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"Acolyte" is the tenth episode of the fourth season of Sanctuary, and the fifty-sixth episode overall in the series.

Synopsis[]

Trouble from Hollow Earth leads to a reunion ... and an unexpected betrayal.

Plot[]

Cold Open[]

Will Zimmerman and Declan MacRae race through a forest in a jeep when they come across a road block. They leave the car behind and run into the woods, to a point where they can oversee an extensive facility overlooking a cliff. Will calls Helen Magnus over the phone to "get out of there", but in the next second, they watch in horror as the facility is destroyed by a huge explosion.

Act I[]

Three days earlier, Magnus and Will discuss the somewhat disgusting eating habits of some abnormals, when Henry Foss intercepts them, telling them Declan is on the line. The head of the London Sanctuary has an unexpected guest: Kate Freelander has returned to the surface with news from Hollow Earth. Sephis, an abnormal refugee has informed her about an upcoming terror attack by the abnormal insurgency on a human research facility.

Will travels to London and meets up with Kate. They interrogate Oren, the abnormal terrorist Kate's contact got his information from. He refuses to reveal anything, and says he hopes they all die.

In Old City, Henry tries to hack into some intelligence databases, but keeps being kicked out.

Declan shows Will and Kate a surveillance feed that leads them to an apartment where human and abnormal corpses are piled up. Someone got to the group before them.

Act II[]

Magnus suggests that the insurgents themselves killed all non-essential personnel before moving on with their plan. Kate finds a shipping document with only the letters "sboa" still readable. Magnus quickly deduces the word is "Lisboa", the Portuguese form of Lisbon.

Kate tells Will that she has missed the sunlight, but that she loves the pioneer spirit that has gotten into the Hollow Earth abnormals. Will also suggests that Garris has something to do with her decision, but she changes the subject.

Henry hacks into the Portuguese SIS's database, and finds a lead to Greg Addison, the UN's primary agent to deal with the abnormal problem. Hagan Kiersted, Mashita Narumi, and other abnormal dealers are also on the list. It looks like they all get together in Lisbon to consolidate under the banner of the SCIU. Magnus says they must warn Addison about the upcoming attack.

In London, Will and Kate tell Oren he is free to go, but also show him photographs of his murdered companions. He finally agrees to help them, and tells them about detonators his group has been sending to a sister group in Portugal all week.

Greg Addison is on the phone in his office in New City when he hears sounds of a struggle in the hall. Magnus has taken out all his guards. Once inside, she informs him about the upcoming attack. He in turn shows her photographs of Bigfoot with the terrorists, suggesting that he is the new leader of the insurgency.

Act III[]

Magnus protests Addison's accusation, and tells him Bigfoot would never betray her. He in turn tells her that he will go after her friend, and her as well, if she gets in his way.

Will agrees with Magnus that Bigfoot would never do what he is accused of doing. He, Declan and Kate lead a raid on the insurgents in Portugal. A firefight ensues during which one of the insurgents tries to blow himself up. Will shoots him just in time.

Magnus meets up with Henry, who tells her he did everything to clear Bigfoot's name, but instead, he has discovers a video in which their friend swears loyalty to the cause of the abnormal insurgency. Shocked, Magnus goes to see the crixorum, the super-telepath they are holding in one of their security cells. Henry argues that the man is in a drug-induced coma, but Magnus proves him wrong by threatening to vent the oxygen from the cell. Suddenly, the crixorum gets up and asks, "What took you so long?"

Act IV[]

The crixorum explains that Bigfoot was the only one who got inside the protective shield around his cell on a regular basis, thus enabling him to subtly change his neural pathways. The re-mapping is permanent; not even the crixorum can change it back.

Will believes that there is too much evidence for the terror attack in Lisbon, and that it is just a decoy. Magnus suggests that the SCIU summit is actually taking place somewhere else, and Henry soon verifies this when he finds out none of the people who booked flights to Lisbon actually boarded them. However, the misdirect did not work, and the insurgents are on their way to the real site.

Magnus goes to see the crixorum again. She tells him that she has found out about the Praxians trying to wipe out his kind 200 years ago, and that they also found a way to neutralize their powers by removing the iduary gland, a specialized organ in their brains. He angrily tells her that these operations where barbaric, but she tells him she will perform one anyway.

Magnus calls Will; she has learned that the actual summit is taking place at the Gran Atlante Hotel, just outside of Buenos Aires, and is already on her way there.

A video of Bigfoot shows him announcing his intent to end the "tyranny" of the surface-dwellers, and the end of his own captivity among them.

Act V[]

At the Gran Atlante Hotel, Magnus tries to warn Addison again, but he is confident that the security measures he put in place will keep the summit safe. He is wrong however, as Bigfoot and three of his fellow insurgents are already inside, cloaked by the abilities of one of their own. Bigfoot sends them off to the elevator shafts they are to blow up, citing their battle cry, "From Below We Rise".

Magnus and Kate fight their way into the hotel just as Addison gets news of a security breach and finally decides to evacuate. Magnus finally confronts Bigfoot, who is convinced he has always detested her. She tells him that she is his oldest friend, and that he must take off his suicide vest. He seems insecure for a moment, but then tries to pull the trigger anyway. However, Kate knocks him out from behind, and they rush to get him out of the vest and to safety.

Minutes later, Will and Declan watch as the hotel is blown to pieces by the explosions. They try to contact Magnus and Kate, who are badly wounded.

Act VI[]

A week later back in the Old City Sanctuary, Kate wakes up with a headache. Magnus had to operate on her twice. Will informs her that eleven people were killed in the destruction of the Gran Atlante Hotel, and world leaders are now calling for an all-out war on the abnormals. Will also notes that she is wearing a promise band, the herusan equivalent of an engagement ring.

Meanwhile, Magnus is using Sally, her telepathic mermaid friend, to return Bigfoot's original personality. They are successful, but the Big Guy feels terrible about his actions. Magnus also feels responsible, as it was her decision that led him down this dangerous path. Bigfoot wants Henry to get supplies, but Magnus suggests him to go instead.

Some time later, Bigfoot arrives at the address where he is to get the supplies. He meets up with more insurgents, who take him inside as he utters, "From Below We Rise".

Cast[]

Series regulars
Guest starring
Featuring

Quotes[]

ADDISON: Oh great. You too now.
WILL: Where's Magnus?
ADDISON: Inside.
DECLAN: You let her in?
ADDISON: Let her? No, I did not let her. She and her friend went all Krav Maga on my men.

Notes[]

  • Trivia: The license plate of the rental Jeep Declan MacRae and Will Zimmerman are seen riding has "Argentina" at the top with the alphanumeric sequence: TIF 11R8.
  • Trivia: The license plate of police car 1231 blocking the alternative access road has the alphanumeric sequence: L?7B 24.
    • The second letter is difficult to almost impossible to distinguish due to the angle and font - potentially a really squished W, N, X, or M. The "B" could also alternatively be the number 8 instead.
  • Scientific Error: In the cold open, Will Zimmerman and Declan MacRae see a distant building (the Gran Atlante Hotel) destroyed by demolition charges; the sight and sound are simultaneous. It is rare for TV or movies to depict the real world five second/mile time delay between sight and sound. In this case they should have seen the explosions at least ten seconds before hearing the boom.
  • Chronology: The beginning of Act I after the opening title sequence jumps back to the morning "three days ago."
  • Reference: "9½ Weeks" (1986) - Will Zimmerman compares the meal eating practices of besovites to this movie.
  • Travel Time: Fight travel time between Vancouver, Canada and London, England is 9 hours 57 minutes.[1]
  • Kate Freelander road a giant yurka beetle for twelve hours in search of an active gateway to reach the surface before traveling to the London Sanctuary.
  • Henry Foss mentions getting ejected from the Shin Bet computer system cloud. Shin Bet, aka Shabak, is the Israel Security Agency (think FBI with a yarmulke).
  • Reference: "Survivor" (2000) (TV Series) - Referring to his failure to hack into computer databases of a few major agencies, Henry Foss tells Helen Magnus "they've been voted off the island in a big way".
  • Geography Error: After Will Zimmerman and Kate Freelander fail to gain any information from Oren, they meet with Declan MacRae in the main lab. Declan MacRae had ran Oren's image through the London Sanctuary's facial recognition software to find the local London building he had been frequenting. The GPS coordinates shown on the computer monitor for the building's location are: 6°18'38"N 10°48'17"W. When this is put into Google Maps, it pinpoints to the Ministry of Justice building in Monrovia, Liberia.[2]
  • Chronology: This episode potentially spans across three days occurring before/on/after September 22nd, 2011 as the number 9:22 is attached to all of the flight passenger manifests for the SCIU summit attendees regardless of the specific flight they are on and those flight's individual durations; meaning it's not a departure and arrival time, but most likely the specific day the flights are occurring on.
  • Travel Time: Fight travel time between London, England and Lisbon, Portugal is 2 hours 28 minutes.[4]
  • The private jet that Helen Magnus is seen flying seems to be a combination of two different aircraft:
  • Timezones: Based on Will Zimmerman saying that noon tomorrow in Buenos Aires is in less than twelve hours:
  • Chronology: After Helen Magnus forces information about the upcoming rebel attack from Wahid, she notifies Will Zimmerman after she's already airborne en route from Old City to Buenos Aires. Realistically, between the time she found out the location and when she finally told Will Zimmerman, it would have been around at least two hours later.
    • Helen Magnus had to prep for the trip (go up to her bedroom, change her clothes, and pack a small carry-on bag of essentials - time alone in her bedroom would take 10-15 minutes). Over all, it would have been at least 15-30 minutes minimum from the time Helen Magnus is seen with Wahid down in a lower level to when she would depart the Old City Sanctuary property in a vehicle driving through the front gate considering how much time she would have also spent simply walking throughout the gigantic facility.
    • Helen Magnus then had to drive to the Old City airport (distance and traffic conditions equaling total travel time is unknown). An estimate possible travel time could range 10-20 minutes.
    • Once at the airport, it can take between 5-30 minutes to just get through airport facility security to board a private aircraft.[5]
    • Helen Magnus would have also needed to have (presumably her) private jet prepped including fueling; fueling for a private jet takes between 30-60 minutes.[6]
    • A daily combined external/internal pre-flight check performed by an experienced pilot takes at minimum 10-15 minutes to complete.[7]
    • On top of that, Helen Magnus would have to had filled out an international flight plan IFR that needs to be submitted at least 30 minutes before departure as it takes that long for flight plan data to be processed for ATC to grant clearance.[8] To file a flight plan, it indicates to the FAA that a pilot has, among other things:[9]
      • Used aeronautical charts to research and plan their route and checkpoints.
      • Decided how they will be navigating on a VFR flight—pilotage or dead reckoning.
      • Obtained weather briefings for the flight route, departure and destination points, and alternate airports.
      • Planned flight details including time, speed distance, and fuel considerations (both consumption and reserves) as well as emergency contingencies.
      • Checked NOTAMS with the local FSS area as well as distant areas along their flight path.
      • Checked for temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) along their route.
    • When Helen Magnus contacts Will Zimmerman, she is already at cruising altitude somewhere above cloud level. A Gulfstream G550 takes 18 minutes to climb from sea level to 37,000 feet.[10]. The aircraft has a maximum cruising altitude of 51,000 feet.[11]
  • Anachronism: When Will Zimmerman checks his watch, he says that noon time tomorrow in Buenos Aires is in less than twelve hours from the current time. Neither Helen Magnus nor Will Zimmerman who travelled along with Declan MacRae and Kate Freelander would have realistically been able to arrive in time at an airport in Buenos Aires, let alone get to the Gran Atlante Hotel that is somewhere outside of the city.
    • Flight travel time between Vancouver, Canada and Buenos Aires, Argentina is 14 hours 31 minutes.[12].
    • Flight travel time between Lisbon, Portugal and Buenos Aires, Argentina is 12 hours 24 minutes.[13]
      • Whether or not Will Zimmerman, Kate Freelander, and Declan MacRae travelled via commercial airliner or a private jet rental is negligible. A lot of time would still be spent driving to the airport, buying tickets, waiting for the next available flight (variable - can be a few minutes to a few hours as the first flight out in the morning), getting through security screening checkpoints, boarding, and taxiing on the runway before takeoff. A private charter would take around the same amount of time in order to find an available pilot and to allow for the crew to set up the flight which will require about two hours to complete before departure [14] (like what Helen Magnus experienced).
      • Once their aircraft arrived at an airport in Buenos Aires, Argentina in addition to spending time taxiing and disembarking the aircraft, another time delay Will Zimmerman, Kate Freelander, and Declan MacRae would encounter is needing to spend time waiting on acquiring their rental car (the Jeep Declan MacRae is seen driving). Helen Magnus could have potentially used local transport to avoid this delay, such as paying for a taxicab. If she did rent a car from an airport as well, she would have had to have left it parked abandoned on the side of a road somewhere close to the Gran Atlante Hotel before walking up to Greg Addison.
    • In addition, even after all four of them arrive around the same time near the Gran Atlante Hotel, there's a lot of time wasted in both Helen Magnus and Kate Freelander traveling on foot from the blocked access roads all the way to where Greg Addison is set up, and again more time on foot to go from that staging area past the security perimeter fence and into the hotel's underground parking garage.
    • After spending a few minutes down in the parking garage, Helen Magnus and Kate Freelander find Bigfoot. By then, his explosive vest has less than two minutes remaining on the timer until detonation. Chronologically, after adding up all the travel times, the vest should have already detonated at least three hours prior to then.
  • Crew Reference: Michael Corrado was the assistant art director for the episode. His name is seen twice within the episode. The first was as the name of a diplomat flying in for the SCIU summit from Manila, Philippines, and the second was as the self-named M. Corrado flower company advertised on the side of the panel van used by the suicide bombers.
  • Trivia: The license plate of the panel van with the M. Corrado flower company advertisement had the alphanumeric sequence: WBL 03M7.
  • Trivia: The M. Corrado flower company phone number is +54-11-4555-0195.
  • Convenience: Besides also needing to have the keys conveniently left in the ignition, Helen Magnus, Kate Freelander, and Bigfoot could have easily died in the explosion of the Gran Atlante Hotel had the doors of the panel van they escaped in (the same van the suicide bomber abnormals arrived in) simply been locked.
  • Medical / Continuity Error: Near the end of the episode, Kate Freelander wakes up in her bedroom. Will Zimmerman says that she's been out for a week and that Helen Magnus had to operate on her head twice (most likely to relive pressure from a concussion).
    • The injuries on Kate's face and hands don't match the injuries and resulting blood seen right after the explosion (appeared to have cuts all over her face and forehead plus cuts on the ventral side of her right wrist). All that can be seen now is a small white piece of thin gauze on her left side of her forehead and a wide band-aide across the dorsal side of the metacarpals in her left hand, and some light to superficial looking scraps and cuts on her left cheek here or there.
    • Had a person undergone cranial surgery, the relative area would have been shaved clean of any hair; this is not seen to have been done.
    • The biggest medical issue overall is that if a person was unconscious for a week, they would at the very least be in a medical bed in an ICU or infirmary, hooked up to a heart monitor along with an automated blood pressure cuff, hooked to I.V. fluids, and have been catheterized. None of that is present in the scene.
  • Crew Reference: In the ending scene, Bigfoot visits the rear entrance of "McCullough's Off Broad Street". The location is named after Alan McCullough, the writer of the episode.

Gallery[]

References[]

SanctuarySeason 4
● 01 Tempus ● 02 Uprising ● 03 Untouchable ● 04 Monsoon ● 05 Resistance ● 06 Homecoming ● 07 Icebreaker ● 08 Fugue ● 09 Chimera ● 10 Acolyte ● 11 The Depths ● 12 Sanctuary for None, Part I ● 13 Sanctuary for None, Part II
Story Arc   :   Abnormal Insurgency
● 3x11 Pax Romana ● 3x19 Out of the Blue ● 3x20 Into the Black ● 4x02 Uprising ● 4x03 Untouchable ● 4x05 Resistance ● 4x08 Fugue ● 4x10 Acolyte ● 4x12 Sanctuary for None, Part I ● 4x13 Sanctuary for None, Part II
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