Sanctuary 4x01: Tempus
This isn’t going to be a regular review; it is going to be more of me just writing down whatever happens to come to my head at the moment. It came out much longer than I had intended and it may not entirely make sense, though I DID read back through it.
For the longest time, I thought that I would have preferred living in London during the Victorian era - such a great time for fashion, architecture, literature, and the arts. So, when I knew that the season premiere would be entirely set in the 19th century, I was freaking out! However, as I was watching the episode, I began to remember why I decided I was just fine with the 21st century.
I love how this episode:
Cleared up a lot about the timeline
Shows us a younger, more innocent Helen Magnus
Introduced a totally cool new character
Takes place in the 19th century
Mentions H.G. Wells
Has Helen and James working together again
Shows us a different side to John Druitt
In this scene with future!Helen and future!Adam, it is very obvious how much has changed over the last 113 years, as far as women’s lib goes. I chose to write a paper on Jane Eyre, for my Major British Writers class in college, and it is a great portrayal of men’s oppression of women during the 1800s. I have been reading Jane Eyre since I was sixteen, so when I started watching Sanctuary I knew Helen was from the 19th century, but it wasn’t until “Tempus” that it clicked - Helen lived during the same times as Jane. Granted, Helen is a very different person than Jane, and they came from different backgrounds, but they were both women in the 19th century.
As free-willed as Helen Magnus was at that time, I think she still understood and followed the rules of society. From the scenes in this episode, I think that she was still very innocent/naive; but if we look to the flashbacks from “For King and Country”, we see a very different Helen Magnus - only 10 years later. So, for future!Helen to go into that Gentlemen’s Club was very dangerous, as far as messing with the timeline goes. She was adamant with both past!James and future!Adam about how dangerous it was for them to be here, but then she goes into that club! Was it Adam that said something about her reputation? I can’t remember, but she was endangering past!Helen by walking in there and acting like that. If she had shot future!Adam, past!Helen would have been put in jail - no matter how fast future!Helen would have been able to get out of there - she would have changed the timeline. With past!Helen in jail for murder, the future would completely change.
Helen wasn’t able to think through the whole plan before hand. She just jumped into the rift with Adam and then had to think on her feet when she got there. She is a woman of action, set on making the world a better place. So being faced with future!Adam, hell-bent of changing the past, she didn’t know how else to react. Then, her whole blow up at past!Adam behind the hospital. I loved James’ line: “You can see yourself home.” But back to the Gentlemen’s Club. Amanda Tapping was brilliant here! You could totally see her inner fight to control herself. This was what really reminded me that I do not want to live in Victorian London. I guess if you were to grow up in it, it might not be so bad, but for someone like future!Helen coming back into this after all the progress she has made in the world, and to be dismissed (that’s not the word I am looking for but it will work for now) just because she is a woman. I am sure she does not miss being in the 1800s.
This however, brings us to the fact that future!Helen will be spending time in the 1800s - well what there is left of it. One of my questions at first was about how the whole 113 years vacation was going to work. I am not really a sci-fi person (I say that, but I do watch a lot of it, but time travel isn’t something I have done a lot of reading up on) so I was thinking that if future!Helen stays out of the picture until she needs to reappear in 2011, won’t there be two of them - the past!Helen would become the current Helen and then when future!Helen shows up….But, I was told how this would all work and it makes sense. Just like with Imogen dying and Adam blaming Helen and James all over again - history is bound to repeat itself. So the past!Helen will get to the same point that future!Helen did and she will go back in time, leaving only the future!Helen to jump back in. I believe I am understanding that correctly. So it will just be a big loop. However, future!Helen will have had 113 years to think about everything that has happened in her life and to make new experiences - when she jumps back into her timeline she will be a completely different person. But also, since she went back in time and possibly changed the timeline, when she does go back everything there will be different at the Sanctuary as well. Now tell me that isn’t going to make for an AMAZING season!
The ending scene on the roof with James was so amazing I can’t even express how much I loved it. Now, most of you reading this know that I am a die-hard Magnett shipper. There is something about all of that angst that just draws me in, but with “Normandy” and “Tempus” we have seen the side of John that had Helen fearing for her life in “Sanctuary For All”. From SFA through most of season 3, we have seen a John that has become familiar to us, and though we knew that he was JTR, we could see that he had changed since SFA. There was a spark of hope that since he had changed, he and Helen would somehow work it out and they would get back together, especially after the events of FK&C. However . . . (that seems to be a popular word with this show), in “Tempus” we see the John that Helen had to deal with for many years. This is a side of him that we do not like to think about, but when we recall Helen’s reaction to seeing him in SFA, we realize that it is really only in the last couple of years that he has changed.
Along with us becoming use to seeing the more calm John recently, I think Helen also became comfortable around him again. But now that she has gone back and been so vividly reminded of what he had done to her, I think things between them will change (yet, if she is on a 113 year vacation, she will have time to think and by the time she gets back to the Sanctuary in 2011, the events from 1898 will have become not-so-vivid.) So, I say all of that to say this (I can’t believe I am going to say this) I think that Helen and James make a great couple! I ship them - not to say that I don’t still ship Magnett - because I do. I think that these two couples can be shipped at the same time. Helen and John were perfect for each other during their time at Oxford, and if it hadn’t been for him becoming JTR, I think they would have stayed together. But that isn’t what happened. She couldn’t stay with him after finding out what he was, so she turned to James for the support that she needed. I think they work very well together - as we have seen throughout the show, but I love them together in this episode. Somewhere between 1889 and 1898 they got together, whether they stayed together or if it was an off and on thing, until sometime after "Normandy". They were together for longer than she and John were. And though I believe that she loved James, John was her true love, as we can see by everything she has ever done. But in our time, James is dead (at least as far as our timeline is concerned) and Helen and John have an eternity to fix things. But I guess what I am trying to say is that now we have seen what it is that has kept Helen away from John - what it was that she had to go through to get to where she is now. So while in season 2 and 3 we were like “come on Helen, just forgive him and move on” we now see what we were not privy to then.
Since we are talking about John, I really must discuss my thoughts on him and Spring-heeled Jack!! You may or may not think I am right on this - and I am open to other's opinions, but this is what I have come up with. John must have gotten the energy creature in him sometime around August of 1888, when the Whitechapel murders started. He continued on his little killing spree through November of 1888, which would cover the canonical five Jack the Ripper killings. The scene from “Sanctuary For All” when Helen shoots John does not give us a specific year, but Webisode #1 says it was 1888. In that scene, Helen says: “John, let me help you before you make things worse.” In reply, John says: “And how is that possible? I’ve already murdered what? Seven whores. How could one more make the slightest differences?” Though there were other Whitechapel murders after the canonical five (only one additional one being in 1888), they are not believed to be done by JTR. We can either believe that the additional murder was JTR and may be what John was referring to in his response, or take into consideration the revelations we were given in “Tempus” about Spring-heeled Jack.
From what I have read about SHJ, he was in Liverpool in 1888 (which I just learned is quite a distance from London). So, when Helen meets up with John in the alley in 1888 and he says, “I’ve already murdered what? Seven whores?” I don’t think he is admitting to killing that many, he is definitely asking her, because he knows that she is accusing him of killing more women than he actually did. Those additional women were killed by SHJ, who was later helped by Gregory, but returned to London in 1898, which is when we see him in “Tempus” and John is again being blamed for the murders. I am not saying that John didn’t kill anyone else after the five canonical murders, but he just doesn’t want to be blamed for more than he actually did. If you think about the flashback from FK&C, she is still hunting him - for the murders he does continue to commit.
Random other little thoughts:
I know I am not the only one who picked up on the fact that past!Helen kept putting her hand to her stomach, and my first thought was “OMG she is pregnant!” But that doesn’t really fit into the timeline. Since the beginning of the show, I have always thought that Helen became pregnant about the same time as her and John’s engagement, which was in late when she found out that John was JTR (John introduces her to Molly as his “former-fiance” in SFA), I highly doubt that they got back together between 1888 and 1898, unless he raped her, which I don’t really want to think about. And if he did rape her, why would she have the embryo frozen…she wouldn’t want to have that memory of him whenever she looked at Ashley. And I believe that she had the embryo frozen because it was conceived out of love. So, I don’t know how to explain it. If it was a normal Helen action, I wouldn’t question it, but future!Helen doesn’t ever touch her stomach in that way, even when she is nervous. Would LOVE anyone's suggestion on how it would fit into the timeline.
Loved that James thought that Helen’s driver’s license was a business card.
What was up with past!Helen still having the dress she wore when she and John got engaged? It had been at least 10 years. Fashion has changed since then and as gorgeous as the dress is, I don't think she could still wear it. I guess, maybe it is a reminder of better times, but wouldn't it also bring back bad memories? I don't know.
This scene between Helen and John is so beyond sad. I don't really know what I was expecting to happen. I always had this thought that John would never let JTR get that close to Helen. It gave me a whole new understanding, like I said before, of what Helen went through. When John screams, “Look at my face!” and once she does he disappears. He can’t stand to see the look on her face - at what he has become. He still loves her, and now I understand why in "Into the Black" John wanted to go back with Adam so he could change the past. I would want to to.
We have Helen, John, and James -- kind of wondering where Nikola and Nigel are. Nikola Tesla, I believe was, at that time, comparing intelligence with Thomas Edison in New York. As far as Nigel, at least H.G. is mentioned.
How could I forget this scene?! I think I fall more in love with James every time I see him. I love that he is so truly shocked at her attire, hair color, word choices, and weapons.
Reading Recommendations:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847)
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892) - Short Story