Sanctuary

2007 • Syfy
4.7
420 reviews
TV-14
Rating
Eligible
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Season 1 episodes (13)

1 For All Part 1
10/3/08
An old man and two police officers are murdered by Alexi (Cainan Wiebe), a boy with an extra appendage, which actually causes the murders. Though the police believe the victims were shot, forensic psychiatrist Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne) believes otherwise. His theories are quickly rejected by the police. While tracking Alexi, Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) encounters Zimmerman, who may have what it takes to become her new protege. She introduces him to the top-secret base known as the Sanctuary, a place where she and her team hold a number of abnormals. After Alexi is eventually captured, Will reluctantly gives his new job a try and questions Alexi.
2 For All Part 2
10/3/08
Will learns that Alexi's strange appendage only kills if Alexi is scared. Meanwhile, Magnus' former fiancĂŒÂ©, John Druitt (Christopher Heyerdahl) arrives in Old City to confront Magnus. Druitt became able to teleport at the same time he gained his longevity, but this power seems to result in brain damage. Teleportation drove Druitt insane, and turned him into Jack the Ripper. Now he is dying, and wants Magnus to save him. She injects him with poison instead and he teleports away, leaving his fate unknown. In the end, Zimmerman decides to join the Sanctuary full time.
3 Fata Morgana
10/10/08
Magnus and the team uncover three women buried in an ancient crypt in Scotland. When they first bring them to the Sanctuary, the women have no recollection of who they are, but they are discovered to have special powers. Magnus's research uncovers that they are the MorrĂ­gan, who used to bring death on a battlefield. The women caused the destruction of an entire village hundreds of years ago. Now, Will attempts to convince them to be free. Meanwhile the Cabal, Magnus's nemesis organization, whose goal is to control all abnormals, captures the keepers of the crypt to ensure the MorrĂ­gan's capture. For the safety of the Sanctuary, the women turn themselves in, but due to Will's influence they break free from their captors.
4 Folding Man
10/17/08
While investigating a series of strange robberies, the Sanctuary team encounters a group of Abnormals with the ability to "fold" their bodies, squeezing through impossibly small spaces. The team uncovers a plot by the gold-hungry folding men to take control of the crime world. One of the captured folding men claims to want to stop the others from carrying out this plan; he turns out to be the ring leader, however. With Will's help the other folding men turn against him and free themselves.
5 Kush
10/24/08
While returning from the Himalayas with a captured Abnormal, Will and Magnus' plane crashes on the Hindu Kush, and the creature escapes. While a rescue team is on its way, the creature manages to pick off the survivors one by one. The creature kills each victim through that victim's dreams. It can take any form it wishes, including the victim's loved ones. Eventually only Will, Helen and another woman are left on the downed plane. The woman is revealed to be the creature when she tricks Will into leaving the plane so she can take his form and kill Magnus. Fortunately, Magnus exposes the imposter (the creature does not know Helen hates coffee, a fact of which Will would be aware). She kills the creature before the rescue team finally arrives.
6 Nubbins
11/7/08
Magnus's daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerup) brings two adorable and seemingly harmless abnormals to the Sanctuary. However, they reproduce very quickly (similar to the Tribble in Star Trek) and break out of captivity; the creatures, dubbed "Nubbins" by Ashley, slowly overrun the Sanctuary. One of the Nubbins' defensive mechanisms is to release a substance like a pheromone that makes the "enemy" giddy and amorous. This further hinders the capture efforts. In an attempt to control the Nubbin population, the team unleashes the Nubbins' natural predator, one of which was also captured during Ashley's expedition; but the Nubbins turn the tables and eat the creature alive. Eventually, the Sanctuary team are able to lure the Nubbins to one location with a certain sound frequency, and manage to place them into captivity again. The team lowers the temperature of the Nubbin enclosure, which is another method of population control for the creatures.
7 The Five
11/14/08
In Rome, Magnus encounters an old acquaintance, Nikola Tesla (Jonathon Young), one of "The Five" (Magnus and Druitt were also of the "The Five." Tesla comes to rescue her from the Cabal, who plan to seek revenge for the events of "Fata Morgana". Druitt returns and captures Ashley, claiming that his murderous anger was suppressed when he was revived by Tesla. He tells her that Tesla is dangerous, and they must save Magnus' life. It is revealed that Tesla is part-Vampire, and he kills the Cabal members who are hunting Helen down. However, he then uses his own blood to regenerate them and turn them into his slaves to kill Helen himself. Druitt and Ashley intervene in time and Druitt seriously injures or perhaps kills Tesla. Druitt teleports out, taking Magnus and Ashley safely away from the remaining Vampiric creatures. Meanwhile, Will and Bigfoot (Heyerdahl) investigate mysterious attacks in the Sanctuary. The culprit is revealed to be a snake-like creature...
8 Edward
11/21/08
Joe Kavanaugh (Kavan Smith) asks Will to investigate an apparent suicide. The dead abnormal was the father of a gifted but troubled teen artist named Edward. He can draw pictures very quickly and accurately. Through his drawings, the team learn that Edward's father was fighting with his brother, Robbie, who we learn was also an abnormal. The two struggled over a shotgun and the gun overheated from their abnormal powers, causing the shells to go off. Against Helen's wishes, Will takes the evidence to the police, only to find it taken by certain men who find Edward's family very important (possibly agents of the Cabal). Meanwhile, Ashley copes with the fact that Druitt is her father, and Henry deals with being an abnormal. He considers surgery to rid himself of his werewolf side, but eventually chooses not to after using his newfound tracking ability to find Robbie. He realizes the uses his power could have if he can learn to control it.
9 Requiem
12/5/08
Magnus and Will journey to the Bermuda Triangle to answer a distress call they learned about from "Sally", a mermaid living in the Sanctuary. Sally had received images from her kin of their plight; but Magnus and Will are too late to save them. By the time they arrive, the entire race has been wiped out by an aggressive parasite. When Magnus examines a corpse, she too gets infected, and the parasite threatens to take over her thought processes. To prevent this, she dives the ship deeper and deeper in the hope that the parasite will not be able to withstand the pressure. The parasite completely takes her over, however, and tries to push her into killing Will and presumably herself. Fortunately, Will is able to trap Magnus in a room, which he seals so that he can drain all the oxygen from it. Magnus dies, but after the parasite leaves her body, Will is able to revive her.
10 Warriors
12/12/08
The wife of Will's old friend Danny, tells Will that he has gone missing. While Magnus and Ashley assist Will in investigating the disappearance, they find a man who appears to be Helen's long-lost father Gregory Magnus. He has no recollection of Helen at first, but once he regains his memory he tells the team that the Cabal are behind the disappearance; they have created a drug that turns normal Humans to aggressive Abnormals. Danny has been turned into one of these, and when Will finds him, he is also captured and injected with the drug. The men are taken to a warehouse, where they are pitched in Fight Club-style combat. Helen and Ashley find the warehouse and stop the operation, and by the end of the episode Will and Danny have reverted back to their normal human selves.
11 Instinct
12/19/08
In a Cloverfield-esque episode, Amy Saunders (Rekha Sharma) and cameraman Zach Pencer try and get their first exclusive news story in an evacuated and restricted building, where three people were brutally killed by a strange creature brought back from an island between Japan and Korea. They encounter the Sanctuary team, who are tracking down the creature. Reluctantly, Helen allows them to film the events. The team captures one creature, but realize there is another, and it appears to have laid eggs. They are able to kill the other creature, but in the process Zach the cameraman is killed. Amy promises not to release the video, but breaks the promise, threatening Helen's anonymity and the security of the Sanctuary operation. Helen then tells Amy that she will make a breaking story, but not from those events.
12 Revelations Part 1
12/29/08
The Cabal launch Lazarus, a biological weapon designed to make Abnormals attack humans, in the Yukon/Alaska border. John Druitt makes an unwelcome return to the Sanctuary as he, too, sees the significance of the situation. We meet the leader of the UK Sanctuary, Sir James Watson (Peter Wingfield), a member of "The Five" whose gift is great intelligence and reasoning ability. Watson does not have the longevity of the others, but has created an exoskeleton to keep him young. He contacts Helen and confirms John's story about the Cabal. Suddenly, "Bigfoot" gets infected and has to be kept in confinement. The only way to create a vaccine to stop the Cabal is to retrieve a vial of pure Vampire blood, stored against dire emergencies in the lost city of Bhalasaam in the Indian Himalayas. In order to regroup "The Five" to get the vial, they contact Clara Griffin, granddaughter of the late Nigel Griffin; she has inherited his invisibility skills...
13 Revelations Part 2
1/9/09
Using Watson's intellect, the four members of "The Five" are able to find an entrance to an underground complex. There, they find Nikola Tesla, who has regenerated since their last encounter; they must all work together to retrieve the vial, as the complex houses a number of challenges designed to test the powers of each member of "The Five". They succeed in retrieving the keys and recover the blood sample. As they pull the vial from its niche, Watson's exoskeleton fails and he dies, but not before telling Will that there is a missing piece that he must find out. Meanwhile, Ashley learns from Dana Witcomb that the Cabal's plan is to release the virus worldwide; they also intend to turn Henry into a Werewolf, permanently. Fortunately, he and Ashley escape and retrieve the files describing Lazarus. Once the team is regrouped at the Sanctuary, Will realizes too late that Ashley is the missing piece; she has turned against the team, and steals the vial using her new ability to teleport...

About this show

Sanctuary follows the exploits of Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) and her quest to protect what most people would consider monsters. "The Sanctuary" serves as a safe haven for these "Abnormals". She is aided in her quest by her reluctant protégé Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne); her intrepid, if somewhat reckless, daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerup); and the talkative geek Henry Foss (Ryan Robbins), a computer and security expert...

Ratings and reviews

4.7
420 reviews
Allen Bartkowiak
March 3, 2017
Suddenly the end credits were rolling and a deep profound reality sunk in... I'll never get this wasted hour back.
1 person found this review helpful
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Glenn Mitchell
November 1, 2015
I looked forward to the zany twists and turns this series took. Never boring, and always a little tease until the next episode. Four seasons were not nearly enough.
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Astro Moon
December 11, 2013
I love this TV show since season one. Magnus her crew and the insane adventures they go on. Nothing is more sci-fy then this show or Haven. But always loyal to my Magnus. Always and for ever. #TeamSanctuary
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