Remembrance

Jim and Blair are called to the scene of a murder on Rainier U campus. On approach to the scene, Jim notices a strange odor. The body of a middle aged man is found strangled with wire, then stabbed, with his wallet cleaned out of everything but a picture of a small boy. Blair identifies the John Doe as a psyche professor, Robert McCaine and ME Dan Wolf suggests that because the stab wound was post mortem, they could be dealing with a ritual killing. When Jim is shown the picture of the young boy, he is shocked to admit that it is a picture of himself.

Blair secures some files from a grad student at the university, who was helping McCaine with his research into serial killers, particularly a case called, The Country Club Strangler, who went on a spree in the early seventies, killing seven victims who were all middle-aged businessmen and the MO matches their latest victim. Jim remembers the suspect, Wayne Hollow, who was arrested for the murders and killed himself just before the case went to trial. But Blair seems to be looking for more from Jim. With Jim's permission, Blair reveals that a 10-year-old Jim Ellison was actually the one who found the strangler's last victim, a businessman named Carl Haidash.

Much to Simon's dismay, Jim says he only just remembered the incident when Blair mentioned it. Jim adds that the scent he smelled at the murder scene was the same one he smelled when he found the body as a young boy, leading Blair to theorize that Jim may have actually had his Sentinel abilities as a child. For the time being though, Simon is more interested in catching their murderer.

Jim visits Dan Wolf again and asks to examine the victim's clothes, whereupon he detects the strange odor. This causes Jim to experience a vivid flashback to the time when he was running through some woods, and stumbled upon the original body as a child, although the identity of the body is not clear.

Back at the loft later that night, Jim is clutching a football and struggling with the memories he seems to have hidden from himself. When Blair comes home he tries to convince Jim that the trauma he suffered as a child has no doubt shut off his senses and his memories, similar to the aftermath of Peru. He tries to provide a focus for Jim's confusion, and suggests he try relaxing and following only the memory of the strange odour, and see where that leads him.

Jim flashes back to a quick recollection of a game of ball with the coach of his football team, a man called Bud who was the father-figure and mentor that Jim lacked with his own work-obsessed dad. He remembers Bud telling him that he could be anything he wanted to be if he trusted his instincts, but Bud said that sometimes he seemed to hold back.

He remembers that it was just before a big championship match that his father didn't attend because of an important business meeting. Jim also flashes to the effortless way that, as a child he was able to use his innate senses of sight, smell and hearing.

When Jim rouses from his memories, Blair asks him about the man "Bud" he kept mentioning, and Blair asks if Jim has a picture of the man. When Jim says he doesn't, Blair suggests that Jim needs to visit his father to see if he has more information and Jim is resistant to visit the man from whom he has been estranged for nearly 20 years.

The next morning, the press has somehow picked up the strangler story and Jim's picture, along with the snapshot of him as a boy, are printed side-by-side on the front page. Jim then gets a phone call from the killer, who taunts him that there is another body at the dump, and that he shouldn't forget to check the pockets. At the dump they find the body of another middle-aged man, and in his pocket is the front page of the paper. The strangler must have risked capture by returning to the scene to leave the paper, leading Jim to assert that the killer is trying to make it personal.

As Jim and Blair leave the scene, Blair again prompts Jim to identify the strange scent, which is also present at this murder scene. Blair insists that they need to go back to where it all started, Jim's home, but Jim is angry and tries to put Blair off. Blair insists that Jim needs to get rid of the baggage that he is carrying around from his childhood but Jim walks off, running into a barrage of cloying photographers. Jim shoves one of them out of the way and as Simon steps in to try and deflect the attention on Jim, Blair follows Jim to his truck. In despair, Jim reluctantly tells Blair that he will visit his father.

Standing outside the imposing edifice of his childhood home, Jim is again assaulted by memories of an unhappy home life, with his mother gone and a father who forced he and his brother Steven to be tough and competitive. He was too preoccupied with his business dealings to give them the love and attention they needed.

When William Ellison, now aged and much more mellow, finally opens the door, it is a tense and painful meeting. His father seems to be making overtures at a reconciliation, but Jim is too hurt to accept. Jim says that he is working on the strangler case and his father admits that he has been following the story in the press. Jim asks if they have any old clippings or information from the time when he found the body as a child, and they retire upstairs to look through old packing boxes.

Jim's father tries to reminisce about the good old days, but Jim says that he and Steven don't remember them to be that way. Jim finds his little league team's group shot of the fathers and sons before the big championship in 1973, and is reminded that his father was absent from the picture. That prompts yet another flashback to the day of the game, and Jim remembers the altercation he had with a young boy called Aaron on the other team. Jim takes the picture as possible evidence.

Back at the station Simon warns that Jim is in danger of being taken off the case for the shove at the photographer. Jim and Blair convince Simon that the killer has involved Jim regardless. Simon sends them out to inquire about a man who was dubbing videos for McCaine. There they find a tape demagnetizer that has been used to erase videos, and Jim locates the peculiar scent again. Jim tells Blair to stay put and follows a fleeing suspect out onto a railway shunting yard where the scent causes him to experience more flashbacks.

He realizes then that one reason for the repression of the memories was the identity of the body he found. The dead man was "Bud", otherwise known as Carl Haidash. During Jim's confusion, the suspect is able to grab him and whisper menacingly that they have a score to settle, threatening Jim with a knife, which he is able to force out of his attacker's hands, and the suspect then uses the confusion of a released train careering down the tracks towards Jim to make his escape.

Forensics is able to identify the knife as containing an oil made from the bark of a tree that is only found in Spain, explaining the unique scent that Jim has been picking up.

Jim flashes back on the day of the game again, where Jim was the hero of the match, preventing Aaron from scoring the winning touchdown. He remembers how Aaron took Jim's signed souvenir game ball and punted it into the trees. When Jim went to look for it, he found Bud's body.

Fingerprints taken from the knife belong to Scott Jeffries, who went AWOL from the army 30 years ago when stationed in Spain. There were three unsolved mysteries in Madrid while Jeffries was there, but before they could arrest him he disappeared, along with his five-year-old son. He grew up on a farm in Montana, but when he was twelve and the farm was repossessed, his father hung himself. They suspect that they moved to Cascade under a different name, and stopped killing after the other suspect was arrested. When Simon hands over a picture of Scott Jeffries from his army records, Jim remembers the man he saw fleeing from the scene of Bud's murder.

With renewed resolve, Jim returns home with the photograph of Jeffries and the little league group shot and he and his dad pour over them together. Jim can only remember the name Aaron, and needs his father to remember any meetings he may have had with other parents or any correspondence he may have received from the league, but his father had very little involvement in his son's activities. Then his father remembers a phone call from a parent trying to start another league, a man named Mick Foster, who became irate when William Ellison told him he didn't have time, saying that his time was important too, even though he didn't have Ellison's money.

The older Ellison again tries to make amends and heal the rift between them, but Jim is still too hurt, recalling instead the scene after Bud's murder, where the police refused to believe that he could identify the murderer from a distance of 75 yards. He remembers the frustration he experienced when nobody believed him, and further recalls the scene back at the house, where he pleaded with his father that sometimes he could see and hear things, and his father called it nonsense. He tells his son to wise up and stop pretending, or people will think he is a freak.

Back in the present, Jim finally understands what Bud was saying all along about following his instincts, and accuses his father of treating him as if there was something wrong with him. Jim is distraught to realize that his father's censure stopped him from being who he was meant to be. In an amazing admission, Jim tells his father that he has a gift. He admits that it can be a burden sometimes, but says it's who he is. Then in another amazing admission, Jim's father confesses that he always knew that Jim had special talents but he didn't want people to hurt Jim when they found out he was different.

William Ellison leaves to get some water and Jim sits in shock, pouring over an old photo album. There within the pages are photos and clippings from Jim's childhood, his time in the army, his marriage and his career with the police department, proving that his father has taken an intense interest in his life. Jim rings Simon to tell him that they have identified Scott Jeffries as Mick Foster and asks him to run a check on Aaron. He tells his father he needs to race off, prompting his dad to comment on the irony of their reversed situations.

They storm Foster's place, and find Mick's body in bed, apparently dead for several days. There they find a picture of Mick Foster with his son, who is the photographer who was hassling Jim at the dump. Blair reads the stats from Aaron Foster's records which describe him as a violent schizophrenic who's father was a murderer and whose grandfather killed himself. He exhibits problems with control figures. Just then Aaron phones and starts giving Jim details about the contents of his father's photo album. Foster has taken Jim's father. He tells Jim he's in charge now and that Jim knows where to find him.

At the house, Jim finds their long-time housekeeper, Sally, hiding in a cupboard and upstairs finds a series of snapshots laid out in a pattern that spells out the words "TOO LATE - 14/13" which is the final score of that fateful little league match at Manly O Field. Jim pleads with Simon to hold off on sending backup and Jim and Blair race off to Manly O Field to save his father.