His sensory abilities re-manifested five years later, while conducting an extended stakeout in the forest as a detective in the Major Crimes Unit of the Cascade, Washington, police department.

He went to a hospital for an examination where he met Blair Sandburg, an anthropologist from Rainier University, whom Ellison initially mistook for a physician.

The other detectives at Major Crimes think of him fondly, and Blair has many nicknames: "Chief" from Jim, "Hairboy" from Rafe and Henri, and "Sandy" from Megan Connor.

At the end of season three, Blair meets a new sentinel, Ms Alex Barnes (Jeri Ryan), and agrees to help her with her senses.

Despite this, Jim is haunted by spirit visions of Alex and struggles with a strange attraction to her, leading to a kiss between them in front of Blair.

Alex, now left catatonic due to experimenting with a drug meant to enhance her Sentinel abilities, is confined to a mental institution, and Blair returns to the loft.

He is promised to allow Jim to read the paper before he turns it in, but his mother shows up at the loft, snoops on his computer, and emails the document to Sid Graham, a big-shot publisher in New York.

To repair his relationship with his friend and fix his wrongdoing, Blair rejects a three-million-dollar publishing contract at a press conference where he declares his dissertation fraudulent, thus destroying his academic career.

At the end of this last episode, Jim and Simon offer Blair a place in Major Crimes as a police officer should he choose to accept it.

His last mission (for 7th group special forces - ODA 731) takes him and his team of seven to Peru to stop a drug-smuggling campaign, but his ranking officer was corrupt and set him and his men up for failure.

In Season 4 episode "Dead End on Blank Street", Jim is also shown to be wearing a Combat Medic Breast Badge.

Nevertheless, his instincts as a Sentinel remain, leading him to "serve and protect" his "tribe", the residents of Cascade, by joining the police force.

Eventually assigned to Vice, he is mentored by Jack Pendergrast, who helps Jim tame his temper and his rebellious attitude.

After a solitary week-long stakeout in a remote woodland location, Jim's senses begin to re-emerge, focusing primarily on his sight and hearing.

He can perceive sights, sounds, and smells beyond ordinary human capability, has an aversion to flavorful foods, and experiences discomfort with any slightly coarse materials.

This was brought about by a monograph by Sir Richard Francis Burton that described both the sentinels and their roles in their respective tribes, and their partners, accurately named by one villain: guides.

One of his ex-girlfriends works at Cascade General, which is how he met Jim in the first place: she told him a man with complaints about all five of his senses had recently been admitted.