As he attempts to coax the boy out, the first officer is killed by a mysterious snake-like creature, which stabs him in the forehead, leaving a wound resembling a gunshot.

Will sees no evidence of a gun being used and quickly deduces that all is not as it seems at the apartment, but his theories are ridiculed by Detective Joe Kavanagh (Kavan Smith).

She begins to explain the truth behind the murders, and reveals that she knows about Will's long-repressed and traumatic childhood memory of his mother being killed by some kind of monster.

She offers Will a position with her organization - The Sanctuary, which is housed in a top secret base under a partially ruined cathedral in an unnamed city.

Magnus explains that these creatures would have been mistreated, exploited or killed in the outside world, and that she and her team have dedicated their lives to rescuing and caring for these abnormals.

She shows Will the fantastic creatures who inhabit the Sanctuary, including a mermaid; he also meets a Bigfoot (played by Christopher Heyerdahl), who has become one of Magnus' staff after being rescued and healed by her.

In the next sequence, we discover that the girl on the motorcycle is Magnus' daughter, Ashley (Emilie Ullerup); she locates and chases the "mutant" boy down into the subway tunnels and after she finally corners him, Helen arrives and assists with his capture.

Meanwhile, John Druitt (also played by Christopher Heyerdahl), who appears to have the power to teleport anywhere at will, arrives in search of the Sanctuary, although he is at first prevented from entering by some kind of force barrier.

John then locates Ashley and confronts her; after a struggle, she and one of her colleagues are eventually able to subdue him using tranquillizers and a powerful Taser charge, although as he collapses he recites some kind of poem or incantation which mentions "The Five" (this is the first reference in the series to a key plot element which will have great significance in later episodes).

Soon after Ashley has brought Druitt inside the Sanctuary, he immediately escapes and forces Magnus' technical expert Henry Foss (Ryan Robbins) to shut down the EM shield.

It caused a madness within him, and he went on a killing spree, murdering eight prostitutes in Victorian London - John Druitt is in fact the serial killer who has become known to history as Jack the Ripper.

In a flashback, we see Helen confronting John in an attempt to stop him committing the last Ripper murder, but he kills the woman anyway and teleports away, although Magnus apparently wounds him as he vanishes.

The producers decided not to include virtual sets for the first 20 minutes of the episode, in order to lull the audience to a false sense of security, so the production crew filmed on location.

Jason Hughes of TV Squad described the episode as "one of the more hyped premieres of recent years on Sci Fi," and thought it made a "nice job of creating a cohesive narrative from the elements of [the] webisodes," as well as praising Christopher Heyerdahl's acting for John Druitt's stereotype as the antagonist.

[7] Mark Wilson of About.com stated that the synergy between the writers and cast looked promising, and that Robin Dunne's performance is "one who really pulls the viewer into Sanctuary," as well as stating the cast served as eye candy for the viewers, since they consist of guest stars, who made other appearances throughout other series as Stargate (Tapping, Heyerdahl, Kavan Smith), Battlestar Galactica (Kandyse McClure), Flash Gordon (Panou) and The 4400 (Caiman Wiebe).

[15] It received a Leo Award nomination for "Best Visual Effects in a Dramatic Series,"[16] but lost to Stargate Atlantis' "First Contact".