'Van Helsing' Season 4 Episode 4 sees Vanessa and Axel finally resolve their differences with a truly heartwarming moment
Axel Miller (Jonathan Scarfe) has been waiting for a chance to kill Vanessa Van Helsing (Kelly Overton) ever since Vanessa killed her sister Scarlett Harker (Missy Peregrym) and in 'Van Helsing' Season 4's fourth episode, he gets his shot. Meanwhile, Vanessa has been on a path of redemption since the start of this season and Episode 4 sheds some light on her new approach to vampire-hunting.
"I've made mistakes," Vanessa says while fighting a group of vampires in the woods. "Caused so much damage. But now I understand I was following the wrong path. The path of darkness. Now I know the way. My mind is clear. I'm not going to kill, only salvage."
"This is the way," she declares, dropping to her knees and letting the vampires drink from her. "I am the light."
As expected, Vanessa's blood cures the vampires, who now see her as a Messiah figure. She sends them away telling them to help those in need now that they are immune to vampirism but unfortunately one of Vanessa's new disciples ends up running into Axel in the middle of a bar fight. Finding out Vanessa's location from the man, Axel sets out to complete his vendetta. Though Vanessa tries to calm him down by telling him that "it doesn't have to be this way", Axel refuses to stand down, declaring there "ain't no other way it can be."
As far as the fight itself goes, it's pretty clearly one-sided. Vanessa refuses to fight back, choosing to hide and let Axel expend both his ammunition and his energy. However, we do get a pretty emotional moment when Vanessa's guilt over the deaths of Scarlett and her daughter Dylan Van Helsing (Hannah Cheramy) rises to the surface.
"All I ever did was try to protect her," she tells Axel when he accuses her of not protecting her sister. "To protect Dylan. I've lost everything... including you, the one person in this f****d up world who was supposed to have my back. I've accepted the losses and what it gave me was purpose."
Axel finally manages to slam Vanessa against a tree and hold a knife to her neck but he realizes that he can't bring himself to kill her. No matter how much he hates her, Axel realizes that killing Vanessa would mean letting Scarlett's sacrifice go in vain and he doesn't have the heart to do that. We did expect Axel and Vanessa to reconcile this episode but it is still a touching moment when they do. Seeing Axel and Vanessa hugging it out and crying together was definitely one of the best moments we've seen in the series.
While he makes it clear that he'll never really forgive Vanessa for what she did to Scarlett, he's finally ready to go back to the light, hinting that he might free Flesh (Vincent Gale) and Jolene (Caroline Cave) from Loveland where he left them last episode. Considering the dire threats that are looming on the horizon, it's good to know that Axel is back on Vanessa's side and we're hoping we get to see the duo team up again sometime in the near future.
'Van Helsing' Season 4 Episode 5 'Liberty of Death' will air on Syfy October 25.