Warning: This post contains spoilers from the latest episode of Van Helsing. Read at your own risk!
OMFGTV was fortunate enough to speak with Syfy Van Helsing actress Hilary Jardine hours before the episode where her character dies hit the air. Hilary discussed Susan’s difficult decision to kill her father, her reaction to finding out about Susan’s death, and where she would have liked to see Susan’s story go had she not died.
“I got little tid-bits,” Hilary tells us on knowing a little about Susan’s background prior to receiving the script for episode 11. It wasn’t until she had read the script did she learn of Susan’s full story. Jardine equated receiving new scripts to Christmas, “it was an absolute treasure we devoured.”
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If you watched the episode then you know that Susan finds her abusive father as a feral vampire and ends up killing him. “It was challenging, but pretty thrilling.” The actress tells OMFGTV that it gave the character “closure,” which is exactly what she said after blowing his brains out.
“I think it was the first time in a while she got to take something into her own hands and actually have control over her fate.”
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Hilary said Susan was in a place where she was a mix of light and dark. In this instance her character was mostly dark, and had to make her mark by killing what was left of her father. “She had the chance to close that chapter.”
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Unfortunately Susan did not get the chance to open a new chapter because she was killed by Sam (Christopher Heyerdahl) shortly after killing her father. Jardine admits to knowing Susan would not last forever on the show, but she was not sure of the details of how or when Susan would be killed.
“It was complex; It was heartbreaking,” she says, on how her character’s death was handled. “But, the reveal of Sam actually doing it was routine.” Jardine also thinks that having Susan die on her family’s farm, buried with her parents, was also beautiful.
“In some ways I also saw it as her release. It was such a beautiful way to end her chapter. She found closure with her dad. She got to grieve her mom properly. She came back to where it all began for her. And after a life of a lot of going through hell, she was released in a way.”
Hilary shares that she would liked to have seen Susan team up with the refugees had she not been killed. Her thinking is if they combined forces and skills, they could defeat the vampires.
“Take some of what they’ve learned along the way to be able to lead some of the refugees, help with The Resistance, and then find Vanessa and be able to work together.”
Upset over Susan’s death? So are we! Make sure to keep watching Van Helsing on Syfy Friday’s at 10pm to see Vanessa avenge her friend.
