Now this is more like it. An episode of Sanctuary that actually gives us some back-story, while keeping me interested in the supernatural elements? Can you believe they actually delivered? I'm glad they did because it worked well. Hopefully they'll learn from this.

The episode begins with Magnus in Rome giving a presentation to assorted foreigners (you can tell because they're all dressed in the traditional garments of their native countries!), when a man asks to speak with her outside. It turns out the man is Nikola Tesla (yes, the Tesla, unfortunately not played by David Bowie) and he's there to recruit Magnus to help him with something, a fact he doesn't share with her immediately. As he pulls her out of the presentation, members of the Cabal show up, armed and looking for them. The story unfolds that Tesla, Druitt, Magnus and two others formed a group known as The Five, back in the 19th century and injected themselves with some kind of vampire serum. Each of The Five gained different abilities, Magnus long life and Tesla actual vampirism. Known as the loose cannon of the bunch, Tesla now wants to turn humanity into vampires, as the ancient vampire race was the very height of science, art and culture. His experiments now lead only to mindless vampires so he wants Magnus's help to give them intelligence, as well. She refuses and the pursuing Cabal strike force descends on them, but Tesla's vampire-men take care of them, even turning the Cabal people into mindless vampires themselves.

I Hate You So Much

Meanwhile, while all this is going on, Druitt kidnaps Ashley to recruit her to help her mother. She resists at first but ultimately he convinces her that he wants to help Helen. In the end, Druitt teleports to Magnus's location just in time to save her from Tesla by punching straight through his stomach. Druitt teleports her and Ashley away, then leaves himself, leaving Ashley to explain to her mother was had happened.

There were quite a few things done in this episode that I appreciated. For starters, discovering more about Magnus's past in Victorian times. Apparently she wasn't born with her abilities, nor was Druitt, but they gained them from some kind of funky vampire serum, giving every one of The Five a different power. Now that we've seen three of them, I'm really interested in seeing the remaining two, if still alive. Would they be bad guys? Would they be allies? Seeing as how Magnus has the Cabal and a vampire horde after her, she could use all the friends she can get.

I also liked how Ashley now knows Druitt is her father. I know she's very upset at the times when he tried to kill her, but there's something I don't like about her self-righteousness. Druitt is a cool character and Ashley is not, therefore I side with Druitt in these matters. Hopefully, Ashley discovering their relationship will soften her stance on the guy, because when she barks insults at him, she just comes off as whiny. I loved when Druitt called her on her gung-ho antics, telling her how she loves to go in guns blazing, but has to grasp the concept of the greater goal towards which her mother is working. And all Ashley could say is "that's not true".

I even found the tertiary story interesting, as we now discover that Henry the technician is secretly an abnormal, as well. He can transform into some kind of hairy beast, which came in handy when a giant serpent is found inside the Sanctuary. It gives a reason for Henry's presence in the Sanctuary now. I thought that having a regular guy hanging around the place was a little weird, but having him be an abnormal makes him fit in.

Hopefully, we get more episodes along these lines in the future, where the interesting backstory is built upon while still using elements of the strange creatures that exist out there and moving away from the Sanctuary as a setting. If they do more of this, the show will hit the bull's-eye more often.

Score