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Out of the Blue   Credits   Transcript   Images    

"Out of the Blue" is the nineteenth episode of the third season of Sanctuary, and the forty-fifth episode overall in the series.

Synopsis[]

Helen Magnus and Will Zimmerman find themselves in an alternate reality, living as suburban neighbors, who experience unsettling dreams that disrupt their new careers.

Plot[]

Cold Open[]

Its a fair morning somewhere in the suburbs; Will Zimmerman has forgotten to take out the trash, and is just moments too late to catch the garbage truck. Abby Corrigan, his pregnant wife, comes out to kiss him goodbye as he drives off to work. Just when Will wants to start the car, he notices a white cat sitting on the rear window; he rolls his eyes, catches the struggling animal, and takes it to their neighbor across the street -- Helen. The two obviously do not get along very well; they fight about the cat and the Zimmermans' dog, when suddenly a strange apparition appears behind Helen. Will rushes past her into her painting studio, but whatever he saw is gone. Helen angrily throws him out of her house.

Act I[]

The following night, Helen is busy painting, while the Zimmerman's discuss if they should have a water birth. Will, a heart surgeon, thinks it to be useless. He also has an important surgery in a few days; Abby tells him it will work just fine, and that his mother will be proud. Hearing these words, Will has a vision of his mother, covered in blood and looking down on him into a tent, a strange creature attacking him -- and a faint image of Helen holding him and saying "it's all right". Distraught, he gets up to call his mom.

Meanwhile, Helen has fallen asleep on the couch, and has a vision of herself and Will in some kind of laboratory, half submerged in water. She wakes up just as Will has a similar vision in his bed. Both of them get up and notice each other in the window. Will quickly closes the curtains.

Next day, Will and Abby talk about District Attorney John Druitt, who has just convicted a criminal called the 'Old City Ripper', as well as about their bad dreams. Meanwhile Helen's painting is interrupted by more visions, causing her to paint symbols from her vision all over her most recent work. The doorbell rings. It's Abby, bringing some food as a gift and trying to make conversation. When she asks if Helen has any children, Helen has a vision of Ashley Magnus, her daughter in another life. Seeing how much the question disturbs the other woman, Abby apologizes and leaves.

When Will comes home from work, he sees Helen going through her mail by the street; they both have sudden visions of each other in battle gear and with weapons, and realize that something is wrong.

Act II[]

Both Helen and Will continue to paint the symbols from their visions, and have even more of them while they both try to work: they see themselves in the strange lab, with several scientists conducting tests on them. Will also sees a vision of a large insectoid creature crawling over Helen's house.

Next day, Helen gets a call from her agent, and angrily tells him that she cannot work at the moment. She gets some anxiety medication from the kitchen; the label on it says 'Helen Druitt'. She takes a pill, and utters, "This isn't right". Moments later, she falls asleep and has another vision; a scientist approaches her in the water tank where she rests, and makes her go back to sleep. When she wakes up, her estranged husband, John Druitt, is at the door. He tells her that he wants to quit as District Attorney and have a normal life with her. She angrily tells him that she doesn't want him back; he tries to convince her that he will do anything to make her happy. As she yells that this life seems wrong to her and that she wants something else, but does not know what, he leaves, telling her she has to chose her true happiness.

Act III[]

Will has another vision, this time being fully awake in the mysterious laboratory, and being sedated by the scientists around him. Abby asks him to tell her the dreams, and he mentions the lab, and Helen. He also says that he cannot remember a lot of things, including their honeymoon. He then goes to see Helen, but she is asleep on the couch again. When he leaves, he sees the paintings over which she painted the strange symbols they saw in their dreams.

Helen has another "vision" as well, and attacks the scientists in the lab; they hold her, and a young man approaches, telling her she will lose if she tries to "beat the house on this one". She is sedated again.

When Abby returns home, Will is busy connecting Helen's paintings so they form a larger set of symbols. He tells her that he cancelled the important surgery, having deemed it too stressful. She says he is having a breakdown, and wants to get a doctor. He tells her that everything feels wrong to him, that he doesn't belong here. Abby becomes very upset, accusing him of trying to find an excuse for abandoning her before the baby comes. The stress is so great that she goes into labor. Helen rushes to her side and quickly diagnoses pre-eclampsia. Both she and Will are completely surprised that Helen seems to have advanced medical knowledge.

Act IV[]

Some time later, Will visits Helen and tells her that her diagnosis was exactly right. They have tea, and talk about how their lives feel wrong to them. Will asks about kids, and Helen states that she and her husband never had any -- but once again, pictures of Ashley flash through her mind. He also calls her "Magnus", although he has no way of knowing her maiden name. They come to the realization that their lives are not real, and tell each other about the dreams, and the laboratory. Will suspects that the dreams are the actual reality, and everything else is a dream: they are being held in the laboratory, and forced to imagine a false life.

They then both take the anxiety medication, causing them both to awaken in their tanks in the lab. One of the technician tells them to "stop fighting it". They can both remember this when they get back to the dream, and realize that whenever they try to get out, something inside tries to keep them there, like John's sudden declaration of love and Abby's outbreak. Helen suggests that they should try to kill themselves in the dream in order to get out for good.

When they get into the car to drive off, John and Abby appear at the same time, trying to convince them to get out. Helen races away and off a cliff, just before Will says he's been here before.

Act V[]

Magnus and Will both wake up in the lab and get out of the tanks. The lab tech appears along with Virgil St. Pierre -- as well as Henry Foss and Kate Freelander. They explain that they are in a private research facility in New Mexico.

Three days ago, the Sanctuary Network was called to the Mexican border, where something massive was coming out of the ground. Magnus believed it to be an off-season migration of rock lizards, but was then hit by a giant psych worm that uses psychoactive venom to send its victims into a dream world while it devours them. The team then brought them to St. Pierre's lab to treat them, and had to keep them in the dream-state until the synthesized antidote (created from venom samples collected from the worm's salivary glands) had finished reversing the effects of the venom; restoring their minds to show proper brain function again. If they came out from under the treatment too soon, their minds would have been damaged.

Looking at the captured abnormal, whose body markings resemble the symbols she and Will saw all the time, Magnus notes that something this large could only have hidden in Hollow Earth, to which Henry replies that they have received reports from Sanctuaries all over the world and are currently on high alert. Magnus points out that they have to head home.

Cast[]

Series regulars
Guest starring
Featuring
Uncredited
Mentioned

Quotes[]

VIRGIL: Magnus, you crazy broad. You actually trying to beat the house on this one? You'll lose!

Extras[]

Notes[]

  • Trivia: On the commentary track for this episode, it is revealed that Emilie Ullerup was intended to make a brief return appearance to the show, revisiting the role of Ashley Magnus. Due to time constraints, it was not possible for Emilie to fulfill the cameo. This forced the writers to rework the script to involve Christopher Heyerdahl as John Druitt instead, and to limit the appearance of Ashley to becoming two tiny flashbacks in Helen Druitt's memory when asked on two different occasions by Abby Corrigan and Will Zimmerman, respectively, if she had any kids.
  • Factual Error: At the very beginning of the episode, Will Zimmerman runs out from his driveway holding two bags of trash (one in each hand) above his head yelling after the garbage vehicle as it drives away, having just missed that week's trash pick-up. However, in the opening shot the side of the truck posing as a garbage vehicle is seen which shows it to be in all actuality just a simple service utility truck, not a massive industrial garbage truck with a storage area that can carry tons of trash inside.
  • Trivia: Pascale Hutton, who plays Abby Corrigan, was actually pregnant at the time the episode was being shot.
  • Trivia: The BMW (plate: BAL 20 921 | Registration: AUG) Will Zimmerman drives actually belongs the show's regular director and executive producer Martin Wood. Similarly, the Audi (plate: RSS 410) Helen Druitt owns actually belongs to Amanda Tapping.
  • Trivia: In real life, the house Will Zimmerman lives in is actually owned by Damian Kindler's across-the-street neighbors Martin and June Haze. The house Helen Druitt lives is owned by Damian Kindler himself.
  • Trivia: Helen Druitt has a cat named Henry; his name is a reference to the character Henry Foss.
  • Continuity Issue: Will Zimmerman and Abby Corrigan supposedly have a dog named Monty, yet he's never seen nor is there any evidence in the house to suggest a pet lives there.
  • Trivia: The name of Will Zimmerman's dog Monty is not only potentially a nickname for "Montague" as in Montague John Druitt, but it's actually the name of Damian Kindler's own dog.
  • Trivia: Will Zimmerman and Abby Corrigan's bedroom scenes were not shot in the actual house, but instead inside a studio set.
  • Trivia: The white / cream colored couch that Helen Druitt sleeps on in her living room was sourced by the set-dec crew for the show and Damian Kindler subsequently bought it, keeping it in his house.
  • Trivia: During the breakfast scene, Will Zimmerman is looking at a newspaper. On the front page along the bottom edge is the article headline "Feel Like Killing Your Co-Worker? - Workplace Study Says It's Okay". Beneath it on the folded underside half of the page seen is a picture of Damian Kindler stabbing Martin Wood. The full page of this prop newspaper was then framed and is now in Damian's study at his home.
  • Trivia: The newspaper's main headline article "DISTRICT ATTORNEY JOHN DRUITT CONVICTS OLD CITY RIPPER - Next Step Mayor's Office?" has a byline showing that it was written by "D. MaCrae". Declan MacRae is the head of house of the London Sanctuary. In the article lede, the location is "New City, C.P.", which is short for New City, County of Pleski.
  • Anachronism: When Abby Corrigan and Will Zimmerman are eating breakfast, Abby comments that the baby is due in a month, indicating that she has about four weeks left. Most pregnancies are based on the length of forty weeks (the first two weeks of which the mother isn't actually pregnant yet), making Abby supposedly thirty-six weeks (eight months) along. When Abby visits Helen Druitt to give her Scottish shortbread, she says she's exactly thirty-three weeks along in her pregnancy. Thirty-three weeks is only seven months one week pregnant, at least three weeks before the start of the eighth month. Later, when Abby collapses in the driveway due to the early onset of pre-eclampsia, Will tells the dispatch operator that Abby is eight months pregnant. Due to two of the three lines mentioning her being eight months pregnant, it can be assumed that Abby's line of being thirty-three weeks along is incorrect. Actress Pascale Hutton's personal pregnancy details were unknown, so it's hard to know if it had played any part in the dialogue.
  • Trivia: In the dream world, besides the trashman, the only other person seen living in this world besides the four main characters is a security guard / mailman type of person briefly walking by down the street in the background when Abby Corrigan visits Helen Druitt with Scottish shortbread.
  • Character Error: Helen Druitt made an estimated guess that Abby Corrigan looked to be about thirty-two / thirty-three weeks along in her pregnancy, wondering if the ultrasound showed good fetal bone development. It is unknown if that guess was based from Helen Druitt's personal knowledge gathered as a painter or based on Helen Magnus's actual medical knowledge considering that Helen Druitt's mental state did slip to see flashes of Ashley Magnus just moments after then, and then later when Abby was in distress, Helen Druitt went into full on 'doctor mode'. If Helen Druitt's guess was made unknowingly from pulling information from her life as Helen Magnus, then this is an error in the dialogue as Helen Magnus would know that Abby looked to be thirty-six weeks along (not thirty-two / thirty-three) if Abby was indeed eight months pregnant (as based on the anachronism point above). Granted, the style of clothing a pregnant woman wears (plus in relation to the normal non-pregnant size of the mother, etc.) can interfere with a doctor trying to make an accurate visual observation of abdominal size equaling current length of gestation.
  • Trivia: This episode was the last episode shot in season 3. The very last scene ever shot for this episode (and subsequently for the season) was never included in the actual show. It was an outdoor scene in Helen Druitt's backyard that featured Will Zimmerman investing the area for the Blattella asahinai sapien he thought he saw climbing around.
  • Factual Error: Helen Druitt's prescription for Lorazepam lists the dose as 500mg, which is actually 1000x the normal dose for this medication.
  • Trivia: Helen Druitt's lorazepam prescription was filled at Pharmacy Dispensary NO. 08 at 2186 - Pleski Road, New City 27190 on 28-May. Phone number 555-0152. It was prescribed / ordered by Dr. Lim (DPM), Princeton. The drug expires 09/2012.
  • Medical Error: Doctor Lim is listed as a "DPM". A DPM is a "Doctor of Podiatric Medicine"; a podiatric physician or surgeon diagnose and treat conditions affecting the foot, ankle and related structures of the leg. A podiatrist's area of specialized medicine has nothing to do with treating or prescribing drugs for mental conditions such as anxiety; that's the specialty of a psychiatrist, who's an M.D. or D.O..
    • Speculation: This may or may not be an in-joke in relation to the several types of 'pretty but painful' high-heeled shoes (i.e. stilettos) Helen Magnus is seen to frequently wear in everyday life. The character's usual fancy footwear has been commented on a few times outside of the show in episode commentaries and external promotional programing such as actor interviews with Amanda Tapping.
  • Trivia: When John Druitt shows up at Helen Druitt's house, he hands her a copy of his resignation letter to read. On it is a lot of little interesting details involving references to other previously mentioned characters, locations, and abnormals ("pleski" is the shortened form of pleskidara). Unfortunately, the address for the district attorney's office is unreadable due to the angle of the light hitting the paper. Otherwise, the letter reads as follows (note: formatting displayed here is slightly off compared to the actual printed letterhead. If viewing on mobile, please ignore any visible table borderlines.):

HENRY FOSS
Assistant District Attorney
#### - XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXX
New City ######
### - ####

Office of
THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY
County of Pleski

JOHN DRUITT
District Attorney



Governor Adam Worth
New City Justice Department
1457 - Asquith Street,
New City 596347

Re: Resignation of My Position as District Attorney

Dear Governor Worth:

It is with great regret that I offer you my letter of resignation from my current position as District Attorney for the County of Pleski. I wish to remain private in my reasons for this turn of events, safe to say that I wish to pursue other opportunities in the future. I have the greatest respect for the office of your leadership as I trust you will accept my departure without regret. I thank you for your counsel and professionalism during my tenure in your term and wish you the best in the future.


Sincerely,
J Druitt
JOHN DRUITT
District Attorney
County of Pleski

  • Trivia: Considering that John Druitt's resignation letter was filled in with name references from previous episodes, it may have given viewers the official name of the Prime Minister from Episode 3x08 - "For King and Country" based on 'Asquith Street'. Herbert Henry Asquith was the British Prime Minister during King Edward VII's reign from April 8th, 1908 to December 5th, 1916.
  • Reference: WWE SmackDown (1999) (TV Series) - When Helen Magnus wakes up in the lab, Virgil St. Pierre comes running in and says, "It better be good, I was watching SmackDown!".
  • Trash Picking: About one-half to two-thirds of the way through the episode, Will Zimmerman walks over to Helen Druitt's house. Seeing that Helen's currently asleep through the front door, he decides to not wake her and instead walks around the backside of the house hoping to get a better view of the backyard landscape where he previously had a vision of a Blattella asahinai sapien crawling about. When he turns to look back towards Helen inside the house, he notices that she had put a collection of her paintings outside on the deck patio, propped up against the wall of the house. Will curiously flips through them and sees the same blue infinity symbol he has been doodling all across her multiple paintings. A little later on, Abby Corrigan finds Will assembling these paintings in their house, showing a definitive blue chain pattern stretching across each of the five paintings. Will's explanation of the paintings to Abby was that he took them as Helen was throwing them out. Legally, this is incorrect and Will 100% stole the paintings after trespassing on her property. Depending on where someone lives, there may or may not be trash picking laws to allow or prohibit the act entirely. Commonly, personal property has to be out at the street edge on public property where it is clearly obvious that it is intended to be there for trash collection / disposal / not wanted by the owner in order for someone passing by to freely and legally be able to claim it for themselves. Based on curtilage, anywhere otherwise, even if the item is in full view of the public from the street, taking it would be stealing that person's property.[1]
  • Trivia: The Volvo (plate: BMM 209) that Abby Corrigan drives is another vehicle also owned by Martin Wood.
  • Continuity Error: When Abby Corrigan collapses, Will Zimmerman takes his glasses off and lays them on the driveway before taking out his cell phone to call an ambulance. When Helen Druitt is watching the commotion from her house across the street, he's wearing his glasses again. Close up shot just afterward show his glasses are off again, as they are for the entire rest of the scene.
  • Fun Fact: When Will Zimmerman visits Helen Druitt for tea, viewers can clearly see that Helen is wearing a pendant with the Egyptian Ankh on it; the Ankh is a symbol for sanctuary often called "the key of life" as the symbol is the hieroglyph for "life" itself. It represents the concept of eternal life / signifies a powerful immortal as it's a mystical symbol that is often seen being held by ancient Egyptian gods in their depictions. Helen Druitt wearing this symbol is a direct reference to her life as Helen Magnus in terms of not only her ability of longevity, but also to her passion for saving and preserving life; offering sanctuary.
  • Chronology: Will Zimmerman and Helen Magnus were in treatment (in the dream state) at Virgil St. Pierre's lab for three days, eight hours, and twenty-six minutes according to Virgil's watch.
    • Factual / Medical Errors: It is not physically possible / healthy for human skin to be in direct contact with water (especially filtered / purified water) for more than at maximum twelve hours. Continuous immersion causes the skin to lose plasity (reduction in ability to hold water as well as loss of lipids and natural moisturizers), causing skin to tear and sores to develop due to infection; factors which can lead to longterm health issues.[2] [3]
  • Factual / Medical Errors: There are multiple incorrect practices represented in the treatment methodology by Virgil St. Pierre and his team at his lab.
    • Both patients (Helen Magnus and Will Zimmerman) are fully clothed.
      • If the liquid the patients are submerged in is the neurogel treatment, having the patients being clothed results in very poor contact exposure between the skin and topical medicine; and prevents proper refresh / exchange circulation between older liquid and newer liquid. The patients should be close to naked as possible, at most wearing clean sterile underwear (a bra and panties for Magnus / briefs for Will) to preserve their modesty.
      • Both patients are wearing shoes inside the liquid bath. This is a major no-no as the bottoms of shoes are extremely dirty, being a direct source of potential bacterial and viral infection, especially that of the patient's submerged ears. Clothing in general is covered in microbes, especially the portions of fabric that touch the skin; high concentrations would be found i.e. on underwear and socks / interior of the shoe. The exterior of clothing that comes into contact with the wearers hand's and anything that the wearer touches, such as when they i.e. sit down on a seat and or also rest their arms on top of other objects / surfaces. Magnus and Will have been wearing the exact same unchanged clothing for at least four days (the same clothing they wore to travel from Old City to Juárez, Mexico, were sprayed by the psych worm in, then transported to Virgil's lab). This is not hygienically sound. Their clothing should have been removed, and for television purposes, been barefoot fitted with loose medical scrubs / patient gowns.
    • Both patients (Helen Magnus and Will Zimmerman) lack a lot of supporting medical intervention. The equipment is completely absent.
      • The patients are seen lying in pools of liquid with only a head/neck rest and a few wires that attach to a small metal headset the head is resting in that can easily fall away / off the patient's head. The sensors are not directly attached to the patient or on the patient's skin. There are also not enough electrodes present to receive accurate readings. Patients instead should have been wearing an EEG cap to monitor brain activity.
      • For both patients, there are no attached I.V. fluids, heart monitor electrodes, blood pressure cuff, O2 saturation monitor, or urinary catheter. By three days, the unconscious patients may have also needed by that time to have had a rectal catheter inserted to help pass bowel movements as well.
  • Chronology: The Sanctuary responded to a call from U.N. Lotus Defense Corps about a big creature coming out of the ground just outside of Juárez, Mexico, a city just south of the Mexican border of El Paso, Texas. When Helen Magnus and Will Zimmerman arrived, the psych worm surfaced, spraying them with a hallucinogenic venom. It is unknown how much time had passed between the attack and Henry Foss and Kate Freelander noticing that Will and Magnus needed help. It is also unknown how much time it took to contact Virgil St. Pierre about the situation and the travel time needed to transport the pair to his lab. What is known is that the Sanctuary was able to capture the creature after Magnus and Will were fully mentally affected by the venom but before Virgil became involved. Along with Will and Magnus, the creature was also transported to Virgil's lab to be used to create an antidote treatment from its saliva.
  • Chronology: This episode takes place shortly after Adam Worth used his time machine to destroy Praxis. When the city was destroyed, the protective 'fences' enclosing the psych worm failed, deactivated, or completely disappeared. It is unknown how much time had passed between the power failure and the worm surfacing.
  • Geography: Virgil St. Pierre's lab is a private research facility underneath the New Mexican desert one hundred miles south of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
  • Geography: The driving distance between the city centers of Santa Fe, New Mexico and Juárez, Mexico is an average of about 328 miles. This means that Virgil St. Pierre's lab was roughly 228 miles directly north of where the creature surfaced.
  • Dramatic Irony / Character Error: At the end of the episode in Virgil St. Pierre's lab, Kate Freelander makes the comment "I guess you guys really don't like living in bliss". All that's known about the psych worm is that its psychoactive venom puts their victims in a crazy dream state. The only outward indication for non-affected observers is the display of irrational behavior and changes in brain functioning on electronic imaging. Kate would not have known 1) the setting of the world that Helen Magnus and Will Zimmerman were put in (a peaceful suburbia), nor 2) that the pair were even somehow psychically connected and experiencing the same delusion together (speculation: potential existence of similar brainwave patterns between the two may have indicated a shared dream world, however there is no proof of this being the case in-universe). Only the audience, Magnus, and Will would have known this information.

Gallery[]

References[]

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   :   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   :   Mary Anne Zimmerman
● 1x01 Sanctuary for All, Part I ● 1x02 Sanctuary for All, Part II ● 1x05 Kush ● 1x10 Warriors ● 3x19 Out of the Blue ● 4x03 Untouchable ● 4x06 Homecoming ● 4x08 Fugue
Story Arc   :   Virgil St. Pierre
● 2x04 Hero ● 3x05 Hero II: Broken Arrow ● 3x19 Out of the Blue
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