Folding Man

"" is the fourth episode of the first season of Sanctuary, and the fourth episode overall in the series.
== Synopsis ==
An investigation into a string of bizarre robberies leads Helen Magnus and Will Zimmerman to a crime ring of thieves who seem to be able to slip between the cracks of the law...literally.
== Plot ==
=== Cold Open ===
A pawn shop is being held up on a windy night. When police sirens wail in the distance, one of the two thieves shoots the terrified shopkeeper and they flee. As the cops close in on one of the thieves, he slips through a delivery door and slides down a coal chute into the basement, where he compresses himself and escapes thru a 10-inch wide pipe.
=== Act I ===
At the Old City Sanctuary, Will Zimmerman arrives late to find the Sanctuary team (Helen Magnus, Henry Foss, and Ashley Magnus) in the library watching security camera footage of the robbery.
Will, Magnus, and Ashley then visit the crime scene basement and realize that the pipe, far too small for a man, is the only way out. They send a small robotic camera into the pipe and find a fingerprint deep inside.
Back at the Sanctuary's main lab, Magnus postulates that they might be dealing with a 'folding man' - a sort of super contortionist.
Moving into the library, she and Ashley show Will examples of this 'urban myth' in various books - from Shinto monks to Elastic Ed (Ashley's favorite). Will mentions a similar case he once worked on and is surprised when Magnus is aware of it. How'd you know about the Austin case, he asks? "Are you serious?", quips Ashley, "She knows when you switched from boxers to briefs, man". In both cases the thieves were after gold, killed their victims and escaped thru impossibly small openings.
Jake Polanski, one of Will's old co-workers at the FBI, lends him the files from that case. DNA leads the Sanctuary team to Oliver Braithwaite, a homeless drifter who they assume might be the father of one of the thieves.
=== Act II ===
Mr. Braithwaite agrees to talk to Magnus because he has heard good things about the Sanctuary, a place "where people like us are treated like human beings". Braithwaite tells them about Nomad, a 'criminal genius' who takes the best of the 'folding' offspring, turns them against their parents and addicts them to a drug he makes. Braithwaite, like any parent, just wants his boy back.
Next, high on a rusted girder, Ashley meets with Mr. Jones, a crime boss who runs the city's drug trade. Mr. Jones tells Ashley where to find Malcolm Dawkins, a fugitive folder, in exchange for her promise to get a lead on Nomad. After their meeting, Mr. Jones drops off the girder and glides / flies away. 
Using Mr. Jones's information, Will and Ashley chase Malcolm into Magnus's trap.
=== Act III ===
They take him back to the Sanctuary where Magnus sedates and examines him. They discover that Malcolm is addicted to TPG, a gold-based pain killer - which eases the pain of 'folding'. 
When he awakens, Malcolm reveals that he is terrified of Nomad (who will execute him for not killing the pawnbroker like he was told to) - and yet he defends the man who addicted him and believes that Nomad will set 'his kind' free. 
Ashley and Bigfoot go to tell Mr. Jones what they have learned, only to discover that he has fallen to his death because someone 'clipped his wings'.
=== Act IV ===
Will continues to question Malcolm as Henry searches online for a clue to the TPG's whereabouts. Malcolm admits that he was in the Austin Federal bank vault when Nomad killed the bank manager (who was begging for his life). But he says that they had to stick together for safety. He tells Will that Aaron Braithwaite wanted to stand up to Nomad, but that Nomad was too strong and kept them all weak with 'glitter' (TPG). 
He tells him of a place that Aaron said they could go to if they escaped, but when the Sanctuary team get there they find Aaron dead, stuffed into an old washing machine.
=== Act V ===
Oliver Braithwaite is heartbroken when he is told of his son's fate. 
While Will continues to work with Malcolm, who appears to be going through an agonizing withdrawal, Magnus and Ashley track what they think is the TPG to what they hope is the lab.
Will convinces Malcolm to go with him to Nomad's hideout, but it's a trap. Malcolm was the monster all along, Malcolm is Nomad. He left a false trail for Magnus to follow. The real TPG is being shipped in from Austin, Texas. When Will reveals that Nomad killed Aaron one of Nomad's men (Carver) begins to question him. Just then Magnus and Ashley arrive. Nomad shoots and Carver returns fire. They both fall dead. The rest of the folding men are taken back to the Sanctuary to go thru detox.
Will, Ashley, and Magnus are down on a lower level floor observing the addicted population of folding men undergo detox treatment and experience withdrawal symptoms in their cells. Will addresses his failures while solving the case, however Magnus instead focuses on the positives that came out of the experience to boost his spirit.
Will returns the files to his friend Jake Polanski at the agency, but he lies, telling his friend that he couldn't solve the case. How could he explain his strange new world?
== Cast ==
Series regular 	Character
Amanda Tapping 	Doctor Helen Magnus
Robin Dunne 	Doctor Will Zimmerman
Emilie Ullerup 	Ashley Magnus
Christopher Heyerdahl	Bigfoot
Guest starring 	Character
Ryan Robbins 	Henry Foss
Peter Outerbridge 	Malcolm Dawkins / Nomad
Alex Zahara 	Carver
Mackenzie Gray 	Mr. Jones
Matthew Walker 	Oliver Braithwaite
David Richmond-Peck 	Jake Polanski
Featuring 	Character
James Kirk 	Aaron Braithwaite
Jeb Beach 	Chemist
== Quotes ==
WILL: So, who would know about this high level of trafficking?MAGNUS: What about our high-flying friend Mr. Jones?ASHLEY: Worth a try.WILL: You're going to trust an addict as an informant?ASHLEY: Of course not. He's a crime boss, controls most of the city's drug traffic.
Bigfoot: How does a flying abnormal fall to his death?ASHLEY: [examining the corpse] Somebody literally clipped his wings.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179695/quotes/?item=qt1461640
== Extras ==
* This episode has a DVD commentary track. Commentators: Sam Egan, James Head, and Emilie Ullerup.
== Notes ==
* Chronology: This episode takes place ten days after the pilot, "".
* Continuity: Originally this episode was to be the third episode, but was pushed back when was moved to follow immediately after the double . This results in a slight continuity error as in this episode Ashley Magnus is shown to still have scratch wounds on her neck from the giant lizard creature attack in "", but lacks any sign of the attack in "".
* Chronology: This episode helps establish the time at which staff meetings at the Old City Sanctuary are held, which is at 9:00 a.m. PST.
* Chronology: This episode helps establish when the Old City Sanctuary was founded. Oliver Braithwaite states that he's heard about the Sanctuary ever since he was a boy. Oliver is said to be 71-years-old in 2008. That places his birth year in 1936 / 1937 depending on his birthday. Physiologic 'boyhood' stage is considered from early childhood until puberty, which is from about age three to age twelve. This more specifically narrows the time frame of the Old City Sanctuary from between 1912 (when the Titanic sank) and 1951 (when Bigfoot was shot), to have been in operation by at least the year 1940.
* Continuity Error: Position of Will Zimmerman's arms when he's talking to Malcolm Dawkins inside the Old City Sanctuary.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179695/goofs/?item=gf0815814
* Trivia: When Will Zimmerman takes Malcolm Dawkins to Nomad's hideout, he takes his personal car; a second generation Toyota Prius.
** Trivia: The rear license plate tag is presumably a fictional tag created for Old City (styled very similar after the design for tags found in British Columbia, with a little flag in between underneath the '20' https://www.bcpl8s.ca/Passenger-2001-2014.html British Columbia Passenger License Plates
2001 - 2014). It has the slogan "Livin' The Dream" at the very top. In the middle is the alphanumeric serial format of JMG 150. At the very bottom, the tag expires in AUG. (The decal sticker is very blurry, making the rest of it almost impossible to legibly distinguish anything else accurately.) The year of expiration is undoubtedly for 2009 based on the decal being black lettering on a dark orange background.Wikipedia article on Vehicle Registration Plates of British Columbia).
*** Trivia: The main differences between this fictional tag and a real tag at the time is the color design of the flag and that the serial format is flipped: XXX ### rather than ### XXX.
== Gallery ==
File:Sanctuary_Episode_4_part_1|1x04 - Part 1
File:Sanctuary_Episode_4_part_2|1x04 - Part 2
File:Sanctuary_Episode_4_part_3|1x04 - Part 3
File:Sanctuary_Episode_4_part_4|1x04 - Part 4
File:Sanctuary_Episode_4_part_5|1x04 - Part 5
File:Sanctuary_Episode_4_part_6|1x04 - Part 6
File:1x04_Sanctuary_IMDb_3.jpg|Malcolm Dawkins and Carver in pawn shop
File:1x04_Sanctuary_IMDb_Carver.jpg|Carver
File:s01_e0104_03_129046054388.jpg|Will Zimmerman, Helen Magnus, and Ashley Magnus
File:s01_e0104_04_129046054321.jpg|Mr. Jones
File:1x04_Sanctuary_IMDb_2.jpg|Ashley Magnus and Mr. Jones
File:1x04_Sanctuary_IMDb_Mr._Jones.jpg|Mr. Jones
File:s01_e0104_01_129046054230.jpg|Malcolm Dawkins
File:1x04_Sanctuary_IMDb_1.jpg|Helen Magnus
File:1x04_Sanctuary_IMDb_Malcolm_'Nomad'_Dawkins.jpg|Malcolm Dawkins and Will Zimmerman (left shoulder and reflection)
File:1x04_Sanctuary_IMDb_Oliver_Braithwaite.jpg|Oliver Braithwaite
File:s01_e0104_02_129046054165.jpg|Carver and Malcolm Dawkins
File:s01_e0104_05_129046054115.jpg|Delivery man and Ashley Magnus
== References ==
* 
* Watch "" on Vudu
* "" on Wikipedia
Category:Season_1/Episodes