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Rachel Burke is a criminal profiler, one of the best, actually. She, along with a sophisticated team of specialists on the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force in Atlanta, investigates crimes throughout the country. Together, they solve the toughest of cases while trying to live their lives as best they can.
“MIND OVER MURDER”
1997
AKA The Protean Man As Bailey (Robert Davi) clings to life in an Atlanta hospital, Sam and the team are forced to take on a high profile case involving an international serial killer. The murderer, named Ashok Dupree, has escaped from an Indian prison and come to the U.S. for the purpose of killing a celebrity, so that he too can become world renown. While working to bring the killer to justice, Sam (Ally Walker) must convince herself and the Atlanta PD that she is innocent of the murder that Jack actually committed in the finale of last season. Also, John (Julian McMahon) decides to return to the VCTF, and Bailey's daughter, Frances (Heather McComb), now on the run, contacts John to check on her father's condition.
Four people have been brutally beaten to death in Atlanta. The VCTF is called in to investigate the seemingly random murders. Though there are no eyewitnesses, people near the crime scenes recall hearing an eerie wailing sound right around the time of the murder. Sam (Ally Walker) soon discovers another connection, all the murders happened in the rain. The team consults with a psychologist who specializes in seasonal disorders. He informs them of a syndrome where people become extremely violent in response to certain types of weather. Meanwhile, Jack waits at a prison gate for Sharon Lesher (Traci Lords), a violent felon, who is being released on parole. Later, he takes her back to his lair and it becomes clear this is the beginning of an ""unholy alliance."" Back in Atlanta, Bailey (Robert Davi) laments the fact that the police plan to charge his daughter Frances (Heather McComb) with attempted murder once they determine her whereabouts. Sam and the team interrogate suspects prone to fi
Jack's back and he's wreaking havoc with his new lethal protégé, Sharon Lesher (Traci Lords). The VCTF is summoned to New Orleans when the murder of a research librarian has the earmarkings of a Jack kill. Once on the scene, Sam (Ally Walker) is perplexed by what appears to be inconsistencies with Jack's prior modus operandi. Though certain Jack is responsible for the murder, she considers rethinking her profile of him. To that end, she consults one of her old professors to get a fresh perspective on the case. Sam and the professor agree that Jack is beginning a new chapter in his obsession with Sam. Two more murders occur in rapid succession and it becomes clear Jack is sending clues as to what this new chapter will entail. Bailey (Robert Davi) receives a call from his fugitive daughter, Francis (Heather McComb), who refuses to heed her father's pleas to return to Atlanta. George (Peter Frechette) is confronted by his past misdeeds when a corrupt attorney asks him to use his computer
When a hospital is the target of a bombing attack, the VCTF is called in to investigate. It's clear once the team arrives that this is no random attack. They are dealing with a highly skilled explosives expert who obviously has an agenda in mind. Bailey (Robert Davi) summons Coop (A Martinez) to Atlanta to assist with the case. His return is awkward for he and Sam (Ally Walker) as they have previously ended their romantic relationship. The bomber continues his lethal campaign by killing seemingly unrelated individuals. Sam and the team race to establish a relationship between the victims. Meanwhile, Bailey must deal with Frances's (Heather McComb) legal problems. The DA sees her case as a stepping stone for political office and is bound and determined to see her do time for shooting her father and fleeing prosecution. George (Peter Frechette) also faces difficulties as he continues to be pressured by an old acquaintance to embezzle funds from a local bank. This ""pressure"" becomes threa
The VCTF team is on the trail of a serial killer who seems to be taking aim at people he deems corrupt. Three Chicago murders happen in quick succession: a former President of the Federal Reserve Board, a high class call-girl, and a Chicago policeman. Jim Henegar, the Chicago detective who is investigating the murders, is reluctant to relinquish control of the case, and becomes a hindrance to Sam and the team. The evidence leads to a Judge, whose son was corrupted in one way or another by the three victims. Their influence eventually led the son to be arrested and subsequently results in his murder while serving a year sentence in jail. After Henegar kills MacGruder in 'self-defense' Sam and Bailey testify before a panel of judges to try and prove that the Detective had committed murder in order to cover up his own history of corruption. However, they fail; it seems that corruption runs deep. Meanwhile Bailey, who is still healing from the shotgun wound inflicted by his daughter, Franc
Coop's death takes its toll on Sam and the rest of the VCTF team. Hoping it will help Sam to regroup emotionally, Bailey and Angel persuade her to join some of her old friends at a college reunion. There, she and Angel reunite with friends Colleen, Drew, Greg, Monica, Tracy, and Roy. An enjoyable holiday gathering quickly becomes a nightmare when Colleen is murdered. Angel and Monica urge Sam to investigate the case and bring their friend's killer to justice. All the evidence points to Colleen's husband Drew, whom Sam never liked. Soon another friend, Roy, who may have been a witness to the crime, is murdered. Sam sets out to prove Drew guilty of both crimes. Just when she finds the evidence she needs, Drew is found dead - the victim of an apparent suicide. Back in Atlanta, Sharon strikes out on her own and murders a shop clerk. The team investigates and starts to make headway in their search for Jack and his lethal accomplice. At Jack's lair, Sharon learns of Jack's obsession with Sam
Once the prime suspect in the 'Old Acquaintance' murder mystery is found dead, Sam (Ally Walker) determines that one of her friends, Greg or Monica , is the likely killer. With the VCTF hot on his trail, a mortally wounded Jack escapes to his lair to recuperate from being shot by Sam. In attempting to pursue Jack, as well as the killer of her friends, Sam begins to wonder if it's all becoming a bit too overwhelming. Frances (Heather McComb) attempts to give herself a birthday 'present' by seducing John (Julian McMahon). The plan fails and John calls Sam to take the ever rebellious teen home to her father. This leads to Sam and Frances having a heart to heart in which the young woman shares a painful memory from her early upbringing. Bailey (Robert Davi) asks Marcus Peyton (Shiek Mahmud-Bey) to join the VCTF team and he accepts, to John's dismay. Sam uncovers evidence that points to Greg as the 'old Acquaintance' killer and she and Bailey apprehend him just as he tries to leave town. Ba
AKA Sense of Completion When a murder occurs that bears all the markings of an unsolved serial case from the 1950's, Sam and the VCTF team are called in to investigate. Analysis of the case's forty year old evidence yields a fingerprint not previously detected. This enables the team to finally I.D. the killer, who turns out to have committed suicide prior to the most recent murder. Sam talks to a writer who researched the original case and learns of a young boy who claimed to have witnessed one of the crimes. That boy, whose story was not believed at the time, is later revealed to be the copycat killer. Jack recuperates from his gun shot would at the home of his extremely wealthy, extremely deranged mother, Miriam. Meanwhile, Sharon (aka Jill) decides to redecorate Jack's lair by eliminating all traces of Sam. When a now healthy Jack returns to the lair, he is enraged by the changes Sharon has made. Sam's in-laws come to town to see Chloe perform in a school play and are angered whe
A killer's belief he was switched at birth leads him to kill those he feels stole his identity. Two men, born at the same time and in the same hospital as the killer, are brutally murdered. The VCTF is called in once the link between the two victims is established. Evidence leads the team to an insane woman who believes her baby was switched at birth. The woman swears the badly deformed baby she was given in the hospital, was actually the child of someone else. She was never able to prove that charge, and unfortunately for the baby given to her, she was a cruel and abusive parent. Sam quickly determines the killer is the product of this abuse. When the team and, accidentally, the killer learn that the mother's claim was proven invalid, Sam profiles the murderer will go after the one living health worker responsible for giving him over to a life of cruelty. Meanwhile, Jack kills his mother's butler once he learns the man has been following him at his mother's behest. Sam is concerned ab
Two men are killed, and in both instances, their organs are mysteriously delivered to hospitals minutes before they are needed for transplant surgery. Sam and the team profile the murders and determine their suspect is someone who was probably an organ recipient in the past. Now he is returning the favor by providing organs for people with his same rare blood type. Eventually, the team sets up a sting that draws out the killer and culminates in the man committing suicide so that one last time, he can pass on the gift of life. Art Behar, Bailey's boss, sets him up to take a fall in a witness tampering scandal. John, Marcus, and George find the evidence that clears Bailey and nails Behar once and for all. Jack is displeased when he learns Sharon has struck up a friendship with the proprietor of a local newsstand. He ultimately kills the man to assert to Sharon that he is her one and ONLY friend. Chloe is followed by a man who continues to take her photograph. By episode end, it is learne
Ritualized murders are occurring in Atlanta and in neighboring states. The victims are stabbed and their homes are vandalized with gang-like graffiti. The VCTF is called in and their investigation soon focuses on the son of two of the victims. His calm, dispassionate demeanor suggests to Sam that the man may be a suspect in his own parents' murder. Further investigation reveals that the son is under the influence of a ""Heaven's Gate""-like cult. Sam goes undercover to infiltrate the cult, but is deemed her unworthy for their collective. Sam theorizes that the cult's leader is making his disciples kill their families in order to prove their loyalty to him. The team sets up a sting to capture the leader, but are foiled when the cult's member, aware the VCTF is closing in, commit mass suicide by blowing up their compound. Frances causes discord between John and Bailey.
AKA Textbook Ohio's cities are being terrorized by a seemingly random sniper. Everyday citizens as well as police officers are being attacked. The state's governor summons the VCTF. Once on the scene, Sam, Bailey and the rest of the team are perplexed by the sniper's ability to shoot from increasingly longer distances. This ability reminds Bailey of an elite task force he encountered while serving in Vietnam. Bailey obtains from Casper, his intelligence source, the names of the task force members. Meanwhile, Sam uses clues left at the crime scenes to put together a profile that suggests the sniper is trying to create his own mythology, much like the Archer in Greek literature. George comes up with a suspect once he merges Casper's list and Sam's profile. Bailey, haunted by memories of the atrocities committed by the sniper task force, sets out to take down the killer and does so in the episode's exciting climax. John, George and Bailey look into Lou Handleman who has tried to dis
The bodies of badly beaten men are being found in the Boston metropolitan area. Sam and the team quickly surmise these men were involved in some sort of deadly ultimate fighting match. Searching local hospitals, they find a participant in one of the fights. Though he reveals little, Sam is able to put together from talking to him and researching the backgrounds of the victims, that all were desperate men in need of money. All the men have a bookie in common and the team eventually gets this man to confess his role in the murders. It turns out he supplies the names of these desperate men to a man who then manipulates them to fight for money. He then coerces them with drugs to fight to the death so that he can satisfy his own demented bloodlust. To catch the fight's mastermind in the act, John goes undercover as one of the fighters. The episode concludes with Sam and the team racing to find John before he too becomes a victim of this lethal bloodsport.
A serial rapist is terrorizing women in the Florida Panhandle. Sam and the VCTF are called in to investigate. The victims are able to provide the team with a number of clues which Sam uses to form her profile of the assailant. In the midst of the investigation, Sam butts heads with a local female sheriff. The woman continuously criticizes the VCTF's handling of the case and more importantly, their handling of the victims. In an emotional scene, Sam confronts the deputy and eventually learns the woman was once a rape victim herself. The two bond when they realize they both know what it is like to be the object of a deranged man's obsession. Meanwhile back in Atlanta, John and Marcus get a hot tip on the fugitive, Sharon Lesher. Desperate for cash, she has made it know on the street that she is looking for one of her old partners in crime. The episode concludes with the team springing a trap for Jack's ""Jill."" Sam corners Sharon as she tries to escape and momentarily wrestles with the id
A desperate father kidnaps Sam's roommate Angel in a last ditch effort to save his son from the electric chair. The man's son has recently been convicted of murder committed during a robbery. The father believes his son to be an innocent bystander and wants Sam and the VCTF to prove it. To save Angel, Sam and the VCTF investigate the case and find little, at first, to prove the man correct. The father gives them the names of two potential suspects and Sam interrogates both. She also talks with the incarcerated son. Her discussions, along with forensic evidence, lead Sam to determine the son is in fact innocent of the murder, but is unfortunately an accomplice in the robbery. Once she knows the truth, Sam is faced with the difficult task of telling the father what he least wants to hear, that his son is indeed guilty of a crime.
Sam and the VCTF investigate the ""prime time kidnapper,"" a madman who has a pathological need for media attention and projects his mania onto an attractive but terrified local TV anchorwoman (guest star Anna Galvin) whom he wants to exclusively cover the prisoner exchanges. Elsewhere, Sam worries about what's really behind her daughter Chloe's reluctance to perform in the children's ballet, and the murderous Jack of All Trades makes plans for his imprisoned Jill.
A vigilante's series of murders leads the team to an eccentric cartoonist, whose work has influenced the killer. Sam receives an award from the American Association of Women in Law Enforcement.
VCTF is invited to an on-going investigation on the murder of a teen beauty. She was killed a year ago, and no arrests have been made so far. They find a killer on death row with matching breaking and entering technique, but Sam thinks the convict didn't kill his victims.
The team tries to catch a diabolical killer determined to take revenge on people who are so blinded by their love of money that they can't see the repercussions their actions have on the other side of the world, starting the with the setting off of incendiary car bombs outside a wealthy business office. The game between Jack and VCTF begins with Sharon as bait to lure Jack to the prison so they can catch him. But Jack has other plans. Meanwhile, Sam pays a visit to her long estranged father for the first time in 10 years. As she struggles to both deal with her father and the elusive avenging killer still committing bombings across the country, she soon makes the final connection to the killer in order to catch him.
The team tries to catch a diabolical killer determined to take revenge on people who are so blinded by their love of money that they can't see the repercussions their actions have on the other side of the world, starting the with the setting off of incendiary car bombs outside a wealthy business office. The game between Jack and VCTF begins with Sharon as bait to lure Jack to the prison so they can catch him. But Jack has other plans. Meanwhile, Sam pays a visit to her long estranged father for the first time in 10 years. As she struggles to both deal with her father and the elusive avenging killer still committing bombings across the country, she soon makes the final connection to the killer in order to catch him.
1999
A kidnapped Sam (Ally Walker) stalls for time as the murderous Jack of All Trades (Dennis Christopher) twists the facts hoping to convince her that she too will kill -- when the subject and timing are right -- while a recovering Bailey (Robert Davi) and new profiler Rachel Burke (Jamie Luner) grope for clues about Jack's hideout. But Jack shows a new card when he lures Sam's young daughter, Chloe (Evan Rachel Wood), into his web of deceit by convincing her that her mother was responsible for her father's slaying.
Now a member of the VCTF team, newly relocated Agent Rachel Burke sorts through a series of murders where the killer singles out successful career women and subjugates them to humiliating housework and compulsive cleaning before posing them naked in kitchens or bathrooms. While Rachel narrows in on a suspect (guest star Scott Allen Campbell) whose timid, fearful wife (guest star Paula Malcomson) may be the missing link, she must first overcome her combative relationship with an increasingly skeptical John
An obsessed Malone is haunted by an unsolved case in Georgia concerning several teenaged girls who were slain with a knife 15 years ago, and when more older victims are suddenly found - marked with slashes on their bodies -- his focus zeroes in on their original prime suspect who has resurfaced in the area. Once he has the VCTF team on board, he enlists Rachel's help to connect the two crime sprees but his decision to exhume the earlier victims understandably draws the wrath of their ever-grieving parents.
When Rachel and Bailey investigate a series of Ohio murders in which the mutilated victims are cheating husbands, they suspect that the killer is the vengeful boyfriend (guest star L.L. Ginter) of a woman (guest star Amanda Wyss) common to all of the dead men -- until she offers an unconvincing confession. Meanwhile, the VCTF team must contend with a local sheriff who wants to join their force, Grace must deal with her crumbling marriage and new pregnancy, and George is left limping after a painful car accident
When a series of random murder victims are found on the streets of St. Louis, Rachel and the VCTF team believe the slayer is a military veteran who uses weapons of opportunity, and their focus shifts to an incoherent, ranting homeless person (guest star Jeremy Roberts)who fits the profile. However, Rachel wonders if she should widen her field of suspects to include any ex-serviceman -- and trained killer -- who is susceptible to an altered state psychosis. Back at headquarters, computer whiz George ignores his increasing reliance on prescription pain pills while recovering from a car accident.
As Christmas nears, Rachel and the VCTF work into the night in search of a twisted serial killer (guest star Ben Bode) who goes online to select his victims, all of whom are carefully screened, seeking a candidate he can make over into his ideal woman. At the same time, Rachel is surprised when her troubled brother, Danny (guest star Rafael Sbarge), drops in from out of town and displays telltale signs of substance abuse. Also, Rachel confronts George about his own addiction to pain pills and other drugs.
Rachel and Bailey respond to the growing list of isolated elderly men and women who are strangled while riding the rails in the Southwest, and Rachel notes cigarette burns that indicate the young killer (guest star Samuel Bliss Cooper) must have been a victim of abuse as well. While the slayer eyes his next targets, the VCTF theorizes that the dead must be surrogates for an angry drifter who feels rejected by society
Rachel and the VCTF team search for a serial killer (guest star Greg Kean) who strangles women with knots of their own hair, but when the latest victim proves to be the daughter of powerful mob boss James Perrone (guest star Ray Wise), the FBI profiler must gain the grieving father's confidence to learn more about her habits. Meanwhile, Rachel is under pressure from the Bureau's Organized Crime Division to take advantage of her access to Perrone and wear a wire to trick him into confessing to a fellow mobster's murder, thereby ending a lengthy investigation.
Jarod and Rachel Burke discover that the two dirty Secret Service agents, who are their most direct link to the killers of a fellow agent, are found slain, forcing them to begin their investigation all over again. However, while romantic sparks fly between the pair, Jarod suddenly disappears and is tortured by the murderer, who is on a crazed mission to eliminate everyone he thinks is involved in the agency's corruption. The crossover starts on The Pretender S04E10 Spin Doctor (I).
While shopping in a convenience store with his girlfriend Kate (guest star Samantha Smith), Agent John Grant intercedes during a robbery, but when Kate is wounded and fights for her life, Rachel and Bailey are concerned that he will mete out his own justice outside the law. Even John's shooting of a suspect comes under review, prompting him to angrily resign and grapple with his overwhelming emotions of guilt for Kate's grave condition
When Rachel visits her old college to appear on a radio call-in show to discuss a series of ongoing sexual assaults on campus, the case takes a peculiar personal turn when the rapist repeatedly dials up to mock her on-air, prompting an ongoing mind game of cat-and-mouse between them. On other fronts, Rachel finds herself drawn again to an old flame (guest star Mark Dobies) who is now married to her good friend and later meets the therapist (guest star Joe Flanigan) assigned to her brother's drug rehabilitation. Likewise, George slips in his shaky bid to end his own addiction to painkillers.
After a police officer and other authority figures are found stabbed in the backs, Rachel centers her investigation on a young woman, Pamela (guest star Marcia Cross), who is reported to have assumed multiple identities which probably spring from memories of early child abuse. But Rachel faces an even greater personal threat from an FBI honcho (guest star Gregory Itzin) who has falsely accused her of forcing a sexual relationship of a subordinate -- a charge that could ruin her career. Elsewhere, Bailey confronts George over his reliance on prescription drugs and orders him to get help.
Rachel, Bailey and the team head to Yosemite National Park where a maniac brutally killed a mother and her two daughters, and while circumstantial evidence points to a local outlaw biker (guest star Douglas Bennett), Rachel constructs a different suspect profile -- one who feels remorse and might have sibling issues. Meanwhile, George's lingering substance abuse problem causes a dangerous embarrassment for Bailey and the VCTF just as an attractive Congresswoman (guest star Erin Gray, ""Silver Spoons"") begins an investigation of the unit, and she is most impressed by Bailey. Back at home, Rachel's budding romance with her brother's (guest star Raphael Sbarge, ""Message In A Bottle"") drug counselor (guest star Joe Flanigan, ""Providence"") hits a snag.
A tormented Rachel must push aside her personal nightmares when she realizes that a disturbed child slayer (guest star Harry Groener, ""Buffy The Vampire Slayer""), whom she could not convict as a prosecutor years before, has resumed kidnapping young girls and putting them in gilded cages where he worships them as virginal ""princesses."" At the same time, Rachel is troubled by the sudden disappearance of her drug-addicted brother (guest star Raphael Sbarge) from a halfway house and her romantic relationship with therapist Tom (guest star Joe Flanigan, NBC's ""Providence"") enters a new stage. Also, George frets about the hot shot computer whiz (guest star Judith Moreland) who's temporarily replaced him while he's on leave due to his own struggle with narcotics.
A desperate Rachel and the VCTF team cast about wildly to quickly form a profile of an anonymous sniper who's perched atop the pump house of a dam with a commanding view of his victims in an adjoining park, but their options are limited out of fear that the shooter may have wired explosives that could inundate downtown Atlanta. While the body count rises, John risks his life to save some trapped patrons and Rachel suspects the murderer might be an enraged husband whose philandering wife (guest star Saxon Trainor) is pinned down with her lover.
Rachel and the team search for a serial killer who does not seem to follow a pattern following the abduction of a 10-year-old boy from a local diner. Meanwhile, Bailey must testify before a congressional subcommittee to save VCTF funding which is threatened to be cut off by Congresswoman Archer. Also, Rachel find that her apartment was broken into and the audiotape she made of Joel Marks confessing to planting a wire on her (in the Proteus episode) has reappeared in the court dockets where Marks is dismissed from the FBI and vows revenge against Rachel.
When a talented concert pianist is found slain, Rachel suspects the victim's prodding parents until she discovers the young woman was pregnant and that her baby was forcibly delivered and kidnapped. But her biggest surprise comes when Jarod re-surfaces at her door. While the two indulge their mutual romantic passion, Jarod's mission is to help her deal with the threat posed by Marks, a fugitive FBI agent who delights in tormenting her.
As Rachel continues to be spooked by Marks (Gregory Itzin), she and the team investigate a series of murders of businessmen who were all involved with the same woman (guest star Kimberly Davis).
In the season finale, Rachel is emotionally distraught after her brother's death and she's further rattled by the mind games played by wanted Agent Marks, who she believes is responsible for a series of murders, but Marks needs her to accomplish his own agenda. Malone has even more concerns when he is ordered to conduct a performance review of his VCTF members as rumors fly in Congress that the elite unit will be disbanded.
1998
The day after Jack's clever escape from the prison after Samantha unsuccessfully tried to bait him and she killed Sharon instead, Samantha must look into herself in order to find him. Everything seems to point to her childhood which reveals that Jack has apparently stalked her all his life. Then, Jack abducts an infant, and tries to lure Sam into finding him in which the VCTF learns Jack's real identity (so it seems).
The team investigates a serial rapist-turned-murderer in Illinois, whose sporadic timing of the attacks puzzles Sam as well as the connection between his victims whom are left in the woods. Sam figures out that the killer is an angry and frustrated married man taking out his rage and frustration on about-to-be-wed women. Meanwhile, with Jack-of-All-Trades (Donald Lucas) finally captured and imprisoned, Sam begins searching for a new house for her and Chloe.
A killer who castrates the victims seems to be driven by feelings of public duty and legal responsibility. John gets into trouble through no fault of his own for something that appears in the press about the case.
Twelve residents of a small Alabama town have mysteriously disappeared. When one of the missing is found dead, the VCTF begins an investigation. Once on scene, Sam is confounded by the evidence retrieved. Whereas some evidence points to a domineering, controlling pathology, other evidence points to a more passive, sub-servient one. When Bailey pressures her to narrow her profile, Sam's anxiety builds and she begins to question her own abilities. Later, it is determined that there are two killers working together as a team- thus the reason for the conflicting profiles. One driven by the need for power and the other driven by his hero worship of his companion, the two have set out on a killing spree. Once the realization is made that there are two killers, Sam is greatly relieved to find out that her intuitive skills are still intact.
Years of verbal and physical abuse take a deadly toll when its victim lashes out against his abuser. Unable to kill the actual perpetrator, his mother, the deranged man strikes those who remind him of the wretched woman. The team investigates and Sam accurately assesses the killer's pathology, but mistakenly assumes the man is actin out against his wife, not his mother. When the ages of the victims begins to rise, Sam realizes her error and theorizes that the killer is slowly working up the courage to murder his tormentor. The team then races to find the ill-fated woman before her son can exact his final revenge. B-Story- Sam realizes she and Chloe must begin a new life, and to that end, decides to move into a new home.
The VCTF is called in to assist in a stalled investigation. Sam is leery to intercede, for her friend and former lover, Michael Westmore, is leading the investigation. The case revolves around a series of killings in which the victims have been burned alive. Once they begin their investigation, Sam and Bailey disagree about Michael's handling of the case. Whereas Sam feels her friend should be given some slack, Bailey feels the man's performance sub-par and should not be excused. Forensic evidence shows that the victims' eyes were the specific target to the killer. Sam uses her intuition and the evidence gathered to theorize the killer did not want to be seen by his victims. She later determines the man feels a great sense of shame, thus the reason he cannot bear to look someone eye to eye. Another victim is killed and Sam doubts whether the same killer is at work. It is later revealed that the copy cat killer is really Michael, using the same m.o. to cover up the murder of his mistres
Someone is George's hometown is stealing the corpses of young, recently decease Jewish woman. George fears it is some form of Anti-Semitic vandalism. As for to George, Bailey allows he and Sam to investigate the rather atypical crime further. Once on scene, George and Sam learn that a Neo-nazi group is alive and well in the town. Though evidence points to a member of the hate group, Sam feels the crimes are motivated by something other than Anti-Semitism. This theory take shape once two of the stolen bodies are found undamaged, with minor cosmetic changes made to their person. Sam put together a profile that characterizes the perpetrator as someone looking to create or re-create his vision of the perfect woman. Eventually, evidence points to a man who is insanely infatuated with a woman who works in his office. When the man kidnaps the object of his affection, Sam fears he will attempt to 'immortalize' his vision of perfect beauty for all eternity.
It's 'Party of Five' run amok when the youngest member of an orphaned clan kills to keep his dysfunctional family together. The first murder occurs when they young man kills the boyfriend his sister is considering marrying. Her marriage would result in her leaving the family and that would be unacceptable. Throughout the episode, other people who pose such threats are quickly dispatched. Sam profiles the killer is someone who has felt loss and who is desperately trying to hold on to something he values. The VCTF eventually discover this decidedly unconventional family and at first, mistakenly believe the physically abusive eldest brother is the killer. Sam soon realizes, however, that there is another, more emotionally immature force at work. Bailey realizes his ex-wife is seriously involved and considering remarriage. Chloe is upset when Sam invites her new boyfriend, Paul, over for Christmas.
Fueled by the abuse they suffered as children, a brother and sister decide to save another child from the same unfortunate fate. To do this, however, the warped siblings kill the boy's parents as well as two of their employees. The VCTF investigate the mass murder and Sam immediately bonds with the abused boy. The parent has mob ties, so it is immediately assumed that their murder resulted from their illegal activities. Though skeptical of this scenario, Sam does not dispute it for that would result in the boy being held by the system until the murder is solved. Instead, the boy is immediately released to his uncle's custody. As the team investigates the crime further, they realize the boy's social worker, as well as his supposed 'uncle', are actually the brother-sister duo. Sam profiles the tow want to become surrogate parent for the boy and provide him with the idealized 'home' they never had. She further theorizes the boy must be found fast, before the disturbed couple realize paren
One of Sam's first profiles resulted in a man being sentenced to death. Ten years later when the man is about to be executed, murders begin happening that match the m.o. of the prior killings. Ballistics evidence proves the same gun was used for all the crimes. Sam, feeling culpable for what might have been a deadly mistake, reopens the investigation. Evidence leads to a lowly bicycle courier who is mortally wounded when he resists arrest. Once the dying man is in custody, the death row inmate is released from prison. Though a wrong seem to have been righted, Sam still feels something is amiss. A chess set is found in the prisoner's cell helps her to realize that the whole thing was an elaborate ruse. The man originally convicted was indeed the first killer. The second killer was only a pawn doing his bidding. Sam, Bailey, and the team re-arrest the now pardoned killer at the hospital bed of his wounded puppet, just as he attempts to kill the only loose end in his elaborate plan.
A serial killer who kills with his bare hands leaves the bodies of his male victims at the Brown Derby, the Trocadero, and other Hollywood landmarks. Sam profiles the killer as someone trying to rectify some trauma he experienced in his past. The team follows a trail of clues that eventually leads them to a rather ordinary cab driver who does not seem to have the strength necessary to commit the crimes. A search of the man's apartment yields evidence however, that matches Sam's profile to the letter. The cab driver easily passes a lie detector test. The conflicting findings lead to the release of the man. It is later learned that all the victims were abusers of women. Sam soon realizes the man suffers from multiple personality disorder. His alter ego is a gangster-like tough guy who is bent on avenging the murder of the cab driver's abused mother forty years earlier. B-Story- Sam learns her scientist father participated in experiments that had deadly consequences.
People who seem to have nothing in common are being killed in the Southeast U.S. Grace's autopsy yields that all the victims has the same rare blood type. It then becomes clear all the victims were related. The team uncovers evidence that confirms all the victims were the children of a Charles Manson-like cult leader currently incarcerated in a Georgia psychiatric facility. Sam interviews the adoptive parent of one of the remaining children and quickly surmises their son is the killer. She theorizes that he is killing his siblings to 'cleanse' himself of his deadly lineage. Once he kills his last target, the young man practically surrenders to police. Sam wonders why the murderer gives up so easily, and soon realizes it's just a piece of the plan that leads back to the cult leader father. The team races to the psychiatric facility where the father is being held. The son has had himself transferred there so that he might kill his father and finally make his cleansing complete. B-Story-
Someone is killing the young and beautiful in Florida's trendy South Beach. The killer compounds his grizzly crimes by decapitating his victims and leaving their heads on public display for all to see. Sam profiles that the killer is striking against the beautiful people as a result of his low self-esteem. She further theorizes the man may have once been part of the glamorous elite, but has for some reason fallen from grace. His banishment now fuels his rage. Evidence eventually points to a young shipping magnate who has unwisely squandered his multi-million dollar inheritance on South Beach's cosmopolitan lifestyle. Instead of blaming himself, he is now striking out at those who helped him spend his fortune. B-Story- Grace attempts to reconcile the strained relationship she has with her mother. Also, the local detective on the case falls for Sam and tries everything he can to land a date.
When Donald Lucas, the imprisoned Jack-of-All Trades killer, managed to hack onto the Internet, Bailey fears that he is communicating with a disciple. The investigation leads the VCTF to a small northern California town, named Otis, which is plagued by supersition and a series of Jack-of-All-Trade murders. With the assistance of the friendly but eccentric Sheriff Ed Post, Sam, Bailey and the team try to find the suspect. But George gets abducted by the suspect, whom is connected to a reclusive, wheelchair-bound professor, named Philip Mendez, whom is later found murdered. The search leads to an underground lab where Sam discovers her father once worked there for his government-sponsored mind-control experiments that Lucas had also worked on.
A series of murders across the Southwest USA leads Sam and the VCTF team to an unlikely couple: a 32-year-old woman, Josie Wells, and a 16-year-old boy, Alex Lopez, who apparently abducted her from her child‘s soccer field in Boulder, Colorado. Sam figures out that the woman was apparently the victim of physical abuse as a child and has abandoned her unhappy and lonely married life and reliving her glory days with the boy she met on a counseling phone line. Meanwhile, Bailey tries to reason with his ex-wife, Janet, not to remarry for he feels she's throwing her own life away.
Sam and the team try to catch a mystic arsonist on the loose in Atlanta. Sam profiles that he apparently risks his own life by setting the fires himself on the spot. After a red herring lead involving a photographer always on the scene of the fires, Sam and the team find graffiti messages on walls of the burned out buildings in Farsi meaning ‘fire god.‘ The man is apparently seeking a ‘chosen one‘ immune to fire in order take him to the afterlife to meet his deceased wife. Meanwhile, Sam is worried about Chloe when she becomes emotionally withdrawn when one of her classmates becomes a victim in one of the fires.
Sam and Bailey get caught up in a jewel heist by a trio of mentally unbalanced crooks, named Randy, Kate and Stevie, that quickly turns into a hostage situation within the jewelry store. They struggle to profile the perpetrators and their relationships with one another before any lives are lost. While Sam tries to reason with the ringleader, Randy, to give up, John quarrels with the overzealous police commander outside who wants to catch or kill all the perpetrators even if it means that all hostages will be killed.
George and Sam go undercover as IRS agents at Borden & Associates, a management office in Palm Beach, Florida, because five of the clientele have been murdered with one finger from their left hand missing. As Sam profiles the most likely suspect, Bobby O'Hara, whom shows a strong interest in her, the firms shadowy security chief, Leo Cantrell, becomes suspicious of Sam's true identity. Meanwhile, Kevin Miller, an arrogant FBI agent working the case, complicates the investigation much to Bailey's worry for Sam's safety and Miller's indifference to otherwise, while John works with the local police detective, Lt. Cynthia Ford, in discovering the bodies.
Donald Lucas' trial begins as the team heads out to Mexico where in the small town of Las Brisas, women have been vanishing without a trace for the past year, and some corpses have been discovered. But their investigation is hampered on both sides of the border by the corrupt police chief, Miguel Villalobos, whom is under the thumb of a U.S sheriff, J.D. Tollman, whom try to derail the VCTF's investigation when the murders lead to a powerful U.S. businessman, named James Lofton, running a textile factory in Las Brisas and has been in the company of local prostitutes, some of whom ended up as victims. While assisting Marta Fernandez, a loyal policewoman with the investigation, Sam and the group commute back and forth to Atlanta for Lucas' trial with testimony from her, Bailey, George, against Lucas. Also testifying on Sam's behalf is Sheriff Ed Post from Otis, California whom, unknown to everyone, is actually the real Jack-of-All-Trades whom has been in hiding all this time and is usi
Sam and Bailey work with FBI field agent Susan Marsh whom is tracking Robert Lee Gregg, a conservative civic leader in Atlanta whom is suspected in the killing of six gay men. But their investigation is happened by Susan's former boyfriend, Richard Russell, whom is stalking her. Susan insists she's in control of the situation, but Bailey thinks otherwise when her boyfriend is found murdered and Russell is a suspect. Things get worse when Russell targets Bailey and his ex-wife Janet whom are now back together. Meanwhile, Sam leaves the investigation and travels to Miami to investigate the disappearance of a local man who may be connected to the Gregg killings, and she finds herself being perused by Mario Monagno (from the 'Heads, You Lose' episode) whom still wants to date her.
Jamie Luner
Rachel Burke
Robert Davi
Bailey Malone
Julian McMahon
John Grant
Roma Maffia
Grace Alvarez
Peter Frechette
George Fraley
1996
Ally Walker (""While You Were Sleeping"") stars in this stylish, hour-long suspense-thriller as Dr. Sam Waters, a brilliant female forensic psychologist with a unique gift for understanding the criminal mind. Sam was a fast-track forensic psychologist with a special skill which enabled her to ""think"" in pictures and visualize a crime through the eyes of both the victim and the killer, until ""Jack,"" an admiring serial slayer, murdered her husband three years ago, leaving her devastated. Guilt-ridden, Sam retired and retreated with her young daughter, Chloe (Caitlin Wachs), to live an anonymous life at a friend's (Erica Gimpel) in the country. She is coaxed out of self-imposed isolation by her old friend Bailey Malone (Robert Davi), head of the FBI Investigative Support Unit, to assist in solving a baffling spate of weekend serial killings that have claimed the lives of several single women in Atlanta, GA. Julian McMahon co-stars.
Dr. Sam Waters (Ally Walker) joins the newly formed Violent Crimes Task Force, led by her mentor, Bailey Malone (Robert Davi), to probe a string of well-publicized arson fires in the South, until her anonymity is shattered -- providing Jack-of-all-trades, her murderous stalker, more clues to her whereabouts. As a result, Sam is forced to move with her daughter (Caitlin Wachs) and her best friend, Angel (Erica Gimpel), while she uses her skills to compose a profile of the self-destructive arsonist (Seth Peterson). John Diehl guest-stars
Sam investigates a series of murders which bear striking similarities to the methods of a killer (Benjamin Mouton) whom Bailey put in prison 10 years earlier. Sam suspects that the real culprit is still free, and through her gifted insight, she finds clues in the ancient I Ching art of divination that lead her to a high-ranking military officer (Carmen Argenziano), who may be protecting the slayer (Ian Patrick Williams).
Dr. Sam Waters and the Violent Crimes Task Force must find a twisted assassin (Jason Rainwater) before he kills a celebrated political candidate (Casey Biggs), but Sam is distracted by new evidence that could locate her murderous stalker, known as ""Jack-of-all-trades."" Relying on audio clues from a recording, the hopeful FBI agents zero in on a Baltimore church which they believe to be Jack's lair. Robert Davi co-stars as Bailey Malone. .
A series of bomb blasts at power plants draw Dr. Sam Waters and the task force to Pittsburgh, where Sam meets a charming bomb squad dismantler (guest star A. Martinez, ""LA Law""), and the flirtatious pair quickly form a romantic bond. Even so, their primary focus remains on targeting a deranged man (guest star Ron LaBelle), with an obsessive fetish for cleanliness, whose masterwork blast is timed to poison the city's water supply in just hours. Robert Davi co-stars.
When the twisted serial killer known as Jack-of-all-trades murders a kindly neighborhood fix-it man (Don Keefer), Sam discovers a pattern -- her tormentor is leaving messages to her through his victims, all of whom had some connection to her. As Sam agonizes over her slain acquaintances, her beau Cooper (guest star A. Martinez, from ""LA Law"") and Bailey try to comfort and protect her, but they can't watch her all the time -- unlike Jack.
Sam and Bailey race the clock to track a serial kidnapper (guest star Stephen Lee) who curiously abducts a wide range of women from a college coed to a senior citizen -- and based on his ritualistic clues, Sam deduces that they have only hours before the victims are executed. While in pursuit, Agent Grant is wounded, and the trail cools off until Sam gets an unlikely break when she finds a stripper (guest star Debi A. Monahan) who survived an attempted kidnapping.
Sam and the team investigate a series of bizarre slayings whose victims were connected to the trial of a charming murderer (guest star Gary Stretch) sentenced to die within days. One of her prime suspects is a lovestruck protester (guest star Kim Darby) who leads a candlelight watch outside the prison while appeals are filed to halt the execution. Elsewhere, the serial killer known as Jack-of-all-trades assembles a roulette wheel with pictures of the entire VCTF unit -- and one spin will determine his next victim.
When Native American chiefs are ritually murdered on the reservation, Sam and the team tiptoe around local suspicions and superstitions as the locals blame a 1,000-year-old spirit -- the Nacazanti -- and a perplexed Sam consults a tribal wise man (guest star Russell Means) to narrow the list of suspects. Back in the city, serial killer Jack-of-all-trades has an extra trump card after stealing Bailey's all-access FBI identification card.
The separate kidnappings of two high-profile doctors (guest stars Scott Koes, Buddy Farmer) and the evidence left behind leads Sam to believe that the prime suspect is a patient with an incurable medical condition who is driven to take desperate measures. Meanwhile, Bailey is riddled with guilt when he develops a mutual attraction with the wife (guest star Patricia Charbonneau) of one the missing men. In addition, serial killer Jack-of-all-trades continues his quest to isolate Sam by terrorizing Agent Nathan Brubaker. Morag Dickson guest-stars.
Sam confronts inmate Arthur deRhodes (guest star Edward Albert, ""Beauty and the Beast""), a former adversary and serial slayer whom she helped put in a prison for the criminally insane years before, over a recent murder that bears striking similarities to his modus operandi. However, when another ritualistic murder occurs, Sam wonders whether the culprit could possibly be the clever deRhodes -- or a copycat killer. All bets are off when deRhodes eventually escapes, and no one is safe -- especially Sam. Robert Davi also stars.
When a series of murder victims are found arranged in elaborately staged tableaux, Sam deduces that the cold-blooded killer is replicating famous artworks with their lifeless forms. Her investigation plunges her into the avant-garde art world until she accidentally strays into the killer's lair, where he takes her hostage -- and prepares to use her for his latest three-dimensional ""masterpiece."" Meanwhile, Bailey gets chills when he discovers that clever serial killer Jack of All Trades has compromised the team's vital computer system. Julian McMahon co-stars.
When Jack of All Trades, the inventive but frighteningly elusive serial murderer stalking Sam continues to toy with members of the VCTF team and their families, Bailey orders everyone into the task force's bunker-like command center as they scramble to devise a trap to ensnare Jack. Since their technologically brilliant quarry delights in eavesdropping and seeing them almost everywhere, the frustrated team uses Sam and Agent Grant as bait to flush Jack out into the open.
In this 2-hour episode, Dr. Sam Waters and the VCTF team investigate a series of bizarre murders where the victims -- including a U.S. Senator -- are either crushed or strangled with silver coins. The investigation leads them to Charles Vanderhorn (guest star James Coburn, ""The Magnificent Seven"" and ""Our Man Flint""), an aloof but powerful billionaire heading a well-connected aristocratic family. Also joining the probe is Nick Cooper (new series regular A Martinez, ""L.A. Law""), a terrorist and explosives expert who is romantically attracted to Sam. As the VCTF learns that the tightly knit killers are on a unified mission to punish the corrupt and overextravagant, they face a more primary case in their pursuit of the serial slayer Jack of All Trades -- which leads to a Costa Rican hideout where he is cornered at last.
In this 2-hour episode, Dr. Sam Waters and the VCTF team investigate a series of bizarre murders where the victims -- including a U.S. Senator -- are either crushed or strangled with silver coins. The investigation leads them to Charles Vanderhorn (guest star James Coburn, ""The Magnificent Seven"" and ""Our Man Flint""), an aloof but powerful billionaire heading a well-connected aristocratic family. Also joining the probe is Nick Cooper (new series regular A Martinez, ""L.A. Law""), a terrorist and explosives expert who is romantically attracted to Sam. As the VCTF learns that the tightly knit killers are on a unified mission to punish the corrupt and overextravagant, they face a more primary case in their pursuit of the serial slayer Jack of All Trades -- which leads to a Costa Rican hideout where he is cornered at last.
Sam and the task force probe a series of ghastly murders which are carefully videotaped and sent to TV newsrooms by the vigilante slayer (guest star Ron Kuhlman) who announces that the crimes are righteous retribution against guilty people who slip through the judicial system. When a young woman (guest star Sherri Howard) is kidnapped and thought to still be alive, the accelerated investigation narrows to former law students with strong opinions about crime and punishment.
Sam is taken hostage by a zealous anti-nuclear scientist (guest star Robert Sampson) and a cadre of steely commandos after they capture a banquet room full of Washington, D.C. brass, and vow to kill them unless the President agrees to meet their demands to ban the bomb. When Bailey and the task force attack, the terrorists escape and are cornered in an airplane hanger, where a desperate Sam tries to ""profile"" the anguished scientist -- hoping to find a common bond that might save both their lives. A Martinez, Julian McMahon co-star
Sam and the VCTF investigate a series of fatal hit-and-run auto accidents on remote highways where the only clues are abandoned car hulks, a pattern which leads Sam to suspect a trucker (guest star Jim Wilky) who is reliving a traumatic accident from his childhood. Elsewhere: George is mugged and nearly killed in a video store holdup; Bailey feels responsible for his wayward teenaged daughter (guest star Heather McComb) when she hangs out with a rough crowd; Angel is very appreciative when John speaks to her art class
The task force comes under intense scrutiny when the FBI suspects that an insider is selling covert information, so a reluctant Bailey agrees to a mock field training exercise designed to root out the mole -- but he learns too late that one of the agents (guest star Michael Gaston) has a personal grudge against him. When one senior investigator (guest star Jack Conley) is found murdered in the command center, Sam tries to profile which one of the team's edgy members might benefit the most from trading FBI secrets. Meanwhile, Grace goes public with some personal news, and Nathan stands at the crossroads of the future of his bumpy marriage.
A burned-out Sam takes somber note of a psychic-turned-author (guest star Leland Crooke) whose cooperation with police in solving serial murders has taken a heavy toll on his emotional stability -- and worst of all, he's targeted by a serial slayer (guest star Dayna Gladstone) intent on putting him out of his misery. Back at the command center, John chafes under Bailey's strict policy and hard-nosed code of secrecy. Bailey has more problems at home when he attempts to rein in his trouble-prone teenaged daughter (Heather McComb).
Sam (Ally Walker) and the VCTF team are taunted by a diabolical serial killer (guest star Lori Petty, ""Free Willy"") who prefers to use a variety of exotic poisonous spiders and animals to kill her victims, while providing her pursuers with cryptic clues to her next murder. A frustrated Bailey (Robert Davi) is further irritated by a sexy private investigator (guest star Joan Severance, ""Wiseguy"") who tries to aid the VCTF, but it's the unit's chief nemesis--a jealous Jack of All Trades--who ironically can help the most. Elsewhere, Bailey asks Cooper (A Martinez) to replace John (Julian McMahon) on the team, and later takes drastic measures to curb his carousing daughter (Heather McComb).
Sam (Ally Walker) and the VCTF team are taunted by a diabolical serial killer (guest star Lori Petty, ""Free Willy"") who prefers to use a variety of exotic poisonous spiders and animals to kill her victims, while providing her pursuers with cryptic clues to her next murder. A frustrated Bailey (Robert Davi) is further irritated by a sexy private investigator (guest star Joan Severance, ""Wiseguy"") who tries to aid the VCTF, but it's the unit's chief nemesis--a jealous Jack of All Trades--who ironically can help the most. Elsewhere, Bailey asks Cooper (A Martinez) to replace John (Julian McMahon) on the team, and later takes drastic measures to curb his carousing daughter (Heather McComb).
