Stay Inside

**Stay Inside** is the third episode of the first season of Syfy's *Van Helsing*.

## Synopsis

The hospital's power source is damaged, jeopardizing the protective UV lights. Vanessa and Axel head into Seattle to scavenge parts, leaving the others to fight against the vampires and amongst themselves.

## Plot

**2016**
As several people are getting high in a dilapidated house, a vampire (Julius) hides in the shadows. Deeming it safe enough, the vampire is briefly burned by the sun as he makes his way across the room to an unconscious junkie. Sirens go off in the background as he feeds from her, rousing the other junkies. Intrigued by the darkening sky, the vampire cautiously approaches a boarded up window and watches ash fall from the sky. Realizing that the light wasn't burning him, he sticks his hand out the window and learns that the sun can no longer hurt him, allowing him to walk outside despite the daytime.

As he enjoys his first taste of broad daylight, a uniformed officer honks his horn at the vampire, telling him he should stay inside. The vampire retorts that he no longer has to, then feeds on the officer and several other nearby civilians, turning them. As he walks away, a man stops him to ask what was going on. The vampire attacks him as well.

The man, whose name tag reads 'Phil,' escapes and runs home, confused and in pain. He arrives just as he finishes his transition into a vampire. As he recovers from disorientation, his wife calls out to him as she carries their toddler son and fiddles with food. Phil doesn't reply. His daughter excitedly comes up to greet him, but falters when she sees his bloody, unhealthy appearance. Phil's focus turns to her; growling, he lunges at her, making her scream. His attack catches the attention of his wife, who hurries to the commotion. Seeing her husband eating their daughter, his wife screams, frightening their son and making him cry.

**2019**
As John occupies his bed, he listens to Mohamad and Sam regale Nicole and Cynthia of Ted and Vanessa's fight. Meanwhile, Axel returns to smoking and feeding Doc his blood, having left an unsociable Vanessa in the exam room. Moments later, they hear someone yelling for attention in the halls. Shocked and worried that more vampires were coming, the survivors arm themselves and follow Axel to the source. They find a man (Flesh) covered in blood standing under the UV light. As they approach aggressively, he holds his hands up, adopting a submissive position and asking who they were.

Taking Flesh down to the morgue, John intimidates him into stripping naked and hoses him down as Sam, Mohamad, Cynthia and Nicole stand guard. John tells him that regardless of his reverted, he will still see Flesh as a monster for all he has done.

As Axel approaches her in the dining hall, Vanessa denies that she had any influence in Flesh's reversion, saying it must have been something in the garbage chute that triggered the change. Axel points out that there were a lot of bodies in the chute already, and only the vampire who bit her ever came back up. When she insists she isn't special, he sharply reminds her that he had been protecting her for a long time, so she must be special somehow. He starts to tell her that according to Doc, her body was acting differently, but is interrupted by a noise from outside, causing them to hurry to the roof.

As the group joins them, they discover that John's wife Wendy is being tortured by the vampires, who announce that they wanted "The Dead Girl" in exchange for Wendy's safe return. One of the vampires, Gustov starts beating her with chains to speed up their decision-making, horrifying John. Vanessa immediately volunteers to go, but Axel refuses to let her. Seeing that Axel wouldn't willingly trade Vanessa for his wife, John knees Axel between his legs and takes his sidearm, placing it to Vanessa's head and telling the vampires he would throw her over the roof. As Gustov replies that they want her alive, Axel shoots Wendy in the head, thus stripping the vampires of their leverage. Everyone watches as John crumbles at the loss of his wife, but he soon recovers to attack Axel. Their scuffle results in the hospital's only turbine getting knocked off, falling to the streets below, much to Axel's horror. He angrily tells them that they now have three hours to live.

Flesh, who had been left behind, approaches as the group reenters the building, hurrying after Axel. As John morosely walks along the roof in the background, Vanessa stops to ask Flesh if he really was one of the vampires that attacked and wonders why they want her. Flesh admits that he was only ordered to "turn the dead girl," which disappoints Vanessa.

As she returns to the lab, she walks in on Mohamad and the others muttering about her. She avoids them and approaches Axel, who is getting ready to leave. When she wonders why they only had three hours to live, Axel bitterly reveals that the turbine had been charging the car batteries powering the UV lights; without a working charger, the power would only last another three hours before they lost their primary defense against vampires. He tells her there is an out-of-commission generator in the basement, but he would have to scavenge for parts outside the hospital to fix it. Vanessa asks why he didn't try to save Wendy, and Axel replies that he had learned to stop falling for bait. As he leaves a potential farewell to her, Vanessa asserts her desire to accompany him, pointing out that it would be safer - for him to have backup outside, and for her to keep her distance from John and the others. Seeing her point, Axel warns her that going outside would convince her that her daughter was dead, but Vanessa still goes with him.

Vanessa selects a fire axe as Axel leaves Sam and Mohamad in charge, informing them that no one should come in or out or try to hurt Doc, and to keep an eye on 'that other guy' as he may not be stable. As Axel gives him a rifle, Mohamad tells him that 'ex-feeder dude's' name was Flesh, and when Axel asks how he earned the nickname, Mohamad admits he didn't want to ask, but supposed that Flesh was keeping nickname. As Axel leaves, he promises that if his rules weren't followed, he would hunt Mohamad and Sam down.

As Axel leads her to the sub-basement, he instructs her on how to kill vampires, comparing their rapid healing rate to hers. Along the way, Vanessa asks him if he knew where he was going, and he admits that he hasn't traversed the tunnels in a while. She points out that most people would have left, but he cites his duty as a Marine as the reason he stayed. He tells her someone thought she was important, and that whoever it was seemed to be right, given all he had seen Vanessa do. He asks her what happened to her, mentioning the terrible condition she was in when she fell into Doc's custody, but Vanessa doesn't remember. Their conversation is halted when they come across two ferals in a basement parking lot, forcing them to use the streets instead. When Vanessa sees a skull spray-painted on the side of a building, Axel tells her that an anti-vampire Resistance movement existed, though he doesn't seem impressed with the idea.

As John reads the Holy Bible and Doc paces her cage, Flesh wakes up from a nightmare. Doc starts screaming and rattling her cage, pulling attention towards her and Flesh. Seeing this as a sign of insanity, Mohamad prepares to shoot Flesh, but Sam stops him and tells him to check on Flesh instead. Reluctantly, Mohamad approaches and asks after him; Flesh admits he had a nightmare and hasn't dreamed in years. Mohamad is taken aback, but seeing that Flesh wasn't crazy after all, he lowers his rifle and asks Flesh how it felt to be human again, but Doc takes offence to this and starts shrieking. John aggressively tells her to shut up, and they screaming at each other as Sam gets in John's way. Riled up, John tells them they should kill Doc and Flesh before Axel returns, but Sam warns Mohamad that if John will end up in the garbage chute, which Mohamad conveys to John. John sees Sam signing something, and he asks if Sam is threatening him. Mohamad says Sam is only pointing out the obvious, then refuses to translate what Sam signs after that.

Axel leads Vanessa to a shipyard, where he plans to salvage the engine of a nearby ship. He tells her that he ran everything off the generator for the first year and a half, scavenging many times to keep it going. However, he eventually ran out of combustion engines, which is what they needed to get it working again. Vanessa stops as she sees a bloody baby stroller, and Axel tells her that the feeders fed off the passengers of the ship, the rats consumed whatever was left and the ferals ate the rats. This is the first time Vanessa hears the term 'ferals,' and Axel merely tells her they would suck on everything.

When Axel tells her that he has to go underwater to retrieve the engine, Vanessa realizes he was worried and asks if there were any creatures in the water; Axel says it was possible. He gives Vanessa one end of a rope, telling her to run away if he tugs on it, then hands her his rifle. She is visibly nervous and frightened as Axel dives in, looking around constantly as the ship creaks and groans around her. This doesn't stop her from immediately spotting a feral, causing her to tug insistently at the rope.

As the feral attacks, she fires Axel's rifle, drawing the attention of another nearby feral. When the first was incapacitated, she drops the rifle to pull at the rope, forcing Axel to surface; luckily, he had retrieved the part he needed. Upon learning they were under attack, he swiftly leaves the water and takes the knife in Vanessa's boot, taking the incoming feral while Vanessa tries to kill the one she incapacitated. However, it had already recovered, yanking her to the ground and feeding on her as she kicked and screamed, only to release her as her blood poisons it; unlike the others who fed from Vanessa, this vampire died.

Having destroyed the heart of his feral, Axel turns to assist Vanessa, who frantically asks if her feral was dead. Axel confirms it, then tells her she should be the one who died and looks at her neck to make sure she wasn't turning. Vanessa insists she was fine, so Axel gathers his things; however, she begins to consider leaving to search for Dylan. When Axel realizes this, he cites her obvious fatigue, reasons that she can't fight off more than two ferals and points out that she can't help her daughter if she was dead. Vanessa asks what he would do if the hospital was overrun when they got back, and he promises that no matter what happens, he would stick with her. Won over, Vanessa agrees to return with him.

The hospital generator finally gives out while the survivors are having dinner. Seeing the UV lights deactivate, the feeders immediately swarm the door. Hearing the commotion the vampires are causing, Mohamad tells the group get their things together and prepare for a fight. Flesh doesn't follow immediately; instead, he picks up a scalpel beside Doc's cage, plotting.

Cynthia leads the charge until she gets to the escalator. Hearing the vampires battering at the entrance, her fear quickly takes over and makes her back up, positioning herself in the middle of the group.

Upon seeing the crowd of vampires at the door, Axel and Vanessa stop a few yards away from the entrance. Vanessa prepares for battle, but Axel tells her to wait, trying to come up with a strategy. The door suddenly opens, but instead of forcing their way in, the vampires rear back as they recognize Flesh. As Axel wonders what was going on, Flesh cuts himself before the vampires and declares he is human again. Bewildered and afraid, the vampires realize start to back away. Flesh reveals that he was turned by "the dead woman," inviting them to touch him and bite him. He tells them that if they want to feel and suffer for all their sins, they should enter the hospital, where the dead woman would turn them all human too. Judges his words to be true, the lead vampire (*Gustov)* walks off, followed by the other vampires.

Seeing the coast was clear, Axel and Vanessa make their way to the door; however, Vanessa stops upon seeing Wendy's lifeless body tied to the tree. She unties Wendy and carries the body in, allowing John to pay his respects.

When Axel approaches her, she admits she is now open to the idea that Dylan may be dead. When Axel excuses himself to fix the generator, Mohamad approaches Vanessa, saying that Dylan might have made it, especially since he had. Left alone, Vanessa approaches the cage to ask Doc if she knows what Vanessa is, but she receives no response. Cynthia sees her talking to Doc and demands to know what Vanessa said, accusing her of being "one of them." Vanessa leaves without answering, and Doc happily startles Cynthia into leaving.

Vanessa finds Flesh in the dining hall stitching up his arm. She demands to know why he went out there and risked his life for the survivors, most of whom wanted both of them dead. She comes to several conclusions, and when Flesh seems to ignore her, pulls his stitches and tells him that she has her own problems and she doesn't want to be the answer to anyone else's troubles. Flesh abruptly relays the story of how he destroyed his family when he first turned, ripping his 5 year old daughter's throat out and pulling his son's heart from his chest before leaving his wife with the remains of their children. Vanessa agrees that he deserves to die and he confirms that he would, but only on his terms, so that he could die for his family. As Vanessa leaves, Flesh suddenly asks if she could turn his wife back, should he find her a vampire. Vanessa asks if his wife would even want to be human again, considering the state of the world. Flesh tells her that his wife would want it, if only to properly suffer for her sins and loss. Vanessa leaves without giving him an answer.

Vanessa looks for Axel when the lights turn back on, eventually encountering him on the escalators, accompanied by Mohamad and Sam. Axel tells her they ran into some trouble (presumably vampires) but that they managed to fix the generator. He then asks for a favor, ironically the same one Flesh asked: could she turn Doc human again?

As they return to the fourth floor, Vanessa warns Axel that Doc could die like the feral that bit her, but Axel counters that she could follow Flesh's example instead. He argues that he will end up killing Doc anyway if they can't find a cure for her, so Vanessa relents, pulling her jacket off as Axel opens the cage. Doc backs up warily and spends several moments avoiding Vanessa, clinging to the cage and screaming in distress. The survivors are drawn to the commotion and are shocked to see what is going on. Vanessa shoves her arm in front of Doc's face, but Doc refuses to bite her as she knows what the outcome will be, shoving and smacking Vanessa as she runs away. The pain sends Vanessa into a violent state and she bites Doc's neck savagely. Doc's cry of distress snaps Vanessa out of her enraged trance; she backs away in horror as Doc wanders away, panting. As Axel calls to her, Doc collapses lifelessly. Worried, Axel enters the cage and tries to rouse her, clinging to her when he gets no response. Vanessa covers her mouth and looks away in horror.

In what appears to be some kind of crowded warehouse, the vampire that turned Flesh is seen with a human draped on his lap, sucking at his blood through a straw. Gustov walks in to speak with the vampire, addressing him as Julius and telling him that Flesh has been turned human. When Julius hears that "she" would turn them all too, he stands up, dropping the human to the floor, and tells Gustov to send word to Dmitri.

Back at the hospital, Axel holds Doc's body, encouraging her to wake up. John coldly tells him to throw her body down the chute, causing Axel to snap at him. Flesh asks Mohamad if Vanessa tried to turn Doc, and whether Doc was dead, but Mohamad doesn't know. As Axel starts to accept that Doc may be dead, Doc begins to cough up blood. Vanessa is amazed as she was sure it would work. Doc slowly exits the cage, smiling, and doesn't seem to notice the survivors cautiously backing away. Flesh looks relieved that he was no longer alone, while Vanessa covers her mouth, realizing that she could no longer deny the horrifying truth: she was special, and vampires were after her for it.

## Cast

### Starring

* Kelly Overton as Vanessa Van Helsing
* Jonathan Scarfe as Axel Miller
* Christopher Heyerdahl as Sam (credit only)
* David Cubitt as John
* Vincent Gale as Flesh (credit only)
* Rukiya Bernard as Doc
* Trezzo Mahoro as Mohamad

* Avery Konrad as Cynthia
* Aleks Paunovic as Julius
* Fiona Vroom as Wendy
* John DeSantis as Gustov

## Gallery

### Videos

VAN HELSING Season 1 Episode 3 Sneak Peek SyfyVan Helsing 1x03 Promo "Stay Inside" (HD)VAN HELSING Season 1, Episode 3 'Give Her Over' SyfyVAN HELSING Season 1, Episode 3 'She Turned Me Back' SyfyVAN HELSING Inside Season 1 Episode 3 Syfy
## Trivia

* Vanessa makes her first vampire kill when a feral feeds from her and dies moments later.
* Doc is cured of her vampirism, just like Bob, Balthazar and Flesh before her. Unlike them however, Doc was bitten by Vanessa.
	+ This implies that Vanessa's saliva also holds the cure.
* In regards to Vanessa's effects on vampires, this episodes shows that:
	+ Ferals die when drinking Vanessa's blood
	+ Feeders are turned human when bitten by Vanessa

## References

1. ↑ Van Helsing - Episode 1.03 - Stay Inside - Promotional Photos & Synopsis