Season One of the intense crime drama Profiler begins as Bailey Malone (Robert Davi), head of the Atlanta-based Violent Criminal Task Force (VCTF), persuades his former colleague, forensic psychologist Samantha Sam Waters (Ally Walker) to come out of retirement and help his organization track down some of Americas most heinous (and cleverest) serial killers. Sam possesses the strange ability to see through the eyes of both victim and killer at the crime scene, and had once been quite active as an FBI consultant. All this changed when a particularly elusive multiple murderer who called himself Jack of All Trades trumped Ally by murdering her father. Since that time, she has lived in seclusion with her daughter Cloe (played this season by Caitlin Wachs) and her best friend Angel (Erica Gimpel). Even so, Sam agrees to join Baileys team, which consists of Detectives John Grant (Julian McMahon) and Nathan Brubaker (Michael Whaley), forensic pathologist Grace Alvarez (Romer Maffia), and computer hacker George Fraley (Peter Frechette). As it turns out, Sams first case with the VCTF agains brings her in contact with Jack of All Trades, who continues to cut a homicidal swath through the country, leaving behind evidence that his ultimate goal is Ally herself. In fact, he begins targeting her colleagues, forcing Bailey to set up a trap for Jack using Sam and Grant as bait--a trap that backfires in a near-tragic fashion. Outside of the ubiquitous Jack, Sam tracks down such miscreants as an arsonist called Tony the Wick, a homicidal disciple of I Ching, a pro-eco serial bomber, a latter-day Charlie Manson type, a deranged artist who arranges the corpses of victims in the manner of famous paintings, and a vigilante who kills criminals whove evaded capture and then sends tapes of his handiwork to local TV stations. At one point, Sam is kidnapped by an anti-nuclear zealot who intends to kill a lot of people so theyll stop killing a lot of other people! Episodes highlights include Unsolved Sovreignty, in which Sam is teamed for the first time with her future lover, ATF explosives expert Nick Coop Cooper (A Martinez); and Blue Highways, wherein Baileys dangerously rebellious 17-year-old daughter Frances (Heather McComb) makes the first of several fractious appearances. The season ends with the two-part cliffhanger Venom, in which the life of a key member of the VCTF team hangs in the balance, while another team member quits in disgust. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide