Exactly one year after his brutal murder, rock musician Eric Draven returns to Earth in a symbolic and literal leap from the bridge that joins the Land of the Dead and the land of the living. Possessing the mystic powers of the Crow, he is neither living nor dead, searching for a way to right what has been wronged. His return causes the investigating detective, Daryl Albrecht, to consider Draven the number one suspect in the death of Shelly Webster, his murdered girlfriend. Joined as soul mates, a powerful force of greater good over evil, Draven and Shelly were inseparable. Now their souls cannot rest. Draven and Shelly were like family to Sarah, a thirteen-year-old street kid. Using Draven's old loft as a crash pad, she finds Draven after he has been shot numerous times in a confrontation with his killers. During his journey of discovery, Draven helps Darla, Sarah's abused, alcoholic mother, come to a deeper understanding with her daughter. Then while seeking out Top Dollar, the man responsible for ordering the hit that lead to his death, Draven learns that more killing is not the answer. His new mission will be to "set things right."

Draven realizes a song he wrote - and only performed once for Shelly only on the night of their murders - has become a hit on the radio. His search to find out how that could be possible leads him to the source of the order for his contract murder. The truth is that both he and Shelly were targeted by a fallen crow, Mace Reyes, now a disciple of the powers of the snake. Mace now seeks to either convert Draven to evil by causing him to kill an innocent person or to destroy him, body and soul, by wiping away his very existence. Albrecht forms an uneasy truce with Draven based on his own observations of unnatural phenomena. Finally, we get a hint that Shelly remains a haunted spirit, waiting for Draven to catch up before she moves on to her ultimate destination in the afterlife.

In the Land of the Dead, Shelly meets the soul of a woman whose boyfriend, Gil Hedges, has been framed for her murder. Draven, meanwhile, is about to be evicted from the loft when Shelly communicates this to him, causing him to see the loft as a "link between worlds" that must be saved at all costs. Draven breaks Hedges, the innocent man, out of jail and attempts to stop the real murderer (the dead woman's father). After Draven establishes Hedges' innocence, Albrecht lays the law down about their future relationship, using the loft as leverage. Meanwhile, the woman - now free to move on to the Light - asks Shelly to join her. Shelly declines in order to wait for Draven. During this episode, Draven also agrees, temporarily, to help India with security at the Blackout.

Sarah's concern for the problems of her long-time friend, Kyle Barber, causes her to try to go "undercover" for the answers. Then truth, she learns, is that he's involved with a nihilistic cult of disenfranchised kids, being manipulated by a charismatic leader who uses the coming Millennium as a powerful control mechanism, urging them to believe in no future but him. When she turns up missing, both Albrecht and Draven are drawn into the search. Draven exposes the cult leader, Shane Gant, managing to set free his followers, giving them hope in their own futures. In this episode, Sarah's mother, Darla, begins her job as a receptionist at the police station, and we introduce the Blackout bartender, Shea Morino.

Draven encounters a young carnival trance-medium whose handlers claim can channel dead spirits. Jesse, just a sad teenager, actually has powers, but is being exploited by Doc, who sees him as only a meal ticket to identify "marks" for robberies. When one of the robberies turns into a murder, Albrecht also focuses on the boy who may have predicted it. Through Jesse, Shelly is able to contact Draven with the message he should continue to "set things right" as a way of finally clearing the slate so that the two of them can be together again. The contact is short, however, for Draven must help Jesse give up his powers in order to free him from Doc.

For seven years, Drew Kessler, a killer without a conscience has been a model prisoner, privately creating a fully detailed revenge fantasy against the man who pursued him relentlessly - Daryl Albrecht. Based on a controversial plea-bargain for manslaughter, Kessler has now been released for good behavior, and immediately puts his vivid nightmare into effect. Taking Albrecht to an abandoned industrial island, Kessler wants the hunter to become the hunted. The chase begins - but not before the Crow joins in to help. As the two men battle to break free of Kessler's grip, Albrecht realizes finally and completely that Draven is not a man of supernatural abilities. This episode begins with an argument between Albrecht and Cordelia over taking their stalled relationship to its next level. When he disappears without a trace, Cordelia asks a reluctant Vincennes to help her find him. Ultimately, the Crow is able to free Albrecht and together they overcome their captors, enabling Albrecht to return to civilization on his own.

When a permit for a handgun in Shelly's name arrives at his mailbox, Draven is forced to consider the possibility that Shelly Webster may have returned to Earth as he has. As he begins to follow up the leads, Draven realizes that there are others tracking her as well. Albrecht's attempt to run a fingerprint brings agent Mike Falken of the FBI to town asking for his reasons. A woman matching Shelly's description is ultimately found, only to be revealed as Sonia Scavullo, a woman who was given Shelly's ID by her boyfriend, an undercover FBI agent. With her boyfriend murdered, uncertain what Sonia knows, the mob and a crooked FBI agent pursue her. Draven's search for 'Shelly' exposes Sonia to her would-be killers, forcing him to save her from becoming a victim herself. Along the way, both Draven and Sonia are able to find that rare friend of the opposite sex who can understand how deeply in love they were with their lost partner. By story's end, Falken is exposed to be the double agent, and Draven helps Sonia come to terms with her boyfriend's death and accept an FBI offer of witness protection which will truly allow her to begin her life over again.

After Top Dollar escapes from an asylum for the criminally insane, Draven is approached by the Skull Cowboy who tells him to pack his metaphysical bags, he's moving on. Armed with the concept that Draven returned from death more powerful, Top Dollar determines to force Draven to kill him so that he, too, can gain the mystic powers of the Crow. Through the portal, Shelly begins to reach across the gap so she and Draven's souls can move on together,but as they touch Shea interrupts, pulling Shelly's spirit into her body. Draven and Shea/Shelly ask the Skull Cowboy how to remedy the situation, while Top Dollar terrorizes Sarah and Darla, beats Albrecht to within inches of his life, then kills India, all to enrage Draven. Unable to leave this Earth to such a madman, the Crow loses his self-control, taking the life of his archenemy. Instantly, Shelly's spirit departs Shea's body and vanishes through the portal, leaving Draven behind. As a consequence, Draven loses contact with the spirit crow, his Crow alter ego and the portal to theLand of the Dead.

Desperate over the closure of the portal, Draven consults a discredited underground hypnotherapist, Michael Dorsett, who specializes in Near Death Experiences. Seeking to re-establish contact with Shelly under hypnosis, Draven instead keeps regressing, locked in his own sub-conscious, ultimately unearthing a past life as Blackfeather, a Haida warrior. In this past life, Draven's alter ego found his soul mate in Rebecca Morgan, a missionary's daughter who defied the wishes of her father, Reverend John Morgan, to be with him. After being murdered by angry settlers, Indian legend had it that the brave came back as a "Crow" to take revenge on his killers and to save his lover. It all adds up to a tentative theory: Eric Draven and Shelly Webster are literal "soul-mates" who have found each other before the lives we've seen them live and lose. Also, Albrecht is given a new partner in this episode - Jessica Capshaw - a fresh-out-of-the-Academy, top-of-her-class, newly minted detective who asks way too many questions for Albrecht's comfort. Their first work together: talking to Funboy who wants to withdraw his plea bargain agreement to testify against Top Dollar (who, although apparently dead, continues to terrify him in his dreams). Capshaw finally catches Albrecht, forced to come to Draven's aid, in a revealing lie.

While placing flowers on Shelly's grave, Draven sees Casey, the ghost of a six-year-old boy whose tragic death left his father a broken man. Trying to heal father and son leads Draven to Jake Thompson, a daredevil motorcyclist currently being forced by greedy promoter Royal Boyd to make an impossible jump. Incredibly, it seems that even before the jump, someone is trying to take Thompson's life. After an attempt, Thompson sees Draven heal spontaneously. Based on this, they decide that Draven will take the life-threatening jump in Thompson's place. Turnout for the pay-per-view event has been disastrous, creating a plan for the promoter of the event: kill Jake Thompson before the event and collect the insurance money to avoid financial ruin. The promoter's attempt on Thompson's life actually sends him to the Land of the Dead, where he is briefly reunited with his son. Casey convinces his dad to return with a new determination to live life fully.

Achingly lonely for Shelly, Draven attempts to re-open the loft portal using ancient knowledge. In the swirling distance on the Other Side, he sees a shadowy figure and encourages it to come toward him. What emerges in the loft, however, is a supernatural entity, which violently attacks him, leaving him beaten and disabled. As it leaves, the entity morphs into the form of a normal human being. Draven now must contact Albrecht and inform him that he has let a vicious deadly spirit loose on Port Columbia. Together, they track the shape-shifter, learning that he is, in reality, Richard Ellis Wilbanks, an electrocuted serial killer who is now stalking the witnesses to his execution - including a woman who testified against him and Cordelia, on one of her first cases with the DA's office. Eventually, they catch Wilbanks, and return him to the Land of Darkness. Faced with a terrible choice, Draven decides to try to close the portal by nailing it shut, even if it means he may never see Shelly again.

Shea Morino's dangerous and abusive husband, Frank Moran, returns as the Blackout's new owner. Draven, intending to set him up, actually goes to work for Moran in order to help Albrecht nail him. The plan takes a dangerous turn when it becomes clear that the Internal Affairs unit is investigating Albrecht as a potential police "vigilante." The vice grip is squeezed harder and harder by IA's Lieutenant Morgan Fine, as Capshaw is now forced to testify against her new partner. Albrecht is finally suspended when his unorthodox relationship with Draven is exposed, focusing attention on Draven's suspicious return. Worse, he is helpless to warn Draven his "inside job" with Moran has placed him under terrible scrutiny. Eventually, Albrecht is forced to arrest Draven for the murder of Shelly Webster, with the right to remain silent...

For the past four months, Draven has been in jail, arrested for conspiracy to murder Shelly Webster. His only significant ally is his idealistic public defender, James Sandler. Meanwhile, Albrecht is being called to the stand as a critical - albeit, reluctant - prosecution witness. As the courtroom is the primary location, we hear testimony from Albrecht, Draven and, especially, the chief prosecution witness, Funboy - all illustrated by film clips from past episodes, including the murder videotape. The prosecution argues that the fact of Draven's being alive demonstrates his complicity in the murder video, plus a stream of circumstantial evidence. The defense can hardly argue the truth, and is forced to rely on Draven as a protected witness set up in a government conspiracy. Ultimately, Draven rejects lying as a defense strategy. Finally, the shocking verdict comes back - guilty! Our final image is symbolic: Draven, metaphysically alone in the courtroom, being embraced by the ghostly form of Shelly Webster.

Draven awaits sentencing on his conviction, mulling the difference between life in prison and the death penalty for a man who is already dead. He hears a familiar voice - it's the Skull Cowboy. He calls it dead-on: Draven is playing over his life and death in his head, wondering how he came to this place, debating what he could have done differently. The Skull Cowboy gives him the opportunity to see if he can change it all. In a split second, Draven is transported back to the day of his death, October 30th. Rehearsing with Hangman's Joke at the Blackout, he's the only one who's aware of what's to happen that night - unless he stops it. Draven sets out to prevent the death that came to both he and Shelly at the hands of Top Dollar's hired killers. It involves convincing Albrecht to help, even though, in this reality, they have never met. Only Sarah believes his strange story. Unable to prevent their murder, Draven is given yet another chance by the Skull Cowboy, in a metaphysical "instant replay" scenario. Ultimately, this fails, too. After a doomed car chase, Draven and Shelly are gunned down, both trying to save the other. As the Skull Cowboy points out: "All roads lead to fate."

During Draven's sentencing hearing, the judge shocks everyone in attendance by setting aside the verdict, saying the jury ignored his instructions. This means Draven can go free for now, pending new evidence which would allow him to be re-tried - keeping the "umbrella of suspicion" hanging over him. Still reeling from his release, Draven meets a female crow who, like him, has returned to Earth with no memory of her death, but finds her actions fueled by rage. Draven helps her discover the truth. She's Hannah Foster, a doctor killed a year earlier - along with her infant daughter Rachel - in the aftermath of a kidnapping/extortion of her wealthy surgeon husband. The two men responsible simply left Rachel and Hannah locked in a cellar outside of Port Columbia. Fearful that the police were on to them, the kidnappers abandoned Hannah and her daughter, who after a week of starvation and exposure, finally succumbed. The "terrible sadness" which Hannah carries is from having to watch her daughter die, and being unable to help her. Their relationship forces Draven to contrast his quest for "redemption" against Hannah's thirst for "revenge." Ultimately, we see two agonizingly lonely souls, grasping for connection to their former humanity in a violent world. In the aftermath of Draven's return to the streets, Albrecht finds their relationship has resulted in a huge career setback when the resolution of the Internal Affairs investigation is to send him back on the streets as a beat cop. Reeling from this demotion and his crumbling relationship with Cordelia, he makes the ultimate personal mistake - sleeping with his partner, Capshaw.

A Russian Orthodox priest is poisoned by cyanide when he shows a mysterious handwritten manuscript to a visiting Russian national, Alexander Sokolov. Another priest, Father Peter, reports the murder and the theft of the manuscript, written in 1916 by the famed Rasputin, to the police. According to Father Peter, the thief intends to bring Rasputin back from the dead through a "door between worlds." Sarah overhears this at the police station and informs Draven, who at first dismisses the idea as superstition. Following Sarah, the Internet goth kid Nytmare shows up at Draven's loft bringing Sokolov, who clearly has knowledge of "the other side." Drawn to the portal, Sokolov hints he knows about Draven's powers, but Draven evicts him and seeks out Father Peter. From the priest, Draven learns that Sokolov has stolen Rasputin's manuscript, and is following its instruction to re-enact Rasputin's four agonies of death: poisoning, shooting, stabbing, and finally drowning. Once four victims are thus dispatched, Sokolov believes he will channel the spirit of Rasputin and assume his identity. Having learned of Draven's portal, Sokolov plans to use it as the point of entry for the evil man’s disembodied spirit. Draven springs into action but Sokolov's plans are quickly unfolding. Draven finds Nytmare shot, and Father Peter stabbed, and races to the docks to try and stop a fourth victim from being drowned. There Sokolov, his powers already growing, is able to stun the Crow long enough to bind him in a weighted net and throw him into deep water. Meanwhile, Albrecht tries to enlist Capshaw's help in solving the case. The awkwardness of their having slept together makes professional cooperation difficult and painful for both of them. When Albrecht follows Draven to the docks, Capshaw pursues andis shot in a confrontation with Sokolov's henchmen, requiring rehabilitation to recover from the wound. After Albrecht pulls Draven from the water, Draven races to his loft, where he confronts an emboldened and strengthed Sokolov at the portal. Fighting, they fall through the portal, landing back in time in revolutionary Russia where peasants, fearing Rasputin's evil, have dug up his coffin and thrown in on a bonfire. The Crow and Sokolov battle in front of the frightened peasants, until the Crow is victorious. Draven returns to the present through a time ripple with Rasputin's manuscript, which he destroys, thus preventing Rasputin from ever again using a human accomplice to return from darkness.

The unwelcome attention of his trial has placed Draven in the cross hairs of the Lazarus Group, a shadowy centuries-old secret-society bent on achieving immortality - the very group which bribed the judge to set Draven free. Dorsett approaches Draven for them, offering to unite him with Shelly if he will help them expand their research. Meanwhile, Albrecht is approached by a powerful African-American attorney who wants to represent him in a lawsuit against the city, claiming his demotion was based on racism. While weighing the possibilities, Albrecht finds himself visiting Capshaw in rehab, and then taking the first tentative steps toward re-establishing his fractured relationship with Cordelia. Ultimately, Albrecht takes a pass on the potential financial windfall, feeling litigation is not the honorable path for him. Draven meets Joseph O. Balsam, the aging leader of the Lazarus Group, who boasts only twenty percent original body parts, desperate to fend off death. Promising that he will see Shelly, Draven is connected to experimental, high-tech machinery that artificially puts him in a suspended death-state. There, Draven does indeed see Shelly, only to realize that she may be a deathstate manipulation created by the Lazarus group, who intend to transfer Balsam's spirit from his dying body into Draven's while he remains unconscious. Learning their true inentions, Dorsett objects, and is forced into the same "sleeping death" as Draven, a specific brain wave-length that creates a shared, altered reality. Warned by Dorsett, Draven ultimately turns into the Crow in the altered state, which brings him out of his coma in the real world before Balsam can complete his evil plan. Draven and Dorsett break out of the high-security facility, returning with Albrecht only to find the Lazarus group has vanished, taking with them Draven's hopes of learning more about finding a real connection to Shelly.

Draven's group, "Hangman's Joke," is involved in a battle of the bands at the Blackout. They see his newly found notoriety as a chance for a breakout CD. The concert's promoter, Soleil Hazard, approaches Draven and asks him to re-join his band to add heat to the competition. Draven resists, but a haunting piece of music fills his head, and suddenly Draven finds himself consumed with his old passion -- songwriting. Meanwhile, Soleil visits Funboy in prison. Funboy hears the compelling voice of Top Dollar in his head, accompanied by the same strange music that has consumed Draven, telling him to cooperate. The music in Draven's head makes him increasingly agitated and violent. Soleil breaks Funboy out of prison and arranges for him to cross paths with Draven. Draven hears the voice of Top Dollar, urging him to give in to his impulses and take revenge on Funboy. Driven by the feverish, hypnotic power of the song, Draven nearly complies, only to have Shelly appear and help him regain his humanity. Back in the Port Columbia police squad room, Capshaw returns to duty on crutches to the new respect of the unit. Albrecht, meanwhile, is finally re-instated as a full detective. He and Cordelia take the first hesitant steps toward renewing their relationship.

Hannah Foster's spirit crow leads her to a woman whose baby has been stolen by black marketeers. Hannah finds the men responsible, but before she can take them out, she is shot so many times that even she goes down. Meanwhile, Draven is re-visiting the wooded site of a romantic moment he and Shelly shared. Whether in his mind or reality, Shelly's ghostly image appears out of the forest mist, and they dance, completing the ritual that was interrupted in the past. Draven joins Hannah's quest to reclaim the stolen child. Together they find the baby, but Hannah and the child disappear. Instinctively, Draven knows that Hannah is reliving the loss of her own daughter, and finds her at Rebecca's gravesite. There, he makes her see the pain of the baby’s mother, and finally Hannah is able to give the child up. As Hannah wonders what she will ever find to fill her own emptiness, Draven tells her of the solace Shelly's memory has brought him. Hannah "sees," her daughter at play, happy. Whether a manifestation of her own wish fulfilment, or the special ability of a crow to see into the spirit world, the vision brings Hannah the first moment of peace since her return to Earth. In this episode, Darla, recently forced by Funboy to take a drink, falls off the wagon. Though she pretends not to, Sarah knows her mother is again under the grip of the bottle. Capshaw reveals that her father was an alcoholic, and helps Sarah to deal with the disappointment, which gives Darla the strength to get sober again.

Visions of a ghost-soldier draw Draven to a bridge overpass, where he discovers his own half-brother Chris being terrorized by a group of thugs. Always in trouble, Draven doesn't believe Chris's story about mistaken identity. Ultimately, Chris reveals that on a tip from an old prison cellmate, he stole money belonging to an underworld figure, Bovespa. Draven tries to get Chris to come clean, but unresolved issues from their past complicate his efforts. Chris's lifelong pattern of running from responsibility stems from feeling abandoned by his father, also Draven's stepfather, who is appearing to Draven as the ghost soldier. Listed as MIA in Vietnam, conflicting reports from the Saigon evacuation led Chris to believe his father returned to the States and disappeared, abandoning his sons. Unable to trust or believe in anything, Chris again tries to take the easy way out and is nearly killed by Bovespa, but is saved by the Crow. Touching his father's dog tags, Draven enables Chris to empathically experience his father's heroism, and learn the truth about his final days. Knowing the truth of their father's love, Draven and Chris ultimately put aside the enmity that has separated them as adults. Also in this episode, Albrecht realizes Capshaw suffers from posttraumatic stress as a result of being shot. When she vows to quit before submitting to counselling, Albrecht nails the real issue: Capshaw is terrified of confronting her fear over the incident. Battling her denial, Albrecht tells Capshaw that this fear will ruin her life if she runs instead of facing it. Finally, she schedules - and keeps - her first therapy appointment.

The Port Columbia police force is the target for a cop killer. Extremely intelligent and bold, the killer uses women as bait, kidnapping them, then calling in a tip and killing the police who come to investigate. Dogged by a news team, Vincennes loses control and calls the killer a coward, vowing to catch him. When this is televised, he becomes the killer's next target, and his wife Karen the lure. She is kidnapped, and Vincennes brings his children Jason and Libby to the precinct, where Albrecht assigns Sarah to look after them. To distract them, she spins a fact-based tale of a superhero who will save their mother. Meanwhile, the superhero she has in mind has his own problems. Draven is finding he has less and less control over the "Crow" side of his nature. Aided by Draven's empathic talents, Albrecht and Capshaw piece together the awful truth: the cop-killer is himself a cop - officer Reid Truax. They discover too late that Vincennes has gone alone to sacrifice himself for his wife, and it is up to the Crow to find him in time. The Crow defeats Truax, and it is all Albrecht can do to stop him from killing this cop with a death wish. In a cathartic moment, Vincennes and his wife are reunited with their children, and Vincennes realizes how deeply he loves the family that he has neglected due to his responsibilities as Lieutenant of the Port Columbia detectives division.

Frederick Balsam, the ailing leader of the mysterious Lazarus Group has successfully transferred his soul into the body of his former personal trainer James Horton, after leaving him all his assets. Now young and virile as well as being completely evil, he has destroyed the body-jump technology and is systematically eliminating anyone who had knowledge of it. An expert in Crow lore, Balsam unearths and uses a strange ritual to split the Crow persona off from Draven. Unaware, Draven is surprised to find himself feeling hungry, cold, tired - and human. Meanwhile, the Crow crawls out of Draven's grave, full of fury and selfish purpose. His first act is to break into prison and kill Funboy, leaving a crow scrawled in Funboy's blood on the wall. Then Balsam, by holding the spirit crow captive, bargains with the crow to kill Judge Morrison, Balsam's last victim. Morrison approaches Albrecht, who puts him in protective custody, but the Crow breaks him out, beating Albrecht in the process. In the Land of the Dead, six-year-old Casey comes back out of the light to tell Shelly that Draven needs her help. She must make an awful choice, if she wants to help him, he says, and whispers in her ear. Shelly, saddened but determined to help Draven, agrees and returns to Earth. She enjoys several joyful hours of reunion with Eric until they learn that the Crow has split from Draven, and will come to kill him in order to possess Shelly. Shelly reveals to Draven the price she must pay for her return - she will have to move on to the Light; she and Draven will never be reunited in this incarnation. They flee, but the Crow abducts Shelly. Draven and the Crow battle, but Draven, now mortal, cannot win. When he is killed, Shelly's mission is made clear: she takes hold of both Draven and the Crow simultaneously, causing the Crow to be subsumed into Draven, who is once again re-animated by the supernatural powers of the Crow. In that moment, Shelly passes from this world to fulfill her difficult bargain. On the Bridge Between Worlds, Casey takes Shelly into the light. At the last second, she cannot bear being separated from Draven forever, and runs back, hurling herself off the bridge. She falls, disappearing into a cosmic ripple. Where did she go?