Van Helsing - I Awake - Review + POLL

In 'I Awake' Vanessa wakes up in Colonial Hong Kong as part of the First Elder's vision and attempt to get her to learn how to control her anger and ultimately defeat the elder B'ah.

The setting was a real nice change of pace from the regular grim post apocalyptic America setting of the series.

This whole season as a whole has felt reinvigorated in large part to a much more engaging main story, which was furthered along intriguingly in 'I Awake.'

In the episode Vanessa finds out that B'ah is hiding in San Francisco following quite a thrilling action scene between herself, her master, and the Elder and her minions.

Prior to that, it was fun watching Vanessa in 1800's era clothing navigating the streets of Hong Kong in her search for B'ah while also dealing with Lily Van Helsing's skeptical husband.

The feisty servant was a joy of a character. I loved that scene when we see her kicking the unconscious bodyguard in the background. I have a feeling we will see more of her in present day as a vampire, she is too dynamic of a character to just make a one off appearance.

As great as the story was in 'I Awake,' I felt the episode lacked substantial character development. In fact, the arc of 'I Awake' would have benefited profoundly if it was stretched over two weeks as Van Helsing's training felt incomplete and the things she learned rushed.

Did Vanessa really learn how to control her anger and darkness? All she had was one spar with the Master and she left that spar angry. The whole episode lacked that one emotional beat where we felt Vanessa got it in terms of understanding more about herself or her lineage, which would've added a nice dimension to 'I Awake.'

That's not to take away from the entertainment value of the episode. The change in tone in 'I Awake' was very refreshing and the action scenes really popped in this episode, I just wish we had seen a little bit more development for our main protagonist.

8/10