Review: “Sanctuary for None, Part Two” (Season Finale) + New Writing

New writing: Another of my articles has been posted at WhatMMO, 10 Common MMO Player Types. Which are you? Myself, I’d say I’m a Joe Average with a bit of the Talker, and occasionally the Helper if I’m in the right mood.

Review: “Sanctuary for None, part two” Sanctuary logoNot surprisingly, the final episode of Sanctuary’s fourth season presents us with a doomsday scenario. SCIU, the government’s anti-Abnormal division, is planning the Abnormal Final Solution, a genocide that may not end even after the Abnormals are gone.

Meanwhile, Caleb, leader of the Abnormal resistance, is planning to unleash a mutative agent so dastardly even Tesla thinks it’s crazy.

Only Helen Magnus and her increasingly fractured team can stop these twin disasters, and time is, of course, rapidly running out. And so us viewers are treated to an epic struggle the likes of which we haven’t seen from this show since the final confrontation with the Cabal at the end of the first season. Will and Addison (Robin Dunne and Brian Markinson) in As this is is playing out, “Sanctuary for None” also hints at some vast scheme planned out by Magnus over her 113 year vacation following her trip back to the 19th century at the beginning of the season.

This is one area where I wasn’t impressed with this episode, as it is never clearly explained what this incredible master plan is. The final scene shows its culmination, but to be honest, I’m still not sure what we were shown. Maybe I’m just dense, but I didn’t quite get it. Surely all will be revealed in the next season (if there is one; more on that later), but it would have been nicer for them to just come right out and explain what was going on.

There are essentially two ways what we saw could be interpreted; one is incredibly awesome, and the other is very disappointing. But I don’t which is the truth, so I can’t really judge.

My other complaint is the complaint I always have: needs more Tesla. Seriously, though, the few scenes he got in “Sanctuary for None” were excellent, even compared to his usual awesomeness, but there was the potential for a lot more.

There’s a great little subplot of SCIU perverting his inventions into weapons of mass destruction, the news of which causes him to fly into a rage and illustrates that there actually is a good heart under all that arrogance and reckless brilliance. But sadly, this is not given anywhere near the attention it deserves.

But despite those issues, I would still rate this as easily one of the finest Sanctuary episodes to date. It had all the action and suspense we’d expect from a season finale, and then some. There are serious “Holy ****!” moments in “Sanctuary for None,” and those aren’t something we get a lot of in this series. It also has plenty of plot twists, and hell, even Kate displayed some believable emotion for once.

Overall rating: 9/10

Thus concludes the fourth season of Sanctuary. As to whether there will be a fifth, no one can say, but from what I hear, the outlook is not good. The ratings are nothing to be impressed with, and from what I’m told, the fourth season was only grudgingly given the green light — hence its shortened length.

Despite all its inconsistency and occasional mind-bending stupidity, I find the thought of no more Sanctuary surprisingly distressing. For all its stumbles, the last two seasons have had many more hits than misses.

Besides, there’s hardly anything on TV I enjoy anymore, especially in the sci-fi department. If Sanctuary bites the dust, I may have to swallow my pride and start watching Doctor Who or something.

The first three seasons of Sanctuary are available on my Amazon Affiliate. Buy the DVDs and support the show.

Sanctuary Reviews: “The Depths” and “Sanctuary for None, part one”

The Space channel put the last three episodes of Sanctuary’s fourth season up on their website at once, so I can now catch up on my reviews. I’ll cover the first two today, including part one of the season finale.

Sanctuary logo“The Depths”

…Or, as I like to call it, “something horrible happens to Magnus and Will episode #24601.”

Seriously, why can’t something bad happen to Magnus and Henry for a change? Or Henry and Biggie?

To be honest, there’s little point in going in to the set up for this episode, as it’s largely irrelevant to the actual plot. All you need know is that Magnus and Will wind up trapped in a cave — Will nursing a bullet wound all the while.

I swear, Will’s like a red shirt from the original Star Trek, except he’s still there the next week.

Will Zimmerman and Helen Magnus (Robin Dunne and Amanda Tapping) in "The Depths"Now, to be fair, “The Depths” did have some very interesting interplay between Magnus and Will, and provided good character development for both of them. I’d say it’s one of the best “something horrible happens to Magnus and Will” episodes to date.

Unfortunately, this fails to fully compensate for the extreme feeling of having seen this episode several times already, so what could have been a great episode is merely a decent one.

There’s also a minor subplot with Henry that provided some good laughs, and even a heartfelt moment or two.

Overall rating: 7.6/10

“Sanctuary for None, part one” (Season finale)

“Sanctuary for None” brings to a head the main arcs of this season. Caleb, leader of the Hollow Earth Abnormal terrorists, has grown weary of fighting, and comes to Helen Magnus in the hopes of finding a peaceful solution. They settle on establishing a new Abnormal civilization on the surface.

But, of course, things are never that simple. This puts Magnus on a collision course with SCIU, the government’s anti-Abnormal division, who will accept no peace that doesn’t come over Caleb’s dead body.

At the same time, Magnus’s support is falling away, with the loyalty of her team mates crumbling and her allies around the world deciding they can’t handle the risk of associating with her.

There are also hints that there’s more going on behind the scenes than meets the eye. Clearly, SCIU knows more than they let on, and I’m not convinced Caleb is telling the full truth, either. Plus, Will keeps suggesting Magnus has some great secret from her century of vacation time at the beginning of the season.

As far as guest stars go, it’s a good news, bad news situation for “Sanctuary for None.” The bad news is Kate. The good news is Tesla. It took approximately ten seconds of time on screen for our favourite electromagnetic vampire to make me burst into laughter.

“Sanctuary for None” is epic and exciting, and doesn’t disappoint as a season finale — and there’s still part two to get to before the season ends.

But there is one problem I have with this episode, and that’s that a lot of it feels rushed. It’s not that I don’t buy that the Abnormals could turn peaceful, or that Magnus would side with them, or that some of her team would refuse to accept her decisions. It’s that I don’t believe it would happen so quickly. All these things happen overnight — sometimes literally, and sometimes faster than that.

Still, I enjoyed it, and the ending brought a revelation I’ve been hoping for since the first season. I cannot wait for the next episode.

Overall rating: 9/10

If you’re looking to get caught up, the first three seasons of Sanctuary are available on my Amazon Affiliate.