Love Less

**Love Less** is the third episode of fourth season of Syfy's *Van Helsing* and the forty-second episode of the series overall.

## Synopsis

A grieving and aimless Axel rescues an enigmatic Max, who returns the favor with a job offer.

## Plot

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

While driving down the highway, Axel is passed by a man named Max Borman. Axel watched from his truck as Max is by a daywalker from his backseat, forcing him to pullover. Axel decides to help, shooting the vampire in the head after Max initially put it down. Axel grabs a bottle of alcohol from Max’s car as payment and heads back to his truck. However, Max’s car has broken down and so he asks Axel for a ride. Axel agrees and even kills another daywalker as it approaches Max from behind.

Flesh and Jolene find their way to Loveland. They scope out the facility from just outside the gate. Jolene points out that one of the prison buses are headed the opposite way of Denver. There’s nothing but desert for miles, and yet they loaded the bus with crates from the storage rooms. Solicite and food all headed the wrong way. She suspects there’s more going on than just mining for Denver. Flesh then spots his wife Jennifer.

Axel drives Max to his home, which happens to be a mansion. Max invites Axel in and reveals that before the Rising, he’d been everything Axel could think of and maybe something’s he can’t. The one thing Max learned in all that is that he can’t allow himself to get to where Axel is now. He advises Axel to shut his emotions out, but he can’t, not until he makes Vanessa pay for killing Scarlett.

Flesh and Jolene sneak inside of Loveland under one of the transport buses. They find Jennifer, but are quickly apprehended by the Jeremy, very same guard Flesh shot to get to Loveland.

Max takes a severed head, launches it into the sky and shoots it as target practice. Axel joins him. Max propositions Axel with a deal, but he declines before hearing it out. Max then offers Axel a hit of solicite. It’s supposed to ward off vampires but its got a nice kick to it. Max uses it as a drug. Axel again declines. Max brings back up his deal to have Axel ferrying booze, to which Axel agrees.

Flesh apologizes to Jeremy for shooting him. The guard questions why Flesh shot him only to kill a bus driver to escape. Flesh explains that he didn’t kill anyone. He did all this to find his wife, but he doesn't want anyone to know that in fear of what would happen to Jennifer. Flesh asks that Jeremy forget everything he knows. He then asks about Jolene, to which Jeremy replies that he’s supposed to keep them separated until the man in charge gets back.

Jolene wakes up chained to a steel beam. Jennifer approaches with water. She tells Jolene not to talk to her as they’ll both end up dead if they find out why Jolene’s there. Jennifer has done everything imaginable to survive at Loveland, and now Jolene and Flesh have almost ruined it. Jolene explains that Flesh risked everything to break Jennifer out, though she doesn’t care to hear it. Jolene knows what Flesh did to Jennifer and their children, which only further angers Jennifer, who’d kill Flesh herself if she could.

Jack, Chad, and Monica plan to break into a bank. However, they aren’t interested in the money. There’s a lunch room on the top floor with food. Chad found a door that he thinks he can get through months ago. He tried on his own, but he failed. He barely got his lookout out of there alive. Chad approaches Tabby and promises her that he’ll be back, though she’s not convinced. The last time he brought Tabby with him, she got turned, and he can’t afford for that to happen again. Tabby worries that Chad is ditching her, but he swears he isn’t. He even gives her Mike’s old knife to assure her that he’s coming back. Jack and Chad head out while Monica stays behind to watch Tabby. However, once Monica is gone, Tabby runs off.

The Warden arrives to question Flesh. As it turns out, the Warden is Max. He questions why Flesh and Jolene broke into Loveland. Jeremy claims he has no idea. Flesh doesn’t respond at all, and so Max is forced to pry the answer out of him. He beats Flesh with a retractable baton. Max decides to turn his attention towards Jolene. He orders Jeremy to bring Flesh along. Max suspects that Flesh, Jolene, and Jeremy are all somehow involved. He concludes that Jeremy stole Jolene from Flesh, and Flesh retaliated by shooting Jeremy. Jolene informs Max that he couldn’t be more wrong, but when she refuses to tell him anymore, he shoots Flesh and orders Jeremy to kill Jolene. Max calls Jeremy off when she claims that Blak Tek sent them to spy on Max. If they reported on him they’d get a lighter sentence. Flesh then reawakens, much to Max's surprise. Instead of killing them as originally planned, he orders Jeremy to chain Flesh up and bring Jolene to his office.

As Jack and Chad attempt to break into the bank through a back door, Monica informs them of Tabby’s disappearance and how she probably snuck out to find Chad. In her arrival, Monica alerts the nearby daywalkers. It lunges at her. Jack fires several arrows from her crossbow though they have little affect. However, Monica does eventually manage to take down the vampire. Just in time for two more to appear and attack Chad and Jack. Jack kills a daywalker with the sword given to her by Vanessa and Chad kills another with a grenade. Tabby calls out to Chad as another vampire rushes up to her. Jack comes to her aid, but she is bitten during the altercation.

Monica kills the daywalker that bit Jack, but it won't stop her from turning. Jack pleads with Chad to kill her before she turns. However, Chad knows of another way. Before he can explain to Jack, she stabs herself in the chest with a knife and dies. Chad takes Tabby back home while Monica sits with Jack’s body. Chad then returns to help dispose of the bodies. They dump them all in the trash can and set it on fire, Jack included. Chad and Monica quickly realize that one of the daywalkers survived. They track it down to find that it has been turned back into a human. They look back to find Jack climbing out of the burning dumpster. She heals almost instantaneously from being set on fire.

Jolene and Jeremy sit in Max;s office and await his arrival. Jolene notes that Jeremy doesn’t appear to like his new job. Jeremy explains that Flesh screwed him over. He had it good in Denver. He was safe. But they told him that he should’ve drawn his weapon first, and now the Warden suspects that Jeremy knows something. Jolene tells Jeremy that he’s already a dead man now that Max is suspicious of him. Now he needs a way out just as much as they do. Jeremy knows Blak Tek didn’t send Jolene, but she doesn’t admit to it. Jeremy tells her about a rumor that Denver fell. No one has told the Warden because they don’t know if it’s true. Max arrives and tells Jeremy to get Denver on the radio because he wants to speak to Maddox. Max asks Jolene about Flesh, who he suspects is some kind to Blak Tek experiment. She claims her source was Caitlin Bruce. Jeremy informs Max that while he can’t get in touch with Denver, there’s a new shipment at the gate from Fort Collins. Jolene tells Max that she hasn’t reported anything to Denver, such as Max stealing the food and selling it, and shipping prisoners east. She offers him a way out. Max tells Jeremy to put Jolene to work in the mines to keep up appearances.

Axel arrives at Loveland with Max’s shipment of alcohol and weapons. While there, he notices that Flesh and Jolene are prisoners. However, he does not act. He simply heads back out to collect Max’s whiskey.

Jack wakes up from her sleep. She’s weak, but she’s mostly healed. Last thing she remembers is getting bit and then being on fire. Jack’s not a vampire, leaving her to question what she is. Chad doesn’t know what she is, but he vampire that bit her is human again, and the only person he’s encountered that could do that is Vanessa. Jack feels a pull in her chest. She believes that she has to find Vanessa. And so Chad sees Jack off on her quest to find Vanessa. Chad tells Jack that he thinks that she might be part of the answer to all of this, before parting ways.

## Cast

* Jonathan Scarfe as Axel Miller
* Vincent Gale as Flesh
* Nicole Muñoz as Jack Van Helsing
* Caroline Cave as Jolene

Supporting* Tammy Gillis as Monica
* Donny Lucas as Chad
* Cassidy Nugent as Tabby
* Donald Sales as Jeremy
* Holly Elissa as Jennifer
* Alexander Brophy as Owen

## Gallery

### Videos

VAN HELSING Season 4, Episode 3 Sneak Peek SYFYVAN HELSING Season 4, Episode 3 Back To Reality SYFYVAN HELSING Season 4, Episode 3 Denver Has Fallen SYFY

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Van Helsing - Episode 4.03 - Love Less - Promo + Synopsis - SpoilerTV