[Sanctuary] Meta: Fragmentation
Thanks to my very wonderful and loving wife, I'm all caught up on Sanctuary now, with the exception of Fugue which she refused to watch again (the music, not the relationships). Since I know most of what happened in Fugue anyway, I'm fine with that. I'll watch it later.
I could talk a LOT about The Depths, but everyone and their sister is busily squealing about all the Will/Magnus or at least Will & Magnus, so I'll just say I was really glad to see this episode play out how I thought it would. Also really glad to see MY Will turning up so much not just here but throughout the season. Stronger, sharper, smarter, better, even if he's acting out and calling Magnus out. He needs to do that, and she needs him to.
I could also talk a LOT about the Will and Magnus relationship, and maybe I will, I probably will, I still ship the hell out of them (when I'm not shipping Will/Kate), but what's got me up at 5 am besides the wind is the fragmentation, this season. It's utterly deliberate, I'm certain of it, but the fandom's so busy talking about this ship or that ship, freaking out about Druitt being dead or bitching about why Will isn't that I don't think this is getting as much attention as it should.
To me, this season isn't about The Sanctuary Network. It's about The Sanctuary Mosaic, or something. In our first episode, Tempus, we learn things with Druitt are not, perhaps, everything they appeared and Helen changed that history with John by beating him up in the alley. That had to have changed things, it might've changed everything, since his reason for working with Adam in the past was to try to win Helen back. If he had no reason to believe he could, that might have changed how everything played out.
But even if it didn't, the Helen Magnus who comes home is not the one who left: whether she switched with her other self, or 113 years on the mountaintop (yeah, right) changed her, she's, as she said, had to let terrible things happen. She's not the same person she was when she left and when the keystone changes shape, the arch must realign.
She and Will aren't as close as they were, because Helen's keeping secrets, but also because when she wasn't there, Will picked Abby as his ace in the hole. As much as I'm not an Abby-fan, I do like her better this season. And I also like the way they're using her. Abby's sort of a bridge now between Will's FBI past and his Sanctuary present and she'll play a key part in shaping Will's future, whether he stays with her or not. But she, and her protect-the-country/serve justice principles will exert a strong pull on Will, even as Helen's much more Slytherin ambitions and methods also will. Don't forget it was Will who wanted to change his father's paperwork and Will's father who refused to let him. Yes, Will is more for the people oriented, more justice and negotiation oriented than Helen, but he's not anywhere near as much on the side of the light as Abby. He's pulling Abby toward the center and Magnus is pulling him, but Abby and Addison (not really a good guy in the scheme of things, but very much a law and order sort of guy) are also exerting a counter pull on Will.
Plus, then there's Will's own sense of pride and ambition. He demands partnership (about time, baby boy), and wants answers, and starts the season with the entire Sanctuary Network (including Declan who has much more experience) voting Will in charge. That's partly because he's a good sacrificial lamb and still has some contacts in governments but partly because he's Helen's chosen protege and emotional compass for a reason. He's good at this, even when he's struggling and no one's listening. When he needs to step up, he does, and unlike Helen, when he knows he needs help, he asks for it. He needs to be more than the good soldier now; he needs parity. Helen hired him to be her successor, and until she starts to read him in more, make him not just her personal mission partner of choice but partner of choice in how to save the world (in her bed would be nice too, but I can live with the subtext), that's going to put a continuing strain on them. That's the point of The Depths (which was well done, so well done, bravo!).
Meanwhile, we've got Biggie, Helen's most faithful friend ripped away, brought back, and then maybe ripped away again. Or is he a double agent now for real like we hoped he might be before? I don't think it's beyond Helen to send him back in, and he had all the guilt ever, so he might well have chosen it, especially with Kate below the surface (note: I would've liked to have seen that reunion, however briefly). Ozone beetles are a bit the theme of the season, aces in the hole, unexpected twists, Helen or Helen and the team being one-up on everyone, whether Addison, or Adam, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them deliberately fragmenting out.
Kate's below the surface with the Herusans, helping to rebuild, and since I've got a million problems with how that was handled and developed and I love Kate like pie and ponies, I'll keep that to "it happened too fast, offscreen." I think Will's telling Kate she can come back any time is telling. It's definitely a demonstration of the fact that Will's trying to exert a sticky-gluon like force to pull the team back together, while Magnus keeps sort of shoving them outward. Promise band or no promise band, I'm very much hoping we'll see a returning Kate when this fragmentation reverses. I miss her.
Henry's poised to raise a kid in England with Erika. His primary loyalty isn't to Magnus anymore, but to Erika and his kid-to-be. Between that, Kate and Garris, Will and Abby, Tesla working for the government (even if he's feeding intel back at them) and having a girlfriend(?) that calls him Nicky, even Magnus having a bit of a Bond-saved-the-world-and-rewards-are-richly-deserved moment with Charlotte, there's a clear move into "Sanctuary for None" which is upcoming.
"If we can't save the people we love" is what Will asks Magnus, and Magnus is actively pushing them away AND saving them, over and over and over. I can't decide yet what this means, who she is trying to save or whether she's trying to save them all. But if I were writing this story, the final movement of this disintegration and fragmentation (the center cannot hold), would be to have all the pieces coming back together in a new configuration to save Helen Magnus.
That's what I would do. But I'm not the writers. Even still, I think it's really key to look at the way Sanctuary has pulled everything apart this year. It's HARD and sometimes UNSETTLING and also sometimes UNSATISFYING and it leaves me sort of weepy sometimes because I MISS MY PEOPLE and I want them all back together. The fact they're not together, though, when Helen's had all this time to think and she sent the Sanctuary rogue? Don't doubt for a second, that's significant. She's dividing the house, which shouldn't work, but there will prove to be a reason.
I'm just glad I caught up in enough time to find out what the hell it is. I could speculate, but I'm not quite ready to do that yet.
I could talk a LOT about The Depths, but everyone and their sister is busily squealing about all the Will/Magnus or at least Will & Magnus, so I'll just say I was really glad to see this episode play out how I thought it would. Also really glad to see MY Will turning up so much not just here but throughout the season. Stronger, sharper, smarter, better, even if he's acting out and calling Magnus out. He needs to do that, and she needs him to.
I could also talk a LOT about the Will and Magnus relationship, and maybe I will, I probably will, I still ship the hell out of them (when I'm not shipping Will/Kate), but what's got me up at 5 am besides the wind is the fragmentation, this season. It's utterly deliberate, I'm certain of it, but the fandom's so busy talking about this ship or that ship, freaking out about Druitt being dead or bitching about why Will isn't that I don't think this is getting as much attention as it should.
To me, this season isn't about The Sanctuary Network. It's about The Sanctuary Mosaic, or something. In our first episode, Tempus, we learn things with Druitt are not, perhaps, everything they appeared and Helen changed that history with John by beating him up in the alley. That had to have changed things, it might've changed everything, since his reason for working with Adam in the past was to try to win Helen back. If he had no reason to believe he could, that might have changed how everything played out.
But even if it didn't, the Helen Magnus who comes home is not the one who left: whether she switched with her other self, or 113 years on the mountaintop (yeah, right) changed her, she's, as she said, had to let terrible things happen. She's not the same person she was when she left and when the keystone changes shape, the arch must realign.
She and Will aren't as close as they were, because Helen's keeping secrets, but also because when she wasn't there, Will picked Abby as his ace in the hole. As much as I'm not an Abby-fan, I do like her better this season. And I also like the way they're using her. Abby's sort of a bridge now between Will's FBI past and his Sanctuary present and she'll play a key part in shaping Will's future, whether he stays with her or not. But she, and her protect-the-country/serve justice principles will exert a strong pull on Will, even as Helen's much more Slytherin ambitions and methods also will. Don't forget it was Will who wanted to change his father's paperwork and Will's father who refused to let him. Yes, Will is more for the people oriented, more justice and negotiation oriented than Helen, but he's not anywhere near as much on the side of the light as Abby. He's pulling Abby toward the center and Magnus is pulling him, but Abby and Addison (not really a good guy in the scheme of things, but very much a law and order sort of guy) are also exerting a counter pull on Will.
Plus, then there's Will's own sense of pride and ambition. He demands partnership (about time, baby boy), and wants answers, and starts the season with the entire Sanctuary Network (including Declan who has much more experience) voting Will in charge. That's partly because he's a good sacrificial lamb and still has some contacts in governments but partly because he's Helen's chosen protege and emotional compass for a reason. He's good at this, even when he's struggling and no one's listening. When he needs to step up, he does, and unlike Helen, when he knows he needs help, he asks for it. He needs to be more than the good soldier now; he needs parity. Helen hired him to be her successor, and until she starts to read him in more, make him not just her personal mission partner of choice but partner of choice in how to save the world (in her bed would be nice too, but I can live with the subtext), that's going to put a continuing strain on them. That's the point of The Depths (which was well done, so well done, bravo!).
Meanwhile, we've got Biggie, Helen's most faithful friend ripped away, brought back, and then maybe ripped away again. Or is he a double agent now for real like we hoped he might be before? I don't think it's beyond Helen to send him back in, and he had all the guilt ever, so he might well have chosen it, especially with Kate below the surface (note: I would've liked to have seen that reunion, however briefly). Ozone beetles are a bit the theme of the season, aces in the hole, unexpected twists, Helen or Helen and the team being one-up on everyone, whether Addison, or Adam, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them deliberately fragmenting out.
Kate's below the surface with the Herusans, helping to rebuild, and since I've got a million problems with how that was handled and developed and I love Kate like pie and ponies, I'll keep that to "it happened too fast, offscreen." I think Will's telling Kate she can come back any time is telling. It's definitely a demonstration of the fact that Will's trying to exert a sticky-gluon like force to pull the team back together, while Magnus keeps sort of shoving them outward. Promise band or no promise band, I'm very much hoping we'll see a returning Kate when this fragmentation reverses. I miss her.
Henry's poised to raise a kid in England with Erika. His primary loyalty isn't to Magnus anymore, but to Erika and his kid-to-be. Between that, Kate and Garris, Will and Abby, Tesla working for the government (even if he's feeding intel back at them) and having a girlfriend(?) that calls him Nicky, even Magnus having a bit of a Bond-saved-the-world-and-rewards-are-richly-deserved moment with Charlotte, there's a clear move into "Sanctuary for None" which is upcoming.
"If we can't save the people we love" is what Will asks Magnus, and Magnus is actively pushing them away AND saving them, over and over and over. I can't decide yet what this means, who she is trying to save or whether she's trying to save them all. But if I were writing this story, the final movement of this disintegration and fragmentation (the center cannot hold), would be to have all the pieces coming back together in a new configuration to save Helen Magnus.
That's what I would do. But I'm not the writers. Even still, I think it's really key to look at the way Sanctuary has pulled everything apart this year. It's HARD and sometimes UNSETTLING and also sometimes UNSATISFYING and it leaves me sort of weepy sometimes because I MISS MY PEOPLE and I want them all back together. The fact they're not together, though, when Helen's had all this time to think and she sent the Sanctuary rogue? Don't doubt for a second, that's significant. She's dividing the house, which shouldn't work, but there will prove to be a reason.
I'm just glad I caught up in enough time to find out what the hell it is. I could speculate, but I'm not quite ready to do that yet.