Rhett and Link's Buddy System Review: Sanctuary

"Hello? Uh, I think my roommate's a serial killer?... Yes, I can hold... Sí, I can hold in Spanish."

Whereas "To Kill a Robot" worked fantastically in blazing its own trail and creating a wild yet continuous narrative, "Sanctuary" works incredibly differently - in knowing the predictability of its reveal, it instead exerts all of its effort on all of the beats of the episode. The destination, for the most part, is obvious: the road that we take to get there, graciously, is not.

The plot is simple - Rhett reveals that there is, in fact, a third roommate, a mysterious figure named Glenn that keeps to himself. Link, however, decides to break the lack of communication and meet the fellow, but when the pair stumble into his room, Link finds... a few warning signs. While Rhett, acting naively in the face of Link's concern, suspects nothing of the jars full of insects, the well in the middle of the room - "Maybe he's filling in a well," - or a cryptic ransom note on someone (or, as it turns out, something) named Timmy, Link pieces together that they're sharing rent with a murderer. Obviously, we can presume that Glenn isn't actually a serial killer, but at the same time, I don't think anyone could easily reach the conclusion that he was a turtle-whispering clown, and that's where the episode gets to be the most fun.

Every hint to seemingly confirm that he's a sociopathic murderer of children, amazingly, actually confirms that he's a turtle-whisperer. It's the sort of episode that you can watch two ways - under the impression he's a murderer, as we're led to be convinced of, or knowing the truth - and it works regardless of whatever mentality you enter with. If anything, knowing the reality only makes Rhett and Link's repeated misinterpretation all the better.

Again, it's how we get to the finish line that "Sanctuary" is a spectacle, and what a way to get there.

Their first hint, for instance, leads them to a combination military surplus/clown supply store with an owner as split down the middle as the store he operates. While Rhett and Link press him for questions about Glenn - hilariously with only a photo of the back of his head as a reference which everybody is magically able to instantly distinguish - he practically launches into a battle between both his furious, aggressive military side and his manic, excitable clown side. It's not that both sides clash into a quirky mix - they're as autonomous as water and oil, bickering with one another like two distinct people. Even if it admittedly overstays its welcome past the two minute mark, it's a weird detour that worked way better than it had any right to.

Equally jarring is the scene at the restaurant, where Rhett and Link request a visit with the manager to so that Link doesn't have to unfairly split a bill, only to stumble upon a torture chamber where people with invalid complaints get locked up or scalped. Perhaps even more hilarious is how, compared to Rhett and Link being on the edge in their encounter with the clown store owner, they almost downplay their attachment to the scene to a point where Link is nonchalantly taking photos for the sake of submitting a negative Yelp review: "My ice water was too cold. Plus, people in cages. May die here. One star." Regardless of the intensity of what the show has in store, it always finds a way to balance everything out.

Eventually, Rhett and Link make it to Glenn's "sanctuary," courtesy of Dylan, only to find out how wrong they were in their assumptions. He doesn't kill children; he assists their pet turtles through trauma to quite literally come out of their shells. We can grasp the concept of the reveal preemptively, but the hyper-specificity seals the deal.

What really makes the whole episode, though, is the ultimate twist ending. In an act of generosity, Rhett allows Glenn, Link, and the kids in the turtle sanctuary to sample his fancy sandwich, only to learn that it's made with turtle meat, causing everyone to become hysteric and have a meltdown. (Wisely, our two protagonists back out as quickly as possible.) Whereas the rest of the sanctuary sequence lures the viewer into a false sense of comfort with the sweetness of the resolution, the episode abandons that and hilariously rips it away from us as heinously and sublimely as possible. The suddenness and abruptness of it all, too, contrasting to the rest of the episode's function as a slow burn, is instrumental to how masterfully it's executed. In a twist of cruel irony, in learning to care for people other than himself, Rhett merely makes the situation far, far worse. Kudos, writers.

Notes and Quotes:
-I don't know how to wedge commentary into the review regarding the episode's song, "Pour Some Coffee on Me," but rest assured, it's one of the catchiest songs in Season 2 with some of the most elaborate rhyming the duo's managed to string together - "Let me pour you / a fresh doppio / over a chile relleno portfolio / or you might prefer a pistachio mustachio / cardio scenario on your patio" - all set to some smooth vaporwave, which is as delightfully niche of a sound as you think. (I've listened to it infinitely too many times.) The trippy, epileptic visuals make a perfect accompaniment.
-"I'm calling the cops. How could you not be freaked out by this?" "Oh, I'll tell you what freaks me out. I saw this documentary about how much CO2 is released by sparkling water. It's enough to fill ten balloons."
-"Glenn could be anyone in here." "But not us." "That does narrow it down."
-"Well why are you writing messages with letters cut out from magazines?" "My printer broke and my pen went dry!" "I guess that checks out."
-Among the incredibly subtle and amazing touches throughout the episode are the Grinder XXX's casual advertising as if a sex toy, the henchmen in the restaurant's cellar (named "Diner Restaurant") wearing aprons as loincloths, and best of all, when trying to search for Glenn, a restaurant patron walks backwards in such a way that the duo sees exclusively the back of his head.
-When Camera 2 was shown to be pointed at Camera 1, I laughed. When Camera 3 was shown to be pointed at Camera 2, I cried.
-In the cellar, the restaurant manager is holding a turtle the entire time. This is never mentioned once or pointed out and took me two minutes to realize.
-Note the return of BrellLyfe's Tote 'N Stab - Rhett and Link are great with their continuity.
-The cut from Glenn screaming in agony to an establishing shot of Rhett's abode set to a cheerful music sting was hysterical.
-Nice to have you reading along, show writer/producer Sivert Glarum! Do tell me when I'm painfully wrong about my observations.

Final Grade: B+. More than anything else, "Sanctuary" is a fine example of breathing life into an old premise. That Buddy System can take an overdone premise that others would chase to an expected end and make the predictable unpredictable is phenomenal, let alone that it's as hilarious and hyper-specific in its humor as Rhett and Link at their finest.

For the last review of "To Kill a Robot," CLICK HERE.