Sanctuary: Season 2, Episodes 10-13 (complete)

Episode 10 Sleepers - Young, rich people are apparently dying and then coming back to life; a strange Mexican drug clinic seems to hold the answers and it all starts to tie together when the Sanctuary team discover that their 'old friend' Tesla is running the clinic.


The returning Tesla character puts the spark (pun intended) back into the show that the previous few episodes were missing; though he has been shown to help out in times of crisis he always has his own proper (vampire based) agenda and, as such, avoids the "all the good guys are far too nice" trap that has blighted some episodes for me.
The plot is nicely thought out and the pace of the episode is good as the problem Tesla has created gets more out of his control until the cleverly worked out tracking down of the answer and twist ending. Add to this a lot of great humour deriving from Tesla's persona and one-liners and his new 'creations' learning what they are  and it adds up to a very enjoyable episode (plus there's a very nice in-joke about where Bigfoot has gone, given the extras on the disc).
My only problem with it overall is that the twist at the end makes it seem yet again that the series is rejecting what it cleverly set up in the first season but, in this case, at least it looks like they have a plan for something to replace the element they lose; evolving rather than abandoning.

Episode 11 Haunted - John Druitt returns, rescuing some Zula empatchs from a stricken ship. Soon afterwards he seems to be returning to his old 'Jack the Ripper' ways but then the Sanctuary seems to suffer from an even more serious problem.

Before I started watching I noticed that this episode was written by the same two writers (one of whom, Damian Kindler, also created the show) who wrote Pavor Nocturnus, which I regard as having a much stronger edge than a lot of the episodes have shown. Given this, and the welcome return of Tesla helping the last episode, I was hoping this one would push things up a notch before the two-part finale and I wasn’t let down... much.
After an action-packed start and a very threatening and a vicious opening scenes performance by Christopher Heyerdahl as Druitt the plot builds well, though occasionally a little slowly, adding tension throughout as what is behind the threat to the Sanctuary is investigated and unravelled.
One clever touch is that the viewer is 'clued in' by the Zulu empaths but the main characters (most of whom obviously don’t understand Zulu) are not, and have to learn the hard way. This does get a little overused but is effective in keeping the viewer on board and building the threat up as you join with the Zulus in a 'trying to tell characters "No, don’t go round the corner!"' type of way.
Again the finalé is well handled and there's a fair twist in the resolution but again this season seems to be abandoning (at least temporarily) some of the season one back story, which is a shame. Overall however it's another good episode in preparation for the big season ender… and I really liked the Die Hard gag too.

Episodes 12-13 Kali Parts 1 & 2 - Worldwide, normally peaceful abnormals are going psychotic and it all seems to be related to a small spider in India… and some mercenaries who are after it.

There is a slow build up as befits a two-parter but it's progressive and logical with all the different Sanctuary groups dealing with the problem separately but in an integrated way.
There are plenty of good elements during that build-up too; the bad guy mercenary leader is suitably smart and (for once) ruthless enough to be believed as a threat... and he has some good lines. Magnus having not only to deal with the threat of the creature but also the internal politics of the Sanctuary network as they start to question her decisions, works well as a change of perspective, making sure the main plot doesn’t race away too early… and it's done with a good reference back to episode 7, Veritas.
Visually the Indian sets are very good (one of the extras shows they are actually set up in the car park in Canada unlike the vast majority of the large sets which are CGI) with the on-set realism helped in its look by record high temperatures during the shoot, and the CGI for big-bad abnormal is above average for the series, especially underwater, which is an area that has let the series down on more than one occasion (especially biologics).
The mysticism aspect actually works this time because it has a 'psychic link' logical explanation (unlike in episode 3 Eulogy's dream walk sequences when it didn't) and is interestingly and quite cleverly realised and even Will's Bollywood dance scene fits with the story enough for it to actually work... and it’s fun to watch too.
Okay, so you have a good suspicion of where all this is going to end up on the principle, like season one, this one will end on a cliffhanger too, but the set up is well handled as one element is resolved only to have another bigger problem take over and overall the first two parts of Kali are a worthy finish to the season, keeping up the higher standard of the previous two episodes into the ending... and the show didn't finish on a cliffhanger then get cancelled!