Network: Syfy
Episodes: 59 (hour)
Seasons: Four
TV show dates: October 3, 2008 — December 30, 2011
Series status: Cancelled
Performers include: Amanda Tapping, Robin Dunne, Emilie Ullerup, Ryan Robbins, Christopher Heyerdahl, and Agam Darshi.
TV show description:
This sci-fi series follows the daily life of Doctor Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping), her journey to protect monsters known as “Abnormals,” and the sanctuary that serves as a safe haven for them.
Helen is the daughter of a brilliant, controversial medical researcher and was exposed to his secret lab at an early age. Studying the Abnormals, Doctor Magnus has proof that they are indeed real and has become the protector of some and the captor of the more dangerous ones. One of the doctor’s more guarded secrets is that she is 157 years old.
Helen has a daughter, Ashley (Emille Ullerup), who is just as beautiful as she is tough. She’s a skilled fighter and a monster-hunter supreme, thanks to her mother’s profession, and sees that nothing is impossible.
Dr. Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne) is a forensic psychiatrist who previously worked with the Feds. A master at the science of behavior, he can break a case by finding the most hidden human signals and using his innate empathic abilities. He lost his Bureau job and the respect with his peers because of his fascination with alternative explanations for crimes. This catches the attention of Doctor Magnus who offers him a position on her team.
Another of Dr. Magnus’ employees is geeky Henry Foss (Ryan Robbins), who brings his talents as a weapons designer and computer expert to the team. He also happens to be half-werewolf.
Kate Freelander (Agam Darshi) offers her con artist services to the highest bidder. At one time she worked with the Cabal organization but when she escaped that, she was drawn into Doctor Magnus’ team. She may not be the most loyal person, but she still has great skill.
John Druitt (Christopher Heyerdahl) is Doctor Magnus’ former lover and can appear and disappear at will and is unlike the other Abnormals. Each time he uses his abilities, he suffers a specific kind of brain damage.
Doctor Magnus helped the Neanderthal-like Bigfoot (Christopher Heyerdahl) many times after he was shot. He refused to leave so she gave him a job on her staff as a butler, chauffeur, handyman, and bodyguard. He’s smarter than he looks and is apologetic for his past of scaring children for fun.
Episode 59 — Sanctuary for None, part two
Doctor Magnus has announced the existence of Abnormals to the world via a live television interview. Greg Addison and his team are working on ways to get the situation under control. He tries to enlist Will’s help, but he refuses. Will gets a call from Magnus, who tells him detaining the Abnormals will not be SCIU’s final move, and that he must stay in place for the time being.
Magnus explains to Henry that she saw a situation similar to the one they are facing now when she witnessed the Nazis enter the Warshaw Ghetto in 1943, and that walling the Abnormals up is the first step on the road to extermination.
Addison gets a video call from a man named Fordis, who tells him that the tech upgrades he took from Tesla will be very useful for the production of new weaponry. Realizing that he does not have control of the situation, Addison offers Will a deal; he is given access to the SCIU network and promises to find out Magnus’ plans in turn.
Caleb, head of the Abnormal Insurgency, meets with Bigfoot and shows him a vial with a blue liquid. He tells him that when all his done, Abnormals will rule the surface and the humans will worship them as gods.
Meanwhile, Tesla and Henry realize that Tesla may have handed SCIU the means to build a doomsday weapon: his multi-spectrum containment concept is applied all around the Homeland Project, and could be turned into a giant electrified web.
Magnus sneaks into the Fifth Ward and meets with Kate and Bruno Delacourt. She is led to Caleb and tries to convince him that the Insurgency should go into hiding for the time being. She also tells him about the containment field, but he decides that he and his kind should make their stand.
When she leaves, Magnus tells Kate and Bigfoot that she does not trust Caleb, and orders Kate to put Bruno on his tail. However, Bigfoot turns against them and catches Bruno, telling him he needs a lesson in loyalty.
Some time later, Bruno delivers the blue liquid to the Sanctuary; Bigfoot gave it to him after all, and has also decided that Caleb has to be dealt with. Kate tries to convince him to leave with her, but he says it is too early.
Will and Abby Corigan discover that the Tokyo, Dallas, Brisbane, and Cape Town Sanctuaries have all been closed, bringing the total number of closed facilities in the last eight months to twelve. The two try to figure out what Magnus is up to by tracing her steps after she left London in 1898 following her voyage back through time. They discover she visited Tesla in New York City, where he was working on the Warden Clyffe Tower. She influenced history under the name “Helen Bancroft” (her mother’s maiden name) and made contact with Albert Einstein and Buckminster Fuller. She also established various businesses on several continents. Will realizes that the recent 12-minute shut-down of Wall Street was used to hide the fact that Magnus was liquidating her assets. Whatever she is doing, she is almost ready.
Magnus and Tesla try to figure out what the blue liquid is; they eventually discover that it is a virus that could awaken the latent abnormal DNA in all humans on Earth.
Will meets with Magnus, and figures out that she never did truly trust Caleb. He is disappointed that she did not trust him, but she did not trust anyone. Whatever SCIU is doing will happen tonight. She asks him to trust her a little longer, and play his part.
Caleb discovers that the virus is gone, and angrily demands Bigfoot to be found. Kate overhears his orders and warns the Big Guy. He acts as if he wants to leave with her, but then locks her away behind a massive door. Moments later, Caleb and the others arrive, and start kicking and hitting him as he goes to the ground.
Will meets with Addison, who is about to send more troops into the Homeland zone. Will convinces him to give him the access to the electrified grid. Tesla and Henry can use them to shut down the grid for a short time.
In her office in the Sanctuary, Helen Magnus arms herself and prepares to leave.
As the grid is shut down, Will and Abby get into the Fifth Ward with a small team. At the same time, Magnus finds Bigfoot’s limp body at the Sanctuary’s front gate, and he is not alone: Caleb and his abnormal brothers have come to take back the virus. Magnus sarcastically welcomes them to her home, gun in hand.
Magnus fires a number of shots at Caleb, which hardly slows him down. She retreats and tells Henry to lure the intruders to the main lab. Henry and Tesla both gear up and prepare for battle.
Will and Abby arrive in the Homeland Project and start evacuating the abnormals. Tesla and Henry use their abnormal powers to overcome two of the intruders, while the rest is after Magnus. They catch up with her in her main office, but she is able to slip away. Will finds and frees Kate, and they soon realize what the pool of blood on the floor means. Minutes later they and the others are on their way out of the Fifth Ward.
The end of the Old City Sanctuary Magnus arrives in the main lab and sends Tesla off with a kiss. He locks her in the lab just before Caleb and two of his brothers arrive. The automated guns take his companions out, but Caleb hits Magnus, sending her flying through the room. However, Magnus directs his attention to a self destruct sequence running in the background. He orders her to stop it, but she only spits, “My house, my rules!” and punches another button on her control pad; an automated arm with a giant drill punches through Caleb’s upper body from behind, killing him. Magnus puts on Henry’s Full Outer-Shell Safety Shield as the countdown reaches zero. Will, Abby and Kate watch on as the Old City Sanctuary is blown to pieces by a series of enormous explosions. Abby notes that Magnus is surely okay, but Will thinks otherwise.
Some time later, Will makes his way through an underground corridor and eventually discovers a door with a retinal scanner. He is let inside, and soon comes across Magnus, who appears completely at peace for a change. As she once did years ago, she offers him a glimpse into a world he always wanted to see — unless he already has a job. When he notes that he quit SCIU a week ago, she leads him deeper into the caves, to a sight that leaves him speechless: she has secretely created a new underground Sanctuary, with modern habitats and Praxian technology, large enough to hold all the Abnormals of the world.
“I get a raise, right?” Will asks, overwhelmed. “Absolutely not”, Magnus answers. “Shall we begin?”
Courtesy Sanctuary Wikia.
First aired: December 30, 2011.
I have been looking to see if there will be another set of shows coming or not and I find nothing to say they have taken Sanctuary off the air here in the USA. As I have had to buy a new DVR because my old one took a nose dive out of a truck in a move I have lost all my shows that I record including this one. As of now the date is 5/17/2012 and I wish there was a way to see if another season will be on or is it gone and I have to… Read more »
just reached out to their Twitter account for information as well as Syfy but doubt they will help i really hope they can get a fifth season to wrap up all story lines and give the show a proper send off instead of cancelling the series and leaving loyal fans hanging in the dark
Been waiting also to hear news about renewel of Sanctuary, takes longer that last year.
@ Ryan, indeed you are right, the singing episodes was horrible! Turned it off after 10-12 minutes or so
I continually found myself wondering, “What the heck is THIS??” while watching the singing episode, but still not as bad as Eureka animation (which is forgiveable because it’s a holiday special). Actually, come to think of it, Singing Sanctuary was worse. Nobody sounded bad, but it was just something that should never, ever be done on such a show. I’m glad Will had objections to singing, it wouldn’t be Sanctuary if someone wasn’t like, “Why the hell are we… singing?” Hah. Anyway, the last episode represented the best possible ending for Sanctuary. As much as I like the show, I… Read more »
Is this show comming back in 2012 or is it over for good? Some one please let me know.
Cord » It hasn’t been cancelled or renewed yet.
This show was decent until the singing episode. What a pile of crap ! Definitely no stargate
Or no “Buffy,” for that matter. Now there’s a singing episode done right!
Maybe the doors 2 da Sanctuary will close on the show 4-good; just like ‘Firefly’ crashed (13 network episodes/1 movie). Would rather see a few more Serenity moments than sit thru 1-nano-second of a singing flop of junk that turned me right off the abnormal hunters…..
I hope the show doesn’t get cancelled, but that they hurry up and get rid of Kate Freelander. There is nothing redeeming about her character, and while the actress is pretty, the character is canonly filthy, remember her room? I can’t believe she’ still around one season later, and probably still wearing the same underwear from End of Nights. Amanda’s accent is fine, please bring back Ashley, there’s been no awesome mother and daughter team up since Joyce and Buffy, it was unique. Dude, if they want to diversify the cast (and I believe they need to, especially to reduce… Read more »
I have a book called,’ Sanctuary’ by Nora Roberts. Is there a relation between the two?
Joanne Kelsey » I don’t believe so.
please dont cancel the show my husband and I love it and look forward to it every week.
AGREED!!
Don’t you dare cancel the show and don’t pay attention to the other negative comments about Agam acting and Amanda british accent, because by now, people that love Amanda Tapping has gotten used to it by now, trust me, it was terrible at the biginning, but is not so bad as times go by, like on the last episodes and problably better on the comming season “really” SANTUARY at present, it’s one of the best SyFy series by far.
PLEASE. PLEASE DON’T AX THIS SHOW, LOVE ALL THE CAST AND STORIES.
SEEMS LIKE WHEN WE FIND A SHOW THAT IS REALY GREAT, IT IS CANCELED
VIVIAN
I have to agree, the worst actress since the beginning of TV and film is Agam Darshi. However, I have to say that she was not alone to destroy the show. I personally could never get used to Amanda Tapping’s teeth grinding accent… I still don’t know the purpose of the accent, if they wanted Tapping then they should have just re-written the character with a “normal” accent. The worse part about the show is of course, the writing, is Agam Darshi involved with that too? I hope not.
Kate Freelander (Agam Darshi) was the worst actress in history single handed ruined the show after the Ashley (Emille Ullerup) died the show became a X-man ripoff .Tesla went from Vampire to Magneto ..Just sad. Pure sell out.Kate Freelander a slave trader and murder is suddenly part of team of do-gooders. Who lead by a woman who daughter death was directly coursed by Kate Freelander.
Not to mention Agam Darshi was train as a writer and director not a actor and it shows.
For love god cancel it.
The show ruined.
AGREED!! She ruined the show, her line delivery is pathetic!!!
she has a degree in photography according to imdb. her photos come out nice but she looks weird on screen because of the strange facial expressions.
I really hope they have many more seasons to come! This program is the best of syfy, it would be a crime to lose it! I think they should explore the apparent relationship between Will and Magnus!
OH you REALLY do not want to cancel Sanctuary,,REALLY you dont!! you need to fire a few of your people who are telling you what to do cause they dont have a clue,,
Two corrections
1) Ashley, Helen’s daughter, is apparently dead, after sacrificing herself to save her mother and her work, leaving no trace or body behind.
2)The Sasquatch Butler USED TO like scaring human children to get back at humanity. He is now sorry and apologetic for it.
@WolvenSpectre: Regarding the first point, that event happens midway through season two. We’re trying to make this description a general introduction to the series and don’t want to give too much away. It’s sometimes hard to write the descriptions this way, especially when a show has been on the air for a long time, but that’s the goal anyway.
I’ve corrected the Sasquach info.
Thanks for the feedback!