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Resistance   Credits   Transcript   Images    

"Resistance" is the fifth episode of the fourth season of Sanctuary, and the fifty-first episode overall in the series.

Synopsis[]

The team tracks an abnormal fugitive, and discovers that Nikola Tesla is the head of a secret research lab for a Homeland Security agency that conducts tests on abnormals.

Plot[]

Cold Open[]

The Sanctuary team hunts for a humanoid abnormal in the streets of Old City. Just when they are able to stun the young man, a team of the Specified Counter-Insurgency Unit, the Department of Homeland Security's new abnormal hunting division, arrives. The leader, one Colonel Bosh, orders them to transfer the creature into their custody. Helen Magnus protests, but he tells her that she should talk to the President if she has a complaint. When the DHS vans leave, the Sanctuary team turns to Henry Foss, whose laptop is already tracking the cars' movements thanks to a bug they smuggled in.

Back at the Old City Sanctuary, Henry informs Magnus that the abnormal has been taken over the border to a secret base in the middle of the New Mexican desert that is used for government research on abnormals -- Area 51. Magnus and Henry go to inspect the base, against Bigfoot's protests. They have no great trouble entering the subterranean laboratories and hacking the computers, quickly finding a map to some kind of "inner sanctum". Once there, they are ambushed by security guards and taken to the office of the facility director -- who turns out to be none other than Nikola Tesla.

Act I[]

Tesla explains that the DHS approached him months ago and he took the job because of the money. Magnus angrily demands to inspect the facility's abnormals holding cells, but is rejected. When they leave, she suggests that there is something wrong with him, but before she can go any deeper, an alarm goes off and one of the guards is drawn away by a strange creature with tentacles and a light aura.

Act II[]

Magnus and Henry return to Tesla's office, where he explains that the creature appeared suddenly about twelve hours earlier. They decide to go looking for it together.

Back in the Sanctuary, Will Zimmerman finds a small man going through the food in one of the kitchen fridges. Bigfoot explains that he is Galvo, a refugee from Hollow Earth who is looking for a way home. Unfortunately, Will has bad news: one of their return operations in Chile was busted by the authorities.

At Area 51, Magnus, Henry, and Tesla come across a group of scientists who are hiding away in a safe room. Just then, the tentacles abnormal appears again, but they are able to scare it of with their stun guns. Magnus realizes that the creature is using some kind of interdimensional event horizon, and quickly deduces that Tesla has something to do with it.

Act III[]

Tesla explains that he used the government's money to fund his own research; he is working on a rift field generator, a limitless source of clean energy, available at any time as needed. However, the first activation of the machine coincides with the first appearance of the mysterious abnormal. Magnus orders him to shut the machine down.

When Galvo starts getting on Bigfoot's nerves, he locks him in a closet and asks Will to find a way to get rid of him. When Will explains that they need more abnormals before they can make another try at passing through a gateway, Galvo tips them of to the possible location of a number of Hollow Earth refugees.

Back at Area 51, Tesla learns that Henry and his girlfriend Erika Myers are expecting. His typically cold reaction causes Henry to tell him that in the end, he will be left all alone because he betrayed the best friend he has ever had. When the transdimensional abnormal appears again and attacks Magnus and the other scientists, Henry and Tesla try to shut down the rift field. The creature withdraws, yet the field comes back online. Tesla is the only one happy about the fact that he just invented wireless electricity.

Act IV[]

Once the scientists are away safely, Tesla tries to find a way to salvage his newest invention. However, Magnus points out that as the rift grows, it might eventually draw more of the mysterious creatures over to their side. Tesla points out that he chose to fight from the inside while she chose the outside, but they disagree heavily on that subject.

Meanwhile, Will and Bigfoot have found the location of the abnormal refugees and make plans to meet them at a church in the fifth ward. Once there, they witness the group being dissolved into a green cloud of dust.

In Area 51, Tesla has an idea of how to shut down the field, but they need some titanium rods from the other side of the facility. On the way, they are attacked by the creature, which grabs Henry and draws him into its center before disappearing with him.

Act V[]

In Old City, Will and Bigfoot deduce that someone must have set them up, and suddenly realize that Galvo is gone. They hunt him down in an alley, where Galvo now speaks with a very different voice, and reveals that he is part of the abnormal faction that wanted to take over the surface. He killed the others because they decided to return home. Just before he can kill Bigfoot, Will takes him down with a stun gun.

An angry Magnus asks Tesla if he is happy with the result. They return to the machine and implement the plan to shut down the rift field. Suddenly, they discover Henry's tracking signal is still active in a cave beyond the facility. They decide to use Magnus as bait for the creature while Tesla teleports to its "nest" by using his electromagnetic powers on the rift field. Once there, he frees Henry, just as the creature corners Magnus.

Act VI[]

Magnus uses her normal handgun on the creature, forcing it to retreat. After returning to the lab, she has decide on whether to collapse the field or not. She ends up waiting just long enough for Tesla and Henry to return, and then locks the creature out of the material world.

Will tries his best to comfort Bigfoot, who is taking his seeming loss of instinct quite serious. Magnus checks on Henry and tells him there is no radiation left in his body. She also informs him that she has heard no news from Tesla, and that he is unwilling to quit his new job. When she leaves, Henry draws her attention to the contents of an electronic tablet Tesla handed him when they left; it includes a detailed list of all the abnormals in the facility's custody, as well as the future plans the government has for it. Tesla, Magnus points out, is still full of surprises.

Cast[]

Series regulars
Guest starring
Featuring
Mentioned

Quotes[]

[The rift creature abducts Henry Foss, disappearing again.]
MAGNUS: Henry. Oh, dear lord...
TESLA: Helen--
MAGNUS: Don't! This is all your doing! Your selfish and base desire to meddle in things you don't understand! Still comfortable with the human toll, are we?!

Notes[]

  • Scientific / Character Error: In the opening scene when SCIU arrives and takes the Captured Abnormal from the Sanctuary team, one of the agents shoots four more tranquilizer darts into its back in addition to the dart Helen Magnus originally shot it with. Magnus yells out in protest at this action, saying that the creature "has a slow metabolism" and because of that, SCIU should "give the tranquilizer some time to work". The second half of this statement is clearly proven opposite as the abnormal was already knocked out almost instantly with the first dart and has continued to lay motionless since. If it still needed time to work, the creature would currently be fighting the effects of the drug and not completely unconscious.
    • Medical Trivia: A slow metabolism means that substances are metabolically processed at a slower rate, meaning that the effects of drugs last longer as the drug is still presently active in the body. This makes more darts unneeded. The wrong dosage could easily overdose and kill any being by paralyzing the pulmonary and respiratory systems.
    • Medical Trivia: Additional darts would be needed for a fast metabolism as the tranquiller would be metabolically processed faster, thus the creature would awaken quicker (potentially while still in transit; something SCIU would want to avoid).
  • Character Names: The names attached to each SCIU Agent listed in the cast section above is arbitrary conjecture. In the episode and on IMDb, the names are not specifically attached. Nikola Tesla calls his aid Gayle to have Basil and Pierre come to his office to escort Helen Magnus and Henry Foss out of the facility. Those two agents then arrive. Because it is a fact that those two agents are named Basil and Pierre, the order the agents walk through the door is how the names were allocated on here. The first agent in the room gets the first name, and the second agent gets the second.
  • Trivia: Nikola Tesla's invention for self-sustaining wireless energy is very similar to 'Project Arcturus' from "Stargate Atlantis".
  • Trivia: Helen Magnus and Nikola Tesla scratch the fourth wall by mentioning how the two of them being in a dangerous dark corridor seems to be recurring theme.
  • Trivia: This episode marks the only time the audience finally sees the Old City Sanctuary kitchen in the TV series. The last time a kitchen was seen on the show was back in Webisode 7 and Webisode 8. Since then, it has been visually changed and relocated from being a small old-church-style windowless dark room in a subfloor to being a large open more-modern-looking room on an upper floor with windows looking out towards the Sanctuary courtyard.
  • Trivia: When Nikola Tesla hears that Henry Foss is going to be a father, he says that is the eighth sign of the Apocalypse. The Book of Revelation only lists seven signs of the Apocalypse.

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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