Episode Recap: Metamorphosis

Jack and Vanessa make their way to a defunct garden (just like the one Vanessa saw in her dream when she was dead) after a preternatural feeling pulls them there, and they sense a presence. Jack gets trigger happy and shoots that presence with her crossbow. Turns out: it's Violet, who's also arrived. Vanessa and Violet finally meet — two Van Helsings in the same place again!

On Violet's tail is Sam, and on his tail is the Oracle. They agree to work together to hunt down the Van Helsings, the younger two of which are finally coming to grips with their identities — the ones Hansen concealed from and lied about to them all this time. But there's work to be done. Vanessa spots a reflecting pool, and in the water are three stones with handprints inscribed in them. She beckons to the others and has them put their hands in the stones at the same time. When they do, they start to shake violently, the wind kicks up, things get turnt. Vanessa takes their hands, and a white light shoots out of the pool — like a searchlight at a basketball game.

Aside from alerting Sam and the Oracle to their presence, that little maneuver just turned that defunct garden into a flourishing enchanted bower. Jack gets separated from the group, and while Vanessa and Violet go searching for her, somehow, they end up in a well-appointed drawing room. And whose is it, you ask? Well, crawling out of the shadows is, not Jacob, but Abraham Van Helsing.

Abraham is understandably shaken to see them, but once Vanessa shows him the grimoire and the cruci-compass, he's intrigued. Of course, Abraham is very much interested in the pages that have been torn out of the grimoire, and when he finds they're not there, gets anxious. He tells Vanessa he's been trapped in the other realm with the Dark One, and that those missing pages are the secret to crossing through the portal. He wants to make sure they're not in the wrong hands.

Meanwhile, Jack follows a wispy voice to an empty sarcophagus. When she slides back the lid, black smoke starts to ascend from the vault. She's shaken. Turns out… that's the Dark One, and Jack just woke her up. And how does the Dark One repay Jack for this favor? By strangling her with its black, wispy, smoke tentacles. Jack rushes to the drawing room, and Abraham warns them to leave the place, find the pages, and use the cruci-compass. It's the only way to put the Dark One back into her slumber. Then Abraham says some mumbo-jumbo about Vanessa and her "children," and sends the three back to the normal realm.  

So that children bit, it has some meaning: Black-Tec was experimenting on Vanessa, and they used some of her DNA to create Jack and Violet. So technically, she's their mama. Just then, Sam and the Oracle arrive. Vanessa tells her daughters (still seems strange saying that) to save themselves, as she does battle with the evildoers. But they stay and fight alongside. It's an uneven fight, and Sam eventually impales Vanessa on a spike through the guts, while the Oracle dispatches both Jack and Violet.

Sam nabs the amulet (cruci-compass) while the Oracle drains a little of Vanessa's blood and jerry-rigs a circumscribed pentagram in the dirt in the middle of the garden floor. The Oracle then directs Sam to stand in the middle of said pentagram, drink the blood, and open the portal.

He does. The Dark One exits through a hole in Sam's chest, and while he starts to decay into dust, he sees her: Dracula. She kisses him goodbye, and Sam crumbles into a mound of ash. Dracula then turns her attention to Vanessa, who she likes for her courage, and Jack and Violet, who she likes for their young blood. Vanessa tells Dracula she wants to fight by her side (yeah right) and so Dracula pulls her off the spike.

Once she gets off that spike, Vanessa goes to Violet and Jack, and stabs them. Woah! She knows they'll heal, so while she's down there, she tells them they're going to need to fight. Dracula likes Vanessa's bloodthirstiness, and wants to make Vanessa her one true bride. This makes the Oracle upset.

Dracula summons up the portal in the pond, and beckons to Vanessa to take her hand, that they may conquer it together. Vanessa goes along with it, and almost lets Dracula bite her in the neck. But just before the teeth go in, Vanessa pile drives Dracula into the pond, through the portal, and the two disappear. Jack tells Violet to run off and search for the lost pages while she handles the Oracle. It's a long road ahead.