Sanctuary – The League of Extraordinary Gentleman

(Season 1, Episode 12 – “Revelations, Part 1″)

This two-part finale brought “The Five” together, almost completely, and with this gang of nineteenth century legends working together to save the world, it reminded me a lot of Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I know, there’s no patent on having famous literary and historical characters working together, and this is after all happening with these characters in the modern era, but still it happened. Particularly when we learned the identity of the fifth member and got to meet Mr. Watson.

The show has done a nice job of setting up the Cabal as a true threat to abnormals and the work of the Sanctuary. Particularly dastardly is Ms. Whitcomb as the presumed head of this organization, which reminds me a lot of “The Company.” It’s kind of funny, and appropriate, that giant evil corporations are all the rage now. Powerhouse private companies that seem to move above and beyond the law of the land. Of course, we all know there’s nothing going on like that in the real world, right?

I liked the idea of at least one of the Five not being as long-lived as the other four apparently are. We’re down to the third generation of “The Invisible Man,” and this time it’s his granddaughter, a hot young thing John Druitt had the pleasure of capture in the nude. Don’t you know you have to be naked to be effectively invisible? Now do you see why this became a nubile young woman instead of a middle-aged man? Ratings, baby! Tapping’s no dummy.

I did find myself wondering, as we kept jumping back to The Cabal, how Whitcomb seemed to have up-to-the-minute information as to what was going on inside the Sanctuary. Bugs? An inside agent? Maybe something Magnus’ father did while he was there (yeah, there’s another guy who’s lived way longer than anyone should)?

Sanctuary has put a nice bow on the whole season with this first part of the two-part finale. They’ve established a more complete world for these characters to inhabit, thus enhancing our sense of the threat here. Now that we’ve seen the abnormals and how many of them there are out there still, some dangerous and some just living life (like the poor walrus-faced guy), throwing in this new manufactured “rage virus” that affects only them is quite the dandy. The Cabal wants to create massive chaos and make known the existence of the abnormals all at the same time.

We’ve seen them breeding their own “rage army,” but still unclear is their ultimate motive. Is it really as simple as decimating the world so they can rule over whatever remains? If you allow too much destruction, you can’t guarantee the continuation of civilization as we know it. And if you lose that you lose Cold Stone Creamery. And if you lose Cold Stone Creamery, well what’s the point anymore?

Personally, I’ve never understood the desire to destroy the world and rule over what’s left, ushering in a new era of mankind under your thumb. There’s too much good stuff out there now that I’d hate to see disappear. If Watson has his way, though, that’s just what would happen. For a guy who’s lived two normal lifetimes, though I don’t really understand all the gadgets he uses to accomplish this, he’s quite the Debbie Downer.

Even Druitt has more optimism, and he’s freaking Jack the Ripper. If Watson, who we learn was the true basis for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, is truly the greatest analytical mind in the history of the world, you’d think he’d go through life with at least a smidge of confidence. Don’t think you can figure out a way to accomplish your goals, Watson? Not clever enough, Holmesy? Posh!

A plan is put into place to get a cure for the virus, which they need now that Bigfoot is infected as well. The Invisible Girl is recruited and almost everyone heads to India where the vial of pure blood used to create The Five is housed. Magnus is confident they can get it without Tesla, whom they suspect may be dead (but we know better than that! Even without the promos, this is television — of course he’s alive!). But when they arrive and the labyrinth is collapsed and destroyed Watson throws in the towel. Woe is me! I’ve got a teleporter with me and we’re still a mile or more away but let’s just give up and leave now. If we head straight for Cold Stone we can get some ice cream before they’re all destroyed.

So the stage is set for next week’s season finale. Ashley and Henry are in the hands of Whitcomb and The Cabal. What, did I not mention that? Yeah well they went in there totally unprepared so it was inevitable. Idiots. The test release went great and the actual release promises to be far worse. Can Magnus and the team get it together to save the world? Probably. I don’t think they’re going to end this first season on a cliffhanger. At least not a major one. Maybe they’ll come up with a little cliffhanger for us. Like Ashley ordering French Vanilla ice cream and the guy having to go in back to see if they have any…. [TO BE CONTINUED!]

Clacked by Jason Hughes
on Jan 04, 2009 @ 09:00 EST5EDT