Compared to the episodes after the Hollow Earth arc, “Awakening” is definitely a step up. Magnus is back in full force, Tesla returns for the first time, and the episode explores the vampires and their battle against Praxis. Unfortunately, like most promising stories on Sanctuary, everything gets resolved much too quickly.
Magnus and Tesla come upon an old Praxian stronghold which was taken over by vampires and revive the vampire queen, Athena, who was in stasis. Meanwhile, Tesla gets this vampirism back and is chummy with Athena until her ideas of grandeur kick in and she decides to rule to world with Magnus as her “canteen” (in Magnus’s words). Magnus tricks Athena, using the hologram device to blow out the place, and she and Tesla make it out alive.
Why couldn’t this drag on for a few more episodes? After the epic Hollow Earth arc, something new would be nice, and the idea of vampires trying to retake the world seems interesting. We don’t exactly see that Athena, so there may be a chance of her return, but the implication is that this vampire plot is for one episode only.
Kate’s story was flat out boring. Maybe that’s only because it was worse than the main plot. Every time the episode switched back to Kate, I wanted to skip ahead, knowing nothing would come of the plot and that there is something way cooler going on at the exact same time. But out of obligation, I watched the whole thing and was bored the entire time.
Score: 8.6/10
