"What room is there for love, when there can be only one?"
- Nick Wolfe, Dead On Arrival

This page recounts the present day storyline for the single season of "The Raven". The title chosen for each season is taken from an episode from the Season and is of my choosing, reflecting my feeling about the entire season. With the torch passing from Duncan to Amanda and the dark ending to the season, I'm going with "Reborn". Episode titles are shown in italics.

Season One - 1998/99

"Reborn"

Regular Cast

Amanda	Elizabeth Gracen
Nick Wolfe	Paul Johansson
Lucy Becker	Patricia Gage
Bert Myers	Hannes Jaenicke
Carl Magnus	Michael Copeman
Liam Riley	Robert Cavanah

Eluding the police who have been shadowing her for days, Amanda makes off with yet another priceless jewel collection and even the arrival of Detectives Nick Wolfe and Claudia Hoffman doesn't dampen her high spirits. Things change the following morning when she goes to her regular fence, Harry, but finds him murdered. She is seen leaving and, when they come to arrest her, Nick and Claudia find the gun used to kill Harry. Amanda makes her getaway and goes to see Basil, another fence and an Immortal. Basil agrees to fence the jewels, but before he can, he is murdered as well. Realising the killer must be a cop, Amanda searches Wolfe's apartment, but is arrested. As Basil bails her out, he recognises the voice of the man who shot him. Nick has put two and two together, but the crooked cop tries to kill him. As Nick and Claudia go to arrest him, Amanda recovers the jewels from his car, only to find herself cornered. Claudia tries to save her and both women are shot before Wolfe kills the bad guy. As Nick grieves for his partner, he is amazed to see Amanda rise from the dead "Reborn" and flee.

Unwilling to cover up the fact that a bad cop killed a good one, Nick quits the force, to the disgust of his Captain, Carl Magnus, and is slowly drinking himself to a halt when Amanda finds him. He sees the gangland style execution of a native Indian and tries to intervene, but despite Amanda's help, the killers get away. As they do, Amanda senses an Immortal nearby and sees master assassin Mario Cardoza. She intends to leave the city, but realises that Nick won't let it go. Not knowing what he's up against, he stands no chance against the lethal Cardoza and the only way Amanda can convince him of the danger he's in is by "Full Disclosure" of the secret of the Immortals. Believing that Mario intends to assassinate a visiting Cardinal, the two try to stop the killing, only to see Mario shot, faking his own death in public view. Nick still wants revenge for the murder of the old man, who had recognised Cardoza from years before, but Amanda shows him how Immortals settle things when she takes Mario's head.

Nick takes a job working for security expert Bert Myers, protecting television reporter Denise Grady. When a sniper tries to kill her, Nick shoots the man, who falls to his death from his vantage point. When the body mysteriously vanishes, Nick goes to see Amanda, who denies knowing the man. Unconvinced, Nick has his suspicions confirmed later when he finds the man, Morgan Kenworthy, alive and well in her apartment. Amanda warns him off, but has to use a tazer to stop him going after Morgan. The hallmark on a silver vase leads Nick to Kenworthy's shop after another attempt on Denise's life. Morgan is haunting her family's "Bloodlines", killing the best in each generation in revenge for the murder of his adopted son by one of her forebears a century ago. Amanda will not interfere, but Nick is determined to protect Denise and corners Kenworthy in an abandoned factory. Nick shoots down a sheet of glass suspended from the ceiling and the falling shards behead Morgan. Amanda watches, but stays away until the Quickening is lost, wanting no part of it.

Myers and Nick are on the trail of an industrialist selling technology to the Rumanians when Nick sees the suspect shot by Marta Antonescu from their Embassy. She claims diplomatic "Immunity", but Myers has her paperwork lost so that she stays in jail. He sends Nick to a reception at the Embassy to recover the files in Marta's safe. Nick recruits Amanda, who is willing to help as it means she can avoid Stefan Collier, a manic Immortal determined to take her head for no reason other than she is next on his list. Nick and Amanda find the safe tougher to crack than they thought and, when Marta escapes and returns to the Embassy, they have to leave, though not without a run-in with the resourceful Collier. Realising Marta will try to leave the country, they intercept her at the heliport, where Amanda shows scant regard for the niceties of diplomacy, cold-cocks Marta and takes the files from her. Collier is not going to go away and Nick must wait with Lucy, Amanda's housekeeper, as the two Immortals face off for a third and final time, with Amanda tearing through Collier's list on her way to taking his head.

Nick finds the tables turned when Amanda asks him to help a friend of hers, whose son died in a mysterious accident. Charlie Johnson is a retired spy who sees a conspiracy around the death of the people his son worked with and, after some initial scepticism, Nick and Amanda find themselves in a desperate struggle to survive a script that has them being chased by Government agents intent on redressing the national debt by supplying oestrogen-laced grain to Third World countries. Why? You might well ask, but the idea is to put poor countries on the Pill through their daily bread, stop population growth and reduce the need for foreign aid. Needless to say, Mulder and Scully, err, I mean Nick and Amanda triumph, although Deep Throat buys it in the last reel of the error of judgement that was "So Shall Ye Reap".

Attempting to recover a cameo which is rightfully hers from an auction house, Amanda is annoyed when two amateurs break in and trip the security alarms, forcing her to flee. She is barely home when Nick arrives, curious to know if she was involved, but their conversation is cut short when they are both arrested, but the police are forced to let them go for lack of evidence. Amanda gets Basil to trace the two would-be thieves, as they have her cameo, which she lost in a shipwreck. As she arrives at the motel, Nick turns up, having traced them himself, but their argument is cut short when they find one of the thieves dead. Amanda gets her cameo and leaves Nick to explain things to the police. However, when she gets home, the other thief is waiting. He is Simon Clark, descended from emancipated slaves who gave Amanda the cameo after she helped them. Amongst the shipwreck treasures is Clark's "Birthright", their papers of emancipation and the deed to land owned by his family. Clark cannot afford to bid for the papers, so Amanda agrees to help him steal them, but he was wounded in the fight with his accomplice and is dying. Nick is watching and follows them to the auction house. When Clark dies and doesn't come back to life, Nick agrees to help Amanda finish Simon's quest and they steal the papers.

It's no surprise when Amanda's past catches up with her, but Nick finds that Immortals aren't that different when the past comes back to haunt him in "Crime & Punishment" . The first case he solved as a detective was the murder of the coach of the local baseball team, when he found a bloodstained baseball bat in the possession of Ray Bonita, a promising ball player. Bonita went to jail protesting his innocence and, now released, is taking vengeance on the men who he feels set him up. The prosecutor is his first target, then he tries for Nick. A light fingered Lucy helps Nick to get hold of Bonita's file and he realises that the ball player was framed. When former team-mate and superstar Daryl Keenan kills Bonita, it doesn't take Nick long to work out who framed Ray and Amanda, posing as a would-be blackmailer, tricks Darryl into confessing all whilst she tapes their conversation.

The line between mortals and Immortals becomes blurred when John Ray Fielding arrives in town. He came to find and kill Donald Magnus, the pilot whose "friendly fire" killed his tank crew in the Gulf War. A chance encounter with Amanda gives him an opportunity to settle another score, as Amanda stole a pouch from him in the Great War for the jewels it held. But the letter she threw away contained the orders that would have saved 120 men, including Fielding, from their deaths as the Germans advanced. Faced with the consequences of her actions, Amanda is prepared to let Fielding take her head, but Nick isn't so sure that "The Unknown Soldier" holds the high moral ground and forces him to see that his pride has turned justice into something less noble. The two men face each other off over Amanda's temporarily dead body and honour prevails, with Fielding leaving Amanda to live to face her conscience.

With Nick out of town, Myers asks Amanda to help him break into a lawyer's house, to recover evidence that could implicate Wolfe in police corruption. Amanda agrees, but is furious when she finds out that Myers lied to her, as the house belongs to a wealthy industrialist who is found dead. When Nick finds out, he confronts Myers, who tells him a partial truth - the industrialist, Ludwig, was Nick's mentor in the Stasi when he was a double agent in his "Cloak & Dagger" days. He caught Bert when he and Amanda were in the house, so Myers shot him in self defence. Ludwig had been blackmailing Myers into allowing an Indian environmentalist that he is supposed to be protecting to be assassinated and Myers had wanted the evidence that connects him to the past. With Ludwig's associate continuing the pressure, a plan is hatched and Amanda takes the place of the environmentalist as the final twists of the plot unravel. Nick kills the associate and Amanda exposes Ludwig's final ace - Myers' girlfriend was one of Ludwig's agents and a back-up assassin.

When Nick finds Lucy under arrest for the attempted murder of a comedian, he is stunned. But when she asks him to shoot Wilson Geary for her, he is appalled. Thirty years ago, Geary seduced Lucy and used her to set up her husband, Marco Becker, so that he could take his head. Amanda wants neither mortal interfering in the Game, but is left with no choice when Wilson tries the same trick again, this time kidnapping Lucy to lure Amanda to her death. As Nick spirits Lucy out of danger, Amanda brings down the curtain on Wilson's "Passion Play".

When Nick's mentor is murdered, he persuades Carl Magnus to let him help in the investigation, ("The Devil You Know"). A chance encounter with Amanda's new beau, the Immortal Victor Hansen, leads Nick to realise that Hansen is the killer, but his interest is put down to jealousy by Lucy, although Amanda isn't so sure. As Amanda and Victor prepare to steal the Valentino diamond, Nick finally persuades Lucy that Amanda is in danger. He finds the would-be partners facing each other with swords drawn, but Victor runs from the vengeful Wolfe. Nick catches him and is about to cut off his head when Carl Magnus shoots Victor, who falls into the river. As the dust settles, Amanda and Nick realise that Victor will be back one day for revenge. Like it or not, Nick has crossed a line and is in the Game.

When figures out of Amanda's past arrive in town, Nick is uncertain what to make of Joe Dawson and the Watchers, but Amanda has no such problems about Andre Korda's motivation. She always knew it was just "A Matter Of Time" before Korda came looking for his former student. When Nick gets in the way of Korda's plans, the Immortal sends his current student, Krista, to kill him. Joe persuades Amanda to stop pushing Nick away, but before she can openly tell him how she feels, Krista appears. The two Immortals face off and Amanda kills her. She decides to disappear, getting Joe to tell Nick that Krista won. What she doesn't expect is that Nick goes to Paris, armed with her sword and intent on cutting off Korda's head. Nick's headstrong approach is no match for the thinking Korda and the hunter becomes the hunted when Korda guns him down. Now it Amanda who is heading for France with vengeance in mind, not knowing if Nick is alive or dead.....

Amanda arrives in Paris and seeks help from Immortal priest Liam Riley in locating doctors who might have treated Nick after he was shot. In Chinatown, she finds Mika, who tells her that she treated Nick, but he died. A distraught Amanda leaves with Nick's watch, only to find she has been set up for a little payback. Nick was rescued by Bert Myers, who has been watching Korda. After a moment of honesty at their "French Connection", Nick and Amanda pick up where they left off - arguing. Using Myers' contacts to gather together seemingly random events, Nick realises that Korda is about to go into the counterfeiting business big time. The police raid Korda's club, but he gets away underground. As Nick and Amanda go hunting for him in the catacombs, Korda's men grab Myers and the scene is set for confrontation. Nick goes after Myers as Amanda graduates at the expense of her former teacher. With Korda dead, Amanda and Myers buy his club, The Sanctuary, and Myers asks Nick to take over his European operations.

When one of Myers' agents is killed protecting a starlet, everyone assumes that the bullet was meant for her - until there is another murder attempt and Nick tangles with the assassin, who he recognises as Frank Brennan. Brennan was a rogue agent killed by Nick Wolfe on the night he met Bert Myers for the first time. Now "The Rogue" is back, Immortal, intent on extracting his revenge on Myers and with no love for Nick Wolfe, who he adds to his list of intended victims. Amanda warns Brennan that he has to let go of the past now that he's Immortal, but he wants his old life back and revenge too badly. Nick and Amanda can't tell Myers who is really after him, so Nick distract Myers long enough for Amanda and Brennan to resolve matters the Immortal way, with Brennan learning that Immortality is no guarantee of a long life. Convinced that he will never know exactly what went down, Myers leaves France to return to the States.

Lies within lies weave a web of deceit when Nick is hired to track down a missing briefcase, stolen from a pharmaceuticals company by the owner's girlfriend, who blows the place to pieces as she leaves. Whilst Nick thinks he's looking for a revolutionary polymer, Amanda recognises the girlfriend as Talia Bauer, who she owes her life to. Talia tells Amanda that her boyfriend was trying to unlock the secret of Immortality and that the briefcase contained samples of her blood. No one is telling the truth, as it actually contains a nerve toxin created by accident. Talia is trying to double cross her lover and, after she has him killed, Amanda steals the toxin from her safe while Nick distracts her. Talia threatens to kill Nick if Amanda doesn't return the toxin, but as the two face off, Amanda wins and lets Talia live - her life for Nick's. But Talia doesn't see it that way and when Amanda takes her head, the "Inferno" of her Quickening neutralises the toxin, leaving no trace that it ever existed.

Nick is hired to deliver a valuable painting to a museum and, intrigued by the idea of taking something valuable to a museum, Amanda goes along. They have hardly delivered the painting when it is stolen and they find themselves squarely in "The Frame" as the prime suspects. Even Liam thinks Amanda did it, but Amanda knows that someone else was there - long time rival Jade, who has designs on Nick. Amanda and Nick recover the painting from Jade, but Amanda realises it's a fake. Nick's client, Sir Trevor Benton, had no intention of giving up the painting and was donating the fake as part of an elaborate scam. To avoid detection, he arranged for Jade to steal it. When he double-crosses Jade and both girls end up shot, they put aside their differences long enough to work together to give the baronet a taste of his own medicine, as they frame him for an attempted break in at the museum.

Myers returns to Europe to lead a mission to rescue a rock star's girlfriend, kidnapped by Immortal Derrick Markham. The raid is a hit, recovering both the girl and the ransom, but Markham isn't pleased, following Nick and Myers to Paris for revenge. When he finds Amanda, his mood improves - he can kill Myers and take his revenge on his estranged wife and betrayer by taking her head. Myers isn't happy - he found a picture of Markham and Amanda in the safe with the ransom. When the picture is authenticated as being taken in 1867, concern turns to bewilderment, especially when Myers sees Nick shoot Markham through the heart, only for the Immortal to get up and walk away. Lying in his hospital bed, Myers refuses to believe Amanda's explanation that she and Markham are immortal, thinking it's just another lie. Leaving the hospital, Nick and Amanda run into Markham and his thugs. As Nick takes care of the sidekicks, Amanda and Markham discuss divorce, "Love And Death", with Amanda taking his head as a one time alimony payment.

After a spate of casino robberies, Nick and Amanda are hired to protect the DuPont casino, but when the place is flooded with knockout gas, they succumb and are unable to prevent the clientele being relieved of their cash and jewels. Amanda is the only one not robbed, as the gang is led by former lover and associate Jeremy Dexter. With Interpol investigator Nicolae Breslaw taking a more than professional interest in Dexter's gang, Amanda tries to warn Jeremy to leave Paris, but Nick keeps turning up every time she finds Dexter, intent on arresting him and not amused that he and Amanda are "Thick As Thieves". When it becomes clear that Breslaw is seeking revenge for his dead brother and has a more fatal plan for Jeremy than arresting him, Nick and Amanda conspire to set Dexter up and Nick shoots him. Convinced that Jeremy is dead, Breslaw leaves Paris, leaving Amanda to make her peace with Dexter before he too leaves.

Amanda and Nick are approached by journalist Tim Helfet, who is in fear of his life. After they thwart a first attempt, he tells them that he wants them to steal the computer of the aide to an Eastern Bloc Prime Minister, which contains the evidence that the man is betraying his country. Lured by the promise of a stash of diamonds hidden with the computer, Amanda agrees to help, but the attempt fails when they realise that the aide is Immortal Vladimir Rankov and they are forced to flee when he senses Amanda. Amanda realises that Helfet set her up, knowing her past history with Rankov. They track down "The Manipulator" and find that he is a Watcher, determined to avenge the death of his father, who was Rankov's Watcher until Rankov killed him. The discussion is interrupted by another attempt on Helfet's life and Nick kills the assassin, who turns out to be a Watcher sent to kill Helfet for breaking his oath. Nick is tormented by having killed the Watcher and persuades Amanda to return with him to the Embassy. They steal the computer, but Rankov captures Helfet and a trade is arranged. Amanda avenges the past whilst Nick rescues Helfet, who has to leave Paris knowing that the Watchers will never forget him.

When Nick's ex-wife arrives at The Sanctuary bloodied and terrified, the past comes to haunt Amanda when she learns that Lauren Wolfe is hiding from Julian Heller, ("The Ex-Files"). Lauren is determined to put an end to Heller's highly organised trade in black market transplant organs and is prosecuting him, but with the case due to start soon, one of her colleagues was murdered and she only just escaped. Amanda warns Nick that Heller is Immortal, but after another attempt on Lauren's life, Nick confronts the far from good Doctor and warns him to stay away from Lauren or he will kill him. Amanda also confronts Heller, but with a more deadly intent. Heller has no intention of playing the Game and has her arrested. Concerned for Nick's safety, Lauren leaves for the court on her own and is easy pickings for Heller. Amanda and Nick find her body and Nick swears vengeance. He finds Heller's estate and arrives in time to prevent Heller killing Amanda, who got there first. Taking her sword, he chases the doctor into the estate, where Heller wounds him. Believing he has Nick cornered, Heller gets overconfident, but it is Amanda who gets the Quickening when Nick takes his head.

When journalist Lizzie Tynan sees Amanda revive after being killed in a duel with another Immortal, Nick discovers that she is the least of their worries, ("War And Peace"). Amanda had challenged the Immortal, Sean, to prevent him going after Liam Riley, who shot his mother during the War of Independence. Liam turned his back on war, believing that his prayers for the woman had been answered, but his faith is challenged when Amanda tells him that the woman died. Liam is determined to hold to his vow not to shed blood again, despite Amanda showing him that he won't survive in the Game. Threatening to kill Lizzie, she shows him that his faith is stronger than he gives himself credit for and, when Nick is unable to stop Sean from coming after him, Liam faces the Immortal unarmed. When Liam refuses to defend himself, Sean is unable to kill the priest in cold blood and is forced to forgive him.

A cancelled dinner date sets in motion a train of events that will change things between Nick and Amanda forever. Amanda's friend Janet Ross cancels when her brother, Tom, disappears and Nick agrees to look into it. He finds that Tom Ross was working on a case of computer fraud and unwittingly alerts the thief to his investigation. The thief traces him to The Sanctuary and makes an appearance. He is Immortal Evan Peyton, known to Amanda for centuries, and he warns her to stay out of his business. Nick overhears the conversation and follows Peyton, who makes short work of Wolfe and leaves him choking in a cloud of gas. Later, Peyton tells Nick and Amanda that the gas is slowly poisoning Nick and he has less than 24 hours to live. Undeterred, Nick and Amanda intercept Peyton's ill gotten gains, with Janet's help, but Peyton retaliates by kidnapping Janet. An exchange is arranged - the girl and the antidote for the money. Amanda and an ailing Nick arrive at the rendezvous, but Peyton tries to kill Amanda, who knows there never was an antidote and takes his head. Nick is fading fast and, knowing that no hospital can help him even if he was not "Dead On Arrival", Amanda makes a decision and shoots him, his violent death triggering the Immortality which he would have lost in dying a slow, agonising death. When he revives, he is horrified to find himself in the Game and walks away from a distraught Amanda.