Sanctuary: “Nubbins” (recap)

By Julia Diddy
Fancast.com

If you were wondering exactly when the Tribbles would revive their showbiz careers and stage a comeback……have I got the episode for you.

Team Magnus have been summoned to a ship, upon which a contact of theirs – Eric –claimed to be transporting abnormals the likes of which our gang has never seen. Huge claim given that these folk go mano-a-mano with dragons and demons of every ilk on a daily basis. So it comes as no surprise that Eric’s ship fails to arrive at port on schedule. They find it at sea, only to discover the crew became entrees at an all-you-can-maul buffet. There are a few unusual creatures remaining in the cargo area, including a pair of oversized space-age gerbils and an ogre…..all of which possess an ability to turn invisible at whim.

Back at the Sanctuary, the cute and furry gerbils have been classified as nubbins, whereas the ogre has only been vaguely identified as ogre-ish. Both species have left traces of their DNA on the victims on the ship, although Ashley for one refuses to believe that the nubbins could have had anything to do with the carnage. Why, they’re so cute and cuddly! Naturally, the poor ogre finds itself bearing the brunt of centuries of bad press.

Ashley is smitten with the nubbins. Henry is allergic to ‘em. Helen is running DNA analysis, per usual. Will does his standard ‘skeptical bookworm’ thing.

Meanwhile, Helen has been informed that a gentleman named Maurice requested in his will that his autopsy be performed by her – and that he was well aware of the existence and purpose of Helen’s facility. She didn’t know the fellow personally, but has come to learn that he believed himself to be an abnormal. A mental institution – and pretty much all of his friends and family – begged to differ, with the exception of his granddaughter Sophie….who has accompanied his body to the Sanctuary.

Will talks to Sophie as Helen presumably gets busy with the buzzsaw. Sophie is a bit defensive, seeing as how everyone else had blithely labeled her beloved grandpa as a nutter, and she’s not especially comforted by the fact that Will is so circumspect about the kind of work the Sanctuary engages in. In fact, screw him, and the minotaur he rode in on!

Elsewhere, the nubbins have been breeding like….nubbins, and have reproduced by the barrelful. Ashley is smitten by their blinding cuteness to such an extent, you just know it…or rather, they…are gonna come back to bite her in the keister eventually.

Helen’s initial autopsy on Maurice reveals that he had an abnormal brain structure – meaning, he could be an abnormal, period, or it could just be a pesky but run-of-the-mill tumor. A sample of Sophie’s blood indicates she possess similar biological anomalies. At this point, Sophie is more than a little suspicious given how secretive Helen and Will have been, so Helen gives Will permission to take Soph on the no-holds-barred tour of their facility.

Still elsewhere, Henry and Bigfoot are feeding the nubbins, who descend upon their grub like white on rice…..if white had pointy teeth and an insatiable appetite. Still, they’re awfully cute and cuddly! And who really remembers that movie Gremlins, anyway? The 80s were, like, eons ago!

Sophie is dealing with the sights and sounds of the Sanctuary pretty well, though she’s feeling a bit woozy. Also, the nubbins really, really like her……..

Who can resist the squeezable Charmin-esque charm of a nubbins, anyway? Not Ashley, who has secretly squirreled one away in her room. When Will comes to visit Ashley, he spies the contraband……which has taken an instant dislike to him, and proceeds to unleash some nubbins wee in his general direction. This provides Will with the perfect opportunity to take off his shirt and reveal his strangely-chiseled-for-a-bookworm physique. He and Ashley are both feeling a bit woozy themselves…..is this what Helen was talking about when she mentioned in passing that a certain Ecuadorian tribe was rumored to bestow nubbins as a fertility-enhancing bridal gift? Will and Ashley nearly go at it like nubbins, only the stowaway escapes from its cage and provides ample distraction. The hook-up shall be deferred for at least another episode…..

Turns out ALL the nubbins have escaped, but that shouldn’t be a problem. They’re so cute and cuddly, after all!

And hungry. Bigfoot reports that they’ve decimated the pantry and kitchen contents. Helen orders a lockdown of the facility - given the exponential reproductive rate of the mysterious little critters, she’s not sure that their descent upon the general population would be a good thing.

Henry nearly captures one in an air duct, and it attempts to gnaw his arm off. He’s never really found them to be that cute and cuddly, personally…..

Sophie goes to Helen to discuss her weird symptoms, like the dizzy spells and woozy feeling. Helen does a brain scan, which merely reveals that she had a mutated brain, like her grandpa. No biggie.

Ashley and Will stumble into an attic, where they find themselves surrounded by hundreds of nubbins. Ashley still thinks they are cute and cuddly….sort of. Will and Ash somehow walk away un-gnawed, and regroup with the others.

Henry finds that his computer system fares no better than his arm at the mercy of these fuzzy little jerks – a few kamikaze nubbins threw themselves upon the circuitry of the control room and fried his server.

Helen concludes that the ogre must somehow factor into the scheme of things, particularly with regards to keeping the nubbins in check in their natural habitat, so she concocts a plan to sedate the ogre and then let it loose in the hallways (with Team Magnus safely sequestered elsewhere of course) in order to chomp the nubbins population down to a more manageable size.

Sophie has a psychic connection to the nubbins – she perceives that they are scared. Henry isn’t really taking the nubbins’ feelings into account as he fires up his giant nubbins-sucking vacuum. Eventually, Helen releases the ogre, which proceeds to gnash a few nubs before getting chomped itself.

Sophie now perceives that the nubbins are warning each other about the decidedly anti-nubbins sentiment that is sweeping the human population of the Sanctuary at this point. In short order, Henry manages to approximate the nubbins high-pitched communicative squeals - recordings of which the team uses to funnel the nubbins toward capture. Will remembers the slightly chilly conditions of the ship upon which these critters were first encountered, and deduces that cooler temperatures must somehow play a role in slowing down their hot-blooded metabolisms. In no time, the wayward furballs have been corralled and are back in their enclosure –the temperature of which has been lowered to a decidedly brisk number. Helen assures her PETA-leaning daughter that the cuddly and vicious little cuties will live out their natural lives in safety.

Sophie is a bit wary of her newfound psychic talents – as would anyone be who has learned how to communicate telepathically with space-age gerbils – but she determines to soldier on and come to grips with her unique gift.

Next week’s episode brings Jack back….with some unsettling insights for Ashley into her mother’s past.

It was good to see Katharine Isabelle (she of Ginger Snaps) along for the ride in this episode. Equally fun to watch hormones run rampant at Chez Magnus. Great creature effects, great plotlines and excellent cast performances continue to make this sci fi worth watching.

Miss last week’s installment? Catch past episodes, like Kush, or partake of Amanda Tapping answering questions from fans at ComicCon 2008, all right here on Fancast……