Sanctuary Review Folding Man Part 2
Part 1 was here.
Act 3
They find blood from an FM at the murder scene. There's a drug shipment coming in 9 hours, and Sanctuary has to get its act together yet.
"Who knew Nikola had so many fans!" "Let's watch another music vid. For research purposes..." "Um, guys, don't we have a drug shipment to find?"
Techno babble, blah, blah, blah. Stay with me, brain, stay with me! Don't start craving Niko youtube vids yet! We've still got about 20 mins left! Anyway, they can't track the chemicals from the drug, 'cause they're being manufactured in the city.
Will talks to the FM again.
Come on, Will isn't that bad!
No Man brainwashes and intimidates his gang members, keeping them under control with the drug.
There's some exciting gang life right there. Man, all the gang members are pretty pathetic. They look like refugees, not gangstas.
The old dude's kid tried to stop No Man, but he ended up ~disappearing~.
Hey there, pretty boy. Don't drop the soap.
In the flashback, ginger dude is the leader, while the FM they have in custody is a gang member. We know differently, however.
Misleading flashback is misleading.
The prisoner says he knows where to find the kid - and he's right.
Man, I hate using Laundromats. Some people just can't clean up after themselves...
Aaaand we're out! Better out.
Act 4
Oh, of course, when they tell the old dude his kid's dead, the dude says his kid wanted to be a Dr. Sob story ensues. Writers, stop running out the clock!
In case you didn't know, this is an all new Sanctuary. NOW. Yeah, Scuffy, maybe I'd know what I was watching if you didn't plaster an ad across half my screen!
Henry finds a supplier who's selling ingredients to No Man. Or so he thinks. IS IT A TRAP? DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!
The FM gang guy seems very sad when he hears that the kid is dead and that he didn't take down No Man. "I'm the monster!" he yells. OH FORESHADOWING!
I'm seriously loving this guy's expressions! lol!
You know, I think it is Nomad. That's a dumb name for gang banger. Wait, does Canada even have gangs? Maybe their gangs are composed almost entirely of white guys who are only in the gang because they're being controlled by a drug that controls their folding pain. Just like how all Canadian graffiti is free of the F bomb.
Ah, gotta love the set designers' version of graffiti!
Oh, wow, turns out the drug ingredient wasn't quite what Team Sanctuary expected. Again, I didn't expect that. Yes, I'm being serious here!
Can you imagine how mind f-ed this guy must be over the idea of people robbing him at gunpoint - and only wanting the jumbo buckets of laxatives? Helen totes doesn't believe him.
Meanwhile, Will just got pwned. Honestly, they did a good job with this. I only slightly expected something bad to happen.
Huh, it was a trap. Whadayaknow!
Aaand we're out! Getting better as we get to the end.
Act 5
Back to the Magnuses. The driver must be telling the truth. LOOK, IT SAYS LAXATIVE RIGHT ON THE SIDE! (I love this show. What other show review would have me yelling that?)
You know, because all drugs are called by their general class, not by brand or generic names. That's why pharmacology class was so darn easy!
Helen's portable laxative detector says that it isn't TPG. Crap. (Hah. Ahaha.) It was a trap.
I'll let you insert your own funny line. There are so many! - "And they said a laxative detector was a waste of money! Ha!"
Will has flashbacks of flashbacks. Basically he's seeing things as they really happened, not as the dude wanted him to think they happened. Reverse the roles of the ginger and the one Sanctuary captured. Captured dude = Nomad.
The gang guy lied? Wuuuuut? But...gangbangers are usually so honest!
Turns out the gang is some sort of cult/Black Panthers thing. Nomad is going to get an army of FMs. Oh no, how will we ever stand against a few gangs of FM thugs!
Will tells the others that Nomad killed the kid, and the FMs, loyal, moral gang members that they are, get pissed at Nomad. This is an intelligent move on Will's part, turning them against each other. He can think on his feet, even under pressure. He's coming along.
Helen rolls up with guns drawn (she tracked him via a tracking device on his car).
Nikola was right: she does look hawt with a gun.
{Nikola would be...can you guess? Has something do do with sexiness and firearms?
And then kicking some butt. Or groin, as the case may be.
}
Ash takes charge of the drug shipment.
Director: "Ok, from here on out, everybody draw a weapon! It'll look cooler that way!"
Nomad and the guy we thought was Nomad shoot each other. Convenient wrap up.
"You shot me? Wuuut?" Love the look of surprise everybody has when they get shot.
Is that lint? Oh, wait, no. It's a bullet.
Team Sanctuary decides to stage an episode of Intervention.
I'm sorry, but Ash's pigtails are distracting me from everything else. Badass Ash wears those? Rly?
You just messed with the wrong gang, homie. The Sanctuary will kidnap you and slap you in a cell faster than you can say "gold laxative." Running away from the folks in Ohio wasn't such a great after all, was it, punk.
Ash isn't impressed with Will, but I am.
Oh, suck in your teeth, Ash.
Aw, you're so pretty, AT!
Again, any mission you can walk away from, Will.
Will gives his buddy back the case files, lying easily about why he wanted them. Will's coming along in the LCS world of Sanctuary! (LCS = Lie, Cheat, Steal. It's a CIA acronym.)
It's totes Bureau policy to let random people take random case files and give them to random friends.
{If Niko had been in this ep, he would have fallen asleep several times out of sheer boredom. Tracking gangs of FMs is not up his alley. Heck, they're not even that great for helping take over the world. I mean, they can squeeze into tight places? Not exactly ghouls or trust fund vampires, are they.
}
Now, obligatory Nikola pic!
Thoughts Overall:
I'm not a fan of shows that are tracking gangs and drugs. This is why I don't watch a lot of the cop dramas that are on. Honestly, this ep was actually paced well, and the reveal at the end surprised me for the most part (though by this time I'd gotten to know the template enough to guess that a twist was coming). But it's not my favorite sub genre, so I really wanted to see the Team get back to hunting teleporters and Goa'Ulds and witches.
The outs were ok, though the first few could have used work. But really, I can't fault the writers, 'cause given what they were working with, it was probably hard to come up with strong outs. Heck, most of the time it's hard to come up with good outs! You try putting six exciting or powerful scenes in your script, each hitting within a few minutes of a commercial break. No walk in the park.
But getting back to the plot. The way they tried to track the drugs was realistic and logical. Heck, in an RP I was in, we did the same thing to track drug dealers. The exposition scenes that involved the drug were spaced well so I didn't feel like falling asleep too much. Excuse me if I take J-Yo's view of technobabble. And I'm not even saying the lines! Henry got a chance to really show his skills with the computer and mystery solving. I love Henry!
Will is coming along. He kept up with Helen's explanations for the most part, even guessing things before she said them. He's catching on quick! And when he was captured, he didn't freak out. I'm glad they're advancing his character so quickly. Having him stay an ignorant n00b who refuses to believe in the possibilities of abnormal physiology and who is virtually worthless in the field would get old fast. He's becoming a real asset to the team as far as his psych abilities go, and soon he'll get his combat skills more up to par. He'll never be a Magnus, but he'll at least be allowed to carry a gun. Will's a smart, capable guy, so this quick progress makes sense.
In this ep, both Will and the rest of Team Sanctuary failed, at least for awhile, in what they do best. Will's specialty is profiling - analyzing people. He's totally taken in. The rest of the team's specialty is tracking abnormals with tech and being one step ahead of the game. They fail to recognize a trap, and for a good portion of the ep they can't track the FMs down. The difference, though, is that the team didn't fail for long, whereas Will almost got killed over his mistake. He thought fast to correct his failure, though.
Overall, the ep moves us deeper into the world of Sanctuary. It transitions us more from outside observers who are incredulous at abnormals to insiders who don't blink when some dude mushes his head into a pipe. The writers also sustained the lie about Nomad, carrying us and the rest of the Sanctuary into a trap. The reveal at the end worked quite well, and the effort Team Sanctuary put into tracking the FMs was believable. The wrap-up with the FMs basically all being saved from the drug and having a chance at living happily ever after was a bit short and forced IMO, but they didn't have much time to wrap it.
Act 3
They find blood from an FM at the murder scene. There's a drug shipment coming in 9 hours, and Sanctuary has to get its act together yet.
"Who knew Nikola had so many fans!" "Let's watch another music vid. For research purposes..." "Um, guys, don't we have a drug shipment to find?"
Techno babble, blah, blah, blah. Stay with me, brain, stay with me! Don't start craving Niko youtube vids yet! We've still got about 20 mins left! Anyway, they can't track the chemicals from the drug, 'cause they're being manufactured in the city.
Will talks to the FM again.
Come on, Will isn't that bad!
No Man brainwashes and intimidates his gang members, keeping them under control with the drug.
There's some exciting gang life right there. Man, all the gang members are pretty pathetic. They look like refugees, not gangstas.
The old dude's kid tried to stop No Man, but he ended up ~disappearing~.
Hey there, pretty boy. Don't drop the soap.
In the flashback, ginger dude is the leader, while the FM they have in custody is a gang member. We know differently, however.
Misleading flashback is misleading.
The prisoner says he knows where to find the kid - and he's right.
Man, I hate using Laundromats. Some people just can't clean up after themselves...
Aaaand we're out! Better out.
Act 4
Oh, of course, when they tell the old dude his kid's dead, the dude says his kid wanted to be a Dr. Sob story ensues. Writers, stop running out the clock!
In case you didn't know, this is an all new Sanctuary. NOW. Yeah, Scuffy, maybe I'd know what I was watching if you didn't plaster an ad across half my screen!
Henry finds a supplier who's selling ingredients to No Man. Or so he thinks. IS IT A TRAP? DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!
The FM gang guy seems very sad when he hears that the kid is dead and that he didn't take down No Man. "I'm the monster!" he yells. OH FORESHADOWING!
I'm seriously loving this guy's expressions! lol!
You know, I think it is Nomad. That's a dumb name for gang banger. Wait, does Canada even have gangs? Maybe their gangs are composed almost entirely of white guys who are only in the gang because they're being controlled by a drug that controls their folding pain. Just like how all Canadian graffiti is free of the F bomb.
Ah, gotta love the set designers' version of graffiti!
Oh, wow, turns out the drug ingredient wasn't quite what Team Sanctuary expected. Again, I didn't expect that. Yes, I'm being serious here!
Can you imagine how mind f-ed this guy must be over the idea of people robbing him at gunpoint - and only wanting the jumbo buckets of laxatives? Helen totes doesn't believe him.
Meanwhile, Will just got pwned. Honestly, they did a good job with this. I only slightly expected something bad to happen.
Huh, it was a trap. Whadayaknow!
Aaand we're out! Getting better as we get to the end.
Act 5
Back to the Magnuses. The driver must be telling the truth. LOOK, IT SAYS LAXATIVE RIGHT ON THE SIDE! (I love this show. What other show review would have me yelling that?)
You know, because all drugs are called by their general class, not by brand or generic names. That's why pharmacology class was so darn easy!
Helen's portable laxative detector says that it isn't TPG. Crap. (Hah. Ahaha.) It was a trap.
I'll let you insert your own funny line. There are so many! - "And they said a laxative detector was a waste of money! Ha!"
Will has flashbacks of flashbacks. Basically he's seeing things as they really happened, not as the dude wanted him to think they happened. Reverse the roles of the ginger and the one Sanctuary captured. Captured dude = Nomad.
The gang guy lied? Wuuuuut? But...gangbangers are usually so honest!
Turns out the gang is some sort of cult/Black Panthers thing. Nomad is going to get an army of FMs. Oh no, how will we ever stand against a few gangs of FM thugs!
Will tells the others that Nomad killed the kid, and the FMs, loyal, moral gang members that they are, get pissed at Nomad. This is an intelligent move on Will's part, turning them against each other. He can think on his feet, even under pressure. He's coming along.
Helen rolls up with guns drawn (she tracked him via a tracking device on his car).
Nikola was right: she does look hawt with a gun.
{Nikola would be...can you guess? Has something do do with sexiness and firearms?
And then kicking some butt. Or groin, as the case may be.
}
Ash takes charge of the drug shipment.
Director: "Ok, from here on out, everybody draw a weapon! It'll look cooler that way!"
Nomad and the guy we thought was Nomad shoot each other. Convenient wrap up.
"You shot me? Wuuut?" Love the look of surprise everybody has when they get shot.
Is that lint? Oh, wait, no. It's a bullet.
Team Sanctuary decides to stage an episode of Intervention.
I'm sorry, but Ash's pigtails are distracting me from everything else. Badass Ash wears those? Rly?
You just messed with the wrong gang, homie. The Sanctuary will kidnap you and slap you in a cell faster than you can say "gold laxative." Running away from the folks in Ohio wasn't such a great after all, was it, punk.
Ash isn't impressed with Will, but I am.
Oh, suck in your teeth, Ash.
Aw, you're so pretty, AT!
Again, any mission you can walk away from, Will.
Will gives his buddy back the case files, lying easily about why he wanted them. Will's coming along in the LCS world of Sanctuary! (LCS = Lie, Cheat, Steal. It's a CIA acronym.)
It's totes Bureau policy to let random people take random case files and give them to random friends.
{If Niko had been in this ep, he would have fallen asleep several times out of sheer boredom. Tracking gangs of FMs is not up his alley. Heck, they're not even that great for helping take over the world. I mean, they can squeeze into tight places? Not exactly ghouls or trust fund vampires, are they.
}
Now, obligatory Nikola pic!
Thoughts Overall:
I'm not a fan of shows that are tracking gangs and drugs. This is why I don't watch a lot of the cop dramas that are on. Honestly, this ep was actually paced well, and the reveal at the end surprised me for the most part (though by this time I'd gotten to know the template enough to guess that a twist was coming). But it's not my favorite sub genre, so I really wanted to see the Team get back to hunting teleporters and Goa'Ulds and witches.
The outs were ok, though the first few could have used work. But really, I can't fault the writers, 'cause given what they were working with, it was probably hard to come up with strong outs. Heck, most of the time it's hard to come up with good outs! You try putting six exciting or powerful scenes in your script, each hitting within a few minutes of a commercial break. No walk in the park.
But getting back to the plot. The way they tried to track the drugs was realistic and logical. Heck, in an RP I was in, we did the same thing to track drug dealers. The exposition scenes that involved the drug were spaced well so I didn't feel like falling asleep too much. Excuse me if I take J-Yo's view of technobabble. And I'm not even saying the lines! Henry got a chance to really show his skills with the computer and mystery solving. I love Henry!
Will is coming along. He kept up with Helen's explanations for the most part, even guessing things before she said them. He's catching on quick! And when he was captured, he didn't freak out. I'm glad they're advancing his character so quickly. Having him stay an ignorant n00b who refuses to believe in the possibilities of abnormal physiology and who is virtually worthless in the field would get old fast. He's becoming a real asset to the team as far as his psych abilities go, and soon he'll get his combat skills more up to par. He'll never be a Magnus, but he'll at least be allowed to carry a gun. Will's a smart, capable guy, so this quick progress makes sense.
In this ep, both Will and the rest of Team Sanctuary failed, at least for awhile, in what they do best. Will's specialty is profiling - analyzing people. He's totally taken in. The rest of the team's specialty is tracking abnormals with tech and being one step ahead of the game. They fail to recognize a trap, and for a good portion of the ep they can't track the FMs down. The difference, though, is that the team didn't fail for long, whereas Will almost got killed over his mistake. He thought fast to correct his failure, though.
Overall, the ep moves us deeper into the world of Sanctuary. It transitions us more from outside observers who are incredulous at abnormals to insiders who don't blink when some dude mushes his head into a pipe. The writers also sustained the lie about Nomad, carrying us and the rest of the Sanctuary into a trap. The reveal at the end worked quite well, and the effort Team Sanctuary put into tracking the FMs was believable. The wrap-up with the FMs basically all being saved from the drug and having a chance at living happily ever after was a bit short and forced IMO, but they didn't have much time to wrap it.