Sanctuary: “Monsoon” – “Hang Out”

Welcome back Sanctuary Fans,

This week Sanctuary aired it’s fourth episode of season 4. This episode had a lot of hype around it because just from the promotional trailers alone.

“Monsoon” promised to be a solid episode, and after three years, fans were finally to get an answer that many have been asking for so long “When is Helen going to get some action?”

The “Monsoon” episode was written by Martin Wood and Damian Kindler. Directed by Martin Wood, this episode, in my opinion hit it on all levels, and really raised the bar. I would like to thank the Syfy channel for it’s support of the show.

Courtesy of Syfy we include the complete episode of the epic “Monsoon”. Enjoy!

Monsoon: Story Arc A:

Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) files to the small island of Grande Comore off the coast Africa to meet the Sanctuary’s new financial adviser. However things quickly heat up when she finds herself in a hostage situation.

The story starts with our hero, Helen Magnus in a small airport waiting to meet with her new financial adviser, Richard Feliz.

As mentioned, Monsoon was written by Martin Damian Kindler and directed by Martin Wood. After a failed attempt by a man to “pick her up”, she meets Charlotte Benoit (Sandrine Holt) and they begin in a friendly chat when a man on his cell phone (Carlo Rota) gets in the way of them talking. Shortly after a small plane lands, a handful of terrorists come out, and kill two men.

They enter the room with the guests of the island and their demands are simple; they are to hand over their bank account numbers to them and they get to live. When two men do not cooperate, they are immediately shot dead.

The female terrorist begins searching everyone for weapons. When she comes to Helen, the terrorist finds a gun and a knife on her. The “bad girl” soon learns that pushing Helen Magnus is not a wise move, because Helen gives her a hard smack in the face. 😉 

 

 

When the terrorist boss (John Novak) threatens to kill Charlotte, Helen volunteers her account number over to them, and when they check her bank account, it shows she only has $200 saved. Obviously a fake account, Helen Magnus is always prepared for any contingency!

Suddenly, one of the guests gets a hold of a gun, then shoots the boss in the chest, than makes a run for it, but is soon stopped by the other male and female terrorist when they use their powers to blow a hole threw the wall and stop the guest running.

The boss gets up, and pulls the bullets out of his chest, and that’s when Helen realizes that they are in fact abnormals, which they then explain used to work for the military.

Soon after two terrorists head to an aircraft hanger in an attempt to find the plane of Helen Magnus, which of course has security measures to protect itself. The private jet starts firing two machine guns at the men, who then run away and hide behind boxes.

Back in the airport, Helen comes up with a plan, and she able to catch the female terrorist off guard, and is able to get a hold of her gun, which she then uses gun to direct them into another room.

Meanwhile, back in the hanger, the two men are able to disable the weapons on Helen’s plane using an EM bomb, then they attempt to hijack the plane.

Just outside, Helen and the hostages make a run for the hanger, only to see it explode with the plane inside.

When the three hostages regain their composure, they find that Helen is gone, and that the terrorists have caught up to them in a jeep, and retake them as hostages. They begin questioning the terrorists to find out who has any information on Helen Magnus, and in fear of being killed, Charlotte tells them Helen’s name.

Meanwhile, we find Helen outside avoiding being caught, she then heads to the control tower, only to find all the men dead inside. She uses a microphone to contact the boss and make negotiations with him, but when that does not work, she puts one of her plans into action.

Back in the airport, the terrorists attempt to find out who Helen is, and just when they may start getting somewhere, they are hit when an EM pulse from the abnormal disables the computer and other systems, but the male and female terrorist realize Helen must be close by, and the male uses his x-ray vision to pin point her, and the female uses her screech powers to send a shock wave to Helen and knock her down.

When the female terrorist goes to the spot in which Helen was knocked down, Helen isn’t there, all that’s left is the EM box Helen used as a weapon. We then cut to a wounded Helen Magnus in a hanger where she almost collapses from hurt and exhaustion. The terrorists talk about what to do with the hostages, and the female terrorist takes Charlotte to a hanger, which she then proceeds to kill her with a knife, but Helen steps in, and renders the female terrorist unconscious.

Helen unties Charlotte and then get away from the area, while doing so, Helen being to explain how the terrorists have the abilities they do, and how each one has a weakness, and that is when Charlotte agrees to team up with Helen to take the terrorists down. Back in the hostage room, the terrorists are able to get their systems back online, and are able to fool an approaching plane that it is safe to land on the island.

The boss and female terrorist go and search for Helen and Charlotte, and Helen realizing that they need to level the playing field, she comes up with a plan to take the other two are using a hand gun, gasoline… and Charlotte’s shirt. :p The two terrorists walk up to a door, see Charlotte’s shirt under the frame, and when they pull the shirt away, they find smoke coming out from under the door, then the small hanger explodes throwing them into the air and onto the ground.

The boss is able to stand up, but the female terrorist appeared dead. Meanwhile, Helen and Charlotte pour gasoline on the runway, and Helen fires at the barrel to explode it and give a warning to the approaching plane to fly away, and it worked. When the boss sees the plane flying away in the hostage room, the boss realizes that there is something of value that the people on the plane need, and while Helen is telling Charlotte they now need to rescue the others, Charlotte tells Helen of a of how she was studying the interaction of lemurs to a deadly virus, and at the same time, the terrorists find Charlotte’s case with the virus inside.

Charlotte explains how deadly it is, and that she was on there to meet up with Richard Feliz so that he could make good use of it, and Helen quickly realizes that they need to get it back. Helen and Charlotte make their way to the boss, and Helen tries to negotiate yet again with the boss to let everyone go, but yet again, he doesn’t listen, and takes the virus out with him to the plan, and tells them of his plan to drop it onto the island to test its power. The boss and the other male terrorist escape to their plane, and take off, and Helen and company make their way outside only to watch the terrorist plane explode.

Charlotte explains how she used liquid nitrogen to keep the virus stable, but it became unstable in an airplane. When the threat was over, the man who had been on his cell phone right at the start, reveals himself to be Richard Feliz, and promises Helen that he will take care of her financial future which will be very healthy.

Helen and Charlotte take a walk near a beach and begin talking about the day they have had, and Charlotte asks Helen if she can stay, but before Helen is able to finish her answer, Charlotte steps in and gives her a passionate kiss. Helen looks back at her and says “Dear God” and Charlotte fears that it was wrong, Helen tells her how she has not been kissed like that in a long time, and embraces Charlotte in a passionate and romantic kiss.

Monsoon: Story Arc B:

Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne) and Henry Foss (Ryan Robbins) attempt to track down a shipping container with an abnormal that if not found could be dangerous.

The story and episode start with Will Zimmerman and Henry Foss briefing each other in an elevator and how the situation has changed for the Sanctuary since going rogue. Will then tells Henry of how his girlfriend Abby (Pascale Hutton) is coming over for a date, so they can celebrate her promotion in the FBI.

Will is able to convince Henry to restore the heating in the Sanctuary in time for their date, and jokes that he’s working for a leftover chicken.  When Henry asks where Dr. Magnus is, he explains how she is on a small island off of Africa to meet with their new financial adviser, Richard Feliz. Will explains how he is almost like James Bond, and how he would be an asset to the Sanctuary.

Abby arrives at the Sanctuary for their date, and begin discussing how things have gotten better for her at the FBI since her promotion, and Will accidentally slips that he loves her, but of course, he tries to hide it by changing the conversation, then Will takes Abby to his office for… business. 😉

A bit later, Will and Abby both get calls and are forced to end their date, but promise each other they will go on another date soon.

Will and Henry arrive at the scene where they’ve tracked the abnormal known as a Stenopelhabilis, which Henry and Kate Freelander (Agam Darshi) had dealt with 2 years ago in season two episode, Eulogy. After Henry explains to Will what to expect, they head underground to search for the Stenopelhabilis.

After searching, instead of finding the abnormal, they find Abby who is also in pursuit of the abnormal, along with her new FBI partner, Gavin Crealy (Kurt Evans) Will is very upset that Abby and her partner are searching for the Abnormal, and even more upset that now that the Sanctuary has become rogue, more government agencies are searching for Abnromals as well. Neither Will and Henry are impressed with what has happened, and neither are fond of Abby’s new partner, but Will and Henry are both warned to not interfere with the FBI and Abby and Gavin both walk off leaving Will and Henry.

That night at the Sanctuary Abby shows up in a very bad mood. She goes to see Will in his office. They argue over about Will sending an anonymous tip to the FBI which results in Abby and Gavin going on a wild goose chase, Gavin ends up being attacked by durangle bats. Will tries to explain to Abby that going after abnormals are not for them and it’s too dangerous because of her lack of experience in that area.

Abby does not have any of it, and chooses to end their relationship. Just as Abby walks out, Henry walks in and tells will that he has found where the abnormal is, and they both head off to find it.

Will and Henry search for the abnormal in underground again, and this time they find the Stenopelhabilis, but it turns on them aggressively.

The abnormal renders Henry unconscious and sets his sights on Will! Much to Will’s surprise, Abby fires her gun, saving them both by scaring the abnormal away!

Will thanks Abby for her help, but she is not alone, her partner Gavin is with her, and his face is red and infected from the bites from the durangle bats. Abby convinces Gavin to let Will handle things, and they all head off in search of the abnormal.

The next time we see Will, he’s being chased by the Stenopelhabilis, but Abby, with a stun gun is able to render the unconscious, and Abby asks how Will knew it would attack him, Will shows Abby and Gavin the reason it was so crazy was because Gavin had left it Reese’s pieces to eat, which can cause a Stenopelhabilis to react aggressively.

Gavin walks off, and Abby tells Will that there are things that the Sanctuary are better at, and she feels they can corporate better with the Sanctuary in the future and reconcile their feelings with a lot of smiles and are able to forgive one another.

 

Monsoon Thoughts and More:

I would like to take this time to bring up something about this episode, and that was the kiss at the very end. Now, there were quite a few fans who were not happy about it, but I did see many, many fans were were happy and proud of what Amanda and the show did. When I saw the kiss between them, I saw two things, one for Amanda, and one for Helen.

For Helen, I saw a new side of her, once that Amanda has talked about for a few years now, and I think that a simple kiss shows not only a new side to Helen Magnus, but a side that many LGBT fans can relate to. I’ve seen many fans in that group thank her and the show for showing that side of Helen and giving them a new reason to admire such a strong and remarkable woman. Amanda wanted to show a new side to Helen, a side that’s natural for her character, and for the most part, fans have been proud and supportive of it.

As for Amanda, I saw an already brilliant actress doing something she had never done before, I saw her spreading her wings and showing her fans once again that she is not limited to certain things, and that she will try new things. Amanda has always had my respect and admiration. I told myself I would not look at her or Helen any differently, but I do, but in a good way.

I see Amanda as someone who does not back down for challenges or risks, she is is not only a strong, intelligent and reputable woman, she is prime example of how women in the business of entertainment work.

She is where she is today, and who she is today because she always remained true to herself, stood up for her integrity and her believes of how she should portray a female officer is what made many Stargate fans admire her, and her portrayal of Helen Magnus proves once again that she when she plays a character, they are totally different people, and what she did in Monsoon, proves that she can take on new challenges and hit a home run every time.

Amanda Tapping started from the bottom just like any other actor, but by maintaining her integrity, values, beliefs and her heart, she is now the big star she has become  today. With a huge and loyal fan base, I believe she will continue to do well, proving she has what it takes to make it in the business world.

Ms. Tapping paved the way for many women in the business as Sam Carter and Helen Magnus, and with what she did in Monsoon, she has touched a new issue in TV, and has given more people a new reason to respect her.

For over three years now Sanctuary has defied the odds by moving from a small show on the web, to a big TV show. It has been groundbreaking since day one, it has made TV history by being the first ever show to be brought from the Internet to TV even though it has never really had the big studio budgets that most science fiction shows have.

Sanctuary has proven over and over to be of equal quality and it has never stop pushing the boundaries of what it can do. All this time, it has stay true to itself and where it came from and that is what has been keeping the fans coming back, and bringing new fans along. Sanctuary has never been limited to being just a “Sci-fi” show.

The program has taken on genre such as history, action, adventure and of course, mystery, and what this episode did was appeal to many LGBT fans. I think this episode best describes what Sanctuary is all about and has proved that Sanctuary is a show that anyone can get into.

Lastly, one of it’s best accomplishments have been the charity, Sanctuary For Kids. The organization was founded by Amanda Tapping, along with Sanctuary creator Damian Kindler and Jill Bodie, a teacher and social worker.

Since it started in 2009, it has raised over $250,000 and thanks to the show, and the fans, many children around the world have been able to start new and protective lives, and the work they’ve done in Nepal is phenomenal, and now children there are able to have happy and protected lives thanks to the power of one little show that could, and it’s huge supportive fan base.

If there is one thing any fan can agree on in the three years Sanctuary has been on TV, and even during it’s days on the web, it’s that this little show that could has gone places, and Sanctuary is in fact, for all. 🙂

Thank to Kenn for staging my news article and thanks to you for reading and visiting our news site dedicated to Sanctuary at WormholeRiders News Agency.

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Thank you.

Regards,

Mike