We are honored and pleased to announce we will be interviewing the wonderful actor, writer, director and producer Robin Dunne Saturday November 30, 2013 at 9:00 AM Pacific Standard Time, 12 PM Eastern Standard Time to chat with this gifted entertainment professional about his latest projects, what is coming in the future and his fabulous career!
All who follow science fiction and dramatic arts know of the fantastic career of Robin Dunne.
Dunne co-produced the comedic drama at the Factory Studio Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON M5V 2R2, Canada. The Repetitive Strain Injury premiere opening is December 06, 2013 beginning a limited exclusive ten day run through December 15, 2013!
Currently in final stages of rehearsal, “Repetitive Strain Injury“, starring Robin Dunne, Imali Perera, Ava Markus, Amy Matysio, Pat Kiely (Being Human), the delightful stage play opens Friday December 06, 2013 in conjunction with Company Kid Logic at their Factory Studio Theatre facilities which are launching a new series of productions featuring “Multiple award-winning and widely acclaimed as actors, writers, directors and producers in both Film/TV and theatre – Company Kid Logic has selected RSI to launch this dynamic company of players. “ dedicated to the “goal … to produce current, urbane theatre with an inclusive mindset and an appetite to celebrate talent.”.
“Repetitive Strain Injury” is described by the creators as “Darkly funny and unflinchingly honest, the play centers around a thirty something couple about to get married. When fate interferes, new friends and strange opportunities put things in flux. Sexy, candidly cruel and deeply relatable, RSI follows a tangled web of relationships, exposing five reluctant adults caught in a karmic pressure cooker. (Rob) Van Meenen follows up the wildly successful run of his first play “Burn” (co-written with Cherise Arnesen) with this powerful and unblinking dissection of modern relationships written in the style of what he himself describes as “Neil Labute meets How I Met your Mother.”
Perhaps best known as Doctor Will Zimmerman in the hit television series Sanctuary (2008-2011), and in the original web series in 2007 that set the standard for all web series that followed (with creators Amanda Tapping, Damian Kindler, Martin Wood, Gillian Horvath, Alan McCullough and many more), Robin Dunne has been quite active, most recently featured in a guest starring role in the new hit Syfy science fiction series Defiance as “Meeko” in the episode “A Well Respected Man” which aired earlier this year.
We look forward to you joining Robin Dunne this Saturday for a special edition of WHR You Decide at 9:00 AM Pacific Standard Time to discuss his exciting Repetitive Strain Injury!
Please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or family. Feel free to leave your comments and we look forward to you visiting in the future
Or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit WHR on Twitter, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and Team WHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!”
Sanctuary season four begins with Adam Worth (Ian Tracey), obsessed with getting his daughter back, having created and used a time machine to escape the twenty first century and the chaos he caused there to mask his real plans.
When Adam turns it on, it creates a portal to his past. He dashes through, followed by Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping). They end up in Victorian England.
Magnus chases after him as he runs away, shooting a gun at him. Adam is a tortured, but still brilliant personality, who does not seem to want to kill Magnus. He shoots at the corner of a building, bringing it down on top of her, knocking her unconscious. Fortunately for her, Dr. James Watson (Peter Wingfield), comes to her rescue. She has, we assume, been treated and jailed. Watson, having his own very special relationship with the London police, has her freed.
Returning to the Sanctuary in Victorian London, things appear a little different. Magnus comes across crates of things that are familiar to her, likely emphasizing the fact that she is now in her past.
Watson examines the modern conveniences that she has brought with her. Her cell phone, initially, is a complete mystery to him. Magnus, worried that he should not know too much about the future, attempts to discourage his curiosity.
But Watson is a pretty smart cookie, himself, and he puts it all together fairly quickly. Magnus is not from his time line. So, she explains, “if I fail, everything that is meant to be, everything until my present, could be destroyed”. Offering to help, because he knows the truth, Watson convinces Magnus that she has no choice but to let him into her plans.
Watson, although he has pieced together the truth, still seems to be having trouble grasping the reality of his situation. He remarks, “Time travel is actually possible. H.G. would be ecstatic.” For anyone familiar with science fiction novels, the reference to H.G. refers to Herbert George Wells, known for his novel, “The Time Machine”. Interestingly, H.G Wells is also a character in another sci-fi series, “Warehouse 13”, although it is unlikely that the reference in this episode has anything to do with the other series.
Magnus heads upstairs to change into more appropriate Victorian period clothing and, in the process, nearly runs into herself. Fortunately, her other past self does not see her.
Magnus quickly changes and heads down into the basement to what I assume is a nineteenth century furnace, or wood fire heater for the Sanctuary. Watson is tossing her identification into the fire.
He pauses to examine her cell phone again, and reasons that it is a communication device. Magnus reminds him, “no questions”, so he will not learn too much about the future. As she does so, she tosses the cell phone into the fire. My first thought was, ‘uh, Helen, don’t forget about the battery…batteries, when they come into contact with fire, often explode’.
Meanwhile, the Adam from the proper time line is with his daughter, Imogene (Margot Berner). He ducks out for a trip to the apothecary (pharmacist) and our twenty first century Adam enters. Delighted to see his daughter again, he tells her he has found a cure for her condition. He has brought two suitcases with him but, unfortunately, one has a hole through it caused by the gun fire earlier between Adam and Magnus. But Adam reassures his daughter that the instrument within can be repaired.
Back at the Sanctuary Magnus reaches for a revolver in her dresser drawer. As she does so, there is a disturbance outside the room. It is the Victorian era, nineteenth century Adam. He is seeking help. It turns out that Adam’s daughter is missing. Someone has taken her. It really is not hard to figure out who took the young lady. In this case,
it is himself from the twenty-first century Adam who is the guilty party. But, where would he go with his daughter? Magnus and Watson head outside the building to question nineteenth century Adam further. Helen takes it a bit too far, virtually berating the man. Watson has to reign her in, reminding her that, as of yet, he has done nothing wrong.
In an interview, Damian Kindler mentions that, in order to get the effect of a rain storm in nineteenth century London, they used a rain machine. During this particular moment, as Helen Magnus talks to Dr. Watson, she is getting quite soaked. Amanda Tapping pulls off the sexy soaked look very well.
Magnus returns to the Sanctuary just in time to encounter John Druitt (Christopher Heyerdahl) giving her other self a hard time. This Helen Magnus has accused Druitt of being Jack the Ripper. This particular moment gets very complicated. It makes sense that twenty first century Magnus would want to stop Druitt from harming her nineteenth century self. In preparation to do just that, she pulls out the revolver she has been holding on to as she carefully stays out of sight. Christopher Heyerdahl does a wonderful job of being the tortured soul who seems to need to kill Helen, yet cannot bring himself to do so because he loves her.
Downstairs, twenty first century Helen tells Watson that Druitt was upstairs, terrorizing her nineteenth century self. Watson is naturally concerned, and, although she tells him he cannot interfere, he reminds her that she has made a point to tell him about it. Adam Worth, continues Watson, will be at the Pall Mall Club that evening, although he does not know which version of Worth will show up.
At the sound of a door opening, twenty first century Magnus dashes away, so that nineteenth century Magnus does not bump into herself. Why did Helen Magnus tell Watson about Druitt? Writer Damian Kindler seems to have tossed a “red herring”, or information that diverts the attention of the audience away from the main story, into this episode.
At the Pall Mall club, where it is made quite plain that this is a gentleman’s club and women are not welcome, Twenty first Century Helen has a chat with her future counterpart Adam. We can tell it’s him because he doesn’t have the longer side burns of nineteenth century Adam. Clever, no? Helen is so ticked at him, she is on quite prepared to shoot him.
But Adam reminds her that would not be a good idea since it could alter the future in unimaginable ways, not to mention the scandal it would cause for her other self. There is still the underground city of Praxis to consider as well. This Adam is the one who has created all the chaos that Magnus will have to deal with in the future. But they are not there yet. None of it has happened. Adam is quite willing to change the future and says as much to Helen. But, while he is distracting her, she reasons that he is hanging around for a reason that has nothing to do with experiencing the pleasures of the past. She reasons that he is looking for money from the gentlemen at his club to fund his daughter’s cure.
As Magnus leaves the club, we see that twenty first century Helen secretly observes nineteenth century Magnus as she examines the dead body of another female Ripper victim. What this has to do with the current story is a bit of a mystery. But it seems that there will be more that will be revealed later on.
One thing we do learn about twenty first century Magnus is that she is so determined not to interfere with the timeline that she is considering poisoning Imogene if Adam is successful with his cure for her. This is a bit of a surprise. Helen Magnus did not seem to be this dark in previous episodes of Sanctuary. Did Amanda Tapping, Damian Kindler and Martin Wood get together and decide to take the series in an entirely new direction for season four?
Of course, it is only a matter of time before twenty first century Magnus comes across John Druitt in an alley. The rain is still coming down in buckets and everyone is still getting drenched. Druitt has a knife and he seems prepared to use it on Helen. Fortunately, she is quite adept at taking care of herself. She manages to get him against a wall and demands, “How does it feel to have cold steel against your jugular, in the hands of someone who knows how to kill you slowly and is prepared to do it?”
Poor Druitt is completely taken aback. This is not the Helen Magnus that he knows and has bullied for so long. It looks like, regardless how much Magnus wants to avoid changing the future, she already has done so through her new behaviour toward her friends from the past.
A new character is introduced at this point. A creature that Helen knows as “Spring-Heeled Jack” (Fraser Aitcheson) jumps down from a rooftop. He knows her and is very familiar with her background. She attempts to convince him that she can protect him in her Sanctuary. All he has to do is stop killing and she will protect him. But Jack is defiant. He states that “Humans hunt Jack, so Jack hunts humans”. It looks as though John Druitt as Jack the Ripper may now be called into question. The real Ripper is the creature called Jack!
Helen finally finds Adam and his daughter in a makeshift lab. It seems that he has finally found a cure for Imogene. Helen is determined to stop him for destroying Praxis and altering the timeline. Adam fires his weapon at Helen. He misses and she escapes the building. He pursues her chasing her into a blind alley with no exit. Helen continues to fight back, throwing a knife at him and stabbing him in the leg. As Helen continues to attempt to get away, Imogene arrives, no doubt looking for answers about what is going on with her father.
Adam fires his weapon wildly into a brick building, knocking bricks and rubble loose. The material crashes down on Adam’s daughter. He has accidentally killed her. Furious, Adam tries to attack Helen again. She is forced to fire a weapon at him, killing him and turning him to dust. Moments later, the Helen that belongs in this time line arrives and so does the nineteenth century Adam. Distraught, he blames Helen and Watson for his daughter’s death.
The episode ends with twenty first century Helen chatting with Watson. She can’t return to the future. This leaves her in a quandary about what to do. Should she commit suicide rather than take the chance that she will accidentally damage the timeline?
Watson has the answer. She can go somewhere remote and take a 100 year vacation, then rejoin her timeline just after she left it. After 113 years not always staying away from people (Normandy) , Helen Magnus is most likely to become a little eccentric to say the least. I expect that there will be some big surprises in future episodes as a result of this one very pivotal episode where we learned about Helen’s past. What do you think?
Sanctuary returns on the Space and Syfy channels Friday October 14, 2011 with “Uprising” continuing the story arc of the current timeline with the rebellion of the abnormal population after the disaster caused by Adam Worth. We include the exciting trailer below and hope you make sure to turn in and support science fiction by watching Sanctuary live. Thank you.
Please feel free to leave a comment here, click an icon below to share this interview or you can visit and follow me on Twitter by clicking on my avatar to the right.
This is the last episode of season 3 from this very awesome and very cool series. The amount of talent and imagination that comes through each and every episode astonishes me as I watch each one. From the acting, to the special effects, even to the writers who help give us such ‘sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat’ thrill is nothing but amazing and brilliant. And imagine, it all started with webisodes. The shear determination alone to make Sanctuary what it is today is nothing less then total amazement.
The choice in people who plays each role equally contribute to the splendor and enjoyment each week. I can see why this show has such a big and strong fan base. Not just because of the awesome Amanda Tapping, but because each person brings a little of themselves into the characters they play, and thus make them so lovable.
Now onto the reason why you are all here.
With everything that happened from the last episode, we get a sense that something is definitely wrong with Hollow Earth. Abnormals who were living far underground for centuries, have now started to come to the surface. The cause has yet to be determined, but you can bet your bottom dollar it was not going to be something that Helen would have ever thought possible.
They were called for a meeting with a representative of the U.N. and a General of the U.S. Military. Not what Helen was expecting, but I guess she knew it was going to happen eventually. Of course the man in the General role was someone I least expected.
Every time I see this part in any episode, it amazes me that it’s all done by green screen. The whole room is in green. And knowing that, makes me appreciate the actors that much more. Not only do they have to remember their lines, and react like you would in any situation, but to do it all in an empty room. That in itself is WOW!!
Oh lookie who we got here. Yes, you got it. It is our lovable Col. Maybourne. NOT! Do not get me wrong, Mr. Tom McBeath is a brilliant actor, but is there a role that he did not play where he was just as snaky and ruthless as Maybourne? Though General Villanova is not much out of character then Maybourne! Both you want to knock up side the head. Even though with Maybourne, he lightened up towards the end. Maybe – no hopefully – in season 4 he would see that Villanova should have listened to Helen in the first place.
Then we have Dr. Lillian Lee, played by the lovely Francoise Yip. This character I kinda felt bad for. I felt she wanted to side with Helen (Amanda Tapping), but because of her superiors and the General, she had her hands tied as such. I liked her as she knows the good work that the Sanctuary has done in the past. But at the same time felt that this was too much for just one place to handle. Even with all the other Sanctuary’s in the different places around the world, they still did not have the space to take in all these abnormals that was surfacing.
Then we are taken to the make shift camp that the military has set up. Which peeved Will (Robin Dunne) off as it looked more like a refugee camp then a sanctuary to help the new visitors.
They meet up with an officer who when Will offered his hand, he promptly shook it. Unfortunately, when Kate did the same thing, he ignored her. That to me shows that he is one hell of an arrogant, young, (insert bad word), pigheaded, cocky, oh and (insert bad word again). 😛
As the abnormals are being “escorted” into the gates to the tents that has been set up, one of the officers offer a giant creature a bottle water. Not knowing anything about this abnormal, it smacked the water out of the officers hand. Of course being surrounded by military, they went all up in arms with the guns all pointed and being very trigger happy. That is when Kate jumped in to stop a possible altercation. She told the officer that water is toxic to this type of creature. And with that said, she took it inside.
At this point, Will is not happy with the whole situation. They came to them looking for help and all they are getting is being treated like thieves. That was up until Will spotted someone in the line up heading inside the gates.
Hmmm. Now, where have I seen this guy before?? Oh dear lawd, it is Edge (Adam Copeland). Well he did make a great pain in the arse in the WWE. Makes one wonder if he will bring some part of Edge to this character in this episode.
This is a fun episode to watch. Not only am I a fan of Sanctuary, but I do love watching Wrestling. Call me names all you want, but I just like watching WWE, both RAW and Smackdown. But sorry Edge, my favourite is John Cena. LOL
This was a nice section of the show. Poor Kate was a little hurt by the fact that the abnormals there would not accept water from her, but they would from Biggie. It was then that Biggie told Kate that it is her that is the strange one to them.
Then Kate (Agam Darshi)looks over and sees a small table set up. She walks over and makes a comment about the lovely stones. She asks if she could see one of the stones and that’s when the gentleman informs her that they were from his home and all he could carry with him to remember where he came from. She went to lay it back down on the table. This is when he introduced himself to her as Garris (David Milchard). He told her that she could keep it. Kate told him that was fine, but he took it and put it around her neck and tied it in the back. It was a very sweet gesture, I thought anyway, and a nice way to break down the mistrust between the humans and abnormals.
Then of course once Kate walked away, smiling, Garris looks over and sees Thelo and his sidekick, Herusan (Fraser Aitcheson) looking over at him. Just like his alter ego, Thelo looks like he has a plan up his sleeve. And knowing that, it cannot be good.
Well this cannot be good. Sometimes it is Helen calls on John to help her in something or another. But when Druit (Christopher Heyerdahl) is the one who pays a visit, you can bet it is up to no good.
Now we cannot end off season 3 without bringing back Adam (Ian Tracey). And once he came into the picture, you had to know that he was up to no good again. He is one of the best played psychos that I can remember to date.
Helen gets a notion that something else is going on with Hollow Earth that is causing the abnormals to surface. She reluctantly goes with John to investigate. She is so furious with him for letting Adam stay alive, not just once, but TWICE! Really? Is John not looking for a death wish.
Of course, with John’s motive for keeping Adam alive this time, was purely out of love. Or was it? Not in Helen’s eyes. This line of thinking will come apparent little later.
This picture is one of the most brilliant special effects that I cannot imagine they surpassing. And I say ONE OF the most as there have been so many during the past 3 years of Sanctuary that it is hard to find only the one.
Interesting how Fallan goes to Thelo to ask for his help. It is apparent that Fallan wants to abide by the rules by the ‘surface dwellers’.
Unfortunately, Thelo has a different agenda.
On a side note though. I felt really bad for John when he and Helen were walking the tunnels to find Praxia. Only to find it destroyed. Helen was so furious that he would not think of the consequences of going back in time just so he could change things between the two of them.
“If who I am now is so meaningless to you, that you would sacrifice it just to bed me in some other timeline. John, that’s not love.” Can you say Ouch? But oh so true. They have been through so much over the years, that you would think that John would just let it go and stop pursuing Helen. Maybe now he will.
I thought this was a very lovely scene. Kate had obviously changed from when we first met her. The ‘tough-girl’ image is gone. She no longer has to protect herself from people who might want to hurt her. Now she is apart of an awesome family who cares and looks out for each other. With Kate offering Garris a gift as a token of friendship, as well as from the fact that Garris had given her a gift from earlier, proves that Kate is a very caring person. She had proven that time and time again throughout this season. Makes me wonder what is in store for us in season 4.
Meanwhile, all hell is breaking loose in the camp that Will meets up with Kate and Biggie (Christopher Heyerdahl) to see what the devil was going on. That is when Kate tells Will that it was all over name calling. One of Thelo’s sidekicks called Kate a name that Garris took offense too, and that is what brought on this whole situation. I gotta give it to Garris though, standing up for a non-abnormal like he did says a lot about his character.
So Will decides to go and see Fallan, that is when Will realizes he is in trouble. With Fallan killed and Thelo & the gang just outside the tent, things are about to go very bad for Will. Will gets chased by Thelo and the boys until he is trapped at a dead end.
Awww. Poor Will. Knowing what is about to happen, he gives it his best. First he goes for a punch. But that did not do anything to Thelo. Then Will tries a head-but. That too is unsuccessful. Then he tried a few swings at Thelo, again, with no avail.
Then Thelo turned it around and got in a few punches and ended it with a clothes line. He should have done the “spear”. LOL. Poor Will, he should have had John Cena on the side to help him out. LOL. That is when Biggie and the other officers came to Will’s rescue. Biggie stayed to fight Thelo, as Will was escorted out. Of course his next concern was Kate. She was still in there somewhere.
Then back at the Sanctuary, something about this whole mess did not feel right to the guys. What was the whole point to the fight in the first place. Henry then tells Will that Druit came back with some info from Adam’s computers. That is when Henry told Will that the city was gone. And no doubt it had something to do with Adam and his weapon.
But… was it a weapon?
Will and Henry had to do the unpleasant task of having a chat with General Villanova and Dr. Lee. Something just did not feel right. That is when they discovered that this was all just a distraction from something greater. The real threat was coming. Adam’s invention was the cause of all this happening. Only problem was that Will did not have the proof that Dr. Lee was asking for.
That was until they lost the feed from the camp and when it did come back on, they were confronted with something they were not prepared for. Yep, you got it, Thelo and his thugs had taken over the camp and had hostages. One of which was Biggie. Not what they needed right now.
Of course the General wanted to go in all guns a blazing. Will wanted to go in calmly and try to talk to them. Though, do not think any amount of talking was going to persuade Thelo and his gang to back down and let their people go.
But it was too late. The Invasion has already began.
Meanwhile, Helen was working on the computers left behind by Adam, when the lights started flickering. Still not sure what to think, she continues on with her research. After the lights flicker a few more times, she does another search for Adam when John comes around the corner.
After some, with a bit more flickering, Adam finally comes into view. Though, not for long. Then he goes out of phase again.
Helen had tried to max out the power for the computers to bring him back. It worked for some time. Long enough for Adam to tell Helen the true reason why John let him live – yet again.
With John wanting to go back to the year to stop them from taking the source blood and Adam wanting to go back to the year to save his daughter, there laid the conflict.
In the end Adam seemed to have won. He compensated for the power and went out of phase again. Then John had an idea.
With him using himself to max out the power, he hoped to have stopped Adam from going back in time. But he was too late, the portal opened, Adam said his pleasantries in his egotistical manner and walked through.
This cannot be good. With Helen sent back in time, what effect will this have on her own self in that period? Will the future Helen experience tropic cascade failure because of having two of them in the one timeline? Think of SG1 – Point of View, when we had two Carter’s. That did not work out so well, did it?
As well, other things come to mind as to what the possibilities could come from this. Will Helen find Adam and stop him from saving his daughter? If caught, how will this Helen explain a handgun that has not been invented yet? If Adam does save his daughter from death, what will become of the Sanctuary as we know it? So many thoughts and ideas that it is exciting to see how season 4 will play out. And that in itself, makes me very excited to want to watch to find out. And I hope you feel the same.
I like to thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts and analysis on this awesome episode. Please do leave a comment, or you can nab me on Twitter. Stay tuned for the fall when I and my team will be back to write up more of our thoughts on this fantastic series.
We include the full episode below courtesy of Syfy via Hulu! Enjoy!
Please feel free to leave a comment below, click on the various buttons below to share this article around the Internet, or you can nab me on twitter by clicking on my avatar. Hope you liked reading as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Welcome back supporters of worthwhile charity efforts,
This Saturday evening June 25, 2011 something very wonderful to help children around the world is going to occur in New York City!
Of what do we speak? Why of course we are talking (and tweeting) about Songs for Sanctuary for Children, an event to support Sanctuary for Kids! The entire team here at WHR respectfully requests your support to help this worthy charitable event.
How can you help? Please click the banner poster below to learn more and buy tickets for the charity event. The pricing for Songs for Sanctuary for Kids are extremely reasonable, only asking a modest twenty-five dollars ($25.00) USD to attend the event. The best part is that 100% of the proceeds are going to support Sanctuary for Kids! Even if you do not live in greater New York City area, please tell all your friends who do live there or nearby to spread the word about this fantastic charity event! Thank you.
The Triad NYC 158 West 72nd Street New York, NY 212-362-2590
This outstanding charity fund raising event will be conducted from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM local New York time (EST) featuring several wonderfully talented individuals including Liz Asti, Jimmy Blackman, Sandi DeGeorge, Greg Etling, David Gordon, and Bryan Wade. Please click here to order your tickets for the event. We include the Songs for Sanctuary for Kids press release below for your enjoyment.
Press Release:
Come join us for an evening of song to raise money for the charity Sanctuary for Kids
Please feel free to share this event, and invite everyone you know. The work Sanctuary for Kids also known as S4K is doing is such important work, let’s all help and change the world one song at a time! Thank you.
About Sanctuary For Kids:
Sanctuary for Kids is a Vancouver, BC based charity aiding children in crisis around the world. Some of their current projects include funding a house, “Sanctuary House,” at the Nepal Orphans Home in Kathmandu which provides food, shelter, education and family to girls who have been orphaned and/or trafficked during Nepal’s long civil war.
They are also working with Asha Nepal and Next Generation Nepal to provide safe haven for children and families. In other regions, Sanctuary for Kids is working with Save the Children to provide aid to children in crisis in Haiti and Pakistan. At home, Sanctuary for Kids is working with the local Vancouver charity Watari, which aids homeless teens and provides them with the means to live safely as well as training for work, parenting, and helping them complete their education.
Sanctuary for Kids was founded by Amanda Tapping, Damian Kindler, and Jill Bodie in an effort to give something back to society after being gifted with tremendous success in the world of science fiction television, most recently the show, Sanctuary.
The safety and well-being of children is a major passion of all three, and with the enormously networked sci-fi community, they were able to start this grass-roots charity and turn it into something very special. Please visit their website: www.sanctuaryforkids.org to learn more about this unique organization.
Please feel free to leave a comment here, or if you prefer, click the social media icons below and please share this news article or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit WHR on Twitter, WHR on Facebook or visit me on Twitter to discuss Songs for Sanctuary for Kids by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story.
Every week, I love Sanctuary more and more. It’s a true factuary. I love that this wee ‘show that could’ is not afraid to say “To hell with the box!!! THERE IS NO BOX…”, and take its fans by complete surprise with every new installment of this epic story it has to tell. I love that Sanctuary is not afraid to have its own, unique and strong style. I love that in Sanctuary, what matters isn’t WHAT happens….but HOW it happens. Tasteful, intelligent and artistic!
This is where episode dix-neuf of the third season, ‘Out of the Blue’, comes in.
I don’t know what the writers are trying to do. You know, usually they’re pretty merciful, they get the need that we have for inhaling and exhaling at regular intervals. So what changed in the last four weeks? What did we do to deserve this blissful torture!?
First we were given ‘Awakening’, which brought back the dark sultriness of vampires and the earthy underground, then ‘Normandy’ blew our minds to smithereens with the much expected special effects and the return of the Holy Five into the midst of World War II. Then almighty ‘Carentan’ once again surpassed any expectations by adding to the previous episode with an added humanity, a brief but profound window on Helen Magnus (the elegant Amanda Tapping) and Will Zimmerman (talented wildcard, Robin Dunne) in the face of an ethical dilemma, and their own lives, and sanity, hanging in the balance.
And THEN…there was a little segment called ‘Out of the Blue’. Directed by the brilliant Martin Wood.
Not what we expected. Although with Sanctuary, you kind of learn to do away with expectations because really, our imagination fails compared with what they produce every week.
‘Out of the Blue’ sort of feels like an answer to ‘Carentan’. It does away the drama of physical action altogether and leaves us in a dream world full of confusion and frustrated irony. Like any of our dreams (please keep them to yourself…*COUGH*), little of it makes sense, and while everything is somehow familiar, it’s all somehow completely wrong. Disturbingly so. This is a wonderful character episode, It delves into the psyche, trying to unravel the complexity of human desires in contradiction with reality, and is such an intriguing, and at times painful, insight into psychology of both Helen and Will. It is simple and direct, without heroics or an elaborate storyline.
When we first heard of this episode, the cast and creators warned that it would throw fans off their scent. The fans were teased with the surreal content of the episode, that the characters were unrecognisable, and altogether a bit confusing!
It’s true, nobody could have known, but then Sanctuary fans are renowned for their intelligence and passion, and have quickly learned not to accept events in the show at face value. Besides the obvious, there are so many layers and complexities to ‘Out of the Blue’…it’s one of those episodes that every time you watch, you’re blasted with a new level of understanding.
It’s obvious that something is different from the outset. Will Zimmerman, professional ‘freaky eyes’, in a classy suit running after the garbage truck isn’t exactly how we’ve come to know him. Maybe Robin Dunne would (we could expect anything of that dude), but middle-class suburbia isn’t Will’s regular hangout.
One might jump on the science-fiction bandwagon and suspect alternate-universe-timeline or some other doo-hicky. But then you remember: this is Sanctuary. Convention be damned! There is no box!
Too right! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Heehee.
Couple all that with domestic bliss and pregnant wife Abbie (Corrigan, played by the bubbly Pascale Hutton), and we have ourselves a situation!
Despite the complexities and psychology and what-not, the comedy in this episode is unique. No one-liners, cheeky banter, but simply the funny things that happen to everyone, every day. No effort required to make a dork of yourself! Situational comedy hands down.
Funny things like trying to walk and stalk a talkative kitty that just clawed its way over the warm bonnet of your beautiful shiny Beema.
Funny things like that awkward moment when you have to walk AAAALL the way, breathing heavily, over the street to your hermit artist neighbour (whom nobody REALLY gets), holding a squirming cat at arm’s length and trying desperately to NOT get white fur all over that lovely black, smooth blazer.
Funny things like the deadpan look from Helen Druitt as she stares at you. You, who dares to hold her beautiful white Henry like he’s a filthy football.
Funny things like Monty dropping on Helen’s lawn.
Funny things like Helen. With a lawn. And a house.
WAIT A MINUTE. HOLD THAT TEACUP. Did you say Helen Druitt? *cue shipper squee from the world over* But there’s always so much more to it, we should know this by now! It’s not about mach-making, it’s the fact that tension is so much more satisfying than having every wish fulfilled!
Before we delve into the deliciousness of psychological torture (AHEM), just a few comments on a performance that blew most fans out of the water. Amanda Tapping. Helen Magnus as we’ve never seen her. This was something that was so far divorced from the Helen we know, but at the same time, she was one and the same strong, compelling and complex woman. To see a Helen so confused, anxiety-stricken, insecure and at times crushingly vulnerable, Amanda’s performance was subtly and lightly brushed with effortless English humour, flashes of unique strength and pride, and rippled by a heartbreaking humanity. Absolutely breathtaking… *stops breathing*…
It’s so hard to discuss the intricacies of Amanda’s nuanced delivery without plunging into the psychology of Helen, whom nobody REALLY gets. So back to the Blue we go…
The beauty of this episode is that the prequel to it is important, but is just that, a prequel. It is not until the resolution of the narrative that we really have any idea of the premise, and of WHY all this has happened. Curiously though, it doesn’t matter. Whereas many writers would concern themselves with screening the dramatic events that led to this situation, Sanctuary breaks the mould. Writer Damian Kindler beautifully dispensed with the need for exhibition, and made the point of view to be from the patients: Helen and Will.
The most pressing need for them, and for us as the audience, is to make darn sense of all these disparities, to understand why on EARTH Helen drinks coffee, wears lumpy cardigans and paints all night, and why Will doesn’t understand how he married Abbie and became a surgeon. What engages us is not how they came to be in this situation, but the journey of both these characters as they struggle to make sense of their lives. Ultimately it is about the personal journey from moment to moment, more so than the destination.
The first …well…’abnormal’ clue is actually from the very first moment that Helen opens her front door to rescue her precious feline creature from her fastidious neighbour. “DECLAW?! He’s an innocent creature!” Over her shoulder, Will spies the ghostly phantom of what seems to be…a creature? Symbols? But it is gone from his and from our sight before we can fathom what we are looking at. It is as fleeting and surreal as if it were a dream. He is brought jolting back to his ‘reality’ with an indignant English woman demanding he get out of her house. The true nostalgic spirit of Dr. Helen Magnus shining through in this neighbours-at-war scenario.
Also, I think many fans will be naming their future kittens ‘Henry’. The irony is too side-splitting! What would a werewolf think? Ravaged by self-cannibalism?
The ironic paradox is also Helen the painter. What happened to the feisty, gun-toting 159-year-old doctor, hell-bent on abnormal salvation?! The levels of irony in this 19th episode ebb from hysterically funny, to cruelly tragic. In the real world, Magnus and John Druitt (the versatile and immensely talented, Christopher Heyerdahl) were torn apart by his ferocious demon, followed by a century of revisited pain and anger, torn by what-might-have-beens and the birth of a daughter.
It seems like she can’t have it both ways! In many ways, ‘Out of the Blue’ reflects the innate desires and dreams of Helen and Will; if Helen had followed her young dreams and married the man she loved, if Will had ignored his intuitions, and had become respected in his field. It just goes to show that maybe, after all, everything in life happens for a reason.
As Helen says “I got married because it was supposed to make me happy!”, and yet it didn’t, while in reality having their daughter was everything to her, besides her work. The angst and tension between Helen and Druitt is one and the same, the same betrayed love and trust, the same frustrations. The confrontations between the two of them calls for some of the most sublime deliveries from both actors, as Druitt gently asks, what is it that Helen wants? GOOD QUESTION! Helen herself doesn’t seem to know, her face twists in confusion and anxiety as she tries to make sense of herself, of John, of the whole damn situation! Everything just seems WRONG. Her frustration and loneliness is no different from the real world, and yet back when she was young and in love, it had been everything she wanted. Or so she thought.
And for God’s sake, she’s not Scottish.
Intuitionally, this Helen knows that her life is wrong, there is so much more that she is capable of, work that will actually make a difference to the world!
“I don’t know! Help homeless children! Work with animals….GOD SOMETHING!… BLOODY AGENTS!!”
And once again Helen asks Will to take a leap of faith. And die. Again.
Will, losing patience with Abbie’s “tinky woo-woo crap” (IRONY!), can’t remember the basic names of drugs and medical conditions, not a good headspace to be in with an upcoming bypass surgery. Instead both he and Helen find themselves saying and doing things that, out of context, make no sense at all! Semblances of their real selves start to poke holes in the fabric of this reality, which seems to be making an enmeshed plot out of suppressed desires, which, like all dreams, confuses us as our brain tries to make sense of the disparity between this dream-world, and what it knows to be a fact.
But then again, what would we be without our dreams? WHO would we be? As Will says. “Our dreams are actually our reality”, and while it may be literal in their case, so it could be for the rest of us. Thought-provoking, no?
There is something delightfully homey about this episode. No big guns or historical heroics, but the simple struggle of two human beings who can’t make sense of themselves. It is an episode about the people, not so much about events, and everything within the setting, the plot, the delivery by both main characters, even the glorious music (SOUNDTRACK DO WANT) and pseudo-psycho shimmering mind flashes, all contribute to the very delicious human quality of the story it tells. Flashes of the lost Ashley (Emilie Ullerup), and Will’s mother give a very nostalgic and very anguished frustration to their mindset.
The music. OH the music!! The mere thought of Helen painting through the night in a lumpy cardigan and sound system blasting is hysterical, but Andrew Lockington’s absolutely perfect soundtrack gives Helen’s existence a very artsy, very alternative, very grungy café feel…it positively embodies the hermit and enigmatic painter that she seems to be. The tortured, starving artist. Hah!
This episode bears the true Trademark of Sanctuary. It is not afraid to venture into the unknown, not afraid to demand thoughts and questions from its audience, not afraid to question not only what defines it’s characters, but what defines us as human beings. It tears down the barriers between our internal realities, and the world in which we live.
I’m curious to see what effects the events in this episode have on Helen and Will. Will they remember their experiences? What effects will it have on their respective relationships, in particular, Will and Abbie?
And how wonderful to revisit an old stooge, Virgil St-Pierre! We barely touched on his character in Hero II, so what does this mean for his mercenary relationship with the Sanctuary team? Twisted as he is, there’s something endearing about his arrogant dudeisms. He reminds me of our beloved Edward Forsythe!
And for crying out loud! What in God’s name can be going on in Hollow Earth? What global Sanctuary alerts? I sense another of Damian Kindler’s infamous cliffhangers…
Stay sane for the epic finale of an EPIC SEASON!
If you can. I’ll be sitting here. Chewing up my cushions as usual. Waiting! Rocking in my corner… In the meantime we include the Sanctuary season 3 finale sneak peak courtesy of Syfy via Hulu!
Please feel free to contribute constructively to the discussion below, or click to share the article on the social media site of your choice, or click my text link or avatar my avatar to say hello and chat on Twitter!
This episode seems to be very popular and reaches out especially to the international fan base of the show. As such I feel the need to express how much I love Amanda Tapping and Peter Wingfield speaking French and German, respectively, before we start.
“Normandy” opens with the camera panning across a Nazi held checkpoint in, you guessed it, Normandy, on June 5th 1944. You don’t need to be a history buff to work out how The Five may be involved with The Second World War at this point, and it looks to be interesting how they’ll put a spin on such a tide-turning event…literally.
The first insight into the Five’s involvement comes with James Watson (Peter Wingfield) rolling up to the checkpoint in a tank and rather competently conversing with the guards in German, however all does not go to plan and a fire fight ensues. With Watson’s tank, which is now known to carry Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) too, easily defeating the checkpoint guards with a little help from an invisible Nigel Griffin (Vincent Gale), it’s on to the traditional British comments and moaning about the weather!
After the opening credits, Magnus, Watson and Griffin can be found walking through a forest debating the merits of “traipsing around Nazi France alone” and Watson’s realistic German accent. However, a mere second later, guns are raised and Magnus calls out what is accurately presumed to be a code word. The head of the sector’s French resistance, Jeanette Anaise (Erin Lacourciere) responds and now together, the two forces discuss the measures already taken and those that need to be taken in order for the invasion to succeed.
The main target as it turns out, is a device that can change the weather and prevent the allied fleet from even landing in occupied France. However, there is a problem before the mission even starts: Varreville, home to the device, is close and fairly straightforward to get to, but the latest schematics are housed in Carentan, a place heavily guarded by the Gestapo.
On that note, Nikola Tesla (Jonathon Young) is introduced to the fray. Across the channel in Portsmouth, he is diligently working away at the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force…and complaining about chamomile tea, but that’s just Tesla. He loves to complain, even to the point of claiming that Magnus hasn’t been in contact because she didn’t listen when he explained how the autotype machine worked.
Although the reason Nikola had to explain it in the first place was because General Eisenhower’s orders were to shoot him if he got on a plane. Obviously, Tesla’s always been a favourite. Cracking the Enigma code just didn’t make him enough of a favourite to the top political and military people.
Back to Normandy and Jeanette has led Magnus, Watson and Tesla to Carentan in the hope of finding their way into the bunker. Of the two entrances, the one underneath Le Café Normandie is chosen because it isn’t guarded. Of course, those are famous last words. Today of all days, it happens to be guarded and a fire fight ensues between la Résistance and the Nazi forces. Nigel returns to save the day, providing a car for the getaway. Magnus and Jeanette manage to join him, but Watson is shot before he can reach them. He becomes the distraction, and as he runs out of ammunition and surrenders, a devastated Magnus watches the whole scene.
As it turns out, the Colonel in charge of Carentan’s facility knows about The Five and the upcoming invasion and wants information. This is problematic for Magnus’ rescue plans, until John Druitt (Christopher Heyerdahl) turns up at the bunker as one of the Nazis that is. An interesting revelation and the automatic assumption is that he is leaking information on his fellow members of The Five.
Down in the bunker, Watson is sure to “be very impressed” with their guests although the sarcasm quickly turns to shock as Druitt appears, decked out in Nazi attire and according to Watson, playing a game with them. It is obvious that there’s no love lost between these two as Watson happily informs Colonel Korba of Druitt’s murderous secrets and Druitt retaliates by revealing Watson’s secret of “eternal middle age”.
Knowing these secrets about each other will never end well through, proof in point when Druitt declares that Watson doesn’t fear death and turns the life support off. Using it as an interrogation technique, Druitt attempts to get information out of Watson but ultimately fails. This time. Druitt continues to broadcast his evil side with his “plan on making you afraid to live.” That man alone is an interrogation technique!
Returning to Magnus, Griffin and Jeanette, la Résistance head straight for the second autotype machine, but don’t get the chance to finish the message before being shot at. Magnus hits the nail on the head with “There’s never enough bloody time” and it switches to Tesla receiving the message and needing to urgently talk to Eisenhower.
Back in the Carentan bunker, Druitt is still ‘interrogating’ Watson. A quick lie, a turn of a dial on Watson’s life support and Druitt finds out about the weather machine. With this information, Druitt decides to send Colonel Korba to transfer Watson to Berlin.
From the darkness of the bunker to the dead of night; Magnus, Griffin and Jeanette are an easy target as they run down an open stretch of road. Deciding that splitting up is the best option, Griffin covers as Helen and Jeanette make an escape to drum up reinforcements. Backup won’t come in the form of Tesla though. After a long wait, apparently Eisenhower thinks Magnus’ message of “Druitt is” is too ambiguous to change any plans despite Tesla’s argument that Druitt anywhere in Nazi occupied France is a threat to the Allied Forces.
Meanwhile, Magnus and Jeanette are discussing ways to get to and stop the weather device affecting the invasion landings. Blowing it up is out of the question as it will have adverse effects on the creatures controlling it and other than that, there is nothing they can do until they get their hands on the latest schematics. It all might be in vain though as sirens indicate that the invasion has already begun…
Druitt hears the same sirens and now alone in the bunker, he releases Watson, only for Watson to attempt to attack him for helping the Nazis. Druitt continues to claim that even he can identify pure evil and is working alone, against the Nazis it appears, as he killed Hitler in earlier years. Hitler’s body double anyway. It also becomes apparent that Druitt was the one who leaked information on the weather machine because he needed the rest of The Five in France as well because something much larger than the device was at play.
Elsewhere, a barn door drifts open then closed, with no sign of anyone entering or leaving, until Griffin turns visible again. Mere seconds later, Nazi troops enter the barn in search of their enemy, however they don’t manage to search very far before bullets rain upon them. More soldiers pop up from behind the stacks of hay bales, although at this moment, their nationality is not clear. A very confused and very naked Griffin also pops up and is speechless until a soldier asks him the apparently ridiculous question (in Griffin’s mind anyway!) of “Parlez anglais?”. At this point, the soldiers are identified as Americans, Fox Company, 101st Airborne and are commanded by one Captain Jack Zimmerman (Robin Dunne).
Griffin and the paratroopers share their stories of North Africa and Italy vs la Résistance and Carentan. With Griffin announcing the need to free Watson from Carentan, Zimmerman immediately shoots the idea down because the place is a stronghold and their orders are to start clearing exits off Utah Beach.
Magnus and Jeanette have returned to Carentan in the meantime, and are determined to find a way into the bunker. Magnus heads straight for Le Café Normandie as Watson demands that Druitt gets them out of there. Of course, in his weakened state, he was never going to beat Jack the Ripper in a fight, so it was lucky that Druitt has the same intentions….once he’s figured out that Watson and Magnus are now together. It goes without saying that this doesn’t sit well with Watson who presumes and is furious that Druitt leaked information just so he could “see her one more time.” Druitt of course, denies this wholeheartedly but it’s definitely intriguing to see Watson standing up so passionately for Helen. Hopefully more of this backstory will be shown at some point! With all that aside, Druitt suddenly attempts to teleport them out of the bunker, with dire results, as they end up right back where they started.
Cue Magnus to the rescue, or so we hope. An inconspicuous stroll through the streets, some polite French exchanges and she arrives at Le Café Normandie, only to find the door securely locked. A guard pounces on her the moment they realise her intention to enter the café, forcing Magnus to come up with a cover story about her “sac à main” and “portefeuille”, a predictable one but told with her charm, a failsafe one as the guard is seemingly entranced by her.
The plan would have gone so well too, if only Colonel Korba hadn’t once again shown up at the most inopportune moment. His presence now becomes very suspicious, especially with Druitt and Watson being unable to escape and Magnus being captured and joining them in the bunker as well. Although to give her credit, Magnus’ indignant nature can rise at any moment. Despite being captured, she can still be irritated at Druitt for any reason and yet it’s clear that she still cares a great deal for him, as is shown by her reaction to him being shot and taken away.
Finally there is a return to Griffin’s story and despite presumably quite a lot of time passing, he is still trying to persuade Zimmerman to belay his original orders and storm Carentan. He’s given the chance to at least explain the weather machine but the Americans still appear unlikely and unwilling to help, until Griffin informs them of a way to contact England despite the ordered radio silence.
Back to Nikola Tesla and his analysis of Druitt being “a psychotic killer but he’s no Nazi” due to “his love for Helen.” As if on cue, a message comes through the autotype machine from Griffin, relaying the presumption that Druitt is a Nazi, Watson has been captured and Magnus is Missing In Action, as well as his current standing with the 101st Airborne. Tesla sends the message along with a threat through his aide to Eisenhower.
Returning to Normandy, Griffin is prepared to split up with the Americans and head in opposite directions to Utah Beach and Carentan, respectively. However, Zimmerman has a sudden change of heart, presumably because he wants the landings and invasion to be successful, and the 101st Airborne decide to return with Griffin to Carentan in the hope of saving Watson and turning off the weather device. Later, and having reunited with Jeanette Anaise and la Résistance, a plan of attack is formed, which the Americans oppose until they see Nigel Griffin turn invisible.
The underground bunker has once again got occupants to interrogate. Magnus and Watson are bound to chairs by their wrists and ankles and are trying to deflect attention from the Colonel’s attempt at intelligence gathering with lies and stalling tactics. However none of it works, especially after Magnus refuses to allow the Korba to call her “Helen”.
The sudden revelation of Colonel Korba being head of Hitler’s Abnormal Hunting Division sets a new angle for Watson to attack, but the Colonel is quick to remind them that they will be killed afterwards because he only wanted to meet them. He admires their advancements and stamina for their ages and reveals his interest in abnormals came from being injured by a Fire Elemental.
With this new information, Magnus and Watson immediately figure out the Nazis plan, which although a relief, is no actual help when they are still trapped and the Colonel is lecturing them on the fact their invention will cause the Allied Forces to lose the war.
Above ground though, 101st Airborne are quickly moving into position and taking out the guards whilst below ground, it appears that the whole Fire Elemental plan is based on ancient texts. Watson and Magnus’ astonishment and exclamations that such a plan will doom the world leads only to Colonel Korba turning Watson’s life support off again. Loss of life appears to be a theme for the next while, with a fire fight starting above ground between the Nazis and the Americans and French Resistance.
It turns out to be a perfect distraction for Griffin though, who enters the bunker undetected and takes out the guard at the desk. Although at this moment, it begs the question of whether his rescue will be too late as Korba continues to destroy the machine keeping Watson young, much to Magnus’ horror and anguish. As Jeanette manages to find her way into the bunker to join up with Nigel, it appears that Watson is out of danger as his life support is quickly fixed and both him and Magnus quickly released.
Crossing the channel again finds Tesla’s aide returning to a surprisingly empty room, with top secret documents left strewn across the desk. As the aide starts to take notes from the top secret folders, the emptiness of the room suddenly becomes clear. A trap. Seconds later the autotype machine delivers the message of “Auf Wiedersehen” and Tesla appears demanding answers to how long the aide has been leaking information to the Nazis and not delivering messages to Eisenhower.
Back in France, Magnus, Watson, Griffin and Jeanette make their escape out the doors of Café Normandie, only to find themselves in the midst of the continuing fire fight. As the American divisions finally overpower the Nazis, Magnus and the others arrive at the building housing the Fire Elemental and weather machine, which on first viewing doesn’t appear to be heavily guarded. As always though, those were famous last words as tanks suddenly appear at the top of the road and planes start circling above them.
All is not lost though, as the surviving Americans catch up and yet another battle ensues. Magnus and Watson take this distraction as a chance to enter the building. However safety protocols have been bypassed and Magnus drops the bombshell that a Fire Elemental cannot be killed but they can try and force it down into the Earth. Meanwhile, Zimmerman has been taken out by the Nazi forces and Druitt turns up to take out Korba just a few moments too late to save anyone else.
With their mission accomplished, Magnus and Watson leave the building only to find that Druitt crouched over Korba’s body informing them that’s he’s done “What I always do, what you can’t.” With a last warning to Watson about treating Magnus well, he’s gone and once again called into question is whether his actions are purely evil in nature or for the good of humanity.
As with all wars though, good people are lost and in this case, Magnus vows that Zimmerman’s death will not be in vain, nor will any others who have lost their lives for humanity’s cause. As the sun rises on June 6th 1944, the invasion fleet can be seen making its approach to the 5 designated beaches: Sword, Gold, Juno, Utah and Omaha. The final battle has begun.
“Dedicated to all the men and women who serve in the armed forces. Thank you for giving us Sanctuary.”
And thank you to the Sanctuary team for acknowledging and honouring the bravery of those still serving and the memories of those who lost their lives to keep our world safe. And remember to stay tuned for “Carentan” the next Sanctuary episode which will air Monday June 06, 2011 in the United States on the Syfy Channel and on Friday June 10, 2011 on the Space Channel in Canada . June 6, a rather fitting date, perhaps, would you not agree?
Please feel free to leave a comment about this episode either here or on Twitter, where both WormholeRiders and myself can be contacted by clicking on the images left and below right.
When we last left our band of abnormal adventurers, they were recovering from a night on the town with the inevitable consequences of being chastised for using Dr. Helen Magnus’ (Amanda Tapping) credentials to get seating in one of the best restaurants in town!
The consequences of such tomfoolery? Well it is fairly obvious, Nikola Tesla (Jonathon Young) has clearly been given the opportunity to chat with Magnus about his own previously undiscovered ancient connection to the subterranean city of Praxis, the suspected origin of all abnormal creatures known to currently inhabit the surface of our world.
During these friendly chats while the other Sanctuaries feasted, what more do we really need to know about Nikola Tesla?
Aliyah O’Brien portrays “Afina”, a lovely Vampire Queen whom will have an interesting encounter with Nikola and Helen. Ms. O’Brien a very talented and gorgeous actress who has a wonderful voice that I swear could seduce Henry Foss (Ryan Robbins) the Lycan himself into becoming a vampire! A bit more on seduction a little later!
Beware folks, this Afina is not your average gal, nor is she affiliated with the “Afina” cultured marble bathroom appliances and accessories. No, this Afina is a full fledged vampire queen who has very special plans for us all! But I am getting a little ahead of myself, so let’s get back to the business at hand shall we?
Apparently one of our favorite Sanctuary characters, dear vampire abnormal Mr. Nikola Tesla (Jonathon Young) has talked Dr. Magnus into undergoing a mission we had previously not been made privy to! Just what in the world is up with our abnormal citizens of the world as we know it? Adventure! And … trouble!
After the introduction of previously seen clips setting up the scene, we find the pair in East Africa on an archeological mission investigating a former outpost stronghold of the ancient Praxian civilization. Naturally we are more than delighted to see Helen “out in the field” tomb digging with her old pal Nikola!
It was almost like “old home week” or a “vacation” with these two out and about! As Tesla inquires if the trip is a form of making amends for being left off the last expedition, we drift from the setting of shifting sands to an inner sanctum of a hidden chamber where our two protagonists are seeking entrance to discover the secrets of the last Praxian stronghold before their society retreated to “Hollow Earth”.
The chemistry between these two characters is always a joy to behold. I particularly enjoyed the bits of humor as they discussed looking for King Tutankhamen’s tomb before Howard Carter! “Those wild early days, no ground penetrating radar, no satellite imagery …” To see these two in action one can only appreciate the smoothness of their interaction.
It is always wonderful all by itself to see these two act together! Particularly enjoyable were the lines written in for Tesla
“You have Sasquatch for a butler and travel the world with histories most notorious murderer and now you do not feel safe?”,
“Helen green is not a good color on you”
and best of all; “She (Afina) is intelligent, powerful, and remarkably well preserved for her age. Everything I would look for in a woman”. Poor Nikola has fallen in love with Afina Queen of the vampires. And who can blame him? This dark raven haired beauty could undoubtedly seduce even the most serious male academic or archeologist for goodness sakes!
That feeling of archeological glee will not last for very long let me assure you! Subsequent o using his powers to trigger a secret portal Tesla finds himself mortally skewered by a bolt of energy triggered when he attempts to access certain portion of a secret chamber. And so the stage is set!
While our two archeologists, well actually one vampire and Dr. Helen deal with their fate, back at the Sanctuary we find Kate Freelander (Agam Darshi) with Big Guy (Christopher Heyerdahl) checking out an old Internet account she has not used over the past year.
Of course Big Guy suggests that she should simply ask Henry to install a spam filter on the e-mail account while he is observed setting up “Guitar Hero” on a big screen monitor! Now there is a scene we really must return to in the future, Big Buy playing the Sanctuary themes on an air guitar!
Kate dismisses Big Guy’s suggestion flippantly as she is deleting the e-mail messages when her eye catches something odd, a message from an old acquaintance from before her joining the Sanctuary.
Subsequent to making a decision about not making a purchase of Viagra (from the spam in the old e-mail account) with a chuckle from Big Buy, she comes across a message with a clue to a group of criminals who have apparently been dealing in an abnormal life form themselves.
Kate is more than noticeably distressed by her findings and herein lies the second arc of the story line in “Awakening”. As she shares with Big Guy she is heading out for some “Red Bull” (which is quickly surmises is bull itself), Kate sets out on a mission of good for her own edification.
Before continuing, I would like to comment on the development of the Kate Freelander character and her “look” over the weeks in season three versus the past season when her character was first introduced.
Is it me or have we not seen a softer visage of Kate Freelander both in appearance as well as her demeanor? Seems to me the Kate character has grown a bit softer in her interaction with the Sanctuary team as well.
In my opinion this softening of her character from a street brawler to a respected member of the team is what effectively sets up the second part of our story where she performs a service to society.
Jumping a bit out of place in the story-line, Kate has discovered a gang dealing in the abnormal amphibian creature known as the “Taminsails”. In discussion with Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne), we learn that the Taminsails has a gland that the criminals are extracting because of the narcotic nature of the extracts from the little creature.
Will indicates the substance provides a powerful high and that the criminals use tactics making them nearly impossible to track down and prosecute. And here we see a segue about the illegality and foolishness of narcotics, a nice anti-drug message for the audience to internalize. Thus a public service is done in-line with the story arc.
Back to the archeological find we that Nikola is indeed mortally wounded from the defense mechanisms and is fading fast. Only his control of magnetism is keeping his entrails intact. When we return to the underground chambers Helen has discovered ancient script writings and a secret switch which reveals Queen Afina hidden in a very pretty purple amber crystal pod inside a vault located behind a solid rock wall inside the tomb.
During our time with Nikola Tesla we have often wondered about his past and where his race came from. The purple amber pod is a bit like Pandora’s Box, what lies inside leads us to believe that we will surely learn the long lost history of Nikola’s race of vampires, and what happened to them.
First however Helen needs to help ensure that Nikola survives by hopefully extracting a bit of fresh blood from the entombed queen to revive him. Using a bit of real world science, the idea is that the queen would be perfectly preserved in the amber pod and therefore be able to provide a bit of nourishment to restore Nikola to full strength. After quite a bit of laser firing and whacking the crystalline amber she is able to insert a hypodermic and draws some much needed blood and save Nikola.
Akin to the legendary Pandora’s Box, could opening the pod be safe? Can Helen and Nikola be able to bring the queen back to the Sanctuary for safe keeping? Placed there thousands of years earlier by her brother who never revived her and stole her throne, Afina is far more than simply preserved by the purple amber.
In fact the amber structure is a stasis pod designed to protect the queen until she is awakened by her own kind. Uncharacteristically not knowing this potential (perhaps from the stress and distraction of Tesla’s injury), Helen’s actions end up unwittingly freeing Queen Afina from her imprisonment of thousands of years!
Seemingly agreeable to cooperating after being freed, our beautiful Queen Afina has other plans after she regained her equilibrium. Using deception to convince Helen and Nikola of a hidden escape route, she instead throws Tesla into the shaft and turns her attention to Magnus!
Shifting back to the Sanctuary headquarters, the pace is quickened up with Kate revealing that she knows where a gang of criminals are coveting the “Taminsails”. She convinces Will and Big Guy into leading a team to save the little things from a torturous death and painful extraction of the drug like substance which is actually a narcotic of a likely highly addictive nature.
The mission is a success but the actual perpetrators, the ringleaders are not at the location where the furry little critters are being prepared for the illegal drug crazed masses.
Much like in real life, this blending of reality regarding drug, alcohol and chemical substance abuse addiction into the story line adds a sense of realism to the story. Also much like in real life, criminals catering to the weaknesses of others (addictions) carries a strong message to avoid the use of drugs.
Know this people: The so-called “recreational” purpose of drug use often leads to the enslavement of innocent people both young and old that are drawn into the web of the dark side of our reality including human slavery, prostitution, addiction and crime.
Back in the clutches of Queen Afina, she is about to prepare a meal. We are disconcerted that the main course is nonetheless to be the immortal Helen Magnus herself. Obviously a good choice of healthy stock, Helen is treated to the sight of the court of Afina all neatly arranged in rows of yet another chamber that stretches far into the depths of the cave complex.
Undoubtedly an entire army ready to serve Queen Afina, Helen is not very comforted by the fact that she will supply the fresh blood needed by minions of the Queen. You see Afina has planned for their resurrection and her eventual return to power. Ultimately if successful Afina will enslave the inhabitants on the surface of the Earth and that means you and me! Yikes!
Naturally Helen is the perfect meal for the hungry denizens, but never fear our second archeologist has managed an escape and arrives just in the nick of time before the feasting begins. A “bullet-time” fight between the two vampires ensues with the Queen gaining the upper hand on Nikola.
Forced into making a “deal with the devil”, Helen has but one choice; Offer something of greater value to Afina to save Nikola Tesla. Now what could that possibly be? It should be fairly obvious. With Afina driven by revenge and a lust in her quest for power, there is only one thing that could persuade her to make a deal: PRAXIS where she can get revenge for her entrapment eons ago!
And sure enough so it will be. Helen breaks out the holographic projector and map of the city and offers Afina the pass code to its entrance in exchange for an actual way to leave the crypt. Nikola finally realizing what Afina was really after knows that once Afina has conquered Praxis, she will turn her attention once more to the surface. Helen and Afina both realize this as well but nevertheless the deal is struck. All of this to Nikola’s horror that Magnus would surrender the secrets of access Praxis where her father is living!
Before the final sequences we move back to the Sanctuary and find out why Kate had been so intent on stopping the illegal trafficking in abnormal creatures. In a rather touching sequence with Will, she confesses that when she was young and trying to survive on the streets, she had been part of a ring of criminals tracking down the abnormal creatures who were sold to the highest bidder.
Kate’s actions and motivations (both now and then) are better understood within this context. The softer nature of her character was already there. It was simply suppressed by her need to survive. Here again the analogy and relationship to real life is complete. How many innocent people in the “real world” are forced into such servitude to ensure their survival or that of their family? Many.
We return to gloriously evil Afina making the exchange of information for access to Praxis with Helen as she and Nikola prepare to leave. Are we really to believe that Helen would make such a Faustian arrangement with an immortal soul such as Afina? The key to understanding Helen’s intent is the password Helen provided A false one!
We observe Helen and Nikola making their way on to the surface as Afina speaks the “Gateway” password. The holographic city vanishes with the exception of one object in the midst of a countdown to detonation As the scene fades backwards we witness a massive explosion. Afina, her court and all the secrets of the Vampiris have apparently been erased from the surface of our world.
We end the episode with Kate informing her former criminal associates she is on to them and so is the Sanctuary!
We segue way back to some good natured banter between Helen and Nikola outside after the entire complex has been vaporized. Despite the loss o the Vampiris database and its knowledge we can rest easy that Tesla has been resurrected once again to the ranks of an immortal vampire!
Sanctuary returns in an exciting episode named Normandy replete with a journey back in time to the era of the Nazi’s and the Second World War just prior to the D-Day invasion in June 1944. I suggest you do not miss it!
If you prefer, click the social media icons below to share this news article or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit the WHR on Facebook or me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story and or on See You on The Other Side“! Thank you.
So far, in the world of fandom, Sanctuary Season Three of this ingenious and creative series has kept every single human, abnormal or otherwise, perched on the edge of their couches/sofas/beds in a squeaking flurry of anticipation and awed grimaces.
With a WHOLE TWENTY EPISODES (YUS, THE BIG TWO-ZERO), not only has the devilishly talented team at the Studio been able to extend the epicness over months and months, but they’ve been able to sneakily play with pushing our boundaries of suspense. Cheeky buggers.
It’s also allowed them to expand their horizons and push the intensity of the overlapping story arcs even further. We fans are only human (partly), and every now and then we need to be able to BREATHE, so for the past few weeks, Sanctuary has graciously spared our lives by mellowing out the freakishness of its epic, and settled into a lovely little bubble of softness, joviality, somewhat light-hearted stroll through romance lane. It’s nice to see a deep and darkly intense scifi show that is not afraid to mention the word ‘love’ or point a fun finger at it.
Even so, such fun romantic trips are not merely for the sake of our lung capacity and overstretched suspense. Each relationship consist of entire people, with decades of love, anger, fear, adrenaline, happiness and grief behind each. Each person comes from different walks of life, from a different host of experiences, with different skills and different passions.
With the fabulous scope that twenty episodes has given Sanctuary, we have also been privileged to welcome new characters into the fold. Through the various adventures of certain boys, we’ve had introduced to us two new girls on the block: Abby Corigan (Abigail, played by Pascale Hutton) a behavioural scientist and agent of the FBI, and the Hyper-Accelerated Protean, Erika (Pauline Egan).
Both these women are incredibly strong and grounded in their own ways, but at the same time are so DIFFERENT and COLOURFUL.
Given their crazy and unpredictable working environments, and the scarcity of non-dangerous creatures, it was almost a given that our two Sanctuary boys should find some comfort in the arms of these two ladies. But to REALLY appreciate the chemistry going on, we need to have a look at this latest episode ‘Wingman’ to understand some questions, and to raise more. Because that’s how we roll. Innit.
The very opening soundtrack of this episode is lilting and fun. There are a lot of flashbacks which may or may not interrupt the flow of narrative, depending on who you are! I myself found it to be some kind of angsty nostalgic trip down memory lane, and it gave me this insatiable craving to go back and watch certain episodes to fulfill the craving for, mainly, epic Magnus (Amanda Tapping) kicking ass with whatever tools she could find. Seriously. Blowing up a chopper, flailing pipes and slashing tentacles ten metres under water. Nothing unusual there. Moving on…
It was lovely to revisit a character, and also a familiar face, from the original webisodes, with director Peter Deluise appearing as the devious Ernie.
The whole date scenario is sweet really. Of course Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne) and Abby first met in ‘Vigilante’, but they finally went on their inevitable first night of romance in ‘One Night’, when they were kidnapped by a gang of traffickers. Abby’s beginnings on the show have not been unlike WIll’s. After all, they do have the same background, whether or not he actually remembers it. Her first confrontation with her first abnormal, Biggie, was a bit of a shock, but her compassion and understanding was swift, quiet and sweet.
She seems to confront unexpected and violent situations pretty calmly. I mean, given her FBI training one would expect nothing less, but Will’s initial reactions were a little less believing. Most likely because he didn’t want to admit that his childhood fears were a reality.
This episode is no different for Abby, the delicious prospect of a gourmet Italian dinner followed by a night of canoodling warms her to a jolly glow, and the inevitable intrusion of Will’s insane work schedule (and the ever-present Dr. Magnus) doesn’t faze her in the slightest. As she says to poor Will “As long as it’s fun, I’ll keep coming back for more!”.
She brightly traipses through the sewerage tunnels in pursuit of the Lepidoptera, and offers Henry her hands to be useful in any way that she can.
I have a couple of niggling questions though. Although we have seen Abby’s calm demeanour when they’re plunged into rather outlandish situations, we have not had much of a chance to see her in action as a professional in her own right. We have not been able to see her own skills put to use in the field, and in this episode in particular, she seems somewhat of a helpless lady in distress. Amiable and jolly, but not adding much usefulness to help solve the situation.
She is a little of ‘a sucker for punishment’, and somehow always ends up mortally poisoned or crippled. I do hope we get to see her exercise her brilliance some more in the future! She is, after all, undoubtedly a strong and brilliant woman in her own right. As an FBI agent, there is so much more to be explored!
Erika seems to be the complete opposite. Although when we first met her in ‘Animus’, she was plagued with fear and indecision, her new found freedom and venturing out into the world seems to have given her a sense of self-worth, and she is now taking her life into her own hands. Erika’s entire demeanour has changed, from one of timidity and suppression, to a full-blown woman comfortable with her femininity, and taking on the world with open arms.
We are familiar with her talents and skills as a HAP. Fortunately in ‘Wingman’, we are able to see her full blown brilliance, as she and Henry bounce technobabble of each other…the language taking on a personal deep need of…erm…well. *CENSORED*
Despite the shameful innuendo, of which we can’t get enough *COUGH*, her passion and love for the world of circuit-boards is astounding, as she ingeniously makes-do with the situation and materials at hand. Her talent isn’t just for the lab, she’s on FIRE when it comes to inconceivable moth-man situations. ‘Impossible’ or ‘difficult’ doesn’t seem to be in her dictionary. Yet. But then again, having the personal closeness and with her absolute faith in Henry’s brilliance (somewhat blindfolded at times), she has no reason to doubt herself …or her date-partners!
Her new-found self in the wide world is still apparent. Erika can be, like Henry Foss (Ryan Robbins), extremely naive at times. The fact that she supposes that he can just drop everything and leave everything behind with but a few hours short notice just bawls for some more life experience. It was doubtful that Henry would ever leave his Sanctuary family in such a way, but Erika’s potential as not only perhaps an activist in the abnormal world, but even as a leader in her own right, is astounding.
We’ve only had a short introduction so far, but let’s see how this intriguing woman develops with the series!
Like Erika, Henry can be quite naive at times. I mean, we’ve seen it in random little situations, but his relief and revelation at realising that he, in fact is NOT alone in the world, his discovery of a brilliant and beautiful woman who is just like him, leads him besottedly onward. The poor guy had a hard enough time getting used to the new reality of who he is…let alone dealing with it on his own. Well, sort of.
It WAS immensely fun to see him finally in the clutches of human(ish) contact. The provocative banter between he and Erika is just delicious, and giggleworthy, to behold, and surely the tech geek deserves SOME romantic action. FINALLY.
His naivety matched Erika’s in the very opening scene of the episode. As he presents to Will his amorous intentions for Erika, Will’s shock at the speed of their relationship catches him by surprised. A WHOLE WEEK AND A HALF. They’re perfect for each other!
“Why, because she’s a HAP?!”
Henry doesn’t understand Will’s reaction, but his journey of personal growth through the episode, and in particular the revelation in his last meeting with Erika, sheds an incredible amount of light on his understanding of relationships. As he so rightly states to Magnus: “I know it’s weird, but apparently there’s a lot more to a relationship than just being a HAP”.
Will’s the lucky one in this episode. Though his perfectly planned evening goes inevitable awry, with a sigh he takes it in his stride, and it turns out to be far more exciting than the date he had planned. He and his lovebird even get to sample the deliciousness of Alfredo’s, and we’ll leave the bedroom goings-on to your imagination *titters*.
Akay, I’m going to be brutally honest here. I know Amanda Tapping is working her gorgeous self to smithereens, and we love her for it. But I miss Helen Magnus. I miss the intriguing and mysterious games she plays, the history that always seems to be hidden from us, her unpredictability, her strength and awesome ass-kickness, her vulnerabilities. The little tid-bits that we hang onto in this episode, be it her cheeky but powerful and sympathetic (or not!) presence, or the flashbacks to other episodes, they tantalisingly dangle her in front of our eyes, before whisking her away to the dark recesses of the *COUGH* delivery room.
The little she says is to the point, and either breaks you down into grimacing snorts, or touches one with her simple and honest sensitivity. She is more than a boss to her team, she is like a mother at times. For one, she scolds the boys like a couple of hormonal brothers (I just couldn’t stop LAUGHING in ‘Hangover’). In ‘Wingman we see another two sides to her weird boss-motherliness.
*CLICK CLACK CLICK CLACK*…the sounds of her heels striding toward the hopeful lovebirds is almost to be expected. It echoes through the halls as though the presence of Dr. Magnus is watching everything with a Godly eye, whether the mortals can see her or not…
She cheekily grosses the boys out in a motherly way, pressing on them that what she asks of them is imperative, really they don’t have a choice….unless they want to monitor a cervix. Ahem.
The other side of Helen’s coin is at the conclusion of the episode. Though she never compromises her leadership and strength, her sympathy to the miserable Henry is touching. She strives to make up for his missed love-call by treating him to the date he’d missed out on.
Only to be interrupted by a pair of half-naked and ravenous psychologists stealing half the goods away.
Somehow, despite her “Will you two be joining us for dinner?”, I just can’t see Helen Magnus ever letting Abby or Will attend the table in such attire. It would be positively improper and a disgrace to table etiquette!
Please feel free to contribute to the discussion below, or visit me on Twitter, or even share this news article with other fantabulous members of geekdom by clicking one of the social media icons below.
Sorry for the delay in posting this Sanctuary episode review for those fans in the US, but as I am in Canada, I did not get to see this awesome show until Friday night. And as I am not one for posting spoilers for people to complain about. Even though some people do not mind them, I thought it best to wait until us Canadian’s at least had a chance to see it.
Sorry for those of you in the UK and that part of the world where you still have to wait until June to see, but you guys are in for a real treat when you do.
Now, onto my thoughts…
Well I must say that watching the beginning of this episode made me think of the ending of the movie DOOM. Where it makes you feel that you are the one in the show. This was so cool how the camera made me feel that I was the one frantically getting dressed and walking into the room to meet up with the rest of the gang. Kudos to the effects department on that one. It was brilliant.
And it carried on into the infirmary where Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) and Henry Foss (Ryan Robbins) are in Hazmat suits. I thought to myself, ‘please let him not have something growing out of his head.’ And after Helen had taken a sample of Will’s blood, she was a little reluctant on letting Will see himself. Henry was unsure as well, but with Helen’s approval, Henry past Will a mirror and that is when you see what all the concern was about.
Scales??? I was like, ‘oh goodie, Will is going to turn into a fish.’ LOL. Of course you can see the honest to goodness concern on the face of Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping). And with everything they have been through together, she was determined to solve this. And knowing Helen like we all got to know her these past three and half years, she was very protective with her team.
Then a little while later, Helen comes back in the isolation room she put Will into, only this time with no hazmat helmet on. So,, NOT contagious, that is good news.
Not knowing what this was or how he got it in the first place was puzzling to say the least. But as Will had loads of time on his hands apparently, Helen could not help but make light of the situation and prop a box of files on the bed next to Will. I guess he was behind on his work for Helen like I find myself at times. LOL
And again with the effects of you only hearing Will’s voice behind the camera. And I LOVED the way the camera “blinked” as if you or I would blink our eyes. That was just to wicked if you ask me. And what I had to give a chuckle at was with the cute little wink she gave Will, along with a smile, and then left him to the huge stack of files in the box. Poor guy.
Though, I felt bad for Will. He was finally allowed out of his room and found the gang, Henry, Kate Freelander (Agam Darshi) and Big Guy (Christopher Heyerdahl – I swear, I have to find a better name for him), talking about him with the way they tried hard not to look at him.
But the best part of that scene was when Kate was all serious and wanting to ask Will a question. Will being so understanding with his ever changing appearance, told her to go ahead, to ask him anything. That is when she popped the question. “Any way you can save us 15% or more on car insurance?” LOL. Well I never laughed so hard, and the look on Kate’s face was priceless. What a cute smile. 🙂
Of course, Will was not impressed. And the expression you can hear from his voice was so funny. “Geiko? Really?” Well I just cracked up laughing again. And the best part was that the Big Guy bust out laughing too.
This whole episode was so awesome. Looking around through Will’s eyes. I think that this episode was the best by far with the effects and camera work. It could not have been easy to make this one, and hopefully if someone from the cast reads this, they can tell how they done it.
But what makes this show stand out was how much the characters have grown more and more as a family. With Will changing into something we were not too sure of until last minute, it really tested Kate. She confided into Henry that she had never dealt with anything like this before. I felt for Kate, she has grown so much throughout this season. What an amazing actress. Well, they all are awesome in their own ways.
OK, so onto more of parts that stuck out to me…
Then Will discovers he’s got a new super power. SPIDERMAN! Yes, he tested it by climbing up the wall of his bedroom. Though, I felt bad for Kate. Bringing in his tray for him to eat and finding him almost up to the ceiling. I think I was laughing at a lot of places throughout this episode.
Of course with the word getting to Henry, he went to Will and asked him to help him out. I think he just wanted to see Will go up the wall. It was funny though. Because as you watch “yourself” climb the wall, you can hear Henry on the floor, “that’s so cool”.
The help that Henry needed from will was to change a light-bulb. Henry obviously could not reach it. And now with Will and his new “talent”, he figured this was the only way to get it done.
So Will went and done it. Well how could anyone refuse a face like that? LOL Doesn’t he look cute? 😀
Unfortunately, we find out that Will cannot be around sunlight. He dropped to the floor. Off to the infirmary again. Although, Henry felt bad that he learned that there was a switch to lower the chandelier to change burnt out bulbs. 😛
This shows how awesome the make-up artists are. Will is changing and it is cool to how we are shown little by little of his progress.
Of course, later when Will and Kate are having a touching moment, we see his reflection through the laptop screen. Kate told him that Alley was asking about him, but she told her that he was not feeling well. He was appreciative. I do not think that he would have wanted to tell her on the phone, or in person for that matter.
This next picture is one of many pictures that we got to see of the awesomeness of Sanctuary. I would love to work in a place like that. I would make a great secretary and seeing to the files and putting them organized. 😉
But with Will changing, he is not allowed to go on a mission with the gang. Instead he is left behind. But it was not long before the Big Guy comes to his room and tells him he has something to show him. I was a bit scared and intrigued as to what this secret could be. Then we are let inside.
Biggie opens the door and lets Will go in first. The room had a sitting area with shelves and shelves of bottles of whiskey. Yes, WHISKEY! A guy after my own heart. It is my preferred drink right now. But anyway, they were accompanied by someone who is no stranger to the TV screen.
Yep, it is none other then our own Stargate tech guy – Chuck. So with a few drinks, they had a great time, kicking back, having a laugh. Of course the boys were telling Will that once the gang gets back, they give a play by play of what happened out in the field. It was funny to see how Will and Biggie looked at each other as they watched Henry and Kate be so hyped telling the story. I giggled at the expression on Biggie’s face, and Henry & Kate’s enthusiasm.
This picture of Kate being with Will when his hands have morphed in a way that he cannot get a grip on anything anymore, that Kate helps him by feeding his meal to him. Although, from this picture she looks a little flirty, but when you see the actual show, you will see just how much she truly cares for Will.
Unfortunately little later, we find that cause Will attacked Kate (partly cause he could not speak anymore), they had to put him in those isolation boxes where Helen usually keeps the rest of the adnormals that is taking up residence there. Each one took a moment and said their good-byes. Kate, unfortunately, could not muster the words. Bless her.
Morphed Will looking around his new room, thinking of a way out.
Of course Helen finally gets the answer she’s been waiting on, and makes up a cure of sorts, but when Kate and Henry goes to get Will, he is gone. Or so they thought. Morphed or not, Will still knew how to trick people. He had tore off a heating grate up by the ceiling, letting them think he got out. When Kate turned around to only see Will there behind Henry. She did not get the warning out in time when Will hit Henry. Then knocked out Kate, and ran out the door.
Luckily, they were able to track him, and got him back. Helen went to visit Will, who was back in the infirmary yet again, to see how he was feeling. With his voice still a little sore from the morphing, he was now back to his usual charming self. Well with a little bit of trace abnormality left on his face. But he was back to being his gorgeous self again.
So that is my thoughts on this episode. I hope you all enjoyed the read and especially enjoyed watching the episode for yourself. In the meantime below is the extended promotional trailer for “Wingman” tonight on Syfy and Friday on SPACE CHannel
Thanks for popping by WormholeRiders News Agency and reading my thoughts on this episode. Please feel free to leave a comment below, click on the various buttons to spread this article around, or you can nab me on twitter by clicking on my avatar. Hope you liked reading as much as I enjoyed writing it.
We have all been there. We’ve all had ‘that’ date. You know the one I mean. The one where you probably would have spent some time getting yourself looking just so. Convinced yourself that you are sure, smart, and sophisticated? Yep. That’s the one.
That ‘date’ when you think you have everything as near dammit perfect as possible. You look good, they look REALLY good. You’ve managed to wangle your way into an exclusive restaurant, (= Mucho brownie points), and this is where it goes wrong!
You accidentally spill wine on the girl, or you tread on their toes, elbow them in the face or maybe call them by the wrong name/forget their name, Offer them a cough sweet, only to find out their allergic to the lemon flavouring in them…. OR you’re on your way there, when you get kidnapped…..
Okay, well maybe mine have not gone soooo disastrously as wrong as Will’s after all…….
Just before we plunge into Will’s disastrous date night, I would like to say that Amanda Tapping has yet again done an AMAZING job directing an episode. She seems to have settled into the Directing extremely well. I know is not her first rodeo, but even still, and I love her camera work. (She doesn’t push the camera boundaries as much this time, but we do get her signature ‘crane’ shot!) Also if I could take a moment to doff my cap in Anthem’s direction for the vis effects, bravo! It is again hard to imagine the amount of stage work that is done sans physical props. And in my humble opinion it is getting harder to spot where the vis effects end now, and the physical props that are there, being.
One Night:
To set the scene, Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne) has a date! Woo hoo! And she appears to be a lovely date too! Woo Hoo! And they appear to be hitting it off! Woo Hoo!!! And……………………Can I just say. For the record. Poor Will. Poor Poor Will. This being the first date that he has had (that we have seen) since Clara died. And the poor lamb ends up kidnapped.
With his date.
How epically unlucky can you be?
One minute you are walking to the restaurant you have managed to book in your Boss’s name. (WILLIAM honestly!) And the next you think you’re being mugged. ONLY to then have it turn into something much much worse as you are both kidnapped. (I’d rather take the mugging thank you very much!)
A short ride later and both Abby portrayed by Pascale Hutton (Fringe, Smallville, Stargate Atlantis) and Will (Robin Dunne) are deposited in some grimey dingey warehouse, where a rather sinuous sinister looking Sioux (Tinsel Korey) is quite clearly waiting for them. Will does that whole, ‘eyebrows in hairline’ thing which always makes me smile. But even when he looks like someone has just pulled the rug out from under his feet, you can still see the cogs turning in his brilliant mind. The lad has certainly learnt a large amount since those first early days in the Sanctuary Network. It’s like he has been on the fast track program to spydom. (Although not quite OO7 yet William…..)
Long and the short? Will has to save the gang’s leader Horatio Gibbs (Edward Foy), who has been laid out by a rather nasty spiney abnormal. Failing to convince Sioux that they have got the wrong Doctor, (Frankly I would have PAID to have seen the gang try to corral Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) Will finally sees that he has no option but to attempt to save the leader.
Just side stepping for a moment. Was anyone else a bit annoyed by Abbey? I just found that after they had just arrived at the warehouse, that the girl wouldn’t shut up. (in fairness i don’t know how i would react if kidnapped on a first date, but i don’t think i would be quite so chatty) So, yes, she irritated me! I did think that if she doesn’t calm down soon, i will head butt her. But then she goes and does something all heroic like trying to arrange a distraction so that Will and her can attempt to escape!
The girl almost ends up getting herself shot by a stray fired bullet, and proceeds to give Will, (who is in a different room to her) a small heart attack as he thinks she has been shot. After the very brief, and short lived attempted at trying to escape from the Gang, Will realises he has to rely on what little he can remember from his Pre-Med days. Mixing up a solution that should stop the fitting that Gibbs, is currently going through on the table, Will administers it and to his and Abbey’s delight, the guy on the table stops fitting. In fact, he stops moving. He stops, well, everything. Including breathing……….
Oooo Crap. Will’s killed him. Frankly, it couldn’t have gone more wrong.
Weirdly enough, the next line is one that I have heard MORE than once in Sanctuary. Will prepares what he calls a ‘Hail Mary.’( SEE! There it is again! We heard it in Pavor Nocturnus, and Next Tuesday) After deploying said Hail Mary, the guy on the table gets a thump on his chest for his worries from Will and badabing, badaboom……. we are breathing once more.
Now I love Will when he gets all riled up and pissey. It makes for an interesting turn in the dynamic that makes up his character. Normally he is so cool and rational (if a little eyebrow raisey) and we get to watch as he loses his rag with Sioux. Apparently the young lady has been holding out on him. Turns out Mr Gibbs on the table is an Abnormal. A Septeran, and they have completely inverse immune system. Now, i don’t know what that means. But i am guessing that whatever you would do to treat a human, isn’t going to work on old Johnny go lightly on the table.
Meanwhile back at the Sanctuary, Kate (Agam Darshi) receives a very heated phone call from the owner of the Restaurant that Will used Magnus’s (Amanda Tapping) name for a restaurant booking. The guy is yelling down the phone at Kate, who when asked if she is Will’s girlfriend says, ‘Seriously? Have you seen the guy? He is like a matchstick with hairgell!’ LOL. He has been kidnapped and is getting insulted at the same time. LOVE IT.
Kate, currently sat in Magnus’s chair, is all fire and vigour until Biggie (Christopher Heyerdahl) and Declan (Robert Lawrenson) walk in and she promptly jumps up from the Magnus Chair, as if burnt. After a quick debate on why Will and Abbey did not make it to the restaurant, (Again William gets it again, I will not spoil it here, because it’s a moment you need to watch) Apparently the food at Alfredo’s really is THAT good…..
Back at the warehouse……….Will has written up a small shopping list for Abbey to go source out in the local market. Will, ever keen to try and escape. Has created a way for Abby to do a bunk. On the list that he has given her for the ingredients for a counter to the toxin running through Gibb’s veins, is a Moroccan Cave Scorpion. Not needed for the shot for Gibbs, but Abby gets the brut Coda (James Pizzinato) to open the box, where upon doing so, he is viciously attacked by the nasty critter and Abby, does a runner. HUSSAR! Progress!
Will currently still in the warehouse, uses two Epi pens on two of the guards in the warehouse and runs, only to run straight into Sioux, who, well as you may have gathered, isn’t very happy that Will’s Girlfriend has set a creature upon one of her boys. Will looks like he is about to take a bullet, when Abby comes rushing back in. And Saves his life. Even though Will had basically set this up so she could do a runner. She comes back. I can’t decide if that is stupid or sweet. Maybe it’s both……But poor Will gets lamped around the head for his troubles. Again.
Meanwhile, Kate has had the red list buys bought to her attention and they quickly figure out that young Will and Abby are in trouble. The list that Will devised, has been done in such a manner that it gives the Sanctuary crew his location. They figure this all out, and scramble a team together, but have the mission to save them scrubbed by Magnus herself.
Apparently the vendetta crew have been of interest to Magnus for months and potentially there is a Ghost Ship of abnormals arriving in the city and Gibbs is the main contact. They have been tracking this for months, and the Ship is laden with abnormals destined to become slaves. Its big money for Gibbs and a very big bust for Magnus, one which she does not want to mess up as hundreds of abnormals will suffer and disappear as soon as that ship makes ground.
Kate, you can tell is pissed beyond pissed. But what can you do when your boss says no? Keep an eye on it all anyway apparently…………….
Back at the warehouse, there is a lovely discussion that takes place, between Will and Abby where basically Abby is slightly insulting Will. You seriously see his feathers get ruffled and Will automatically starts defending himself. Abby’s point is that something is seriously not playing right, and that something feels decidedly off with what is happening in the warehouse. The body language of Sioux is all kinds of off, and instead of hearing this, for a moment or two, Will is seriously a little more than insulted. Bless.
After bringing his deflated ego back into line, Will sets about making the concoction needed. The only reason he remembers the ingredients is because one of their operatives got stung in their last mission. And they had to make the same solution then. Upon going to administer the injection, Will then discovers that Gibb’s is in a state of Tachycardia, which for a Septeran, isn’t possible.
Pissed at being lied to again, Will challenges Sioux, and low and behold, the truth comes tumbling out. Sioux, in her own, VERY screwed up way, is trying to do the right thing. She doesn’t want Gibbs to trade in Slaves. Abnormal or otherwise. Unfortunately, it looks like the other member of the crew namely Coda, has other ideas, and decides to shoot Sioux, killing her, and also impale Abby with the quills taken out of Gibb’s leg. Will now has two patients. One who will die quickly, and one on the verge of dying. I believe the game has just been upped. Will, looks like he has just been sucker punched in the guts. And I don’t blame him.
There is however, a lovely moment, where Abby is asking about the food at Alfredo’s, even though she is clearly in some pain. Will is talking to her about what they would have had. And Abby is trying to breathe, and make light of the situation. Bless her. She is ok in the end. Will quickly makes up another syringe, and gives Gibb’s the goods. Unfortunately when the rat bag comes round, he swipes his arm across the table, effectively smashing everything that Will needs to make up another syringe for Abby. However, after everyone has left, and for those of us with sharp enough eyes, Will produces a syringe from his pocket which is in fact a spare antidote to the poison. Clever Boy that William……. And he administers the injection with a kiss.
The rest ends pretty sharpish. Do they get the bad guy? Of course. Pfffft. Helen Magnus would never let THAT opportunity slip through her fingers. Biggie is particularly vicious with the bad guys, giving one a delightful slap round the head. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) gets to deliver the last line in the episode, after Will has finished declaring the situation a Win Win, and Magnus has slapped him down for using her name to get a table at Alfredo’s. IN fact the line makes you WANT to visit Alfredo’s. Will asks, and this has been a theme throughout the episode, if the food at Alfredo’s is that good.
Helen simple demurs, in a low voice…..’Oh, It’s that good……’ And speaking of good we include the Wingman extended sneak peek courtesy of Syfy via Hulu
As always thank you for visiting WormholeRiders News Agency and reading my report. Please feel free to leave a comment below, share this article by clicking one of the social media icons below or visit me on Twitter by clicking on the avatar to the right.
We are honored and pleased to announce we will be interviewing the wonderful actor, writer, director and producer Robin Dunne Saturday November 30, 2013 at 9:00 AM Pacific Standard Time, 12 PM Eastern Standard Time to chat with this gifted entertainment professional about his latest projects, what is coming in the future and his fabulous career!
Dunne co-produced the comedic drama at the Factory Studio Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON M5V 2R2, Canada. The Repetitive Strain Injury premiere opening is December 06, 2013 beginning a limited exclusive ten day run through December 15, 2013! 
“Repetitive Strain Injury” is described by the creators as “Darkly funny and unflinchingly honest, the play centers around a thirty something couple about to get married. When fate interferes, new friends and strange opportunities put things in flux. Sexy, candidly cruel and deeply relatable, RSI follows a tangled web of relationships, exposing five reluctant adults caught in a karmic pressure cooker. (Rob) Van Meenen follows up the wildly successful run of his first play “Burn” (co-written with Cherise Arnesen) with this powerful and unblinking dissection of modern relationships written in the style of what he himself describes as “Neil Labute meets How I Met your Mother.” 
Dunne has been very active in a string of movies in 2013 including The Good Witch’s Destiny, Three Days in Havana, Scarecrow, Torment, Supercollider, and a holiday treat entitled Twelve Trees of Christmas that recently aired on the Lifetime channel in the United States and soon to air on CTV in Canada! 
Please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or family. Feel free to leave your comments and we look forward to you visiting in the future
