Sanctuary ‘Penance’ Unpacks Baggage

WELCOME to yet another fantastic episode from Season 2 of Sanctuary!

KEY (LEGITIMATE) TERMINOLOGY:

8 ) = geek-face

8D= manic-geek-face

8O= manic-geek-*GASP*

Till now, we have had some peeks into Helen Magnus’ deep and dark past, we’ve seen her OUT of CONTROL dude (if I may be so forward 8D). In ‘Requiem’, ‘Revelations Pt2’ and ‘End of Nights’ we were given a brief insight into her demons.

Her weighty history with Druitt, the loss of her own flesh and blood unleashed her skeletons…a rare and precious thing to behold! Wills’ most traumatic (that we have seen as of yet) childhood torment was exposed to us in a flash of memories in ‘Sanctuary For All’ (S1 pilot), and further in ‘Kush’.

We’ve had a brief account of the unrest between the males of The Five, mainly between Druitt and Watson, as well as Tesla’s untimely escapades. Druitt we minutely studied alongside Helen’s history (the mere scraps of which we know so far). Ashley’s fate was wrapped up in those of her parents, she discovered her father, and fought to her last breath to defend the project that her mother had so lovingly and meticulously built for 120 -odd years. We’ve begun to unravel Henry’s past and some of his hidden secrets in ‘Fragments’ and also, crucially, in ‘The Five’ (S01 Ep07), including his hidden genetic abnormalities, his personal attachments and shattered hopes.

As of yet, the latest addition to our kick-butt team has not been placed under the microscope, Kate Freelander still remains somewhat of a mystery, we haven’t really had the chance to examine what makes her tick. What sends Kate Freelander over the edge? She makes a big show of bravado, but what demons have made her who she is today? Everyone loves someone, everyone has a trigger….what’s it going to be? Since this episode is, arguably, a Kate Freelander whump, it would really be appropriate to take this chance to unwrap her layers and get to the bottom of the OH SO MANY QUESTIONS we have about this feisty young woman >8D.

Our opening shot of ‘Penance’ is the sort of thing you might see in an action trilogy- straight through the lens of a pair of binoculars. Through it, we see a view of a street in some downtown district, a bit neglected, dingy, perhaps filled with squatters…people seem scarce…and then Helen Magnus loping along the footpath (looking hot, as always, in black leather!) somewhat cautiously. Walkie-talkie in hand, her voice takes us to see Will, Henry (with the binoculars) and Kate, all positioned overlooking the street. Out in the field, Magnus commands a team of complete unity. They work as one, close-knit unit, with a common goal always in mind.

As Magnus meets with Jimmy in a nearby back alley, it was wonderful to see the complete and sincere joy on the faces of the former Stargate colleagues as they greeted each other! In the podcasts, (which are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED LISTENING if you haven’t already!) Amanda Tapping explained emphatically that their vision of this show was to not allow it to be perceived as the ‘Sam and Daniel’ or ‘Michael and Amanda’ show, not to fall back on the success of Stargate in any way, but to allow the Sanctuary characters to really come into being in their own way. I’ve got to say, they succeeded BRILLIANTLY!

Throughout this episode, Magnus’ action becomes secondary to that of Kate and Jimmy, fully allowing the unravelling of these two characters. This opening action sequence is really the only time Amanda Tapping and Michael Shanks personally interact in the show. As the action unravels, we learn that the daring Jimmy, an abnormal himself, has hijacked a Tunisian Fire Elemental from the Abnormal Mob Boss (‘Duke’ Aleks Paunovic) in his hometown of Chicago. Jimmy’s unique qualities (a thermal insulating pouch on his stomach) allow him to conceal the other abnormal from being tracked via thermal scanners. As it turns out, it didn’t do much good at first, as Duke’s minions had followed him anyway, and surrounded Helen and Jimmy’s position.

Magnus is quick to defy Jimmy’s suggestion of a leak from the Sanctuary network…she trusts her team with the fate of human AND abnormal life! Magnus cues a diversion (i.e FIREFIGHT!!), before passaging out through a decrepit building. Guns are blazing as they emerge, and Magnus retakes control of the situation. Fire target is on both sides, and it is VERY interesting to note how far Henry has progressed in his field work. In ‘Instinct’, his first real field mission, he was anxiety-stricken, feeling the pressure of Magnus’ relying on him, yet now he is the first to jump into the fray, wielding his weapon as if it were a weekly occurrence! You know, it’s a bit of a contrast to his usual geek-fests in the ‘small weapons lab’. Don’t get me wrong, we LUUUUUUURVE geeks, ESPECIALLY…but admittedly we like bad-ass too 8D.

In a similar way, Kate’s presence on the team has consolidated. After the events in Hero (when she defended the Sanctuary fiercely at her own discretion), ad it seems she has begun to understand what it means to be loyal, to work as a team, to dedicate herself to a just cause. It’s just fantastic to see her devote her energies to a mission she has thrown her soul into, at the same time retaining her defining sense of independence. She no longer works as a one man team, earning a quick buck at the expense of her trustworthiness and ethics, but works with Magnus and co. as an, almost, family unit.

Agam Darshi has shown this development in the character in a fantastically subtle and poignant way. Everything she now does in her work, she carries with a certain sincerity of heart, her manner of addressing other people has changed, she makes exchanges with them as equals, as someone who may possess experience and knowledge that she hasn’t yet obtained. It is clear to see Magnus’ influence on her. For the first time, Kate has been given a place of her own, somewhere where she’s treated with respect and trust. It could be felt that this placement of trust in her ability and in her loyalty has instilled a sense of pride in her work, in her place amongst her colleagues.

It’s sort of like when you give a child $100 for safekeeping, they take immense pride in this duty, and take extra care that they complete it successfully (so that MAYBE they can put their grubby little hands in the cookie jar!). Despite her…let’s say, re-booting of conscience and life-purpose, Kate still retains a bit of her street-wise attitude, a little of American gangster; “Nobody messes with my family!”

She screeches into the fray, at the wheel ready to rescue Jimmy, who is, really, the catalyst for the whole situation. Helen Magnus, in the thick of it, urges him to GO…..she will remain, she never bails on her team, and the protection of an abnormal is always uppermost on her MO. There is obviously some history of alliance and friendship between Helen and Jimmy, she treats him as a friend, an equal. We later find out the circumstances of their first encounter.

This first scene in the car is really the beginning of our unravelling of Kate and Jimmy’s respective histories….and associated baggage. The urgency of the situation brings them together, prepping audience and characters alike for the profound unveilings to come.  Bullets fly off the cars’ exterior, the chase is left behind as Kate falters…and the car whimpers to a halt. It’s the first time Jimmy is really alerted to her presence.

Kate seems to always be attracting the bullets…well that kind of goes without saying, considering her former occupation *COUGH* and it’s the second time we see her shot, though the circumstances are a little more pressing. As if Jimmy needed another emergency! (Given the fact that his spleen is being microwaved by a stolen fire-entity and an entire Abnormal gang is after his behind). But we appreciate how our favourite writers LOVE to torture the heroes 8D.

The ceasefire is a breather to Jimmy, giving him the time to haul the unconscious girl to safety in what seems to be a usual social crowd for him: a deserted, neglected, gutted room somewhere. The chair under the door knob was probably a little pretentious, but it’s in and out of mind just as quickly as he lays Kate on a dirty mattress to put to work his ‘surgical’ skills. Jimmy has shrewdly determined that they’re pretty much sitting ducks for now, and he has no choice but to dig out the offending piece of metal. For the remainder of this episode, this room becomes a sort of containment vessel (just like Jimmy’s joey-pouch!) for the baggage, emotional unloading and the shocking melding of their stories that is to come.

Upon concluding that Kate is off the radar, along with Jimmy and his friend Mr. Tunisian Fire Elemental, (which is not such welcome news to team Magnus!),  Helen is ADAMANT that nobody within her network could possibly have spilled the beans on the cargo, it being knowledge limited to her protégées, and to Jimmy. Her trust in those she employs is of the utmost standard.

She doesn’t just hire any Joe Bloggs to bag and psycho-analyse abnormals. Such is why she immediately dispatches Henry-geekwhizz to surmise how Duke has managed to uncover the operation. Meantime the resourceful Magnus and Will try to retrace Kate’s steps. The container is the Duke’s target, not Jimmy, and they are landed with the news that the Duke himself is an abnormal, a Diacon, an extremely dangerous human mutant who suffers from uncontainable bouts of superhuman rage, exacerbated by intense radiation emitted through the hands. “Yeah they cook you from the inside out like a microwave”….ah Henry’s nuances 8 ) *is speechless*.

We are privy to this fantastical phenomenon in the next scene, where we see the Duke himself luxuriating in a game of put-put in his eyrie.  Does anyone else notice that the small round discs latched to his temples look FRIGHTFULLY like Tok’ra memory devices? Continuity, we like 8 ). (Please also see Edward’s drawing of an UNAS?! In Season 1 episode Eight 8D). Duke does not receive the disappearance of Jimmy amiably, the devices flash warningly as his hands begin to glow and his jaw muscles clench and ripple. The golf club he once wielded so gently flails ferociously against the messenger’s back, before the devices trigger an intense pain reaction and stop the carnage! He instructs his tech assistant, besides improving the parameters on his temple-tazos, to keep monitoring the Sanctuary frequency. WE NOW KNOW HOW THEY TRACKED JIMMY, if only we had Helen on speed-dial!

Anyhow ladies, we all LOVE it when a rather rugged looking chap is kneeling to our rescue, who gives a nubbins’ furry bottom if he’s wielding a glinting blade?! Amidst the gory pain and sexual tension between Kate and Jimmy, their relationship is very VERY interesting to watch unfold. Despite his rudimentary skills (we can tell it’s not Jimmy’s first rodeo in removing shrapnel) he distracts Kate with light chatter about Chicago, which ironically turns out to be a hometown they share. Typically, their street-wise, smart aleck attitudes give us spices of humour in between the agonised screaming. Their parallel life journeys are key to their history, they both learned via street, learned by the ways of the rough and the ready.

Meantime, Dr. Helen Magnus continues to conduct their search efforts….the music at this point really stood out to me, being the same in theme as that of the episode ‘Fragments’. Please be noted that I have EVERYTHING crossed for a soundtrack of Andrew Lockingtons’ genius on CD, if budget allows of course! 8D+ 8D= EPIC-manic-geek-face.

Amidst a final, unbearable round of strangled screams, Jimmy successfully removes the bullet, as Kate once again succumbs to the black void, this time devoid of oxygen. Jimmy’s respiration efforts are successful, and as Kate hoicks he rebuffs her queries with a “Oh ..nothin’ much, you stopped breathing so I took the opportunity to make out with you ..Oh c’mon, what are casual acquaintances for?”.

The light-hearted banter proves to bring these two similar-veined characters closer to a trustful relationship. It’s a bit of an emotional journey for them, what with the darkly common secrets they both hold. ‘Penance’ is a precious episode for Kate Freelander, we see her stripped of her bravado and usual cheek and we see her at her most vulnerable. We are given a chance to really appreciate her spirit and the source of her rough edges. A similar revelation goes for Jimmy.

Meanwhile, Henry has determined that the Sanctuary radio frequency is being tapped, Magnus promptly smashes it with her heel (as only Magnus can do so sophisticatedly 8D), and that Will Zimmerman himself is off the radar, responding to neither radio nor cell. Magnus receives this news darkly, and whips out her hand-gun (also delightfully Magnus-whoop-butt-style 8D). She encounters Wills radio lying dubiously alone in an alleyway….

Despite the revelations into Kate and Jimmy’s histories, there is very much an overhanging urgency. The elemental that Jimmy is carrying has a virtually unlimited source of energy for weapons manufacturing, so really the rogues will do anything to get their paws on it. Since he can hold the abnormal in him for another six or seven hours at the most, they pretty much have to stay put until the dark (or when the streets are clear), besides which,  Kate’s clearly NOT in any position to somersault down alleyways shaking off ferocious abnormals.

Really, it’s the perfect opportunity for them to knuckle up a rapport, and for we viewers to dig into their respective back-story. Despite having joined us nine episodes ago, we actually know very little about Kate, though we’ve met her brother, and have some idea of her previous dealings. Despite these, we still don’t know anything substantial about this young, wild enigma.

Will has been taken by Duke’s lackeys as an ‘insurance policy’, no doubt to bargain for Jimmy and his whereabouts. Zimmerman seems pretty level-headed with the goings-on, besides his ‘super-freaky’ abilities, he’s obviously had many dealings with criminals in his former line of work 8D.

Magnus shrewdly reads these events with her experienced eye, realising that really they have no leverage yet, and their only plan of action is to be the first to dig up the Jimmy, while she stalls bandits. Realising that the elemental will leak thermal energy over time, she orders Henry to stock up on thermographic scanners.

Jimmy tries, pathetically, to provoke Kate into speech with baseball. It seems like a ridiculous venture at first, but Kate inadvertently mentions her father’s love for the game…and her face becomes introverted….nostalgic with a tinge of sadness. There’s definitely some heartfelt, deep emotion she holds for her father, perhaps even respect that we can’t fathom. The conversation starts baseball, but it’s merely a glossy cover for the thoughts and memories simmering in the minds of both people….Jimmy talks about his father taking him to the Sunday games…before suddenly and softly announcing the loss of that parent when he was 12 years old. Kate’s reaction is one of a sort of bemused sorrow. Yes it sounds like an oxymoron but we can read not only the sadness in her eyes, but the hopeful surprise that perhaps, just maybe, she may have someone with whom she could be able to share her deepest, haunting memory.

“Mine died when I was eight”. The sadness in her demeanour is almost shadowed by a guarded reluctance.  Agam performed this scene with such beautiful weight…the apprehension, the reluctance to delve into her past (as always!) is uppermost. It’s as if she struggles not to let this almost familiar man seep through a crack in her hard shell, and get to know her deepest secret. Jimmy’s smile is wondrous and curious…his further question of the cause just sends Kate into a flurry of irritated denial. She is already uncomfortable with what she has let on, let alone allowing her inner sanctum to be displayed to another eye! Her voice breaks as she figuratively shoves Jimmy to arms’ length, at a safe distance from her dark, brooding place. Jimmy leaves off and regards her with inquisitive, perhaps concerned, scrutiny.

In the meantime, we LUUUURVE to see our favourite heroines talking dirty! Helen’s call to Duke positively reeks of mafia-speak, and we absolutely love it…concluding with the “Get your men OFF MY STREETS, and get your hands off my people!” Besides the stalling and intimidation tactics, it really says so much about Magnus’ role in everyday human society. Not only is she responsible for protecting humans and abnormal from each other, but for keeping a vigil guardianship over the very streets of her ‘territory’. Given the nature of the gangs who oppose her, she has to fight back in their language! Her law and experience supersedes those of any government agencies >8D. Magnus successfully waylays the offending boss by sending his men on a chicken-chase to find out if she really has the OH-so-wanted Jimmy & Co. in her hands. Meantime, ‘HER people’ are stomping the pavements, thermographic scanners in hand.

A kind of willing silence has fallen over the pair in the dingy small room. They allow the touchiness to wallow in the air and die down, until Kate comments on the removed tattoo on his lower arm. Unwittingly (these two do it a lot 8)) she has touched on a key anecdote of jimmy’s colourful history. As it turns out, Jimmy himself skadoodled with the ‘Kingtown’ gang, back in the day. Evidently, he’d had his fair share of filthy work, having a difficult time getting out of the run after the passing of dad (Kate expresses her familiarity with the kind of situation…I wonder what else she has buried in her own multi-hued autobiography?).

His history ranged from drug smuggling, to underhand weapons dealing, and eventually into the darkest of operations. There is a kind of amused regret undertoning his narrative, like looking on the past follies of his youth with wizened, wrinkled eyes. His story concludes with tale of the designated drop of a Paradax (by the sounds of it, I want one to live in my bottom drawer 8D) at the ‘L’ during rush hour.

Really it was supposed to be a cover for a robbery….so he thought, until he was inevitably approached on the platform by a mysterious woman, who seemed to know all there was to know about him. Helen Magnus revealed to him to the bitter and tragic truth of his mission.  The dangerous spray of the creature would have caused him to end the lives hundreds of people, and how close Jimmy had come to causing this tragedy is evident in the guilt-ridden, but relieved emotion on his features. In the clenched jaw, the damp eyes, the halting words, he’s torn between his guilt and his overwhelming reverent gratitude to his herald, Dr Helen Magnus.

Their meeting was his ladder out of a life he had been trying to get out of for decades. She forged him a new path, one in which he could be a better man, could put his past behind him. If only we knew what he’d been doing since his makeover, undoubtedly it would have been SOME tale!

Kate scrutinizes his face, trying to fathom the depth of his emotions, when her next response strikes a vibration in the room “…you just, look really familiar”. Jimmy’s face is unreadable. Perhaps some sort of confused realisation.

Henry’s thermal scanning so far has been successful, though he did manage to stumble across some homeless guys at their evening dinner party, hunched over a makeshift burner. Through the binoculars we see that he is being watched, and Duke receives the news that, well actually Magnus’ people are still looking for SOMETHING thank-you-very-much! He gives the usual dirty-talk to Will “…which is very bad news for you” and to our own, and Will’s discomfort, kills the power on his zap discs….now he can rage all he wants…..there’s nothing to stop him. As his hands begin to glow with intense radiation and he lifts Will off his feet by the Adams’ apple, he begins his macho interrogation.

With the weight and experience of Jimmy’s past, he has learned to move on from his haunts, to look on the painful moments as stepping stones in his existence. Kate, with her youth and brashness, is obviously still very much attached to childhood events that are so close to her heart. For her, they are still very much fresh in the mind, still have an emotional monopoly over her thoughts. She has not yet reached the point where she can look upon them as incidents which have taught and shaped her.

The pain is still much too raw.  Kate’s definitely not one to sit on her butt very much, always independent and on the move, so of course she tries to walk (nice try!). “C’mon if you die, no-one’s going to believe that I saved you!” Kate can’t stand not doing anything. Jimmy, on the other hand, with his experience and patience, knows better. His curiosity gets the better of him, and he starts asking questions about Kate’s decision to leave her hometown.

After some failed rebuffs, she finally reveals that it was because of her father’s death, still so raw in her memory.  Her description of him really gives a testament to her pride and affection, as well as her questionable street-habits. Dad, a lock-picker “..could crack a safe in four minutes flat.”, tied into pulling bank jobs and the usual fringe-of-society deals. What really took light was the similarity between her father and Jimmy’s lifestyles, especially how it led them to cross paths in such a shocking manner. Jimmy’s response is a silent, dismayed realisation at the memory of HIS targeted attack on a police station all those years ago.

For Kate, of course, the pain of the memory was so much more personal, given her mother’s circumstances at the time, the heart-wrenching loss of someone who was her role-model, a man for whom she had immense respect and love and ultimately, the tearing apart of her family. Jimmy is kind of slapped in the face with the tale, as it drags him kicking and screaming into the realisation that for all his misguided actions back in the dark days, there was always someone who was hurt,some innocent bystander who was torn with grief caused by non other than himself.

Everybody is connected to someone else. Everyone is loved by someone, has a family or friends to go home to, to share laughter and good times, and who will nurse the wound of their loss for years to come as nobody could ever understand. Perhaps by the death of his own father, Jimmy had forgotten this fact, and Karma is a female canine (we also love clichés 8D). Jimmy is so blatantly uncomfortable with his realisation as he bluntly decreases his proximity with the narrator and moves to the window, you know, just to look out…..though Kate is not so easily duped.

All her years of freelance spying and butt-kicking come into play as she reads over his body language and confronts him questioningly. Jimmy is frustratingly aloof, blaming the heat of his pouch-buddy for his fidgeting, before trying (and failing) to get water out of the plumbing. Like a bull finally trapped in his arena with his toreador, he finally takes his focus to gaze at Kate’s face in the mirror. She triggers.

What would boys do without their toys 8D. Henry finds the sleeper worm in the Sanctuary communication frequency that has kicked in as a backup plan, Magnus suggests that nah, let them track and see what we’re up to >8D. Magnus always has a plan! Meanwhile, Will is getting the bleeps whooped out of him, and in the next second Duke is being zapped in the temples by his tech-sergeant. Tecchy gives the unwelcome news that, well, actually The Sanctuary Network DOES have Jimmy, as seen by the intake file hack here, and here *hands Duke a Mac*. Duke blackmails Magnus via video call, demanding Jimmy for ‘Pretty Boy’….okay…okay we admit it…Will’s so pretty 8 ).

Helen Magnus always finds a backup plan, she never forsakes her team, her experience and knowledge carries too much weight for her to ever give in…EVER. She quickly surmises the function of Duke’s temple electrodes- direct control of the Limbic System, perhaps leaving other parts of his brain i.e Visual Cortex, ‘open to manipulation’ mwahahahahahaaaa 8D.

Kate Freelander is putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Even BEFORE she’s voiced her suspicions, we can see her dark, targeted determination. She knows where the puzzle is going to end, but she’s trying to disarm Jimmy, give him no other way out, back him into a corner so to speak. It makes her own revenge all the easier and sweeter. Her own desperation, to finally find someone to blame for the loss of her father, drives her to narrow down to the conclusion very quickly. Interesting note, Jimmy tried to deflect her conclusions “it was before my time”…perhaps his guilt is too overbearing? Perhaps, in a sense, Jimmy had almost expected, if not hoped, to escape further karma/guilt for his early escapades when he finally managed to escape the grips of his gang life, and forged a new path with the help of Magnus. He was certainly NOT expecting to pay for his abominations a decade into the future. He has moved on from that stage, it is put behind him as a memory he never wants to recall, let alone pay for as a new, improved man. Unfortunately, his judgement is in the hands of the young Kate Freelander, a woman who deep down, nurses the wound and the excruciating pain of her family’s separation, at the hands of the man who is OH so close to her, not a few metres away.

Her rage and hurt boils uncontrollably to the surface. Kate’s youth and impulsiveness, like Ashley’s in a sense, perhaps has the potential to drive her to extreme, emotion-driven actions, without much self control in regards for the far-reaching consequences. Druitt said to Ashley, in ‘The Five’ (S1 Ep06) “You capture, maim and kill…whatever mummy tells you to, without any regard for the consequences of your actions”. The statement was, maybe, a little blunt, but I  think there is a real ring of truth to it. The members of The Five have had the fortune of two lifetimes’ worth of experience and the gaining of patience, as well as self control; Magnus, case in point 8D.

They have attained the foresight and patience that comes with aged wisdom…the younger ones, not so much. Will employs his understanding of human psyche to help him remain calm and objective, Kate….Kate has had a short life by comparison. Her education was guided by the street, and not in the most virtuous methodology either. She has not yet gained patience and foresight. Her wounds are too fresh and raw. All she sees in her vision is the memory of joyfully arriving to pick up her father, ready  to be reunited with him, that they may be a family once more…before her life is blown into a million pieces as fire and shrapnel rip through the building in all directions.

Kate’s hunger for revenge breaks through as she grabs her handgun. Jimmy just as quickly whips around and aims his barrel on her, his logic has overcome his guilt, his wish for absolution as he realises he has no other choice but to answer for his past misdeeds. Hopefully, it’s for the last time.

Meantime, Big Guy, still stomping the pavements in search of the two, has discovered Kate’s shot out car, and sniffs the trail from thence.

Jimmy’s face is cringed with remorse and regret, he tries to explain to Kate calmly, it was his first big job, Kate should understand how it is. Once you’re in on it, you’re in. He almost sounds as if he felt he had been slightly victimised, if he felt he had another choice, he would have taken it. Would he? Back then, in the vicious thrill of his gang days, was his conscience already blaring out to him like a foghorn in the murky mist? After all this time of guilt-ridden memories, Jimmy seems to have finally accepted that what comes around, goes around…finally he can have some absolution for his misdeeds. He lowers his weapon.

The pain in her shoulder forgotten, Kate confronts him with “What…and I suppose my father was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, is that it?” Jimmy’s answer cuts through the air like a samurai sword “Kate, what are you talking about? Your dad was the TARGET”. As it turns out, Kate’s father was tipping off the authorities about the gang. Kate, being streetwise, obviously completely understands the implications of this betrayal….she falters, shudders, but her hurt is too overbearing  “…but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s dead”, as she demands him on his knees. This here, is Kate Freelander devoid of her usual cool, cold logic, her defining relaxed shrewdness completely gone, as more than a decade of pain and frustrated vengeance finally drench her consciousness. All she sees is the man who caused her family so much hurt, wounded them, and ultimately separated them, and finally the chance to avenge the broken past.

As Jimmy capitulates, his words are soulful and disarming, he doesn’t blame her. He is in a position to understand her pain, to forgive her anger. He himself is torn with the guilt of his past, as he gazes calmly on his judgement with wet eyes and a half smile, “…and go White Sox”. Kate struggles to gain her daring…..as Big Guy demolishes the door, and gazes in surprise at the scene before him, but his mission is always devoted to his mentor, and he summons the two to help Magnus. Jimmy watches tiredly as Kate suddenly steps back emotionally, and sees the whole picture. Her personal grievances are small and tunnel-visioned compared to the Larger Task at hand.

Magnus, in her usual mistress-of-manipulation kind of way, has allowed herself to be snitched by Duke’s fellows, that she may put her cunning plan to work >8D. As she confronts Duke coolly, in her masterful way, her confidence and logic simply enrages him even more, whilst Will can’t fathom her decision to exchange her own custody for his. Her mission is to get her team out safely and speedily, and to protect the abnormal at any cost. Duke is duped by Magnus (his boys are VERY confused!) and Helen and Will are OUT of there!

Finally we see ‘Sally’s’ powers at work! Always a mystery, but of course we haven’t yet discovered even half of the Sanctuary inmates! In Requiem we heard about her telepathic/empathic abilities, and now we are privy to them first-hand.

This final climax of the episode is really the crux of Jimmy’s disposition, the apex of his many years of guilt, a final release from it whilst protecting the life he wishes he could have had, protecting Magnus’ important work, and almost offering vengeance on himself for the pain he had cause others.

You almost feel as though he is sacrificing himself for Kate, and for all the other families that he hurt in his darker days. He is willing to face this absolution, and this is a gift to her, in a somewhat morose way. By sacrificing himself, he is trying to give back the life he helped destroy, and almost freeing her from the grips of her vengeance, in order that she may see through dark, enabling her to live again fully with the memory of her Father, as her Father and not stuck in her own time loop of torment for the rest of her life.

The unravelling of the character Jimmy, the weight and history he carries as all built up to this point, the fruition of his personal struggle with his guilt, and almost a way to redeem himself. His last words to Kate, an apology for his misdeeds and for her pain.

After the shock of these revelations, Kate, in her vulnerable and perhaps more objective state, is finally coming to terms with the death of her father. Having, after so many years, come face to face with his killer, her changed circumstances, her changed MO, the development and emotional maturing of her personality as well as the pressing urgency of the situation, all these prevented her from carrying out the vengeance she had looked forward to for years. It almost seems as if her fury and anger have burned themselves out, and she is only left with her memories and her nostalgic grief.

Magnus blames herself for her slip in judgement, for what she missed of the common history Kate and Jimmy shared, but we know that if she had sourced such information, perhaps neither of these two characters would have achieved such closure, or it would have come at a time when any confrontation would have been even more devastating. On the other hand, Magnus would most likely have been able to offer a more constructive, less destructive finality to their relationship and history, and Magnus knows this. Given the sheer magnitude of her work, Helen knows that even the smallest of decisions has far-reaching, and potentially catastrophic consequences. She cannot afford to miss such small details, and almost never does.

About time we initiated the newest member of Team Sanctuary! Kate Freelander had a rather rough ride entering the show we’ve come to love so much, mainly because of timing, but also due to the entirely different dynamic she brought to the assembly of colourful characters. Just when we’d become accustomed to ‘team awesome’, the Sanctuary Network was flipped downside up, taking with it a part of Magnus’ heart and a key member of the Sanctuary front. Almost simultaneously, there burst into our vision a rebellious ball of deviousness, alone in the world, proud, unattached, self-centred and devoid of any concept of loyalty!

It was uncomfortable for everyone at first…viewers as well as characters. Kate Freelander brought with her a wind of restlessness that was completely alien to the overtones of the show, but at the same time, brought a soul that had so much potential for growth, and had so much to learn in spite of her street-savvy. ‘Penance’ has been a fantastic insight and eye-opener to her history and nature.

It has allowed we viewers to fully understand and appreciate Kate’s rough edges, her demons, and the beginning of a growth in character that has the potential to become a force to be reckoned with!

Please feel free to leave a comment for me here or on my Twitter account by clicking by avatar. Thank you for reading.

JandyraCJM