After six episodes of stagnancy with Axle, Vanessa and co. holed up in the hospital, the team finally ventures out into the world. In all its game changing excitement, 'For Me' had the makings of a mid-season finale, if there had to be one, pushing us into a very promising second half of the season.
It was exciting to see the hospital get attacked, finally something big happening. Though, how Axle and co defended themselves was sort of lame. They couldn't shoot some of Julius' vampires from the roof or through the openings in the doors? Also, when that human was breaking the ultraviolet lights in the hallway to let the vampires pass through, why couldn't Axle just shoot him down to give themselves some time? Also, would the ultraviolet lights have even worked on these robed creatures? They seemed to be well protected, it would have been just as effective if they walked right through the light to give a practical reason for their robes.
Nonetheless, despite Axle's inability to think on the spot, he is a pretty darn good planner. First we see Julius' crew get demolished by all the booby traps by the escalators, which was pretty awesome, and then when all hope was lost, Axle blows up the hospital to exterminate Dmitri's death squad. All that carnage forces the team out into the world, which gives plenty of promise to the show as we wind down the last half of the season.
With so much action going on the episode was not without its deaths. It was surprising and actual satisfying to see Christina get absolutely mauled by the death squad. The fact she almost got that child killed last week and then blamed Axle and crew for it, while going berserk, made her quite the despicable and irritating secondary character. We also saw the demise of Nicole who had been just kind of standing around like a glorified extra, so there is no loss there. However, there goes my theory that Nicole was secretly the serial killer, I guess it is the Doc, as they had hinted, after all.
Speaking of favourite characters, poor Mohammad is still alone. It was quite amusing to see him cheering on his friends as they escaped before realizing that he is not with them as they sadly drove further and further away. I am guessing he will meet up with his sister before they reunite with the team. Mohammad has been one of the more stronger characters among the survivors, so a separate storyline involving him is very much welcome. However, the dynamic he brings in his interactions with Sam and the rest of the team kept things entertaining, so hopefully his separate storyline is not dragged out too long.
Overall, 'For Me' was definetly for me. The episode drove the narrative forward in a big way, forcing our characters out of the safety of the hospital and into the dark and scary world. It feels like the last half of Van Helsing will be very rewarding to those who stuck around over these past several weeks.
8/10
