Seen You

**Seen You** is the second episode of the first season of Syfy's *Van Helsing*.

## Synopsis

Vanessa is attacked and left for dead in the days leading up to the Rising, delivering her into Doc's hands. When Doc finds abnormalities in her death, Axel and the marines are sent to retrieve her body, but become marooned in the hospital as chaos erupts outside.

## Plot

### 2016

As a woman is giving blood at a clinic, the medical technician tries to chat her up, telling her he has seen her before. The woman tells him he was wrong, but he insists he was good with faces. He takes a look at her file and learns that her name is Vanessa, and upon learning that she lives close to him, invites her out for coffee. Vanessa isn't interested and asks for "it" instead, and the technician hands her money in an envelope. He tries to ask her again, but Vanessa doesn't give a straight answer.

Meanwhile, a young girl sits in the waiting room, watching a news report of a volcano eruption in Yellowstone National Park. Vanessa walks out of the door beside her and reveals the girl is her daughter, Dylan. As Dylan packs her things, she directs her mother's attention to the news, but Vanessa isn't very interested; she hurries her daughter along, reminding her they had an "important dinner reservation" waiting. As they left the room, Dylan asks how Vanessa's job interview went, seemingly unaware that her mother had actually been selling her blood for money. Vanessa doesn't answer, instead checking to see if someone overheard Dylan's question.

The technician places Vanessa's blood in a freezer, unaware that a vampire has broken in through the window and was lurking in the room. Once he leaves, the vampire, Bob, steals several bags of bloods. Bob takes them to a rusty car in an abandoned area, smelling each bag before deciding on one, unwittingly choosing Vanessa's bag. After a few mouthfuls of Vanessa's blood, he begins to choke and convulse, and then vomits blood all over the passenger window.

Two good-looking, mature vampires are sitting together in a dilapidated apartment, accompanied by several other vampires. The male vampire, Dmitri, tells his companion Rebecca that the shadows have allowed them to survive, protecting them for centuries. Rebecca seems not to be listening, more focused on the fact that "he's late." And then she asks if Dmitri has seen the skies today, to which Dmitri replies in Romanian. The door opens and admits a hooded figure as Rebecca implies they should take advantage of the ash cloud keeping them safe from ultraviolet radiation, and Dmitri seems to dismiss the idea as the hooded man is revealed to be Bob, who places a briefcase on the floor and announces the arrival of their "delivery." The vampires block the exit as he attempts to leave, so he turns back and admits that he knows he's sick, but doesn't know how or why. Dmitri explains that he has become human once more, and Rebecca approaches him, wiping her silver-tipped bladed glove across his face and saying, "reversion." She starts to say that she hadn't seen such a thing for a while, but Dmitri cuts her off, chiding her for speaking of past events. Bob tries to leave once more, but Dmitri doesn't allow it. He softly hums while slowly walking closer, singing a song and scaring Bob into urinating on himself. Rebecca and Dmitri demand to know where the blood came from, and he tells them it came from the clinic near the university. Dmitri then allows the other vampires to herd him into the next room. Rebecca commands a vampire named Balthazar to get rid of the source, dead or alive. She and Dmitri are both worried that something is coming.

While having dinner at a diner, Vanessa and Dylan are discussing the volcanic eruption. Dylan is worried about its after-effects, but Vanessa insists they had nothing to worry about and changes the topic to Dylan's birthday. Vanessa states she intends to buy Dylan presents, to which Dylan recalls her saying they couldn't afford presents this year. Vanessa tells her she just made some extra cash, and plans on taking Dylan shopping the next morning. Dylan asks if the money was from the job interview, and Vanessa lies and says it was "a bonus." Dylan is dubious, but generously chooses to let her doubts lie; instead, she expresses a wish that her mother would "get the job." Vanessa quickly changes the subject again, commenting on the ash falling outside and saying it looked like "black snow." Dylan reminds her that it's toxic, and says they should stay indoors until the rain washes everything away. When Vanessa wonders if there was ash falling everywhere, Dylan says they should ask her father if it was snowing ash in Denver.

As Vanessa and Dylan approach their apartment door, they can hear their neighbor Susan and her boyfriend *Tommy* yelling at each other. Seeing her friend in tears enrages Vanessa, and despite Dylan continuously telling her to stop, she drops her bag and the cake box to confront Tommy on the recent abuse. Telling him to pick on someone his own size, she shoves him and he shoves her back, telling her to stay out of it. Vanessa tells him she can't, because Susan is her friend, making Tommy yell further abuse at Susan. Vanessa tells him to hit her since he likes hitting women, and when he tries to hit her, she catches his punch and slams his face against the wall, breaking his nose, much to Susan's pleasure. Vanessa threatens to put his head through a wall if he came back, which Susan encourages. As Vanessa releases him and storms into her apartment, Tommy tells her he's going to kill her. The entire encounter upsets Dylan.

Later, Vanessa apologizes to Dylan about the altercation in the hallway, presenting her daughter with her cake, which was smooshed due to her careless handling. She tricks Dylan into smiling at the sad-looking cake, then chases her through the house to tickle her. A laptop begins to sound off, and Vanessa tells Dylan it's her father, *Gary*, and reminds her to get the flight information for her upcoming trip to Denver. He wishes her a happy birthday and asks if she received his present; this makes Dylan stop smiling, suggesting that Gary was lying about the present. She recovers quickly, focusing on her trip and telling him she was excited to spend time with him during the weekend, but Gary starts making excuses for why she can't visit. When he asks to speak to her mother, Dylan aggressively asks whose pink purse was on the table behind him. When Gary has no answer, Dylan motions her mother over and goes to the hallway. Meanwhile, Vanessa angrily rips into Gary for abandoning their child on her birthday for a one-night stand. Gary tells her "it" has nothing to do with the weekend trip and cites safety issues due to the volcanic eruption, but Vanessa doesn't believe him and threatens to kick his ass when she sees him again. As they begin to snipe at each other, Dylan goes to hide in a closet to cry.

As Vanessa lights the candles on Dylan's cake, Susan knocks on the door. Vanessa spots bruises on Susan's face and asks after her, but Susan tells her to forget about it and presents a bottle of wine as a thanks for being her savior. Vanessa jokingly asks if that makes her Susan's pimp, to which Susan replies the job is available and has perks. Vanessa teases that she needs the money anyway. When Susan tries to come in so they can drink the bottle, Vanessa takes a brief raincheck as it was still Dylan's birthday, instead promising to knock on Susan's door when Dylan was asleep. Susan agrees and leaves the bottle on the side table.

Vanessa finishes lighting the cake candles and goes searching for Dylan, who is still hiding in the closet. As Vanessa looks under Dylan's bed, she hears a noise in the kitchen; following it, she discovers a dark figure by the door. Assuming it's Tommy, she asks if he came back for another fight, but unknown to her, it is actually the vampire Balthazar. He charges at Vanessa, throwing her all across the apartment; Dylan listens fearfully as Vanessa attempts to fight back, but she is unable to match his strength and speed. As the commotion dies down, Dylan exits the closet, calling out to her mother. This provides a distraction for Vanessa, who grabs a pair of scissors and stabs her assailant multiple times. Assuming he was dead, she starts to crawl towards Dylan, but Balthazar heals up and pulls her back, ripping into Vanessa's throat and stomach. However, ingesting Vanessa's blood causes Balthazar to start reverting; as he chokes and vomits, he runs out of the apartment, ignoring Dylan completely as he passes her by. Dylan comes around the corner to find her mother bleeding out. As Dylan begs her not to die, Vanessa weakly tells her to find Susan, call the police and then her father. Her final words to Dylan were, "I love you," which Dylan manages to say back before Vanessa succumbs to her injuries. Dylan sits on the ground, crying over her mother's dead body.

Doc unzips a body bag and reveals Vanessa's body inside, calling her pretty and asking for her name. Her assistant identifies the woman as 'Vanessa Seward' and reveals she didn't die in the hospital. Doc demands to know why it wasn't taken to the coroner instead, but all the standby officer can tell her is the coroner's office is swamped with dead bodies. Unable to change the situation, Doc begins to examine the body and discovers the body's lividity and temperature is out of whack, prompting her to take the examination to a more equipped laboratory on the hospital's fourth floor.

Upon further examination, she finds that while Vanessa was covered in blood, there were no wounds to explain where they came from. A test showed that her blood acted as if it was still alive. Later, she regales her sister Grace with the details of her odd "female DB," which Grace takes an interest in. Doc realizes quickly that her sister knows something, but Grace refuses to speak about it, which only makes Doc more curious. Grace explains that all she can say is the Pentagon issued a classified advisory, then tells Doc that its nothing to worry about. She requests all of Vanessa's blood work, which Doc agrees to send over.

Some time later, six Marines led by *Major Stoker* accost Doc during her lunch break. Stoker demands that Doc come with them immediately to release the "zombie" they were sent to retrieve. Doc stalls them as soon as Stoker tells her their assignment is a "priority," wanting to know why her female dead body is suddenly important to the military. Another Marines, Sergeant Axel Miller, tries to reason with her, so when Stoker tries to order Doc around, she tells him to tell Stoker to explain herself. Finally acquiescing, Stoker explains that all she can say is that reports were coming in about a viral outbreak in certain cities. Doc questions the merit of a potential virus outbreak since they aren't wearing any hazmat suits; fed up, Stoker tells Axel to "help the doctor up," much to Doc's irritation. However, Axel is distracted when the weather rapidly changes, darkening the sky and slamming debris into the windows hard enough to crack the surface.

insisting she lead them to the body and allow them to transport it to the base. However, their conversation is interrupted when the weather begins to change and chaos erupts on the streets. Half the Marines leave to provide assistance while the other three are ordered to protect Doc and Vanessa. Over the next three years, Doc and the Marines become trapped in the hospital, as it is the safest location they can fortify against the vampires. However, a Marine named Ted becomes tired of their situation and elects to lead a team out to restock their supplies. During their egress, vampires come out and attack them. Doc, who followed them to ensure the entrance is secured from inside, tries to close the door as one of the Marines heads back for cover. As she pushes him out, a vampire appears and bites her arm. Horrified, she and another Marine, Axel, hurry back to the lab to cut her arm off; however, they fail to remove her arm before the infection began to spread. Axel gets ready to shoot her, but Doc begs him not to. He agrees and decides to lock her in a cage, promising to protect her until he can find a cure.

As the Marines guide Doc through the hospital, Axel asks Stoker what the latest news was. Stoker replies that a volcano in Yellowstone erupted violently enough to turn the site into a huge crater, causing earthquakes within a radius of 1000 miles and two nuclear power plants to go off. Communications have also been disrupted everywhere, and the National Guard and regular army were being deployed for rescue and recovery operations. Ted asks if they're being deployed as well, but this is not the case. Doc questions why the squad wasn't going to be helping with the peace-keeping, arguing that the female dead body could wait. Axel questions why Vanessa is so important, and Doc explains that the girl is both dead and alive at the same time; however, she turns the topic back, unable to understand how the girl is more important than what's going on everywhere else. However, Stoker is intent on carrying out her mission, as it was given at "the highest level." Doc refers to the Pentagon's advisory, surprising Stoker, who tells her curious team not to worry about it.

As Stoker gives the order to prepare the dead body for transport, explosions start going off outside the hospital. Everyone watches in horror as chaos erupts on the streets, people attacking people and cops shooting someone dead. Stoker tries to contact the military base, but is met with no response. When a woman outside the laboratory starts biting an EMT and then comes after them, Axel has to shoot her until she stops moving, shocking everyone at the woman's tenacity. Axel wonders if everything that's happening has something to do with "Sleeping Beauty," but Doc doesn't know if it does. Stoker asks Doc what she knows about the advisory, but Doc tells her she knows nothing. When they start hearing about soldiers attacking their fellow soldiers, Stoker decides to find reinforcements, taking *Tucker* and *Kowalski* and leaving Axel, Ted, *Smith* and Gomez to defend Sleeping Beauty. When Doc tries to leave, Stoker tells her she's staying with the squad so long as Sleeping Beauty is still in the hospital.

Three years later, Doc and the Marines are still in the hospital. As Smith sits bored in a chair and Gomez spins around on a wheelchair, Axel and Ted discuss Doc's recent odd behavior. Axel thinks that they should do something nice for her as her birthday is coming up, and Ted wonders how Axel remembers such a little detail. Axel modestly waves the thought away and denies Ted's insinuation that he has a crush on her. On the screen by the foot of Axel's bunk, a vampire climbs a box and smashes the camera, causing an alarm to sound. Axel and Ted hurry to the monitor and discover their last GoPro has been destroyed. As Doc walks past him, Axel asks where she was going, and she replies she would just take a walk for a minute.

A doctor enters a macabre laboratory, followed by Dmitri and Rebecca. He apologizes to them for the past experiments being failures, but says that with his current resources, he has high hopes for the current pregnancies. Rebecca asks about the woman with some kind of abilities, and the doctor explains that she could be helpful to the cause. They give him permission to experiment on the woman, even though Dmitri fears she could be the end of vampires. When Rebecca points out she could be their future, he tells her he wants her found alive, if she existed. As Dmitri leaves, Rebecca asks what the doctor has learned from "him," and he directs her to a large freezer, where Bob the former vampire is found hanging on chains, gutted and missing several limbs, but still alive. Upon seeing Rebecca, he begs her to kill him, though she only growls at him in disdain.

Back at the hospital, Axel announces that they were officially at DEFCON 2 in terms of ammo rationings. Hearing this, Ted decides that he has had enough, realizing that it was only a matter of time before they run out of supplies or the feeders get them. Axel reminds him of the mission, telling him they can always get more supplies. He informs Ted that Doc believes Sleeping Beauty could be the key to their entire situation, but Ted is not swayed. When Axel asks if he has a play, Ted says he wants to takes Smith and Gomez back to base, and they would return with any weapons and communications they can find. Axel explains that base is forty miles away on foot, which might as well be a thousand with the vampires out there, but they have no other plans.

The Marines gear up. Ted tells Axel to drop a can if the coast was clear and provide cover from the rooftop, and tasks Doc with sealing the door once they were out. As Ted, Smith and Gomez move out, the feeders appear from every direction. Against direct orders, Doc begins shutting the door even as Smith tries to make it back in. Smith turns his back on the street to fight her and get the door open, and a vampire appears as Doc tries to push him away. This results in her getting bit on the arm and Smith getting torn apart.

Axel brings Doc back up to the lab, where she prepares to cut her own arm off to prevent the transformation. However, it starts right as she was about to saw into her flesh. Having made a pact to kill each other if they ever got bit, Axel picks up his rifle to fulfill his promise. Seeing him ready to shoot her, Doc changes her mind and pleads with him not to kill her. Axel hesitates and looks away, and is inspired when he sees the cage full of medical supplies. He drops the rifle and ties her to a bed, promising that he would find a way to save her. Meanwhile, Doc's skin darkens and purple veins appear prominently across her body. Just moments after Axel secures her, the transition completes and she starts chomping at Axel, trying to attack him.

## Cast

### Starring

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

* Paul Johansson as Dimitri
* Laura Mennell as Rebecca
* Hilary Jardine as Susan
* Hannah Cheramy as Dylan
* Rob Boyce as Balthazar
* Aaron Hutchinson as Tommy
* Holly Elissa as Jennifer

## Gallery

### Videos

VAN HELSING Inside Episode 2 'How Vampires Took Over' SyfyVAN HELSING Season 1, Episode 2 'It's Started' SyfyVAN HELSING Season 1, Episode 2 'Home Invasion' Syfy
## Trivia

* This episode was apart of a double-premiere, it followed the series premiere, titled Help Me.
* Major Stoker is a reference to Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula
* Two vampires are reverted back into being humans, both of whom worked for Dmitri.
* This episode was a flashback, showing the origins of The Rising as well as giving character backgrounds for Vanessa Van Helsing, Dmitri, Rebecca, Susan, Doc, Axel Miller and Ted.

## References

1. ↑ Van Helsing - Promos, Cast Promotional Photos + First 2 Promotional Episode Photos & Synopsis