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Twenty-six years ago the Shadow Walker ninja clan took a small child
from a tiny Cambodian village, then killed every other living soul and burned the
village to the ground. In the present, Jalen is at his first day of work as a
stuntman. Meanwhile Ethan is helping Anne Steele, who runs a youth shelter in the
neighborhood. While visiting the shelter, Ethan's second sight leads him to believe
the shelter is haunted by the ghosts of several children.
Fifteen years ago a young Jalen is in the Shadow Temple in southeast
Asia where he is being taught martial arts and philosophies by Master Tan. On the
movie set, Jalen is called into the production trailer where Travis McCauley, a
lawyer for Wolfram & Hart, has pointed out to the producers that Jalen does not
have a green card, or any identification papers for that matter.
At the shelter, Ethan has brought in Dana (whose curiosity has
overcome her reluctance to be near Ethan after his abrupt kiss earlier). She begins
investigating possible sources for the haunting based on what Ethan's visions are
showing.
Five years ago, the young ninja Jalen is caught reading forbidden
scrolls in the Shadow Temple. He is taken before the Shadow Master, who puts him in
the punishment arena against a masked opponent. The opponent is skilled, but Jalen
eventually triumphs and kills his opponent. When unmasked, Jalen's opponent is
revealed to be his own sensei, Master Tan, who uses his dying breath to tell the
young warrior that he has taught him all he needs. In the present Jalen has taken
his immigration problems to the Oracle, who promises to look into a solution.
Dana, meanwhile, has begun researching the history of the shelter.
Before it was a youth shelter, the building was a multi-unit business complex, but
prior to the complex's construction thirty years earlier the area had been abandoned
for decades. Digging deeper Dana discovers the site had been the location of a
textile factory from the 1890s until it burned down sometime in the 1930s. Dana and
Ethan begin searching the basement of the shelter, where renovations have uncovered
part of the original site's infrastructure. It does not take long before they uncover
the bones of several children, workers from the textile factory killed when it burned
down.
In a flashback to just prior to the series pilot, the warrior Jalen
is summoned before the Shadow Master. The Master has decided it is time for Jalen's
first mission and assigns him to a team being sent to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, in the
present, Jalen returns to the apartment only to find a Shadow Warrior waiting for
him. The ninja has knocked Lauren unconscious and has a message for Jalen. The
prodigal is offered a chance to return to the Shadow Walkers and all will be
forgiven. Jalen refuses and the ninja leaves.
At the shelter, the city has sent in archaeologists to excavate the
bones from under the shelter. The good news is that the children will be given a
proper burial and their ghosts no longer haunt the building, but the bad news is
that due to the excavation the shelter will have to be closed for a while.
After Jalen's visitor has left, another visitor arrives at the
apartment. It is a young boy, a messenger for the Oracle, who has an envelope for
Jalen. Opening the envelope Jalen finds a birth certificate with his name on it, one
indicating that he was in fact born in San Francisco, and a note from the Oracle
saying Jalen owes him big time.
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