Episode
Profiler: Ceremony of Innocence
Overview
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.
Details
- Series
- Profiler
- Season
- Season 3
- Episode
- Episode 10
- Air date
- 1999-01-09
- Runtime
- 60 min
Episode context
Ceremony of Innocence is Episode 10 in Season 3 of Profiler. It aired on 1999-01-09. The runtime is 60 min.
Previous / Next
Episode 9: All in the Family
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
Episode 11: Where or When
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.
More episodes from this season
Episode 8: Home for the Homicide
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.
Episode 12: Inheritance
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-
Episode 7: Perfect Helen
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.
Episode 13: Heads, You Lose
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.
Episode 6: The Monster Within
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
Episode 14: Otis, California
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.
Episode 5: The Sum of Her Parts
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.
Episode 15: Spree of Love
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.
Episode 4: Double Vision
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.
Episode 16: Burnt Offerings
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.