Story Arcs

This is the page where story arcs on Sanctuary are listed and described.

A story arc is a bundling of two or more episodes based on content within an episode that revolves around or deals with a certain shared theme, event, or character, etc.

Abnormal Insurgency
This arc deals with Abnormals who rise from Hollow Earth to roam around on the surface. Some truly seek refuge from Praxis, wanting a new life. Others seek to reclaim the land and reign over humans.
 * is included as it describes the civil unrest of the beings down below wanting to overthrow Praxis and storm the surface.
 * is included as the psych worm is the first Abnormal known to surface from Hollow Earth.
 * is included as it opens with both the Old City Sanctuary team and SCIU hunting down a rogue Hollow Earth abnormal on the surface; Henry tracks the creature to Area 51.
 * is included as Abby Corrigan was the human victim of a genetic weapon test created by Hollow Earth Insurgents.

Adam Worth
Episodes involving or relating to Adam Worth.
 * is included due to Adam sending two tabors to the Old City Sanctuary.
 * is included as the time dilation field was caused by Adam who was somewhere below the area in Hollow Earth near a fissure which allowed the rogue bubble to escape up to the surface.

Adam Worth Goes to Hollow Earth
This is a special grouping of episodes that involve both Adam Worth and Hollow Earth. These episodes are directly related from one to the next, literally starting back-to-back of each other as they occur across the span of several days in-universe.
 * While and  both include information that set-up these episodes as seen in, they do not chronologically occur immediately in-universe before this block, thus they are excluded.

Alfredo's
Episodes that involve Old City Sanctuary Team members trying and failing to eat at Helen Magnus' favorite restaurant which is named "Alfredo's".

Big Bertha
The Season 2 finale cliffhanger arc that is resolved at the beginning of Season 3.
 * is included as it introduces Big Bertha to the audience.
 * is included as it transitions the Big Bertha arc into the Hollow Earth arc.

The Cabal
The main arc of Season 1. It is concluded in the beginning of Season 2 as the Cabal are wiped out off-screen by John Druitt and Nikola Tesla.
 * is included because the Cabal imported the Blattella asahinai sapien into Old City.
 * is included as it is based in a destroyed Cabal bunker where the vial of source blood was last held and researched.

Carentan
Both of these episodes revolve around the French town of Carentan.

Destruction of Praxis
These two episodes occur very closely chronologically wise in-universe. Adam Worth intentionally sets his time machine off to destroy Praxis. When this happens, Praxis' containment fences fail, letting loose giant psych worms. It is unknown how long it took for the worm to surface, but it is known that Helen and Will spent 3 days, 8 hours, and 26 minutes in Virgil St. Pierre's treatment. Once back at the Old City Sanctuary, an unknown amount of time passes until Hollow Earth Refugees start to surface. Their primary reason to surface was due to lack of their water supply which had stopped when Praxis was destroyed. Based on dwindling resources and biology, it's estimated that humanoid organisms can only last up to about 5-7 days without sufficient water intake (this is the maximum stretch possible as the usual time frame is about 3 days on average with zero water consumption). Considering already known time to have passed, starts potentially the very next day or two after the end of.

Father Jensen
These two episodes involve the investigation of Father Jensen's murder.

The Five
These episodes revolve around the history and exploits of.

Hollow Earth
The primary arc of Season 3.
 * is included as it is a delayed continuation of the events of and  as Will had picked up a Cillobar spore at some point during his time down in Hollow Earth.

Hollow Earth Invasion
This is the Season 3 cliffhanger finale that was continued into the beginning of Season 4. These episodes are specifically relating to the event of several hundreds of Hollow Earth Abnormals invading the surface.

Mary Anne Zimmerman
These episodes involve Dr. Will Zimmerman's mother, Mary Anne Zimmerman. Since her tragic death by an Abnormal lizard creature in 1985 when Will was just an 8-year-old boy, it has left a profound psychological impact on him that he's carried around with him throughout the rest of life.
 * is included due to Will admitting to Magnus that he used to daydream about his mother every chance he got.
 * is included due to Greg Addison accusing Will of using Magnus as a replacement mother.
 * is included as Will reveals he doesn't like to sing as that's what his mother used to do.

Parent Troubles
This is a small cluster of episodes that occur chronologically very close to one another, possibly over the course of a single week in-universe based on the apparent ongoing friction between characters. These episodes deal with Dr. Helen Magnus and her relationship issues with both her biological daughter Ashley Magnus and her adopted son Henry Foss. While sets up, it does not occur immediately before, thus is not included.

It is unknown for how long Ashley and Helen had stayed in Rome after the end of. What is known is that Ashley gives Helen a silent treatment starting during their recent flight home and has continued to do so since then as she's mentally dealing with the personal revelation that John Druitt is her father and the betrayal she feels towards her mother for not being the one to tell her, something Helen wants to talk about in. Another persisting issue from "" that carries over into "" is Henry and his struggling to control his body's HAP metamorphosis; something that is deeply disturbing to him that he wished Helen was there for, which also happens to be something that Helen regrets missing while she was in Rome. Based on these two factors between Ashley and Henry, it seems an estimated day or two had passed between the end of "" and the start of "" as emotions are still very raw / fresh and currently ongoing between mother and children.

It is unknown how much time had passed between the end of and the start of, but what is known is that "" itself occurred over the course of about 48 hours (2 days) as that was the amount of time Will was given from Det. Joe Kavanaugh to investigate the Glen Meyers suicide case. In "", Will had noticed Ashley's recent silent behavior, to which Helen references the "talk" they just had in "" and how frustrated she is at not being able to relate to her daughter. Based on this evidence, with how relevant the fallout from "" continues to be, not much time seems to have passed from the end of "" to the beginning of ""; maybe starting the next day or so afterward.

Considering all of the factors across the three episodes, from the start of to the end of, chronologically in-universe it seems that at most maybe a week total had passed.

Super Abnormal Project
"Revelations" is the Season 1 finale cliffhanger arc that concludes as the Season 2 opener arc "End of Nights", which follows-up in.
 * is included because of Gregory Magnus' knowledge of the source blood, plus his deadly fighters were to be used in the 'Abnormal cleanse'. 'Charlie' was a mole used to report back to the Cabal, making sure the "asset" was in place for this arc.

Vampire Resurrection
These episodes deal with the temporary resurrection of the vampire species that periodically occurs from time to time throughout the series. This group consists of episodes revolving around Nikola Tesla's personal experimentation as well as including a legitimate awakening of a Queen vampire from stasis who had plans to revive her species.
 * Both and  are included due to the super abnormals being vampire super soldiers.

Virgil St. Pierre
Episodes that involve Virgil St. Pierre's Abnormal suit. Due to Kate Freelander being an accidental 'victim' of the suit in, she later cashed in a favor with him in to help save Dr. Magnus' and Dr. Will Zimmerman's minds.