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Into the Black   Credits   Transcript   Images    

"Into the Black" is the twentieth episode of the third season of Sanctuary, and the forty-sixth episode overall in the series.

This episode is the season Three finale.

Synopsis[]

A group of abnormals has to be contained, and Helen Magnus finds herself in a jurisdictional battle with the United Nations and a private security firm that wants to seize control of the abnormals and take over the project from the Sanctuary Network.

Plot[]

Cold Open[]

At the Old City Sanctuary, Helen Magnus, Will Zimmerman, and Henry Foss attend a video conference with Lilian Lee of the United Nations and General Villanova of the Lotus Defense Corps. The general explains that his men have established a perimeter around an affected area in South Dakota within sixty miles of Rapid City, and sends them a camera feed of a group of abnormals coming to the surface from Hollow Earth.

Act I[]

General Villanova requests authority to arrest and contain the abnormals, but Helen Magnus questions his expertise in the area. She wants full jurisdiction and asks Lilian Lee to put the newcomers under the care of the Sanctuary Network. Villanova says that the LDC troops can take care of capturing the abnormals and deliver them to Magnus in Old City. To the Sanctuary team's irritation, Lee agrees to his proposal.

Will Zimmerman and Kate Freelander make contact with Lieutenant Coxwell of the LDC troops, who explains that they will treat the abnormals as criminals as long as there is no proof to the contrary. A large military camp for hundreds of people is being set up.

Back in the Old City Sanctuary, Henry Foss points out that it is getting ever harder to keep the abnormal world secret, and that this latest incident might provide them an opportunity to introduce the world to the Sanctuary Network's work. Magnus however, believes that the world is not ready, and mentions that she tried something similar in the late 1940s, and it did not go well. Magnus contacts Lee again, who informs her that her superiors have established a force that will act over the head of Sanctuary.

In the camp, the first truckloads of abnormals arrive, including a bryoscar and several herusans. Will spots Fallon, the former chief of staff to Ranna Seneschal, and takes her to Magnus's study. The woman explains that she and her fellow rebels were declared traitors and narrowly escaped into the outlands of Hollow Earth. Martial law was declared in Praxis, but some time later, the power went out and rumors surfaced that Praxis had been attacked. The rebels eventually decided that they had no other choice than to try and reach the surface.

Magnus briefs Lee, Villanova, and other world leaders on what she learned from Fallon. There is still no contact with Ranna or anyone in Praxis; the abnormal rebels only wish to live as they did in Hollow Earth; Villanova points out that that is not possible on the surface when Henry calls Magnus away. He leads her to a hallway where Will escorts a newcomer to her: John Druitt has returned to inform them that Adam Worth is alive and they all are in grave danger.

Act II[]

In the abnormal holding camp, Kate Freelander notices that the abnormals will not accepts help or gifts from humans. She notices a herusan jewelry maker, who gives her a necklace and introduces himself as Garris. His flirting with her is noticed by some other herusans, who do not seem too happy about it.

Meanwhile, Helen Magnus angrily demands an explanation from John Druitt, who explains how her was about to kill Adam Worth; however, Worth explained that he wanted to use the device he stole from Praxis to travel back in time and save the life of his daughter, Imogene, who died over one hundred years ago. Druitt agreed to help him in exchange for the chance to also go back in time and prevent the Five from injecting themselves with the source blood, so that he and Magnus could have a happy, yet mortal life without all the hardships that have happened to them. Worth copied the specifications for the device, but then vanished without taking Druitt with him. Druitt and Magnus leave to look for Worth.

Fallon talks to one of her fellow herusans, Thelo, who is unhappy about the way the humans treat them. She asks him to support her, and he grudgingly promises not to stand in her way. Kate gives a gift to Garris, which causes other herusans to insult Kate, causing Garris to start a fight. Will talks to Dr. Lee when he sees the fight on one of the video screens.

Magnus and Druitt are on their way to Hollow Earth. They get into an argument when Magnus points out how selfish his desire to be with a former version of her, with no regard for who she's become during the past one hundred years, truly is. However, their issues are abruptly forgotten when they arrive on a balcony overlooking Praxis – and find the city totally destroyed, in smoking ruins.

Act III[]

Amongst the debris that was once the capital of Hollow Earth, John Druitt says that Adam Worth must have made another attempt at activating his machine. Helen Magnus realizes that the events surrounding the time dilation field in Carentan were the first test, which was spoiled by the fire elemental she buried in the area in 1944. In the ruins of Ranna Seneschal's chambers, they find an ornate silver-handled walking stick - Gregory Magnus's, Magnus realizes with some trepidation.

Will Zimmerman arrives in the camp where Bigfoot and Kate Freelander explain the situation. They arrive near a tent where Thelo tries to convince his fellow herusans not to follow Fallon's path of peace and cooperation any more.

Magnus and Druitt search the tunnels and come upon some working computer systems; Magnus downloads the data and tells Druitt to go back to the surface and warn the others about Praxis.

Kate comes to see Garris, who rebuffs her advances in order to protect her, but denies her any further explanations. Moments later, Will goes to see Fallon and discovers to his horror that she is dead; someone has stabbed her in the side. As if on command, Thelo and other herusans show up, obviously concluding that Will killed her.

Act IV[]

Thelo angrily advances on Will Zimmerman, who makes a tactical retreat and is soon surrounded by a number of herusans. He tries to fight Thelo, but the much stronger abnormal overpowers him easily. Just when he is about to finish Will off, Bigfoot arrives with several LDC troopers and angrily attacks Thelo. Will is led away to safety.

Back in Hollow Earth, Helen Magnus is working on the computers when she notices some kind of energy discharge.

Henry Foss informs Will Zimmerman about John Druitt's return and the destruction of Praxis. Will contacts Lilian Lee and General Villanova, who demand to know why there is now an uprising in the refugee camp. He explains the situation when, suddenly, the security feed from the camp is lost.

Magnus notices another discharge, and looks around for Adam Worth. She finds nothing, but the lights continue to flicker.

When the video feed is restored, Will and the others realize that Thelo and his followers have taken control of the refugee camp's command tent and taken several hostages. They demand their own state to live in, and want it done within two hours; then, they will start killing the hostages, one of which is Bigfoot.

Druitt returns to Magnus, who keeps looking around the cave. Suddenly, the air before the flickers, and Adam Worth appears along with several computer consoles for a few seconds. Magnus realizes that he is actually in the room.

Act V[]

Helen Magnus notes that Adam Worth must be using Praxis's geothermal energy systems to support his time machine, and that they must increase the power level in order to overload the rift field he is hiding behind.

Meanwhile, General Villanova asks Lilian Lee for the permission to lead a strike team into the refugee camp. Will Zimmerman protests, and gets half the time they have left to open up communication with the abnormals. Will and Henry Foss realize that Thelo's plan does not make sense for someone who wants to better their situation, and deduce that the entire affair is a diversion: someone wants to draw all the Sanctuary Network's attention on one matter. It must have something to do with Worth's machine.

Magnus and Druitt increase the power, and Worth appears once more. When Magnus tries to talk him out of his plan, he says that he would do anything to get his daughter back, just as everyone would. Worth explains that he could not go back all the way to 1886, as it potentially would have altered the timeline too much. Worth decided to go to 1898, the year his daughter Imogene died, instead. When Druitt disagreed, Worth hid away, forcing Druitt to go back to Magnus. Just as Magnus angrily confronts Druitt once more, Worth disappears behind his rift field again.

Will and Henry discover that Worth met with a number of Hollow Earth tribal leaders in different locations. They check on these locations and discover three abnormal armies beneath dormant volcanic calderas in Chile, Indonesia, and Russia. The entire hostage situation's purpose is to draw attention away from the massive invasion armies marching to the surface now that Praxis is out of the picture. Worth's weapon is likely meant to open the calderas and allow the abnormals to invade the surface.

In Hollow Earth, Druitt connects himself to the power generators, giving the electrical abnormal inside him the opportunity to feed on enormous amounts of energy. Worth's rift field is overloaded, but he is able to escape through his time portal. Just as Druitt collapses behind her, Magnus follows Worth through the portal before it closes.

The energy wave from the time machine forces the calderas open, allowing the abnormal armies to march to the surface. Will, Henry, Lee, and Villanova can only watch as thousands of Hollow Earth abnormals walk out onto the surface in broad daylight.

Magnus is thrown out of the time portal, and finds herself in late 19th century London.

Cast[]

Series regulars
Guest starring
Featuring
Mentioned

Quotes[]

WILL: Are you serious?
MAGNUS: If Adam succeeds in altering the timeline, then everything about our world, the refugees, the Sanctuary, our very lives will be irreparably damaged. We may even cease to exist.
WILL: The butterfly effect. It'll be like Carentan over again.
MAGNUS: Except on a much larger scale, and with a copy of the Kellorem device, Adam has all the power he needs to carry it out.
WILL: Okay, I get it, but what about Lee and Villanova? They aren't going to be too thrilled when they find out you're gone.
MAGNUS: You'll have to explain my absence somehow, but leave Adam out of it. There's no sense spreading panic. I'll be in touch as soon as I can.

Notes[]

  • Trivia: According to Alan McCullough, this episode is "sort of Sanctuary’s take on [the movie] "District 9"".[1]
  • Trivia: This is the first episode directed by series creator and main writer Damian Kindler.
  • Casting: This is Agam Darshi's last episode as series regular.
  • Trivia: Like both of the previous season finales, Episode 3x20 - "Into the Black" ends in a cliffhanger.
  • Chronology: Story line in this episode continues directly into Episode 4x02 - "Uprising" following the gigantic energy blast after Helen Magnus steps through Adam Worth's time portal.
  • Continuity / Character Error: After Will Zimmerman and Kate Freelander arrive at the refugee camp and meet Lieutenant Coxwell and see how the camp is being run by him, the following scene shows Helen Magnus and Henry Foss walking through a hallway in the Old City Sanctuary and into an elevator. Henry tells Magnus that the cover story for the camp is that it is an Army training operation and that they also received a backing statement from the Chief of Staff; Magnus replies to this news with "Nicely done", clearly supporting the cover story. A minute later when Magnus receives a call from Will as she disembarks the elevator, she's shocked/surprised to hear that the refugee camp is being run as a military camp. In the next scene, Magnus tells Lilian Lee that this situation is particularly sensitive and that whatever they do here will set the precedent for all future encounters (not agreeing with the Lotus Defense Corps' militaristic approach of how to handle this situation).
  • Chronology: This episode takes place not too long after the previous Episode 3x19 - "Out of the Blue". When Praxis fell, protective fencing disappeared and let a giant psych worm free, leading to Will Zimmerman and Helen Magnus spending almost three-and-a-half days in mental treatment. During that time, the Sanctuary Network had been put on a full global alert about Hollow Earth abnormal sightings worldwide. In this episode, Fallon describes the destruction of Praxis to be harmful to her tribe and to several other tribes hiding as fugitives in the outlying tunnels as their water supply ran out when the city ceased to exist to provide them with power to sustain it. After waiting for as long as they could, their tribes decided to take a chance on the surface. Being that most humans can typically only last for about three to four days without water (maximum of a week) before dying, it can be safe to assume that Episode 3x20 - "Into the Black" potentially starts sometime early the next day after the team left Virgil St. Pierre's lab.
  • Plot Point: The focal point of Helen Magnus and John Druitt's interaction in this episode centers around Magnus being upset at Druitt for him wanting to go back into the past to the University of Oxford in the Spring of 1886, preventing the Five from injecting the source blood. Druitt's reasoning was that the source blood had unlocked his teleportation gene(s) and his use of this ability allowed a murderous energy creature to jump into him, turning him into Jack the Ripper which ultimately ruined and ended his and Magnus's relationship. Druitt figured that if he had never turned into the Ripper, that he and Magnus would have lived normal lives, raising children together.
    • Trivia: There is a major consequence with this plan that John Druitt evidently didn't think of. Had Druitt succeeded, Ashley Magnus would have never existed as she wasn't conceived until the Fall of 1888 during the middle of the Ripper Case (at most a year and a half after the source blood experiment). While Helen Magnus may have produced kids with Druitt in this altered life in Victorian era England, none of them would have been Ashley. Also, Magnus's charge / adopted son Henry Foss would have been removed from her life as well as he wasn't found as a child on the moors until around the year ~1980.
    • A little later on, Helen Magnus confronts John Druitt again about wiping out the last hundred years in order to bed her, stating "that's not love". She slightly misunderstands his position, believing he doesn't like her as is (he does, just not the fact that she doesn't love him anymore). She is however correct that him wanting to manipulate history to change this aspect of her isn't love, as it stems from his selfish obsession to be with her.
      • Continuity Error: This 'reckless obliviousness' displayed by John Druitt to not take into account that his actions to alter the past would also make his current offspring cease to exist is uncharacteristic to Druitt's previous behavior surrounding him being Ashley Magnus's father. In the web series and in the TV Series, Druitt seeks her out and is hurt that Helen Magnus never told Ashley that he was her father. After the Cabal's super abnormal project results in Ashley's sacrifice, Druitt went on a killing rampage with Nikola Tesla and murdered the Cabal as retribution for them taking Ashley away from himself and Magnus. Druitt obviously felt some sort of strong paternal / possessive connection to Ashley being that she was of his flesh and blood. To just easily forget about her in this episode, to discard her in favor to be with her mother and produce other siblings instead, is somewhat confounding. Depending on which temporal theory is used, he may have been under the false notion that Ashley was automatically guaranteed to exist regardless.
      • Trivia: Had John Druitt succeeded in going back to Spring 1886 and prevented the Five from injecting the source blood, not only would it change pop culture history in that Sherlock Holmes and the Invisible Man wouldn't exist anymore, his ultimate goal of being with Helen Magnus and raising children wouldn't happen either. Not only would there now be two John's in 1886 (like how two Helen's were present between 1898-2011 [2]), but the present-day 1886-1888 Druitt would die of his disease (the same disease that relapsed in 2008 as mentioned in Episode 1x02 - "Sanctuary for All, Part II"). Druitt was originally saved by Magnus resulting from her using a sample of her own source blood-altered blood to cure him. As a thank you to his savior, Druitt proposed to Magnus and she accepted.[3] If 2011 Druitt stopped 1886 Magnus from injecting the source blood, then there would be no cure to save 1886-1888 Druitt. He would die, probably never propose, and Magnus would fail to save her first human patient. Druitt and Magnus wouldn't become a couple and thus not have any children.
  • Chronology: In Episode 4x13 - "Sanctuary for None, Part II", Will Zimmerman states that the Hollow Earth Invasion event arc seen here and Helen Magnus going back through time happened one year ago. If the events in this finale episode are based on previous finales occurring in the beginning of the year (rather than during its air date of June 20th, 2011), that would place the two episode event arc of Episode 4x12 - "Sanctuary for None, Part I" and Episode 4x13 - "Sanctuary for None, Part II" chronologically in early 2012, roughly within one to two months after its December 23rd, 2011 air date.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. sanctuaryspoilers: "Into the Black"
  2. Episode 4x01 - "Tempus"
  3. Episode 0x03 - "Webisode 3"
SanctuarySeason 3
● 01 Kali, Part III ● 02 Firewall ● 03 Bank Job ● 04 Trail of Blood ● 05 Hero II: Broken Arrow ● 06 Animus ● 07 Breach ● 08 For King and Country ● 09 Vigilante ● 10 The Hollow Men ● 11 Pax Romana ● 12 Hangover ● 13 One Night ● 14 Metamorphosis ● 15 Wingman ● 16 Awakening ● 17 Normandy ● 18 Carentan ● 19 Out of the Blue ● 20 Into the Black
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
Story Arc   :   Adam Worth
● 3x02 Firewall ● 3x07 Breach ● 3x08 For King and Country ● 3x09 Vigilante ● 3x10 The Hollow Men ● 3x11 Pax Romana ● 3x18 Carentan ● 3x20 Into the Black ● 4x01 Tempus ● 4x09 Chimera
Story Arc   :   Destruction of Praxis
● 3x19 Out of the Blue ● 3x20 Into the Black
Story Arc   :   Hollow Earth
● 3x01 Kali, Part III ● 3x02 Firewall ● 3x06 Animus ● 3x07 Breach ● 3x08 For King and Country ● 3x09 Vigilante ● 3x10 The Hollow Men ● 3x11 Pax Romana ● 3x14 Metamorphosis ● 3x19 Out of the Blue ● 3x20 Into the Black ● 4x02 Uprising
Story Arc   :   Hollow Earth Invasion
● 3x20 Into the Black ● 4x02 Uprising
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