Episode One – “Help Me”

The pilot episode, which first aired 31 July 2016 on SyFy, seven weeks in advance of the two-hour series premiere, opens with a statement. “2019 – Three years since the rising began. Civilization has fallen. Vampires rule the streets. Only whispers of a human saviour have given mankind hope.” In a hospital room, a woman (Vanessa Seward, played by Kelly Overton) lies supine, asleep on a table. Three vampires enter. One of them (Flesh, played by Vincent Gale) bites the woman’s throat, becomes disoriented, and begins to vomit blood. The woman wakes up and quickly kills the other two vampires.

Thirty-six hours before that, Axel Miller (Jonathan Scarfe) is feeding a captive vampire (Rukiya Bernard) he calls Doc. Miller, an American Marine, reminisces about things he misses, among them Subway sandwiches and Kit Kat Bars. Miller gets an alarm from the southwest hospital entrance and goes to check it out. Doc says “They’re coming”, and Miller says “Goddam apocalypse.”

Eight people are demanding to be let in. At first, Miller refuses, but one of the new people is Ted (Tim Guinee), another Marine from Axel’s unit. Axel admits Ted, along with six others: Cynthia (Avery Konrad), Karen (Jennifer Spence), Nicole (Alison Wandzura), Sam (Christopher Heyerdahl), Mohammed (Trezzo Mahoro), and John (David Cubitt). John’s wife Wendy (Fiona Vroom) is too far away from the entrance and Miller refuses to attempt to save her.

When the vampires make the above-mentioned attempt on Vanessa’s life, Karen is bitten, and Cynthia kills her to prevent her from turning.

Vanessa has no idea where she is or what’s happening, so Axel fills her in. “We got sent in here to pick up a dead body,” he tells her. “Then some volcano goes off in Wyoming, wipes out half the western states. After that people just started killing each other…it makes you feel like an idiot to call them vampires but they drink blood so, you know, you decide. Half dozen of us got dumped off. Our orders were to protect you and the doctor, that’s all. We were supposed to hold this position until we were relieved. Folks’ve been calling this thing ‘The Rising’…I did my duty. I watched you, I kept the Doc alive after she got bit.”.

Vanessa wants to escape and find her daughter. Ted wants her to escape because he wants to turn her over to unnamed vampires eager to capture her. Axel thwarts her escape attempts and Vanessa flees to the roof where she kills Ted. In the process she takes a knife through the palm of her hand, and the wound is seen to heal very rapidly.

Axel disposed of the vampires killed by Vanessa down a garbage chute. At episode’s end, as “You Are My Sunshine” by Gene Autry plays in the background, Flesh climbs out of the chute covered in blood and is unaffected by the ultraviolet lights that normally kill vampires. “She turned me,” he says. “I’m human. As soon as I tasted her blood, I could feel again.”

Of the thirteen characters that appear in the pilot episode, only six will survive into the show’s final season.

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Episode Two – “Seen You”

It is Vanessa’s daughter Dylan’s birthday, and though she looks older, her cake has seven candles. Vanessa is divorced, unemployed, and is giving blood to get money to buy Dylan (Hannah Cheramy) a birthday present. The technician taking her blood is Jared (Aidan Kahn), who points out that he and Vanessa live near one another, and asks her out for a drink. She declines. Vanessa will meet Jared again in “Pretty Noose” (episode 3.5).

In the waiting room, Dylan, who thinks her mother is applying for a job, hears a TV announcer say: “The Mt. Washburn eruption at three o’clock local time was unexpected but geologists say the Yellowstone Caldera is an active seismic region and these events are common every 100 years or so. Now, current winds are expected to bring the ash cloud westward, disrupting some…We are receiving word that air quality advisories are in effect.” The year is 2016.

A vampire named Bob (Chad Riley) is hiding in the room where Jared stores the blood. He steals several bags, and takes them to his car. He drinks from one of them, then vomits blood.

Bob delivers the rest of the stolen blood to two obviously powerful vampires, Dimitri (Paul Johanssen) and Rebecca (Laura Mennell).

Van Helsing’s vampires are divided into types, but all the vampires on this show were once human. All humans are affected similarly by whatever pathogen causes vampirism, but the behaviour of individual vampires is primarily determined by environmental factors. They cannot reproduce as humans do. Only by turning humans can they increase their numbers. (Dimitri has Dr. Sholomenko (Duncan Ollerenshaw) looking into a solution for that.) They do age, but at a slower rate than humans, and might eventually die of natural causes, though this is never confirmed.

Dimitri remarks on weather conditions: “For centuries we have survived for one reason, and one reason only. The shadows have protected us. Have you seen the skies today? Our time is now. The mystery of existence is not merely in staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”

Other vampires in the room begin sniffing Bob, as though his smell is strange. “I’m sick. Something’s the matter with me,”, says Bob. “You are human,” Rebecca tells him. ” A reversion. I haven’t seen this since…” She does not finish the sentence. Balthazar (Rob Boyce), who works for Dimitri, is told: “find the source. Do what you must. Dead or alive.”

When Vanessa gets home, she sees that her neighbour Susan (Hilary Jardine) has bruises on her face and goes after Tommy (Aaron Hutchinson), the probable cause of those bruises. Vanessa has anger issues and knows how to fight. After chasing Tommy away, Dylan’s father Gary (Kirby Morrow) calls from Denver and Vanessa gets in an argument with him as well, causing Dylan to hide in a bedroom closet. Balthazar enters through an open window and attacks Vanessa. After the attack, Vanessa appears to be dead.

Vaness’s body is taken to a hospital, since the coroner is overwhelmed. Doc finds her interesting enough to move the body to a fourth floor lab, and calls her sister Grace (Bethany Brown), who works for the Pentagon. “Hi, Zara. Can I bug you with a quick work question? I got this female DB, early 30’s, severe trauma with some unusual properties. Lividity, body temperature, it’s all out of whack, and when I checked the blood, it was acting like it was still alive.” Soon after that Major Stoker (Marci T House) shows up with a contingent of Marines to take charge of Vanessa’s body. Then the Yellowstone Caldera explodes, a black cloud spreads over Seattle, and “The Rising” happens. Axel remains in the hospital with Doc.

Yellowstone

The last big Yellowstone eruption (640,000 years ago) had a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 8, one hundred times larger than the 1883 eruption of the volcano on the Island of Krakatoa (6° 9′ S, 105° 22′ E ) which had a VEI of 6, and ejected an estimated fifty-five cubic kilometers of material. According to the American Meteorological Society Bulletin, Montpellier Observatory in France recorded a 25% drop in solar radiation in November 1883.

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All episodes of VAN HELSING can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.