”) is Elsa Edwards in ROUX THE DAY: A GOURMET DETECTIVE MYSTERY, the fifth film based on the series of books by Peter King. In this one, Henry (Dylan Neal) and Maggie (Brooke Burns) find themselves involved in a murder investigation after Henry is hired to authenticate and purchase a long lost recipe book which seems to carry a curse for anyone who owns it. Set in San Francisco, and filmed in British Columbia, ROUX THE DAY will premiere on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries on 19 January at 8/7c .

Copping will also be Brotherhood Member #1 in “Quiz Show” (Episode 4.11 of RIVERDALE), scheduled to air on the CW on 29 January .







