Continuing with our Van Helsing showrunner exclusive interviews, Neil LaBute spoke with OMFGTV about episode last week’s episode and gives us an idea what to expect for the remainder of the season.
A big chunk of episode #209, titled, “Wakey, Wakey,” deals with Scarlett’s (Missy Peregrym) backstory and how she became this kickass vampire hunter. LaBute knew that he wanted Vanessa and Scarlett to have dramatically different upbringings. “We wanted them to come from very different worlds,” the showrunner tells us. We know Vanessa’s childhood involved her bouncing around from foster home to foster home, so Neil wanted to do something very different for Scarlett’s upbringing.
“Scarlett grew up on a farm with a family of survivalists saying the vampire apocalypse was coming and they have to be ready for it.” Their upbringings were total 180’s of each other. Vanessa wasn’t prepared for The Rising whereas Scarlett was “completely comfortable and ready for the situation” and is “working on reflex now.” There’s no doubt in Scarlett’s mind that she can take on the vamps!
In the episode, a new possible couple emerges when Scarlett and Axel end up sleeping together in the back of an armored vehicle. That’s gonna shake things up a bit! “Even since last season people have noticed something between Vanessa and Axel — a spark.” Neil and the writers definitely wanted to throw in a curveball by having Scarlett become Axel’s love interest instead of Vanessa, and Neil is very curious about fans reactions to it.
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He is aware that some people are “still holding out that she’ll be with a woman, there was Theo last season, but there’s always been a nice camaraderie between her and Axel. Right now we want to mix that up by adding the sister in.” The part about the Scarlett and Axel pairing that has Neil so excited is that they can “go anywhere they want with that.”
After their armored car hookup, Scarlett and Axel get attacked by the Sisterhood and Scarlett ends up getting bit, revealing her new ability to turn vampires human just like her sister. Maybe with two Van Helsings the world has some hope after all! “There could be,” replies LaBute to my excited remarks about the world being saved. “Although down the road we’ve got a kind of new vampire as well, that’s maybe making trouble for them. It may allow vampires to heal and all that, faster than ever before.” Of course, because having the Van Helsing sisters save the world this soon would be too easy!
Another shocking event from the episode is when Dmitri supposedly kills Julius. He can’t be dead, right??? LaBute teased that if we clap our hands like we would in Peter Pan, we “might get your wish.” Mentioning Julius got LaBute talking about how much he loves working with Aleks Paunovic and how nervous he was to have Julius become human.
“I didn’t know what it would be like to turn him human because I thought he was such a valuable vampire!” But big risks reap big rewards, and Julius’ arc this season has been truly wonderful to watch. Human Julius has become one of the fans favorite characters, “and of course that only makes me want to turn him into a vampire again!”
There is still a lot of Van Helsing left this season, and Neil excitedly teased what’s to come.
“The next two episodes will take a sharp detour in two different directions. We’ll have gone two episodes without having seen Vanessa at all, and 210 is entirely reserved for her. It’s all about where did she go off to and who are these people. We’ll learn some interesting things about her and about who this seemingly government or military group is that secured her. 211 takes us into the world of Sam again. We see Sam and Mohamad, and it’s probably my favorite episode. It’s devoted to them and will tie up the Mohamad and Sam story for the season.”
Van Helsing airs Thursdays at 9pm on Syfy.