The sole survivor of an Army plane crash in the Peruvian hinterlands, Jim Ellison subsisted for nearly two years on his raw animal instincts. When he returned to America and became a police lieutenant, Jim discovered that the abilities that had kept him alive in the jungle now gave him extraordinary senses of perception. With the help of Captain Simon Banks and a grad student Blair Sandburg, Jim now attempts to use these powers to apprehend a terrorist bomber called the Switchman.
Garrett Kincaid, a notorious criminal that Jim Ellison had arrested years before, seizes control of Cascade's police station with the help of his gang of felons.
After witnessing the death of undercover officer Danny Choi at the hands of sniper Tommy Juno, Jim uses his vision to identify and apprehend the killer.
When Blair moves unknowingly into an apartment next to the drug lab of a gang, Jim finds himself embroiled in a gang war.
Blair and Jim, with forensics specialist Carolyn Plummer, suspect that a series of seemingly unrelated murders are actually the work of a serial killer.
Jim and Blair are assigned to escort Derek Wilson, a key witness in a local homicide case, on his train ride to the courthouse in Cascade.
While guest-lecturing in Blair's anthropology class, Jim saves the entire building from a deadly gas leak designed to distract the attention while a canister of the Ebola virus was being stolen from the hazardous materials lab.
After stopping an armored car heist, Ellison is struck by the high-tech weaponry at the criminals' disposal.
Jim's sentinel abilities detect something strange at the scenes of the recent jewelry robberies but he's unable to figure out what's causing the reaction.
As Blair forces Jim to a vacation at a remote monastery, Ellison begins to enjoy until one of the monks is found dead.
During a flight to South America, Captain Banks and his son Daryl crash land in the Peruvian jungle.
Jim and Blair are assigned to protect pop singer Angie Ferris from escaped convict Jay Weston.
At an unrelated auto accident by the river, evidence surfaces which implicates Jim and his old partner, Jack Pendergrast, in a case from four years prior.
When Blair and Jim join Captain Banks at his 20-year high school reunion the Captain's old sweetheart, Peggy Anderson, turns up dead with Banks her apparent murderer.
Ellison finds himself witness to the beginnings of an underworld war between the drug-running bikers and the local representatives of the deadly Japanese Yakuza.
Ellison gets fame when the police department invites TV producer Wendy Hawthorne and her cameraman to do a piece on him for her show ""True Crime.""
Ellison and Sandburg are called in to investigate an attack on a prostitute named Amber Larkin.
When employees start dying aboard the North Star Five oilrig, Jim and Blair conclude that ex-con Truck Brower is their most obvious suspect.
Ellison and Sandburg get a chance to hone their driving skills when car thieves set up shop on the streets of Cascade.
When Francisco Rivero, an ex-associate of Hector Carasco, kidnaps Carasco's daughter and uses as blackmail for the fortune, Ellison and Sandburg join forces with her Uncle Gustavo to bring her home.
When a series of explosions level black churches throughout Cascade, Ellison, Sandburg and Captain Banks uncover the racist influences of the White Aryan Resistance.
Ellison and Sandburg trace the distribution of Cascade's new drug to a dive where the narcotic wreaks havoc with Ellison's enhanced senses.
Ellison sees undercover police detective Brent Marten thrown to death from a police helicopter.
An arsonist burns down a furniture warehouse, and Ellison rescues an unconscious guard from the building.
Ellison receives a phone call from old Army buddy Sam Holland, who asks for help.
Sandburg becomes trapped between floors in a skyscraper elevator controlled by an extortionist, who threatens to send the elevator to its doom unless a ransom is paid.
A birthday party for a Russian woman is interrupted by a vicious attack that claims two men and ends with the theft of a suitcase from the woman's boyfriend.
Ellison and Sandburg are sent to a college campus to investigate the murder of a maintenance worker.
During the search for a kidnapped girl, Ellison and Sandburg receive help from a psychic.
Ellison and Sandburg spot a man, a mob accountant, who they thought was dead.
An armored truck explodes and rains hundred-dollar bills down into a ghetto neighborhood.
Dawson Quinn, a cop-killing thief who stole five million dollars that has never been found, is transported through forested wilderness. The convoy is attacked and the criminals flee with Banks as hostage.
A construction foreman is murdered at a racetrack and the body is hidden in a pillar.
12-year-old girl Stacey and her parents flee their home. The car is run off the road, killing the parents and placing Stacey in a coma.
In the Peruvian jungle, a Chopec Sentinel named Incacha is enraged by the pollution of his land by a contaminated oil well and the murder of one of his tribesman by an employee of the Cyclops Oil Co. In Cascade, Ellison examines the poison dart that killed the VP of security for the Cyclops Oil Co. and recognizes the markings of the Chopec tribe — the people who helped him develop his Sentinel powers.
When basketball players on the Cascade Jaguars start turning up dead, Jim must bring the killers before justice.
Blair falls for Jim's new neighbor, a woman named Iris, but learns that this particular girl next door isn't as innocent as appears.
While Captain Banks, Blair, and Jim are fishing together they stumble across a poaching ring that's hooked up with a powerful Chinese gangster Ho Ng.
Jim saves Edward, the grandson of Mafia don Dominick Lazar, from drowning. When Don Dominick himself thanks Jim, he decides to get on the inside of the city's organized crime world.
After a car accident and argument with the driver, Dan Freeman, Jim Ellison finds that this unbalanced man has targeted him for a vendetta.
During a Amnesty International conference, Ellison and Sandburg are assigned to watch over Genevieve Benet, a peace activist.
Visiting his cousin Rucker on a remote island, Jim learns that people on deserted islands don't always pursue the ""natural life."" After rescuing a woman named Monique from a boat, they find out, that she is the ex-girlfriend of a drug dealer Enrique Guzman.
Poet Dimitri Gordienski is killed by a sniper at Cascade's Russian Arts Festival. Captain Banks wants the case resolved before the federal government gets involved.
When a dead body falls out of the sky with every bone and organ shattered, and no identification, Ellison and Sandburg know that they are not dealing with an ordinary criminal.
When archaeology student Martin Gillman is buried alive by a cave-in at an excavation site, Ellison and Sandburg suspect foul play.
Jim Ellison agrees to go undercover as an inmate in Starkville Prison to investigate a series of suspicious prisoner suicides.
When a local Santeria ceremony goes wrong, one man is dead and the only witness is a woman who was in a deep trance trance.
Jim Ellison can't explain how Warren Chapel, a permanent patient at a maximum-security mental institution, has detailed firsthand knowledge of murders occurring around Cascade. Sandburg goes undercover as a patient.
When Captain Banks is injured in a shootout at the Cascade National Bank, Captain Sarah Finkelman is his replacement replacement. Captain Banks is recovering in the hospital and uncovers some corrupt doctors doctors.
Ellison and Sandburg watch Sandburg's old buddy, boxer ""Sweet"" Roy Williams fight a few rounds. Things turn decidedly sour when Sweet Roy winds up dead and all the leads point to his little brother, Jamie.
Professor Robert McCain, a university expert in serial killers, turns up dead and Ellison is forced to re-open a case that dates back to his youth.
Buddhist monks start dying in Cascade's Chinatown and Jim's old love Lila from his days in Bali, seems to be involved. Despite Jim's investigation is hampered by overwhelming sensory overloads, it isn't hard to figure out that the monks are interested in opium smuggling.
Ellison, Blair, and Captain Banks are trapped in Clayton Falls when some overzealous military officers quarantine the small town, after an airborne virus is in the air. Sensing something more insidious, Ellison and Sandburg attempt to uncover the real truth.
Ellison and Sandburg are joined by Megan Connor, a visiting police officer from Australia. When the federal mint is targeted for a major heist, they prepare to apprehend the robbers in the act. It's quickly apparent that Megan has more than a passing interest in the ringleader of this criminal operation. The team knows that the thieves have made their move, when the power goes out in Cascade. In darkness, Ellison is the only one who can see clearly but Megan is dead set on giving the criminals justice.
Jim's friend U.S. Marshall Roger Corman is killed in a car bombing before he can reveal a corrupt marshall that he's uncovered. Only by going undercover can Jim hope to glimpse what is hidden, after the U.S. Marshalls take over the investigation. Jim, Captain Banks, Blair, and Megan Connor, the newest addition to the Sentinel team, conduct their own neighborhood watch.
When a car comes barreling into the Cascade Police Station in the middle of the night, the Sentinel team finds themselves thrown into a murder investigation.
When Ellison has strange visions of jaguars and a series of superhumanly performed thefts occurring around the city, Blair and Jim suspect that he may not be the only sentinel in town. Even with the entire force on the lookout, this cunning burglar seems always to elude capture.
Blair, Banks, and Megan may be Jim's only hope of overcoming the superhuman stalemate and returning Cascade to a one sentinel town.
It appears that two students in Blair's anthropology class are engaged in extracurricular activities that aren't listed in any of the college handbooks.
Ellison knows that the city is in for trouble when Garrett Kincaid, the leader of the Sunrise Patriots militia group, escapes from prison, taking the entire Jaguar basketball stadium hostage.
When Internal Affairs accuses Ellison of stealing money captured in drug busts, he's forced to answer the questions instead of asking them.
When Blair and Ellison investigate a recent murder that occurred in a haunted house, it's obvious that Jim's Sentinel powers aren't the only paranormal phenomena operating in Cascade.
When retired television actor Vince Deal suspects that one of his friends has been murdered he enlists the help of Jim Ellison.
Harry Conkle is one of the FBI's most wanted criminals and his daughter Lindsay is convinced that he's preparing to kill her and her son. Ellison and Sandburg are assigned to protect them.
When Blair's mother Naomi secretly submits her son's Sentinel thesis paper to a publisher, Jim discovers that being famous can be detrimental to your health. While Jim and Blair protect a local union leader Jack Bartley, information from Blair's paper is leaked and Ellison is in the middle of a media frenzy. Unless someone can diffuse the situation, the Sentinel will be forced to leave the city of Cascade -- forever.
