VAN HELSING Carpe Noctis Review

In the sixth episode of the final season of Van Helsing, we follow Axel (Jonathon Scarfe) and Julius (Aleks Paunovic) as they attempt to meet up with Violet. On that trip they find Julius’ old flame and get dragged into a conflict that might reveal the Dark One’s Endgame.

I’m A Fighter

This is a Julius-centered episode and I would argue one of the best episodes that this show has done. Julius is an interesting character who has gone through so much over the course of the show. While Doc, Vanessa, and Axel have all been through the wringer Julius was a vampire for decades so his experience is unique.

While the boys are tracking Violet with the compass they stop for gas and encounter Nina (Ali Liebert). This feels like perfect casting for me. I don’t know if they toned down the vampire makeup or if it was all Liebert but I wanted to believe her. Julius felt much the same, Axel not so much.

We knew that Julius was a prizefighter as a human but we didn’t know what happened after he was turned back then. It also clears up something that wasn’t all that clear before, that the vampires were somewhat organized before the eruption outside of the so-called purebloods.

A Girl Has Her Secrets

Nina has a mouth on her and definitely seizes on her shared history with Julius. However, Axel quickly notices that she’s smarter than she pretends to be. I feel like he (Axel) makes this more of a confrontation than it needs to be which puts Julius on the defensive. She makes good use of that as we see.

I can’t let the giant gas storm which we know is lethal to humans and vampires go without mention. When did that become a thing and now much of that stuff is out in the world? Doc made it sound like there was only a limited amount being tested before they released it all but that seems somewhat unlikely given the size of that weather front.

Conveniently Nina knows somewhere where they can wait out the deadly storm and get supplied. Unfortunately, the supplies she meant was blood and while Axel is flanked by Special Forces Nina kills the humans that were sheltering in the building. This is still not enough to break Julius from her spell though.

A Dog Eat Dog World

We get more history and learn that Nina was a film star in a former life. Julius idolizing her might explain the pedestal that he puts her on. Eventually, we learn that Hollywood was as cutthroat as her life as a vampire.

As they manage to initially fight off the soldiers we see they are vampires. Axel manages to persuade Nina to be a little more forthcoming. President Dark One has been busy, she’s called for a meeting of all the top vampires in the US.

Once the soldiers have been dealt with Nina reveals herself and some of her intentions to Julius. She then both attempts to turn Julius back into a vamp and steals the Van Helsing compass. She reveals she knew that Van Helsing (played by Jen Araki) was going to attack him that night. Axel kills her to retrieve the Compass and the episode ends with the two driving Julius looking inconsolable.

Did you like Nina? Are you looking forward to our team reuniting?