Sanctuary Mega-Awesome-Spectacular Recap

SPOILERS: MAJOR spoilers for the past 2 seasons below the "Read More" line. This is meant to totally catch you up on the show, and as such, it fills you in on almost all killed off characters, back stories, etc. 

That being said, I don't think it will ruin your enjoyment of the show to read this and then watch the episodes they spoil. Sanctuary has a VERY HIGH re-watch value.

Finally I get to publish this! It's been in the works for two months. Friday, October 15 at 10pm I will be glued to my seat in front of the TV. Hopefully, not because someone was playing with super-glue. That's right, it's the Sanctuary premiere! It is my favorite show currently running, so I've chosen it as receiving special attention.

Here's what you need to know about Sanctuary and why you should watch it (complete with video clips!)

And yes, it's long. Very long. But also, very funny. And I promise, the clips are worth it. :)

[By the way, it's really hard to find actual clips of episodes on YouTube. It's all really terrible music videos for different relationship pairings, and some of them are rather disturbing. Just thought I should let you all know how much I suffered for this]

Premise: The show follows 159 year old British scientist Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) and her team as she studies Abnormals, "the next step in evolution": species of creatures and altered humans who are ignored by the general public and would be called monsters. She offers Sanctuary and aid to those who wish it, and in rare cases, protects the rest of the world by forcibly capturing some of them.

Though the basic premise could be termed very "monster of the week", Amanda Tapping and the other show producers have often talked about trying hard to keep the show from that format. Most episodes do focus on the main characters, either through backstory or addressing ongoing themes. 

The nice thing about this show is they don't move on quickly from major events. When a main character was killed during the season 2 premiere, the characters continued to mourn her and talk about her for several more episodes well into the season.

* WARNING SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT *

Another subplot that is often addressed is "The Five," Magnus' group of friends and fellow scientists back in England when she was young. Their experimentations with vampire blood gave Magnus her longevity, and enhanced the other members as well, leading them to become famous characters from history/literature - John Druitt's teleportation drove him mad (Jack the Ripper), James Watson gained heightened intelligence (Sherlock Holmes), Nigel Griffin gained invisibility (the Invisible Man), and Nikola Tesla activated his own latent vampire genetics. As of the end of Season 2, Nigel Griffin has been dead for a long time (he never had an extended lifetime) and all his descendants have also died/been killed. Watson's exoskeleton that extended his own lifetime failed during the Season 1 finale. So far in the show, there are no other descendants of the Five known to be alive.

But what makes the show, and what you need to know, are the characters. So here they are, along with my favorite clips of each of them. (And they're ranked!)

1. Nikola Tesla - played by Jonathon Young

He may have guest starred in only 5 of the last 26 episodes, but Tesla is a fan favorite (and he's coming back for at least 8 episodes this season). One of the remaining members of the Five, Tesla jumps between enemy, friend/ally, and frien-emy with the Sanctuary. Both a mad scientist and a mad engineer, he's a genius with the ego to match; the only people he respects are the other members of the Five, and the only person he admires is Helen Magnus. Sarcastic, witty, and just plain fun, he is responsible for many of my favorite exchanges and one liners. He often refers to his past, and its suggested that many of the historic Tesla's oddities were engineered. Especially the claims of lifelong celibacy; Tesla is constantly hitting on, and getting shot down by, Magnus. Unfortunately, the last time we saw him ("Sleepers"), he made a De-Vamper with 2 pointy ends, and as such, he got, well, de-vamped. However, he manifested magnetic powers at the end of the episode.

[Insert time for people to laugh at the wonderfulness of Nikola Tesla getting magnetic powers]

Here are my 2 favorite scenes with him. Number 1 from End of Nights Part 1, interrupting a conversation between Will and his then girlfriend, Clara. (He's the one with the sarcasm and the bottle of wine) Number 2 from Sleepers, "rescuing" Magnus, Will, and Kate after they came to rescue him and he got them captured...

2. Helen Magnus - played by Amanda Tapping

She's 159 years old, extremely  brilliant, kind and caring, but kickass with a gun when she needs to be. She started her studies as a doctor and her father, Gregory Magnus, introduced her to the world of Abnormals - she made his dream of the Sanctuary network come to life. She manages the Old City Sanctuary herself with the aid of her team (there are 13 around the world). Helen used to be engaged to John Druitt before she knew he had become Jack the Ripper, and afterwards, when she found out she was pregnant, she froze the embryo until she believed he was dead for good. The result was her daughter Ashley Magnus, who worked with her mother for years before dying in the Season 2 premiere. One of the very striking differences between her and Samantha Carter (Tapping's other very famous role from the Stargate franchise) is her confidence in her sexuality, and this leads to a character extremely distinct from Carter; and also one particularly hilarious episode (Season 1, "Nubbins").

It's hard to choose a favorite scene since she's such a brilliant actor, so I tried to find a quintessential Magnus moment. Here's a clip from Season 2 premiere "End of Nights Part 2." I also recommend the episode Requiem for her best work, but those clips are too long to include.

3. Henry Foss - played by Ryan Robbins

Sanctuary's tech guy makes werewolves cool for the first time since Oz on Buffy. Henry has an extremely vague background story so far; all we really know is that he has lived at the Sanctuary for most of his life since Magnus found him and took him in when he was very young. He's brilliant at making modern-style weapons and gadgets, though they don't always work quite like they should, and is quick to make light of an otherwise horrible situation. He's very close with the "Big Guy" which showed when Henry reacted the strongest when he faked his death in the episode "Veritas". He's also, as I said before, a werewolf - he has heightened sense of smell and is capable of morphing into his animalistic form. However, he doesn't like to; he has very little control of his animal nature at times, and the possibility of losing control continually worries him.

Here's a short but funny Henry moment from the episode Nubbins.

4. Bigfoot/John Druitt - both played by Christopher Heyerdahl

Give props to an actor who pulls off two extremely different and challenging roles. Bigfoot is exactly what the name implies; his kind don't have a given name so most of the team call him "Big Guy." He works for Magnus after she saved his life a long time ago, and he cares deeply for the members of the Sanctuary, though he rarely shows it. He is a heavy user of the "Gibbs Head-slap" as a form of affection.

Druitt, on the other hand, is crazy-in-a-trench-coat and both evilly and awesomely bald. Magnus' fiancé way-back-when and Ashley's father, his teleportation abilities ended up driving him mad when a parasitic energy being meshed with him mid-jump. The end result was Jack the Ripper, a homicidal psychopath who somehow (not yet explained in the show) achieved the same long life span as Magnus and Tesla. His original personality remains intact, as the being only drew out his "bloodlust", and in his moments of sanity he is charming and even shows concern and compassion for others. However, it's his possessed persona that makes him my favorite Sanctuary villain of all. 

I couldn't find any good Bigfoot moments online, but I did find this nice video of Will, Watson, and Druitt during Season 1 finale "Revelations Part 1."

5. Will Zimmerman - played by Robin Dunne

Every all-knowing, kick ass, enigmatic scientist needs a naive, clueless, but promising sidekick; for Helen Mangus, it's Will. A forensic psychiatrist who was fired from "the Agency" after having one too many crazy theories, Will was recruited by Magnus to be her new protege in the pilot episode and serves as the other main character, newly introduced to the world of Abnormals. He's highly intuitive and logical, to the extent that James Watson (aka Sherlock Holmes) was impressed by his capabilities. He is often still surprised at just how much is kept hidden from normal humans and by Magnus' colorful past. 

His one fault? The guy is a living trope. And not the good ones. Well some of them are good ones. But as for the bad ones, it would take too long to list here, but for starters, he's an example of Hollywood Nerd, Awesomeness by Analysis, The Glasses Gotta Go, and A Man is Not a Virgin (the reason for his ex-girlfriend Meg in the pilot). And unfortunately, Robin Dunne, while he has his moments, doesn't help the fact that the character feels all too genre familiar.

So, I couldn't find any good Will clips, but this one is rather hilarious and good for getting ready for the premiere. This is from Kali, part 2, the season 2 finale; Will was a host for a small spider (called a Macri) that let him psychicly connect with Kali, an Indian goddess, also known as Big Bertha, a giant, dangerous, "arachno-kraken" (as a friend of mine has named it) who has earth destroying levels of control over earthquakes and tidal patterns. However, Will is dying as the Macri was forcefully removed, which poisoned him. Will needs to contact Kali in order to stop her, and his method is...well...one of the funniest and strangest Sanctuary scenes ever:

6. Kate Freelander - played by Agami Darshi

Kate is pure Badass Normal. A little light on the background besides a tragic connection to Michael Shanks (Season 2, "Penance"), she at some point became involved in the abnormal world as a mercenary. Introduced to the Sanctuary as a freelance (yeah, she made a joke about her last name) for the Cabal, she kicked Henry's ass in a hilarious "cut-to-offscreen-fighting-noise" moment, but joins the team when the Cabal tries to burn her. Since then, she's become the girl with the guns who provides the perspective of a newcomer that we lost when Will became accepted a member of the Sanctuary family. I would like her more, but the honest truth is she was a rather blatant replacement for Ashley Magnus, and as a fan of Ashley, I can't in good conscience get attached to Kate after just one season. She's also being thrown a little too much at Will for my taste. Then again, I tend to be anti-everyone in a show pairing up.

My problems with the character however, should not be held against the actress. Agami is really great, and I love her especially in comedic scenes when she's bugging Will and Henry.

The internet seems to not have a single video of Kate that isn't a creepy music video pairing her up with every single guy on the show. Sorry! She's in the second Tesla video, and if you want to see more of her, I recommend her scene with Henry in the middle of End of Nights, Part 1 and her back story episode Penance.

Honorary Mention: Ashley Magnus - played by Emilie Ullerup

Now how to describe Ashley...Ashley is a badass. Mashup Buffy's one liners, Faith's love of weapons, and Sydney Bristow's moves, toss in a bubbly, but not annoying personality, and you're close. The daughter of Helen Magnus and John Druitt, she was raised by her mother without knowing anything about her father or the origin of her mother's abilities until John pops in to say "hi" and tries to kill her in "Sanctuary for All Parts 1/2", and Tesla tries a similar thing on Magnus in "The Five." Unfortunately, she was captured and brainwashed by the Cabal at the end of Season 1, and her latent powers from both parents activated, turning her into a semi-vampiric, teleporting abnormal-of-evil. Magnus had to make the difficult choice to kill her, and almost got herself killed in the process, but Ashley managed to regain control long enough to teleport herself and another Cabal hybrid into an EM field, killing them both. Helen struggled to accept her death for several more episodes, but as of "Eulogy" it has been confirmed that Ashley is really dead.

Losing Ashley from the show was tragic and extremely confusing at the time, especially when we she was so clearly replaced by a similar character in the form of Kate. I do take some solace in the fact that the actress who plays her was able to undergo surgery for a serious medical issue that would've gone untreated had she needed to continue working. (Not the reason she was written off, by the way)

Here's a funny scene from the pilot, "Sanctuary for All, Part 1" (In case your confused by the end, this takes place before Will knows Helen is 159 years old...well, 157 in this episode)

Hope you are now as excited as I am for the new season! Remember, October 15, 10 pm, SyFy. If you made it through this whole post CONGRATULATIONS!

~ Sarah