“Animus” is episode six of season three of Sanctuary.
The episode opens at some type of facility at night. There is a man sleeping in a bed when a hand covers his mouth. The hand actually belongs to a friend of his who can’t sleep; he’s taken the keys to get into the room and wants to play a game of gin rummy. The friend says he hasn’t been feeling right all day and has been hearing things; such as people from a long distance away. Then a hand turns furry and clawed, there are screams and two orderlies rush to the room, unlock the door and see a large furry creature leaping through the window and a room filled with blood.
At the Sanctuary, Henry is telling Will about the apparent sighting of a werewolf. Or, rather, a hyper-accelerated protean, or HAP. Just like Henry is. Henry is curious, because he wants to see if there are more like him, although most sightings don’t pan out. However, over the past hundred years there have been several sightings of HAPs within 30 km of the town of Oldham in northern England. Magnus and Tesla are busy and, when Henry mentions Guinness, Will suggests that they go on a road trip and investigate themselves rather than bother Magnus.
Near Oldham, after having had a few to drink, Will and Henry stumble across a shredded goat. Which is not some sort of unusual dish but a goat that’s been ripped to pieces. There is a trail of blood leading to the goat, and the trail leads back to the large building from the beginning. According to Declan, the building is the Oldham Psychiatric Institute and they’ve heard a few reports about it, but have been turned away by the private institute when they tried to investigate. Shredded goat is not enough to properly launch an investigation, so Will and Henry decide to do it themselves.
Will – who has the appropriate qualifications, although he has a three year gap in his CV – gets Henry examined by the staff of the institute. Both are sure something is going on and Henry says that the tech the institute has does not make sense for the job they are supposed to be doing. Henry decides to stay on and investigate from the inside whilst Will pokes around outside. What Henry stumbles onto is rather unexpected.
Magnus and Tesla are working on the solid holographic city map that was created at the end of “Firewall” after Will regained some of his memories from what happened in “Kali: Part III”; namely, remembering a message from Magnus’ father who Will met whilst he was temporarily ‘dead which led to the creation of the map. Magnus says that the city can’t possibly exist, as it is too big to be overlooked. Tesla says it can’t exist because the technology to create it doesn’t. Recognising some symbols as being Sumerian cuneiform leads to some of the map’s secrets being revealed – which is a hazardous process.