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.