Mini storyline first
- Sam is still hunting down the one he loves, Mohammed. He pauses along the way
to kill Mike (I’m fairly certain he’s killed Mike before but hey, sacrificial
gay men was apparently delayed. These characters exist entirely to die for
Sam’s evilness) to tell him that love is the source of all suffering. That
people hurt and suffer the most because people they love are taken from them
which is such pain
Obviously Mike
disagrees, but his refusal to defending himself, repeatedly, because Sam
threatens the people he loves. He ends up dying horribly and Chad watching him
die which Sam takes as further proof that love is the source of all pain
He insists he’s
trying to remove love from himself but the woman vision following him says he
hasn’t yet - and directs him to where Mohammed and Vanessa are.
Right, now to main
plot…
Actually that’s a
lie. I don’t think there was any real main plot here because I’m not sure
anything that happened this episode was actually relevant to the main plot
which is something I’ve been saying about Van Helsing all season. Did we
really need an entire episode to give Axel a tragic past? Really?
So Axel continues his
road trip and eventually ends up in his home town waiting for Scarlett. He even
turns on the lights to draw attention from passing vampires though apparently
it’s for Scarlett. I guess. He has a memory board and one of them is a newspaper
clipping of his sister Polly who apparently went missing when he was a
While hanging around
he meets a group of survivors who are using sirens to distract vampires while
they loot stuff. It doesn’t go entirely well and someone gets eaten. Axel charges
in to the rescue and they all run off together. We have Lorne, a man with
obvious dementia and memory problems, Axel remembers from his childhood. And
Axel is remembered as well - but briefly due to his dementia.
We also have Carter
who is aggressive and harsh and scathing - especially to Lorne. Nelson who is,
well, there. And Kelly.
Carter doesn’t
welcome Axel because GRRRR ARGGGH I’M THE ANGRY ONE. Kelly does welcome him
because she thinks he’s cute and I’d be kind of really happy with this except
Carter is pretty scornful about it and Axel openly is a “Good Man” by saying
she doesn’t need to trade herself for protection. Which is super condescending
and don’t tell me Axel has body image issues and doesn’t realise how hot he is
because he definitely knows he’s hot. Hey, a woman can want to have sex with a
hot guy because she wants to have sex with a hot guy. This is a legitimate
desire and can we not have everyone making an issue of it?
Anyway she dies
later.
Axel decides to help
them on a raiding run because their plan of using the siren distraction then
stealing lots of stuff won’t keep working on the more intelligent, organised
day walkers. So Axel makes a plan (Carter is both scathing of the old plan and
scathing about Axel’s ability to make a new plan because she has a
characterisation as the Angry One damn it) and they go in with lots and lots of
power tools
This may actually
have been the point of the episode - someone wanted to kill vampires with a
chainsaw. Which is a legitimate wish I perfectly understand
During the attack
Kelly is bitten and Axel shoots her to stop her turning so tragedy. Well if
anyone cared. No-one really does. It’s also sort of Lorne’s fault because he
charges on the scene firing his gun randomly before running to the cellar.
Carter kind of freezes and needs to be snapped out of a fugue state to get her
to move and they all retreat to the basement.
There Axel confronts
Carter about freezing and she reveals she doesn’t like basements. But then
shuts him down with a phrase his dad used
He speaks to her
later and she asks him his real name - or rather tells him she knows he’s Axel.
Because she’s Polly, his missing little sister who was kidnapped. They both
have a major reveal-your-damage moment as he blames himself for not watching
her properly and she blames herself for not staying where he said and it’s all
tragic and comes with epic boatloads of shared pain which really needed more
time
Her kidnapper is
Lorne - who now has such advanced dementia he doesn’t remember kidnapping her,
locking her in the basement or abusing her. She now feels obligated to look
after him and has developed a family connection with him - feeling he’s the
only person she has in life so she had to care for him and protect him.
Naturally Axel denies this. She also says she has forgiven Lorne and she still
freezes when faced with basements not because she’s remembering her suffering,
but she’s remembering her hate - and her hate terrifies her. She has a big
speech on how much hate is terrible and she begs Axel not to share that hate or
succumb to it
Which is relevant
because when Lorne charged into the scene firing his gun he hit Polly… who is
now bleeding out. She dies for more Axel tragedy
And Axel hunts down
Lorne and brutally kills him
So much of this
episode leaves me conflicted, it’s delved into some pretty heavy issues and not
really left a lot of time to explore them which, coupled with it being very
near the end of the series, feels like it has been shallowly dropped in for
extra Axel angst without overly thinking about what it has invoked. There could
be a lot here but instead it feels like Polly/Carter was introduced just to be
fridged for Axel’s character which is an issue
The question over
whether someone is responsible for their actions when they have an issue like
amnesia or dementia that makes them completely forget what they did and leave
them unable to harm someone again. Is it right to punish them? What does
punishing them achieve? Is it even vengeance? There’s a lot to unpack there
And then there’s the
issue of following the wishes of the abused. Obviously the victim of a crime
should be prioritised on how the perpetrator is treated and whether they should
be forgiven or not. Especially if we’ve already ruled out that the perpetrator
can hurt others. Certainly Polly’s opinions should definitely be prioritised
above Axel and she has every right to say “my pain, my choice” and make him
step back. We definitely should be prioritising her.
Except of course it’s
more complex than that. While the psychiatric profession is definitely in doubt
as to whether “Stockholm Syndrome” actually even exists, we can still
acknowledge that “was kidnapped as a child and kept as a sex slave in a
basement for a decade or more” is not going to leave someone with the most
balanced viewpoint - while still not completely discounting her wishes and
views entirely
I’m also conscious
that the chances of one of the writers for this episode actually having been
kidnapped and held in a basement for a decade is probably highly highly
unlikely. So when we say things about respecting the victim’s wishes and
opinions we also have to remember that these words have been put in the
character’s mouth by someone who isn’t. And I have such an issue with the
prevailing message of forgiveness we see in all forms of media, especially in
the west and, specifically, Christian-founded culture. We have a really strong
societal message of forgiveness, especially aimed at vulnerable marginalised
people like women, POC, LGBTQ people etc. In fact, it’s telling that Axel is
the one who gets to act in revenge. There’s an idea that someone who doesn’t
forgive is morally failing or even victimising the person they refuse to
forgive. The anger, the justified rage and even hatred of the victim is seen as
toxic, a failing or otherwise wrong. And, yes, I hate it.
There’s just… a lot
here. And it’s a lot that Van Helsing has invoked but I doubt will
follow through with
