Logan is tipped off by a friend at the morgue to a murder victim with a bar code tattoo on his neck. He tells Max who then investigates. Max reads the bar code to be that of fellow X5 escapee, Ben. However, the murder victim is not Ben. While she is viewing the body, Lydecker shows up to confiscate the body and close the investigation. Max hides. After another body with the same bar code shows up, Max investigates the crime scene. While at the scene, Max has several flashbacks that make it clear to her that the real Ben is re-enacting a traumatic Manticore training exercise where a prisoner was hunted down and savagely murdered. Max herself participated in the exercise. Max remembers Ben had an obsession with a religious icon after a Manticore janitor gave him a card with her image. It looks to be an image of the Virgin Mary, but the young Manticore soldiers call her the blue lady. Max goes to a local church and a priest befriends her. Later, the priest is abducted by Ben, who tatt

Investigating a string of murders of recently paroled convicts, Max and Logan meet a ""Fisher King""-like super hero who at first appears harmless and slightly crazy, but ultimately has a profound effect on both their personal lives. Discovering this post-pulse crusade as he follows her around Seattle, Max's original opinion of the ""super hero"" changes after she sees him actually perform super-human feats. Bringing Logan into the mix, they discover the ""super hero"" is a former NASA janitor who managed to abscond post-pulse with a highly advanced exoskeleton that attached to one's nervous system and provides super-human abilities. Though fascinated by the device, Logan's interest is piqued when the man's ramblings about conspiracy theories and ""death from the sky"" bear a striking resemblance to Logan's murder investigation. Digging further Logan discovers a secret police plot to equip special hover-drones with weapons that can track and kill any target, especially ex-cons.

When fellow X5 escapee Tinga returns to town to save the family she left behind, Max, with the help of Zack, once again places herself in danger to battle Manticore, Lydecker, newly turned X5 Bryn, and an increasingly power-hungry Madame X. When Tinga gives up her freedom to ensure her child's safety, she is taken to a secret government lab. Amid the double crossing, we learn Lydecker is no longer in the loop with the real Manticore higher-ups. This means Max is in more danger that she could possible imagine.

Max starts to feel the stress of being controlled by her genetic urges when she goes into her bi-annual feline DNA sexual urges.

Max escapes Manticore and Madame X's clutches with the help of Lydecker. Lydecker and two of his accomplices, knock Max out and chain her to a hotel bed. Lydecker gets drunk while Max sleeps. Max wakes up just as Lydecker is pointing a gun at her and Madam X's people are closing in on them. Lydecker tells her he'll shoot her and then himself and end it all. Max kicks the gun our off his hand, grabs him, and they escape in his Humvee. Meanwhile, the other X5s have gathered with Logan and are trying to come up with a plan to find Max. All are shocked when Max shows up with Lydecker and tells them all she wants them to help her take down Manticore. Though they all mistrust him, eventually, they include Lydecker on the plan -- seeing as he knows the ins and outs of Manticore. Lydecker proves useful when he gouges the eye out of a man who has access to the Manticore labs. Max and Zack use the eye to gain access to the lab. The X5s plant bombs throughout Manticore. Max and Zack plant bo

After months of being imprisoned at Manticore, Max has resisted powerful attempts at re-programming and breeding and plans her escape from the genetics lab. She is aided in her breakout by the gentle but beast-like Joshua, an early Manticore creation, and together they release all the other Manticore creatures. Max attempts to reunite with Logan, only to discover that he is now number one on Manticore's most wanted list.