Vanessa Van Helsing

Template:Infobox character

“	You like to hit women so much, why don't you make me?.... You show your face in this building again and I'll put your head through that wall. Do you hear me?	”
	— Vanessa to Tommy in Seen You

Vanessa Van Helsing is the show's titular protagonist, as well as a main character of Season One , Season Two and Season Three on SyFy's Van Helsing. She is portrayed by Kelly Overton.

She is humanity's last hope to lead an offensive to take back what has been lost in a post-Rising world, as her unique blood composition gives her the ability to turn vampires human. As she searches for her daughter Dylan, she must fend off the vampires who see her as a threat to their very existence.

Character Description

“You'd think spending years in a coma and waking up to learn vampires have taken over the world would be enough to take someone down. Not Vanessa Van Helsing ... it just toughened her up. Determined to find her daughter in a post-apocalyptic world, Vanessa soon realizes she may be humanity's savior, as her blood can turn a vampire back into a human. This, of course, also makes her a target for every vampire out there. No worries, though ... she can take them.”

Biography

Before The Rising, Vanessa lived in an apartment with her ten year old daughter, Dylan. She was often unemployed and struggled to make money, often resorting to selling her body just to earn some cash. But when she did work, it was as a bus driver, which made her fairly familiar with the underground route system, this knowledge would later prove to be of use as she uses it to to reach the Hospital without being captured by the vampires. She had a strained relationship with Gary, her ex-husband and Dylan's dad, due to his lack of parenting skills and presence in Dylan's life.

Growing up, Vanessa knew that she was adopted, however, she was unaware of the family in which she was birthed to. It would later be revealed by Dmitri that she comes from the Van Helsing bloodline.

Season One

In the year 2019, Vanessa is first seen lying on an exam table unconscious, she's been so for the last three years. vampires break into the lab and feed on her, after awakening, and dispatching of the vampires, she's hellbent on finding her daughter, Dylan at whatever the cost. Prior to the revelation that her blood can revert these monsters back into humans, Ted attempts to take her to the vampires, when she refuses to go, this leads to a fight, resulting in Vanessa ramming a knife into his eye, killing him. Continue Reading Here....

In the year 2016, Vanessa is selling her blood for money in order to give her daughter, Dylan, a proper birthday. With the cash, she tells Dylan that they would have cake when they got home and promises to take her shopping the next day. At her apartment building, she gets into an altercation with her friend Susan's abusive boyfriend, Tommy, breaking his nose when he wouldn't leave. Afterward, she presents her daughter with a terribally succeeding in lifting her spirits. However, her ex-husband and Dylan's father, Gary, undoes her efforts, upsetting Dylan. As Vanessa looks for her, she is attacked by a vampire named Balthazar, who was sent there by Rebecca to kill her. This leads to a huge fight throughout the apartment and results in Balthazar's reversion and Vanessa's slow death.

Vanessa and her companions discover that one of the vampires, Flesh, somehow survived and was returned to his human state. John identifies him as the one who bit Vanessa, blaming her for what happened to Flesh. Vanessa adamantly claims she is "nothing special," but is eventually convinced later on. After an altercation between Axel and John, during which they destroyed the makeshift turbine that kept their electricity running, Axel and Vanessa gear up to find spare parts to fix the basement generator. Ferals inevitably appear. As they fend off the attacking vamps, Vanessa is bitten, which results in the feral's death; this is a first as every other vampire that has bitten her was cured. They return to the hospital after the vampires disperse, and Vanessa retrieves Wendy's body and brings her inside too. When Axel asks her to try reverting Doc, she agrees to try. When Doc refuses, Vanessa takes a chunk out of her, resulting in Doc's reversion Continue Reading Here....

After finding Cynthia dead, Vanessa tells Axel that they should leave the hospital, reasoning that it would prevent the group from turning on each other. When Axel refuses, she constructs a plan to sneak out, which involved setting a small fire as a distraction, giving her enough time to make her escape. However, she gets stuck at the front door as she doesn't know the code; luckily Mohamad does, and he insists on accompanying her outside, hoping to find his sister Sheema. Their first stop is Vanessa's former residence; Vanessa is initially convinced that Dylan hadn't survived the attack that killed her, but hope is restored when she sees small bloody footprints leading to the door. She later helps a group of survivors, choosing to hold off the incoming vampires so Mohamad can lead the group, which includes a little girl named Callie, to the hospital. Though she intended to make it back, she gets captured instead, and is taken to Julius' compound. Continue Reading Here....

After being captured and taken to Julius, she discovers that her friend, Susan, had been turned into a vampire. Vanessa is goaded into fighting when Susan claims to have killed her daughter, and eventually beats and reverts her friend. She makes a show of her triumph, then makes her escape with a newly cured Susan. Along the way, she learns that Susan hadn't killed Dylan; after Vanessa died, Dylan was last seen with the police and her father was supposed to pick her up. Some moments later, a shadowy figure begins to approach them, and Vanessa tells Susan to run. Continue Reading Here....

As they move through the tunnels, she and Susan are attacked by a mutated vampire. Vanessa's leg is bitten as she attempts to protect and fends off the creature, eventually gaining the upper hand and stabbing it through the eye. As she and Susan proceed on their route, Vanessa notices that her wound isn't healing; in fact it's getting worse and she has no idea why. Vanessa makes Susan promise that if Susan finds Dylan first, she would tell her that Vanessa is alive and coming for her. They are greeted at the hospital by the group she had saved, surprising them with her survival. As Doc examines her, she learns that the group, led by Brendan, have taken over the hospital, banished Mohamad and imprisoned her initial companions, whom they were already planning to execute; Vanessa is outraged and confronts Brendan, who claims that the situation is temporary and done only because one of them murdered Brendan's friend Roger. Vanessa pretends to acquiesce and stay out of it, but constructs a plan to free the others. Continue Reading Here....

In the exam room, Vanessa lies unconscious as Doc attempts to find out why she's not healing. Vanessa wakes up feeling pain everywhere, especially her leg as it burns from the bite she suffered from a mutated vampire. Discovering that Vanessa is dying, Doc gives her adrenaline and performs CPR to restart her heart, then tries to cut into Vanessa's leg to see if there was anything there. When Vanessa's leg keeps healing, she enlists John's help keeping the incision open and eventually finds a vampire tooth lodged under Vanessa's skin. Doc soon injects Vanessa with a drug to wake her up; Vanessa claims she feels much better. During a quick meeting, she suggests that they "disperse [her] blood like a chemical weapon" against the vampires, but Doc tells them it would take a while and possibly all of her blood to do; hearing this, Axel nixes the idea. When the vampires come, Vanessa recognizes the first man as the vampire who killed her. Realizing she must have turned him human, Axel calls for a retreat and leads them down a hidden stairwell. The group drives away in the ambulance as the hospital explodes above them. Continue Reading Here....

The survivors overhear bell tolls while stopping to stock up on gas. They start to argue over their next move, and when asked for her opinion, Vanessa believes they need to make a decision, offering that they put it to a vote. Doc reveals that her sister Grace works for the base, and that Grace may be the one who sent the Marines to retrieve Vanessa's body. After reaching the base, Vanessa and Doc check out Grace's office, where Vanessa finds an empty folder among the information Doc sent to Grace, labelled File 281 - The Farm. Realizing they had to leave, Axel Vanessa jokingly asks if he had a bomb shelter hidden away; as it turns out, he does: an underground research facility called The Farm. At the farm that night, Vanessa interrupts John as he was trying to rape Susan, knocking him out. They restrain John, after which they find a knife and Cynthia's finger in John's things, they become convinced he was the killer. Desperate to save himself, John escapes his restraints and puts a broken glass bottle to Susan's neck. Vanessa pulls a knife from her boot, throwing it with great force into John's neck, killing him.Continue Reading Here....

As Vanessa lays in her bed, Axel enters to inform her of the dead body run that he's going on, seeing that she's in bed with Susan, he decides to do it on his own. Shortly after, Vanessa joins him anyways as he's piling the bodies up. She explains that she and Susan are only friends, he makes a smart remark about them being "special friends", she laughs, then thanking him for having her back and being someone she can trust, she doesn't have a lot of people in her life like that, especially not men, but he claims trust is stupid in this time because of the apocalypse and all. She follows him, demanding that he elaborates, Axel reveals that he read Vanessa's file at the base, it mostly documented her childhood, her mother giving her up, Vanessa corrects him, saying that her mother died in childbirth, and that she lived with a foster family, but her mother never gave her up. She demands to see the file but Axel claims to have left it, that day, after escaping the bunker, she discovers that Axel lied, she finds the file, which reveals some startling information. Continue Reading Here....

The survivors arrive at a new community called Eden, they are approached by Micah, the community's leader, he demands to know why they were in the woods, Vanessa explains they were moving south, but kept running into one bad situation after another. She is in disbelief after learning that Eden has an arrangement with the vampires, they receive blood in order for the vampire to leave them alone, however, she finds this to be too good to be true. Vanessa quickly forms a bond with Theo, a resident of Eden, she eventually learns that her suspicions were correct, everything is too good to be true after learning that Micah was feeding the vampire mothers and there new born babies. She and Theo interrupt the latest transaction, scaring Magdalene off, then confronting Micah. Continue Reading Here....

After taking refuge in Susan's childhood home, Vanessa reveals that she'll be moving on to Denver soon in order to find Dylan. And after learning from Gordon Orwell that there's a higher altitude in Denver, meaning there's a good chance the skies are clearer, so the vampires can't come out in the day, is only another reason for her to go. However, before she can move forward with her plans, Susan is killed in the woods by Sam, after mourning her friend's death, Vanessa takes Sam out into the woods to kill him. She doesn't go through with it, instead cutting the back of his leg, crippling him, leaving Sam to the vampires. Continue Reading Here....

She and Mohamad break into the vampire camp hoping to find Dylan and Sheema. After making it past the guards, Vanessa heads towards the building were the children are kept. She makes her way to the slaughterhouse, when the butcher returns, Vanessa attacks with her Katana but he's far too powerful, he places Vanessa on the table, but she manages to fight back, eventually killing the vampire. Vanessa continues to move throughout the building, she reaches the sleeping quarters, she explains that she's looking for her daughter, showing an elderly woman a picture but she doesn't recognize Dylan, she was 10 in the picture but she's currently 13. The elderly woman explains that they don't bring children there, only the old and the sick, only the ones they want to bring out, it's a blood farm not a work camp. Continue Reading Here....

Vanessa has been captured by Dmitri, from him, she learns the truth about her biological mother, and the rest of her family. Her name is not Vanessa Seward, as she was raised to believe, but Vanessa Van Helsing, she comes from a royal bloodline of vampire hunters. She is special, the vampires will use her blood to make life for themselves even better, she is not humanity's savior as she's been told, she's vampires' rise to domination, at least according to Dmitri. They offer her blood, hoping to find out if it has any effects on her abilities, she initially refuses to drink but as the hunger becomes too much, she is left with no other option. Vanessa drinks the blood given to her, which result in an enhancement of her strength, she unintentionally bends the rail on her bed with very little difficulty. Continue Reading Here....

Physical Appearance

Vanessa has brown long hair and blue eyes, however, they turn red when she is in a blood rage. She wears tight black leather pants, a black sleeveless top, two black leather black armbands, and a pair of black boots.

Personality

Vanessa is tough, brave, and often fearless, especially when it comes to protecting those that she cares about. She is also kind and compassionate enough to help total strangers as well, saving a group of survivors from a couple of ferals and sending them to the hospital for protection and medical care. She shows no fear when facing vampires, and tends to go into an animalistic rage when physically struck.

Abilities

Vanessa possesses several abilities that Rebecca identifies as vampiric traits, describing Vanessa as "Similar to different. She's like a mirror image, a negative." Vanessa possesses the following abilities:

• Rapid cellular regeneration: It allows her to heal from any injury near instantaneously. The first time this healing factor kicked in was when Flesh fed upon her neck; however, she healed from this attack moments later. Another example occurred when she was attacked with a knife by Ted, who cuts her several times and stabs clean through the hand. The wound healed fairly quickly after removing the blade. After being bitten by an Elder Vampire, her wounds heal in an instant, this was seen when Dr. Abigail shot her multiple times for the 2nd time but it didn't affect her that much.
• Reversion (Vampire-to-Human): Vanessa's bite and blood are capable of reverting vampires back into humans. One of the first displays of this ability transpired After Vanessa bit Doc, she was reverted to human after falling unconscious for an unknown amount of time. Meanwhile, consuming her blood caused vampires such as Bob, Balthazar, Flesh and Susan to convulse and puke, eventually resulting in reversion. Susan's reversion seemed to happen within minutes while Flesh's seemed to take longer, as he was dragged through the hospital and thrown down the garbage. It is unknown how long it took Bob and Balthazar to revert, however, the process seems to vary with each individual. Once a vampire has been turned human by Vanessa, they are incapable of ever becoming a vampire again. This was proven to be true when Doc remained human despite being bitten by Magdalene.
  • Feral Poisoning: Vanessa's blood isn't only a cure, it works as a poison as well. Unlike normal vampires, ferals have a negative reaction to not only her blood but her bite, it kills them almost instantly. The first case of feral poisoning presented itself when she and Axel were attacked in the shipyard while looking for spare parts to fix the basement generator. The feral took a bite out of her which resulted in it's death moments later. However the same thing applies to her while a normal vampire bite does not affect her, being bitten by a feral is extremely painful and almost results in her death.
• Animalistic Ferocity: When under attack, Vanessa has been known to go into animal like state. When she is attacked, backed into a corner or feels threatened in any way, the rage over comes her to the point that she loses control. Judging by her daughter's reaction pre-Rising, Vanessa seemed to get into a lot of fights, indicating that the threat isn't limited to vampires.
• Blood Induced Rage: Twice when Vanessa drank fresh blood she falls into a total berserk stage where her pupils dilate and her normal vampiric traits are boosted. This is probably similar to all vampires but Vanessa does not have the compulsion to bite or drain other humans for their blood. When she bites her sister she gains an even stronger bloodlust and is capable of bending steel and shattering bone. This also transferred to her sister and infected her with the same abilities as Vanessa. After being bitten by an Elder Vampire, Vanessa starts to crave for blood, this is observed when her pupils turn totally red or when she is craving to kill someone.
• Combatant: Vanessa is also fairly trained in combat, even before The Rising; whether this naturally came to her or was acquired over time is still unclear. After learning that her friend and neighbor Susan was being abused by her boyfriend, Vanessa intervened. She not only countered Tommy's attack, but slammed his face against the wall, breaking his nose. She can defeat and kill vampires with relative ease, leading some vampires to fear her. After being bitten by an Elder Vampire, her combat abilities increase greatly, making her a great opponent against Elder Vampires.
• Night Vision: Vanessa has the ability to see in complete darkness.
• Enhanced Hearing: Vanessa has the ability to hear things from far away that humans can't hear demonstrated when she heard Axel's heartbeat from far away when he was in his grave.
• Enhanced Strength: Drinking human blood gives her new found abilities and heightens the ones she already has, most notably her physical strength. After consuming blood she was able to fight the ancient vampire Rebecca evenly and was able to tear down a solid steel door with her bare hands. Vanessa also states to Mohammad that drinking blood centers her. After being bitten by an Elder Vampire her strength increases greatly, making her strength almost equal to that of an Elder Vampire.
• Enhanced Endurance- Vanessa possesses incredible endurance and durability. She can with stand fights with elder vampires. While she can be pierced by normal weaponry she has an immense pain tolerance and when angered she can withstand being punched into concrete walls.
• Enhanced Agility
• Resurrection: Whenever Vanessa dies she goes into a hibernation-like death state, where despite her heart stopping, her blood continues to flow and cells continue to function normally. This is demonstrated three times: when she had her throat ripped out, being poisoned by a feral, and getting shot three times.

• Enhanced Smell: Vanessa first showed this ability after drinking Mohammad's blood, she was able to smell her daughter's scent from far away.

Arsenal

• Fireman's axe
• 12-gauge shotgun
• Tactical Knife
• Katana
• Tomahawk
• fists of fury

Trivia

• In the comic Vanessa has brown eyes in the TV series she has blue eyes.
• In It Begins, Dmitri reveals that Vanessa is a member of the Van Helsing lineage and states that her bloodline is 'a kind of royalty.'
  • It was also hinted that Vanessa's father may have been a vampire; Dmitri said that her mother tried to stop the birth when she found out what Vanessa's father was, out of fear. When she couldn't, she hid the baby from the vampires instead.
  • Furthermore, drinking human blood appeared to enhance Vanessa's abilities, specifically her physical strength.
  • In episode 5 it is implied that she has the ability to see in the dark as Susan said she couldn't see anything in the dark but Vanessa said she could see perfectly.
  • In the season 2 premiere Vanessa willingly drinks Mohamad blood, when asked if she is drinking blood now, she responds she needs it that it keeps her centered.
  • In season 2 episode 5 Sam tells Vanessa that she smells more vampire than human. If this is so theoretically speaking if Vanessa's father is a vampire she inherited her looks from her mother according to Dmitri, and her blood and abilities from her father.
  • In season 2 episode 7 Dimitri speaks to both Vanessa and her sister Scarlett about their past and tells them that Vanessa is more vampire than Scarlett.
  • After Vanessa bit her sister Scarlett to feed off her, she somehow gained the ability to regenerate implied by Scarlett who said before that incident her wounds did not heal.
• In the season two final Black Days Vanessa is seen once again lying dead, The Elder bites her on the neck and she is once again resurrected but unlike the last two times, her eyes turn completely crimson red.
• It is revealed that Vanessa was born with The First Ones blood along with her sister Scarlett, it is still unknown how the two were conceived and how the blood got inside them though it is hinted by Dimitri that Vanessa has more of "his" blood.
• While Vanessa's bite awakened Scarlett's dormant abilities, it seems Vanessa's abilities were always active demonstrated when she was 5 and threw Dr. Harrison away from her and her sister.
• In the second episode of the third season Vanessa's eye's turn red when she watches the elder feed, they turn red again when she fights the "energy vampires"
• She was told by her great great great granduncle Jacob that she has the same name as her great great great grandmother Vanessa.

Appearances

Season One appearances: 13/13
Help Me: Appears	Seen You: Appears	Stay Inside: Appears	Coming Back: Appears
Fear Her: Appears	Nothing Matters: Appears	For Me: Appears	Little Thing: Appears

Help Out: Appears

Stay Away: Appears

Last Time: Appears

He's Coming: Appears

It Begins: Appears

Season Two appearances: 9/13
Began Again: Appears	In Redemption: Appears	Love Bites: Appears	A Home: Appears
Save Yourself: Appears	Veritas Vincit: Appears	Everything Changes: Appears	Big Mama: Absent

Wakey, Wakey: Absent

Base Pair: Appears

Be True: Absent

Crooked Falls: Absent

Black Days: Appears

Gallery