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.

Ceremony of Innocence

Ally Walker

Robert Davi

Julian McMahon

Roma Maffia

Peter Frechette

Where or When

All in the Family

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).

Coronation

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.

Cravings

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.

Do the Right Thing

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.

Double Vision

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 Sum of Her Parts

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

The Monster Within

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.

Perfect Helen

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.

Home for the Homicide

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

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-

Inheritance

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.

Heads, You Lose

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.

Otis, California

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 childâ€˜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.

Spree of Love

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 â€˜fire god.â€˜  The man is apparently seeking a â€˜chosen oneâ€˜ 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.

Burnt Offerings

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.

Three Carat Crisis

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.

Seduction

Grand Master (2)

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

Las Brisas

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.

What's Love Got to Do with It?

Episode 22

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.

Ceremony of Innocence

Seasons4

Season 3 Episodes22

Cast5

Discussion

Episode Summary