'Fear Her' wastes no time in picking up where we left off from last week. Vanessa is taken to Julius' lair and even though she is the one that is captured we get the sense it is the vampires that are at a disadvantage. The title refers to the fear that the creatures have of Vanessa, and rightfully so with what she can do with one bite.
I'm liking this role reversal where we are seeing the occasional vampire get bitten by a human in Vanessa, it freshens the genre up a bit. After quite a thrilling fight sequence, Vanessa turns Susan, her neighbour, back into a human. We then got some strong character moments between the two friends as they escape from their captors. Susan will either become a very important team member in episodes to come or the good old best friend that dies character. I'm betting on the former as our main protagonist can do with a friend to play off of, and it seems right off the bat they have good chemistry.
Meanwhile, the new comers and Axel and co. struggle to coexist to a point where our protagonists find themselves imprisoned in their own home. It's good to see the team finally face some adversity, it helps fast track that building of chemistry between them.
The best relationship right now on the show is between Mohamad and Sam. Though we don't know their origins just yet and how they met, we get the sense that the two of them had gone through quite a lot together. This was especially felt after seeing Sam's heartbreaking reaction to Mohamad leaving them. Christopher Heyerdahl has always been one of my favourite TV, character actors and even in a role where he doesn't speak, we do feel for every emotion he expresses.
'Fear Her' also continues the whodunnit mystery, which hopefully does not get dragged out too long. Though, it is pretty obvious that Nicole is the murderer. She doesn't fall into the too good to be taking fingers as trophies camp, like Axle, Sam and Mohamad. At the same time, Nicole isn't as shady as John, and she is also not a former blood lusting vampire like Flesh and Doc. There needs to be some kind of twist with her character that will make her less neutral and boring than she is now, and her being a murderer is the perfect development. On top of that, she is not in any photos of the team walking outdoors together, which means she will either die or get kicked out.
'Fear Her' also does a commendable job in building the mythology. It seems there is a power struggle among the vampires as this Julius fella wants the head of Dmitri, the leader. There is also Rebecca, portrayed by the barely recognizable Laura Mennell (Haven, Alphas), who Julius is desperately looking for. 'Fear Her' also introduced the feral vampires that even the more humanized vampires fear, which adds some interesting layers to the narrative.
Overall, Van Helsing still hasn't really broken any new ground, but it continues to tease tons of promise with a cast of dynamic, but still underdeveloped, personalities, as well as an intriguing mythology. The fact we are in the fifth week and the show is still struggling to forge its own identity is concerning, though Van Helsing has been consistently entertaining enough to want to tune in every week.
7/10
