****

I ended the list with the Arthurian Grail legend on purpose. 

In the Sentinel pilot "Switchman," at his second meeting with Jim Ellison, Blair Sandburg refers to the Holy Grail (in a callous and unintelligible burst of enthusiasm). Was he referring to the Sentinel abilities, or to the guy carrying them? Who knows? He's pure academic at this point, who sees only his dissertation before him shining bright. The big buff guy in the bad suit is merely the conduit by which he plans to become a shining star in the firmament of Academia. 

In the final episode, "The Sentinel by Blair Sandburg," Blair holds the Grail in his hand; he is offered his doctorate, money, fame, acclaim -- everything he has been working toward for at least four years, if not his entire life. And yet, he throws the Grail into the sea, for the sake of the community he has adopted as his own, sacrificing the goal he has spent his lifetime trying to attain. He tells a lie that instantly destroys his academic standing, his peers' respect, his chances for career advancement -- in short, he commits professional suicide. But the end result is safety for Ellison who has been targeted by enemies, and safety for the police who have become collateral damage in the process. In a very real sense, Blair Sandburg dies -- not only to save Jim Ellison's life, but to protect the Cascade Police Department as well.

Bliss, in Campbell's world, is the state in which you are not under the thrall of outside influences, for either bad or good: bliss is the state in which you are most essentially yourself.

At the episode's end, Blair has severed all ties with both driving forces from the outside, his academic life and his police work. He's turned away from both the Merry-go-Round and the Roller Coaster (as he describes the two worlds in the episode "Warriors" -- the merry-go-round analogy especially relevant as his dissertation was referred to more than once as the "brass ring" one attains as the prize on a carousel), and he is only standing still, listening to his own heart. Grief is present, surely, when he goes into Simon's office to "take one last look around" -- but not regret. He says "I'm a fraud" to a friend, but there is no shame on his face; there is only serenity and peace with the choice he made. It is the face of one in a state of bliss.

The police offer Blair a permanent place as an official member of the department and Jim Ellison's true partner, and he is left at the end to make the choice freely -- and it is Blair's choice to make, from that place inside him driven neither by a dissertation to finish nor by a need to hide his friend's gifts from his fellow officers.

Blair followed his bliss, and it led him straight to Jim's arms in the end.