“Carentan” is episode eighteen of season three of Sanctuary.
The previous episode, “Normandy”, was set entirely in the past, during World War II over a couple of days around the Normandy landings. Which didn’t seem to have much to do with anything. During the episode, the SS were discovered to have a captured fire elemental in Carentan, which was driven into the ground to make sure it couldn’t do any harm, as they couldn’t really be killed – and according to Magnus it could have destroyed the entire world.
Magnus gets a call from Declan about a number of disappearances in the Carentan region, although how many isn’t known for certain as there’s been a media blackout and others are not talking. At this point, the previous episode seems rather more relevant. No-one in Carentan is responding and the satellite feed of the area is censored. Ravi, the head of the Mumbai Sanctuary, was in Paris, so Declan asked him to take a look. That was five days ago and he hasn’t been heard from since. His last video log had him past the first checkpoint, approaching the vicinity of the disturbance and saying he felt something. Then, nothing. No-one is responding to any of Magnus’ requests for information. Which suggests that everyone is terrified.
Magnus, Kate and Will head to Normandy and Declan is going to join them. Against Magnus’ wishes – he feels responsible for Ravi’s disappearance, and Declan sent Ravi in. They get past a checkpoint but run into a lot more armed men and their leader has heard of Magnus. Magnus wants answers but the man in command isn’t willing and wants her to leave. The men appear to be part of a private security force but the cover-up is being done by all governments.
Magnus knows of an old World War II tunnel that leads past the checkpoint, which Ravi may have used. Magnus and Will go through it, but Magnus tells Will and Kate to remain behind. Past the checkpoint, there seems to be no animal life. Then as Will and Magnus proceed, something happens to them and they end up on the floor. Exactly in the same spot they were, only with animals and people.
Two of these people approach and take Will and Magnus to meet the last one. The whole town of Carentan has gone rather low-tech. The last one of the town is Ravi – but he’s now 74. It’s only been six days for them, but 40 years for Ravi. Anyone who goes through the boundary the other way is killed. So they are trapped. According to Ravi, the alteration to the time stream within the boundary started three weeks ago, centred in cave in the cliffs outside of town (perhaps there’s a fire elemental in it; Magnus doesn’t think it can be a coincidence). Scientists and soldiers sent in never returned, and Ravi was the last person through the boundary (they are trapped under a dome). It’s been well over 100 years within the time bubble and many scientists trapped inside looked into the matter. Without success. And computers aren’t designed to last for that sort of time. Although time is dilated within the bubble, the progress of the Sun isn’t changed. So within the bubble they have around three years of daylight, followed by three years of darkness. Which is bad.
Magnus, Will and Ravi are inside the time dilation bubble trying to solve what is going on, taking weeks, and then months, in the process, and Kate and Declan are on the outside, taking only minutes. There’s a rather serious problem too, as the dome is growing. And growing. And growing more rapidly. There is a very limited amount of time to solve the problem – on the outside anyway – because the eventual outcome is bad.