The series stars Loken as Jane Vasco.[3] She begins as a DEA agent, where in the course of her work she encounters Andre McBride (Rob Stewart), who is the leader of a team of agents working for an unspecified government agency. The team is based in a disused subway station named Deckard Street. She is forced to join the team after she probes too far into their operations. It is then revealed that the team's mission is to identify and neutralize "neurological aberrants" ("neuros") – human mutants with supernormal mental powers. Dialogue in the pilot states there are dozens of variations, and the reasons neuros use their abilities vary. It is then theorized that the aberrations interfere with the brain's ability to distinguish right from wrong.
During the pilot episode, Vasco discovers that she has superhuman abilities – supernormal regenerative powers bordering on invulnerability. This is realized when she is pushed through a forty-story window and falls to her apparent death, only to later revive and recover completely. However, she still feels the pain of her injuries before they heal. The team's doctor, Seth Carpenter, identifies her abilities as not like those of the neuros they track, but "something else".
With the help of a new covert government unit, Jane Vasco must track down and contain the spread of "Neuros", genetically altered humans with special and extraordinary powers.
A Neuro with an ability to see into the future sends an eerie message to Jane warning her of an arrest that will go wrong, costing the lives of three people on her team.
5
"Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself"
Matthew Hastings
Lawrence Hertzog
Telepathy
May 11, 2007 (2007-05-11)
The team must speculate on why a particular safe house drives its inhabitants insane by showing them their worst fears.
Connor suffers a series of unfortunate events, believing it to be coincidental, until the team learns that members of Connor's former police squad have been dying of unusual causes.
12
"Something Nasty in the Neighborhood"
Michael Robison
Lawrence Hertzog
Mind control
July 6, 2007 (2007-07-06)
Jane and Connor go undercover as a married couple to investigate disappearances in a suburban community.
The team heads overseas to NICO when several Neuros escape, only to discover things at NICO are not in proper order.
20
"The Beast of Bolnar"
Farhad Mann
Charles Holland
Mental projection
September 7, 2007 (2007-09-07)
Connor is attacked by a mythical beast in the small town near NICO, and the team must determine if it really is a monster, or a Neuro at work.
21
"Reflections"
Matthew Hastings
Matthew Carpenter
Phasing
September 14, 2007 (2007-09-14)
Andre struggles to maintain objectivity when it appears one of the Neuros at NICO, whom he once dated, has managed to sneak in and out of the facility to murder two men.
A major emergency at NICO results in the facility's most dangerous Neuros breaking out, but the unlikely leader of their operation gives the team the greatest shock.
Production
The TV series received a 22-episode production order after the 2005 Painkiller Jane TV-movie yielded positive results. The film differed significantly from the original comic's storyline; the TV series, in turn, discarded the film's back-story and started afresh. According to story creator Jimmy Palmiotti, the new series was "closer to the original concept we came up with in the comic".[4] Executive producer Gil Grant has said the new series is "partly true" to the original comic, but will still differ to some extent.[5]
The series credits include several people in the role of producer. Most are credited only for a few episodes. This includes Loken (the star), who is credited as co-executive producer for several episodes.[6]
