“Penance” is episode nine of season two of Sanctuary.
Henry, Will, Kate and Magnus are in a desolate-looking and run-down part of town. Magnus is heading to a meeting and the other three are keeping watch for trouble. The man that Magnus is meeting James, or Jimmy (played by the latest actor from Stargate SG-1 to have a guest role, Michael Shanks – comments between Jimmy and Magnus such as it being good to see you and liking Magnus’ hair could have dual meanings, given his and Amanda Tapping‘s previous history), is an Abnormal who has a pouch in his stomach that he uses to transport things. In this case, a fire elemental in a container.
Before the meeting is concluded, the others see two cars turn up and eight armed men get out. According to Jimmy, these men work for an Abnormal Chicago mob boss called Duke, who Jimmy stole the elemental from. Somehow they have managed to track the meeting.
A gun battle erupts and Kate gets Jimmy away in a car. Unfortunately, she’s been shot and they have to hide up. Kate’s walkie has also been destroyed, and Jimmy doesn’t want to risk communicating back with the Sanctuary until how they were tracked is found out. The boss, Duke, is an Abnormal that looks human but suffers from uncontrollable and literally uncontainable rage – when angry, radiation leaks from glands in their hands. Six months previously he was working as a pit fighter; now he’s running an organisation. This is because of some technology that a former Cabal geek has made to control Duke’s rage, allowing him to control his organisation
The mob crew has hacked into the Sanctuary’s com system, which Henry detects. Not, unfortunately, before Will is captured, as the others try to find where Jimmy and Kate went, as they failed to make it to either the rendezvous or the Sanctuary – at the moment, they don’t know that Kate was injured. Duke wants to exchange Will for Jimmy, or more specifically the elemental, but the Sanctuary team don’t have either.
Jimmy is trying to fix up Kate as they are hiding out, and in the process they discus each other’s past – both are from Chicago. It turns out they have more in common than might be thought. Jimmy’s pouch is keeping the elemental safe for now, but the temperature is uncomfortable and eventually he will need to remove it. At which point they have around 20 minutes to get it into a cryo container – something they don’t have – or bad things will happen.
A rush to find Jimmy and Kate and rescue Will before anyone gets permanently injured.