Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!
SYFY's Van Helsing series finale 'Novissima Solis' calls upon our heroes to make the ultimate sacrifices
This is it, folks. If the Dark One (Tricia Helfer) is going to be defeated, it's going to be in this episode or not at all — because we've reached the end.
However it pans out, it's going to come at a steep body count, as the road to victory is paved with the sacrifices of many a hero.
So. Who makes it, who doesn't, and at what cost in the series finale of Van Helsing?
**SPOILER WARNING! Spoilers ahead for Van Helsing Season 5, Episode 13, "Novissima Solis."**
Welp, Bathory (Jesse Stanley) is dead, having thrown herself off the ledge of a tall building to prevent the Dark One from being able to use her as a pawn anymore. This seriously endangers our heroes' plan to have her read from the ancient scrolls to stun Dracula while they can finish her off.
However, there might be a saving grace to all this: Vanessa (Kelly Overton) finds the Dark One's pentagram insignia on the back of Bathory's neck, and by carving it out and grafting it onto her own arm, she can use it to tap into Dracula's mind. Neat trick.
Once inside, she's able to make contact with Olivia van Dracula, who's been sequestered (alive) inside the Dark One, cursed to shuffle the same tarot deck for the last three or so centuries. Before she gets booted from inside the Dark One's mind, Vanessa gives Olivia her marching orders and tells her to wait for her signal.
Having returned to resistance headquarters, Vanessa explains another neat trick she's got up her sleeve: After having fused minds with Bathory, she can now read the scrolls. That's bound to come in handy.
Meanwhile, the rest of the resistance is mobilizing, and Sergeant Wethers (Luvia Petersen) is assigned a new job: secret service for the returned President Park (Stephen Lobo) and Aaron (Jeff C. Ballard). Vanessa, Jack (Nicole Muñoz), Violet (Keeya King), Ivory (Jennifer Cheon Garcia), and Axel (Jonathan Scarfe) are making their way through checkpoints en route to the White House when Dracula, sensing their approach, sends a wave of dark energy rippling in a five-mile radius around the White House. The dark magic turns all those who are not Van Helsings or who have not been bitten by Van Helsings into vampires.
This includes the President's security detail, who chase him and Aaron into an engine room where they barricade themselves. A turned Sergeant Wethers finds them there and takes Aaron hostage. Park tries to reason with her; he explains he knows what her hunger is like, and assures her she can beat it. She relents, and leads the first family to safety, sacrificing herself to a posse of hungry vampires in the process.
By then, the Van Helsing brood has reached the inner sanctum of the White House and enters the Oval Office, scrolls a-reading. Vanessa gets underway with the spell when Dracula steals her voice and knocks out Violet and Jack with a burst of energy.
Then she reminds Vanessa of an old promise: She once said that she'd murder her own children in service to the Dark One, and now Dracula wants to call in her debt. She possesses the Van Helsing matriarch, who picks up a dagger and brings it to Violet's throat. That's when Vanessa resists and calls out to Olivia, who springs into action.
Dracula can't maintain control over both the Van Helsings and Olivia, and her grip slips, giving Vanessa an opening to continue reciting the scrolls. The words paralyze Dracula, and Violet and Jack are able to pounce on her and sink their teeth into her neck. The darkness leaves her body, and enters... Vanessa. She makes the ultimate sacrifice, providing her body as the vessel to contain the evil, a choice for which she pays dearly.
Things are beginning to return to some sense of normalcy. Outside, the darkness leaves the sky, the sun shines, and vampires turn human again. The Dark One has been vanquished, returning Olivia Van Dracula to her body — alive, and in Violet's care.
Ivory, too, makes a sacrifice of her own. She decides that, at least for right now, her destiny is to scour the Earth in search of survivors of the Sisterhood. Of course, Jack's heart breaks to hear this, but she too sacrifices her own happiness in service of Ivory's, knowing they'll be reunited down the line.
Axel also puts his future on pause to care for the comatose Vanessa, the "sleeping beauty," just as he did in that series premiere. He's not ready to give up on her just yet.
And Vanessa? She's not ready to give up on her memories. We move inside Vanessa's head, where she's enjoying her old apartment and some old company. Susan's there, and Dylan as well. Is it real? As Susan tells us, the illusion is as real as Vanessa wants it to be.
That's good enough for us.
