'Van Helsing' Season 4: Violet actor Keeya King says apocalyptic vampire world is a metaphor for familial struggle
'Van Helsing' Season 4's Violet Hansen (Keeya King) has had a pretty tough life, being secluded in the Fort Collins military compound for as long as she can remember. In the second episode of the season, we see how desperately Violet wants to get out of Fort Collins and away from her father Hansen (Neal McDonough).
The same episode also showed the lengths to which Hansen is willing to go to ensure Violet doesn't come in harm's way as he chose to lockup Doc (Rukiya Bernard) rather than take her help in figuring out the true nature of Violet's abilities. In an interview with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW), King opened up about how she thinks the two characters see each other and their relationship as father and daughter.
"I think it's kind of like any kid and parent where the parent is really hard, like a helicopter parent," King explained. "And I feel like any kind of relationship like that is strenuous and so, they love each other but it's still like 'I need to breathe and you don't let me breathe' and you'll see that throughout the whole season. You'll also find that she really loves her father, she just really wants his acceptance and love, and it's a really interesting dynamic between the two of them."
"That's one of the things I love about 'Van Helsing'," she remarked. "It's about the family relationship. You see that with Vanessa and her daughter and Vanessa and Scarlett, like that's what I love about the show. Even though we're in this vampire apocalyptic world, there's so many more metaphors to it and one of them is that familial struggle."
The second episode also revealed Hansen has been lying to Violet all her life about her true identity. Violet is actually Hansen's adopted daughter and she may, in reality, be a long-lost member of the Van Helsing family.
Though he does come off as a rather sinister figure, King says she believes that when it comes to Violet, Hansen is actually motivated by love. "I think it was out of love and fear," she said. "He just wants to keep his daughter protected, absolutely protected."
As difficult as her relationship with her father might be, Violet now finally has a new mentor to look up to. King told us Violet really yearns for human interaction and that desire is fulfilled when she meets Julius (Aleks Paunovic), a former vampire who becomes her sparring partner and surrogate father figure.
"The Julius and Violet dynamic, 'Juju and Vi' in my head, is going to be a really interesting dynamic," King teased. "I think they're going to have a great time together."
'Van Helsing' Season 4 Episode 3 'Love Less' will air on Syfy October 11.