Ashley Magnus

 is the daughter of Dr. Helen Magnus and John Druitt. She is an abnormal with the ability to teleport near-infinite distances across the world, a power she inherited from her father.

She was, however, unable to use this power until early 2009 when the Cabal injected her with an unknown substance(s) to bring out this latent ability. Six weeks after her dormant gene(s) were activated, the Cabal injected her with a 4-vial series of a modified source blood serum to give her vampiric traits as well as continuing to inject her with a consistent regimen of mind control drugs so that they could control her.

Biography
Ashley was conceived in late 1888 just as her parents ended their relationship. Magnus chose to keep Ashley frozen in an embryonic state for almost a century. When the loneliness became too much for her to bear, and she believed Druitt was gone for good, Magnus brought her to term. Magnus never told Ashley about her father's identity and allowed her to believe he was dead.

Ashley inherited her father's killer instinct, and so lacked modest behavioral skills. However, she more than made up for them in her field talents. Ashley soon proved herself an expert (yet self-proclaimed) "monster hunter"; becoming proficient in the usage of advanced weaponry and technology.

On a personal level, Ashley remained quite close to her mother. Ashley's own natural distrust of abnormals provides a proper counterbalance to Magnus's desire to protect them; as she normally doesn't hesitate to terminate ones that prove hostile, and use whatever methods necessary to capture targets.

Personality and appearance
Arrestingly beautiful, tough as nails, physically adept and a skilled fighter, she is perfectly suited for her calling as monster-hunter supreme. Ashley has moments of vulnerability but it's a side she deftly covers with a veneer of bravado and fearlessness.

Growing up in the world of the Sanctuary with her mother, she has come to accept the impossible as a matter of course. And while there are the usual generational sparks between mother and daughter, Ashley is acutely respectful of her mother’s work and knowledge.

Ashley is fully aware that the life she leads isn't normal and understands the fact that her mother "can be pretty dark and weird" yet good at what she does dealing with strange events and beings. She tries to buffer her mother's 'oddness' around brand new team members and doesn't like when complete random strangers instantly pass judgement on her mom after only being around her for a few minutes.

Because of her lifestyle, Ashley doesn't date, much, but considered going out with Zach Spencer (giving him a rain check for dinner with the intent to call him later) until he was killed. Her lack of dating can be attributed to the fact that she thinks that she can be a little stand-offish, knowing that she can be snippy; having been previously accused by guys as being unappreciative and unapproachable.

While under the affects of nubbin pheromones, Ashley accidentally starts to blab to Will about qualities she likes in the "right Nubbin" (man) until she catches herself mid-list: Smart, handsome, good sense of humor, go-getter, dedicated to the same things you are, and loves long walks on the beach.

Her favorite album is: "Nevermind" by Nirvana.

A bit of sarcasm, unless she rides in vans with 'Lord Poseidon' airbrushed on the side, she thinks vans are for losers as she likes to ride her bike. She is seen riding it practically everywhere, day or night, in several different types of weather conditions.

Personal objects
Two specific objects belonging to Ashley besides her motorcycle (a black 2005-2006 Honda CBR600RR) are a silver pendant necklace with an "S" on the front and a heavily modified and customized Jericho 941 R that is gold plated with a weighted compensator that shoots 12 rounds of .40 S&W bullets. She is frequently seen wearing the necklace with her outfits and using the gun that was a present from her mother. During her capture, while the necklace and the rest of her personal clothing may be lost forever to a Cabal site, her golden gun is not. Potentially due to realizing the risk of capture and losing her favorite weapon, Ashley is seen to not have taken the gun with her when she and Henry trespass into a local Cabal facility just outside of New City ; which means she either left the gun in the Old City Sanctuary's armory, or more likely, had left it in her bedroom. Being that Magnus cleaned out her bedroom after her 'death', converting it into a gym workout area, the gun is highly likely to be in Magnus's personal possession considering how much the weapon had meant to her daughter.

(Theory: When Magnus blew up the Old City Sanctuary, it presumably would have been one of the small objects that she would have taken with her alongside the picture frames of Ashley that she had noticeably removed from on and around her desk in her study in the days leading up to the explosion. Alternatively, considering that Ashley is said to be alive at the Underground Sanctuary, Magnus may have given the weapon back to her off-screen long before then at some point during the year's length of Season 4.)

Relationships

 * Dr. Helen Magnus
 * Ashley and her mother are quite close to each other, being called an "intrepid duo" by Druitt. They had distanced somewhat over the betrayal Ashley felt towards Magnus resulting from her mother not being the one to tell her the truth about Druitt being her father.  They eventually reconciled not too long later. Ashley highly respects her mother and her mother reciprocates that same level respect back to her. Magnus generally relies quite heavily on her daughter to be a scout for the Sanctuary by gathering information and hunting down abnormals, to which Ashley fills the role perfectly and never seems to come back empty-handed; field skills that Magnus is quite praise-worthy of. Magnus also relies on Ashley to be the 'enforcer' and 'protector' of the group, as Ashley is often seen to be the one holding off enemies and attacking abnormals to give Magnus and the others enough time to accomplish what they need to do. As a testament to Magnus's strong belief in her daughter's abilities, when the keepers of the dead invade the Old City Sanctuary, Bigfoot comments: "We need weapons." Magnus counters with: "We need Ashley". Not only is the young woman a good fighter, but she is also an impressive shot; Magnus calling her a "heartbreaker" right after witnessing her neat target cluster of bullet holes during a practice session at the Sanctuary's indoor shooting range.


 * Henry Foss
 * Ashley and Henry share a close sibling-like relationship due to growing up in the Sanctuary together as young children; her mother brought him home from the moors to live with her at the Old City Sanctuary a few years before Ashley was born. Because of this bond, it also makes Ashley the non-biological aunt of Henry's future daughter Alice.


 * Bigfoot
 * While Bigfoot was a present male figure in Ashley's life while growing up, she unlike Henry, does not openly see him as being a father-figure to her. Despite that, they still do share a familial closeness as Bigfoot is a part of her Sanctuary family. Ashley is seen to have caring affections for him, as seen in the web series when Bigfoot is critically injured by Druitt, and again in the series re-shoot when she informs Will of his flower allergy. Not only does Ashley work along side Bigfoot while inside the Old City Sanctuary, but she is also known to have him accompany her outside the Sanctuary when running errands during the night.


 * Dr. Will Zimmerman
 * When Will first arrived at the Sanctuary, Ashley was skeptical of her mother's new protégé based on how 'green' he initially was. Soon though, Ashley got used to her new coworker and then considered him her friend after he saved her life from a giant lizard creature. Outside of the effects of nubbin pheromones, neither Ashley or Will show any attraction for one another.


 * John Druitt
 * Ashley's first impression of Druitt was calling him a "ghoul". Initially highly distrustful of Druitt based on his previous pattern of behavior of hurting her and kidnapping her twice, Ashley eventually seemed to tolerate his presence slightly better. When Druitt showed up at the Old City Sanctuary to help out with the Lazarus virus, Ashley's immediate reaction was a bit snippy, asking her mother "Why is he here?!" right in front of him. At Druitt's line of "Please, I am your father", Ashley shoots back "Then you better start acting like one, and that does not mean kidnapping me when you want to spend some quality time" showing that she is open to the idea of having some form of a father / daughter relationship with him eventually.


 * Dr. James Watson
 * Their relationship is cordial and relaxed. While not officially stated, it is widely accepted by fans that Watson is considered to fill the role of being an Uncle / Godfather to Ashley based on how close Watson's relationship is with her mother, Helen Magnus.

Young Ashley
During the opening title sequence viewers see a photo of Magnus holding a very young Ashley attached to Ashley's personnel file. In reality, the photo is actually of Amanda Tapping with her daughter Olivia (who also did inherit her mother's bright blonde hair, just like Ashley had from Helen ). For the show, there was initially an idea to try to cast a random young girl to play Magnus's daughter for these images, but was ultimately deemed unnecessary extra work and not done, as Amanda herself had a young daughter who looked like a young Emilie. Olivia was also potentially considered to portray a young Ashley on the screen (had the show's story featured those flashbacks), but the finalization of that casting was uncertain.

Later in the series after Ashley's supposed death, such as seen in, on Helen's desk are several photos of Ashley; all real photos provided by Emilie herself, including the photo of her as a really small child with her hair tied up in pigtails.

Age
While Ashley's DOB is unknown, viewers are given hints as to when it could be:
 * In Ashley mentions the 'Summer she turned 18', placing it in the summer months. Summer months (northern hemisphere) in general consist of June, July, and August.
 * Note: This coincides with the possibility that Magnus may have reimplanted her as embryo on the same day in November in which she was removed back in 1888. While gestational age at removal is unknown, Magnus would have been at least 1 month along to have missed her menstrual period, indicating pregnancy. The classification of 'embryo' marks at least 6 weeks at time of removal. A good estimate is that Magnus was around 1.5 months along (sometime within her 6th and or 7th week at the time of the surgery, leaving ~7.5 months remaining of her pregnancy. If reimplantation occurred in mid / late November , Ashley's birthday would fall near the end of the month of June and potentially into the beginning of July.
 * In just after Ashley leaves the infirmary, Will asks Magnus about the 12 year physical age difference he notices between mother and daughter. Being that Magnus is eternally 35-years-old, that makes Ashley 23-years-old.
 * In Will states that she is 23-years-old. The in-universe month and day of the episode is unknown, just that the year is 2008. However, this does confirm that like Magnus, Ashley has been the same age throughout the entire season so far, placing the episode before her birthday.
 * Because the episode occurred before her summer birthday, it means that she will be turning 24-years-old after the episode in 2008; marking birth year as 1984. Note: This means that Ashley was 24-years-old when she 'died' in early 2009.
 * With birth year established as 1984, it means that that writer's semi-borrowed actress Emilie Ullerup's age: 23-years-old and born in 1984. With Ashley born in the summer around late June and Emilie being born in late October, it makes her character 4 months older than her in real life.
 * Birth year of mid 1984 establishes reimplantation year as late 1983.
 * In Ashley's 25th birthday takes place "next Tuesday". Magnus references her own age as being 158-years-old, meaning that it's before August 27th, 2009; reinforcing that Ashley's birthday occurs in the summer.
 * Tuesdays in June 2009 occurred on the: 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th.
 * Tuesdays in July 2009 occurred on the: 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th.
 * (Speculation: A good potential date range is June 16th to July 14th. Narrowing down to June 23rd to July 7th, leaves a more specific date of June 30th as the median average being most likely based on conception calculators using the parameters of conception being at least 6 weeks prior to the removal that took place at some point after Molly's murder; a murder that took place sometime within the remaining 3 weeks of the month of November 1888 ranging from Nov 9th to Nov 30th. Example: If Molly was murdered on i.e. Nov 16th a week after Mary Kelly on Nov 9th, 6 weeks prior to Nov 16th places conception on October 5th, 1888. Due date calculators using that conception date estimate June 28th, 1889 as a possible delivery date.)

Note: If this were true, it means that Ashley would have been born calendar-wise 3 days 'over-due' as 1984 was a leap year. Interestingly, 1888 - the year of her conception - was also a leap year. Alternatively, Ashley could have been born 4 days 'early' on June 23rd, 1984 as June 23rd, 1984 / 2009 fell on the 4th Saturday / Tuesday of the month. Emilie's real birthdays of October 27th, 1984 / 2009 also fell on the 4th Saturday / Tuesday of the month.

Written off

 * The network had decided to kill off Emilie Ullerup's character when they began filming Season 2. In an interview she explains that she had no idea she was being killed off, and was sad to hear the news; the few episodes of the second season she filmed were incredibly hard as she had to remain serious. She states that she was in tears during rehearsals for the ending scene of her last and the directors told her she had to get it together because Ashley was supposed to have found peace. She believed there was hope that she would return and would love to come back in Season 3. Even though it wasn't the intention of the show's creators, her character was indirectly and effectively replaced from then on by the introduction of the character Kate Freelander at the start of Season 2.
 * Meanwhile, Ullerup made a guest appearance in the "Smallville" episode 'Crossfire'.

Return

 * A fan effort was underway at one point to bring Ashley back as a regular character. It was rumored that the writers pitched something to bring Ashley back in Season 3, however, no step in that direction was ever taken.
 * This was one of two failed attempts. Amanda Tapping said it fell through due to the story not being true to the character and to the actress; essentially that bringing her back at that point was analogous to putting a square peg in a round hole in order to just please fans.
 * In the commentary track for, it is mentioned that this particular episode was originally written to have Ashley return to the show by being featured in Magnus's induced dream state. Unfortunately, even though Emilie wanted to return for this episode, her filming schedule at the time would not allow for the quick cameo. Due to this, the episode was re-written to include Druitt instead, and reduced her part to being two extremely small memory flashbacks.
 * In an interview conducted at Denver Starfest 2014, Amanda Tapping revealed that one of the plans slated for Season 5 besides working from the new Underground Sanctuary, was that Magnus had found a way to save her daughter Ashley during her 113-year trip back through time without changing the course of the natural timeline. Amanda had conferred with Emilie about this, but unfortunately Sanctuary was cancelled before Season 5 could be made to show Ashley alive on-screen.

Support
Fans however saw evidence to the Season 5 plan (as well as the overall intent to bring the character back) by the writer's starting to mention, reference, and allude Ashley more frequently than before after her last seen. Direct mentions and obvious references and allusions are listed above in the character's main biography. In this section below are less obvious references and allusions that still provide support behind the eventual return of the character.

Overall, from what is seen at the end of Season 3 and in Season 4 is that Magnus was absolutely firm on her stance that she would not sacrifice the natural order of history by altering the timeline in any way to save her daughter. However, with what is known about Season 5, and what viewers see in the dialogue is that Magnus never once says that she won't save Ashley, only that she won't change anything in order to do so. This supports the plausible theory of Future-Helen saving her by interfering with the EM shield; answering the question of what caused the mysterious destabilization at 18:29 hours that night as seen in.