Tonight’s episode of Sanctuary appears to have borrowed its plot from a real-life tragedy: the February 2009 mauling of Charla Nash by a domesticated, 200-pound chimpanzee named Travis. The opening scene of “Fragments” does a great job of evoking the horror of this kind of incident, particularly because Henry hears the attack happening over the phone.
Although we know Helen Magnus has other employees besides the series regulars, I believe this episode marks our first opportunity to meet a couple of them. The introduction of Henry’s friend Rachel comes out of the blue, but once you know who she is, it’s easy enough to accept that she’s always been around. Rachel is played by Anne Marie DeLuise, the wife of Stargate writer/director Peter DeLuise. Colin Cunningham (who plays Major Davis within the Stargate franchise) puts in a great performance as Rachel’s distraught husband Gerald.
Jack, the abnormal that Rachel was attempting to domesticate, looks like a classic Trek lizard alien and sounds like the tomatoes from Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, but his species’ deadly spores are always lethal, we are told. Thus, Magnus struggles to keep Rachel alive, leaving Henry to deal with Gerald.
Will and Kate discover that Rachel was administering a drug to Jack to lower his adrenal levels. This is yet another parallel to the case of Travis the chimp (whose aggressive behavior was attributed to the Xanax in his system).
I don’t know about you, but I was surprised by the revelation that Gerald had been feeding Jack tainted food to make him aggressive so that he would attack Henry (who was supposed to look after Jack while Gerald and Rachel were away). I wasn’t surprised that it was Gerald — I was surprised that his goal was to kill Henry. I get that Gerald is a jealous husband, but that’s just extreme. How does a crazy guy like that work at the Sanctuary?
The story became a bit melodramatic when Gerald pulled the knife on Henry. Thankfully, a great, subtle scene between Henry and Rachel brought the episode back to where it should be.
Henry is such a noble guy. Even after Rachel admits that she loves him, he tells her they can’t be together because “Gerald is my friend.” That’s amazing loyalty.
A few more random thoughts about “Fragments”:
Clacked by Ruby T.
on Nov 14, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
am i the only one really disappointed by how bad sanctuary has been this season? i mean, last season, there was a great setup to an ongoing conflict with the cabal. then this season, that gets wrapped up so quickly along with ashley’s death. that was a huge letdown.
add to it that the writing has been kinda dull this season and the new additions to the cast can’t act well, and it leads to season 2 blues.
I agree with you about the Cabal story being wrapped up way too quickly. I thought they would make that the primary story arc for Season 2. What a missed opportunity!
This is one of those shows that I am on the fence with. I watch it and it is enjoyable but if it was not on any longer, I probably would not miss it too much.
When I watch it, I just have the hardest time getting over how much Will looks like Daniel in SG1. Was that intentional? Also, it is still hard to listen to Amanda Tapping with an Bitish accent. Guess that is what happens when you watch a character for 10 years and they start playing someone else. :)
I actually felt sorry for the abnormal of the week. I think he felt bad about what happened and was trying to express that.
I always liked the “outside” characters. Henry, the big guy, I am glad they are getting bigger storylines this year. I miss Druitt however, I love Christopher Heyerdahl as that character.
I agree about the accent. It is always a bit disconcerting to hear their real accent after having heard them fake an american one for a while … same can be said of the Mentalist … and Yvonne Strahovski on Chuck (although I have always liked Australian accents)
I’m terribly disappointed in this season’s episodes. Replacing Ashley with this horrible character Kate is unacceptable to me. Bring back the dynamic you had in season one folks or you’re going to lose more viewers than you have.
I’m with you. I don’t like Kate at all… I was disappointed that they didn’t bring back Ashley (although they have left the door open for her to come back, since we never saw a dead body). I had hoped that Season 2 would build on the Cabal story line and Ashley would become the Sanctuary’s primary enemy, but I guess that’s too bold for them.
I don;t know why they killed her off … her and the chick who turns invisible. Both of them would have been 1000% better than this Kate person
I thought this episode was particularly dull. The Henry and Rachel relationship dynamics were boring and, I felt, poorly played. Not to mention how mental it is to think of drugging up your wife’s animal/patient in order to kill a third party. And why the hell did they have a kitchen knife in the operating area anyway? Or did he bring that kitchen knife with him?
Not as strong an episode this week, especially as it was one of those stand-alones that will never be referred to again.
I did notice that Ashley’s photo and name still appear on her file folder in the opening credits. I hope they do actually bring her back in a recurring or regular role, as the mother/daughter relationship adds a lot to Helen’s character.