| Icebreaker | Credits | Transcript | Images |
"Icebreaker" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of Sanctuary, and the fifty-third episode overall in the series.
Synopsis[]
When a team from the UK Sanctuary gets in trouble on a stranded icebreaker in the Barents Sea, Helen Magnus and Will Zimmerman must figure out who is behind the mysterious happenings at sea.
Plot[]
Cold Open[]
As a Russian icebreaker lies frozen in the middle of a seemingly endless plain of ice, a four-man team of Sanctuary Network agents, including Henry Foss and Declan MacRae tries its best to find a way inside. Henry and Alistair, a fellow lycan, break open a door and the team proceeds inside, where they find one of the crew shot dead. A crate nearby holds smuggled combat weaponry.
The group makes it to the bridge, which is filled with the bodies of the murdered crew. While Henry checks the ship's engine room, Declan and Terry go looking for the Hollow Earth abnormals they came for in the first place; they find them all dead as well.
Act I[]
Terry figures that the abnormals killed each other just as the human crew did. As Henry tries to get the ship up and running again, she expresses her horror about what they found. Her colleague, Alistair, tries to comfort her. Some time later, the team hears something outside and draws their weapons, but it turns out to be Helen Magnus and Will Zimmerman. After being brought up to speed, Magnus suggests to split up and search the entire vessel.
In one of the cargo holds, Magnus' group finds a number of frozen objects that seem to be alive inside the ice.
Act II[]
Terry theorizes that the creatures are in some kind of hibernation, and Magnus decides to cut one down and thaw it out. She then meets up with Declan's group and informs them that they will set up "home base" in the ship's laboratory. Soon after, Declan discovers more of the creatures in another section. Suddenly, an explosion rocks the ship; one of the team, Murray, is killed in the boiler room.
Meanwhile, Terry discovers that the frozen creatures are migoi, dangerous abnormals one of which Magnus and Will faced in the Hindu Kush years earlier. They are frozen in fresh water because salt would hypercharge their systems. Just then it turns out the explosion damaged the hull, and the ship is filling with—salt water.
Act III[]
Back in the lab, the team discovers that the creature they took there has left its ice block and has disappeared. Declan and Alistair have also been separated from the rest and each other for a while, so nobody can be sure if they are who they seem to be.
The team begins to move the migoi, but suddenly a fight breaks out among the men as Terry is found murdered. Henry and Alistair are locked up together, and the work continues without them. They soon find the real Alistair dead in a cargo hold, and rush back to Henry, who sits in front of a dead migoi.
Act IV[]
Henry tells them of a struggle with the creature, but Magnus explains that it was just in his mind. Henry is deeply distraught by the death of Alistair, and blames himself; he swears to name his child after him if it is a boy.
Meanwhile, Declan discovers another melted block of holding ice, suggesting there is at least one more migoi at large. The team has to continue its work of getting the last ice blocks up, but Henry and Declan are locked in the hold by what they though was Will.
Act V[]
Unable to contact Magnus, the two try to figure out a way to save themselves from the rising water. Suddenly, Declan realizes that he blew the door to the hold open with his weapon when he first entered it: the door is open, the migoi just made them believe Will locked them in. They make it back to Magnus and team up with her, and suddenly hear from Will.
After finding him, they suddenly hear something behind them; in come Helen Magnus and Will Zimmerman.
Act VI[]
The other Magnus and Will explain that they just landed a few minutes ago, which would suggests that the other Magnus and Will have been Migoi all along. The newly arrived Magnus suggests they all get in the water to see who is a migoi, but Declan and Henry disagree, as that would supercharge the creature.
The newly arrived Magnus, however, reveals that this is not true by pushing herself into the water with her copy: saltwater actually kills the migoi. The false Will tries to flee, but is shot by his real counterpart.
On the following morning, Magnus explains to Henry that the fact that Henry and Declan know her and Will so well is the very reason the migoi could mimic her so flawlessly. The team questions weather they should save the dangerous creatures after they killed the rest of the team, but Magnus tells them they will honor their fallen friends by doing their job: taking the migoi, who only act as is their nature, to safety in the Sanctuary.
Cast[]
| Series regular | Character |
|---|---|
| Amanda Tapping | Doctor Helen Magnus |
| Robin Dunne | Doctor Will Zimmerman |
| Ryan Robbins | Henry Foss |
| Guest starring | Character |
| Robert Lawrenson | Declan MacRae |
| Jodi Balfour | Terry |
| Michael Patric | Alistair |
| Scott North | Murray |
Quotes[]
| DECLAN: [pointing at a locked steel door] Well, can't you just.... HENRY: HAP? Through a steel door? [Declan nods] HENRY: I'm a werewolf, not Superman! [1] |
Notes[]
- Trivia: According to several tweets, this episode would take place in an Arctic scenery.[2]
- This episode sort of continues the story line of Episode 1x05 - "Kush".
- Reference: "Doctor Zhivago" (1965) - Henry Foss mentions Dr. Zhivago by name.[3]
- Geographical Error: In the official description for this episode, the location of the episode is written as being in the Bering Sea. In the dialogue, it's said to be the Barents Sea with the ship "only about 700 miles from the North Pole" . The Bering Sea is located in the Northern Pacific Ocean between Alaska and the eastern coast of Russia. The Barents Sea is located just south of the Arctic Ocean between Norway and the western coast of Russia. Based on the UK team being sent to investigate, the correct sea is the Barents Sea as that is geographically closest to England and fits the mentioned distance; this means that the official descriptions are written incorrectly. Otherwise, had it been the Bering Sea, most likely only the Old City team would have been involved in the investigation as it's geographically far closer to the western coast of Canada than it is to England.
- Reference: "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) - Henry Foss makes a reference to Tauntauns, and Will Zimmerman jokingly suggests Helen Magnus took flying lessons from Yoda in her time off.[4]
- As they enter the ship, Henry Foss calls dibs on the first Tauntaun they find. In "The Empire Strikes Back", on the ice planet Hoth, an injured Luke Skywalker is stuffed into a freshly dead and still warm Tauntaun (a large domesticated animal) to keep him from freezing.[5]
- Reference: Episode 1x09 - "Requiem" - Henry Foss describes the plot of "Requiem", in light of what may look like similar circumstances.[6]
- Factual Error: After Helen Magnus says that the ice is fresh water ice, and salt causes a bad reaction from the abnormals, Henry Foss says that they are surrounded by ice filled with salt. But, salt doesn't freeze, when ocean water freezes it leaves most of the the salt behind, so the ice surrounding the ship should not be a problem.[7]
- Revealing Mistake: At no point (even while in ice cold water) can anyone's breath be seen. Obviously, they are in a heated pool in the studio.[8]
- Trivia: Near the end of the episode when the real Helen Magnus arrives, one of the "little things" that separate the fake Magnus from the real Magnus is that the fake Magnus says the line: "Someone who could take on the aspect of anyone on board this ship, including Will and me." The real Magnus being a "grammar Nazi" [9] and a proper English woman would instead have said "Will and I".
- Reference: "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" (1977) - Henry Foss tells Helen Magnus about how Will Zimmerman "pulled a Jedi mind-trick" on Declan MacRae and himself.[10]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1995908/quotes/?item=qt3541683
- ↑ sanctuaryspoilers: "Icebreaker"
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1995908/movieconnections/
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1995908/movieconnections/
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1995908/trivia/?item=tr3319923
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1995908/movieconnections/
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1995908/goofs/?item=gf4649235
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1995908/goofs/?item=gf5098228
- ↑ Episode 2x07 - "Veritas"
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1995908/movieconnections/
| ● Sanctuary ● Season 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 ● |