Jarod, a boy genius with a special gift for pretending, was kidnapped and held prisoner by a corporation that used him as a human simulator in their clandestine research. Escaping from The Centre more than 30 years later, Jarod now searches for clues to his true identity and family. He also uses his ability to quickly become an expert at anything to right wrongs and exact revenge on the wicked. All the while, Centre operatives led by Miss Parker work relentlessly to capture Jarod, and return him to The Centre.

Jarod was kidnapped at the age of four-five by AND/OR for a nebulous think-tank officially known like "The Centre". Jarod and The Centre are interlocked seeing this factory was created by Mr.Parker's grandfather, relying on mystic scrolls which ones predict the birth of a chosen called Jarod and The Centre's establishment. This "brain box" didn't settled for establish links with political and economic circles with perspective to improve social decisions through some leaders, but instead, secretly promote all connections likely to extend The Centre's power and influence at the international level. The Centre's ultimate aim for operate like an essential entity over the world involved an illegal and criminal basis in his hierarchy 's head. Besides, all The Centre 's decision-makers have a psychotic disorder of some kind or at least, big amoral behavior they excuse by power necessity. "To the rules of the art", do business with dictators, mafia, corrupted politicians, murderers, the military and "the criminal pyramid" in order to make profits and forge links for future interests, is an obvious fact for The Centre. What makes The Centre so dangerous of course is his huge network through all great academics, politics, wealthy people and other corporations, strategic military, high ranking religious and most unknown but just as powerful partners. But his true richness be found in his philosophy: The Center redirected the humanist principles to an opposite one... In fact, The Centre leaders attracted mass bigwig and brilliant specialist in every known fields of knowledge to teach all "subjects" studied in the complex, some of this experts have distant involvement in the projects but others have fixed their research at The Center and participate to long-term programs (like Sydney who is a psychiatrist) : This is a two-way exchange between the guinea-pigs and the scientists, in the case of the pretender project ("Pretender" is a code name who is synonym to the term "human simulator" in the context of the show), tests subjects (like Jarod, the greatest success of The Center from a scientific point of view) are submitted to a wide range of knowledge (for example Jarod was forced to learn the most possible number of different languages at an early age) and reciprocally, scientists study the ways their pretenders learn things and how they can put into practice this new knowledge in an extremely little bit of time. We have to understand that this beings haven't learned during many many years in The Center' complex before to perfect their skills, even if they have been trained most of the time to various activities. In fact, those "human simulators" are shown as being capable to display instantly the most accurate "response" to a specific "input" knowledge: For example, If one of them have to practice a coronary artery bypass in the afternoon all they need to do is to read an heart surgery manual in the morning. Consequently, all goes like if they don't need to be confronted to classical "learning chronology". It seems this people exposition to knowledge ,through books most of the time, is just a means to "appeal" some "invisible entities" from another reality, whose ones use them (pretenders) for a Greatest Work. This hypothesis can appear like a joke but it's a not at all one since their acts fellow too few technical input not to mention the time they have been expose to them. Additionally to that, the show itself rest upon mystical base: most of The Center inhabitant possess not only intellectual but also strange and beyond normal psychic abilities; Angelo who was initially intended to the pretender project on account of his genetic properties, only could hypothetically become a pretender by means of special drugs and shockwave treatment: He finally became an autistic man with scientifically unexplained ability to feel emotional issues and motives from people he have never encountered; Catherine Parker was invested by the power to heard voices from another reality (maybe the afterlife) and predicted future, besides, the reality of afterlife and of superior intelligences existence is confirmed when her daughter, Miss Parker, is empowered with the same gift in the adulthood, to point she can "communicate" with her deceased mother; and mystic influence in the show is finally extended to the raison d'être of The Centre himself at the end of the series. So, It appear that despite the show is ruled through logic and scientific coherence, extraordinary and even, "supernatural" have in fact a key role in the show. In this regard, it appear that pretender's abilities can't be seen like prodigy's abilities as impressive the latter appear: The pretenders power is far beyond the geniuses capability.

A fertility clinic called NuGenesis and owned by The Center who knew existence of the "pretender" long time ago, ran research on this extraordinary beings and have determined a common factor through them: Blood Type. In order to take advantage of theirs goose that laid the golden egg, The Centre evidently disregard the childhood of their "slaves": Jarod quotes in some episodes his "cultural past" like a child raised with "adult purposes", Sydney even told once that "Jarod was a man with a child body". At an early age Jarod, after being challenged through various tests, was considered "high potential" and gifted in term of performance. But this is his long term "unusual" training in the fields of medicine, engineering, computer science,sciences, languages, social sciences, poetry, literature, music (he practiced piano and probably some no quoted instruments), sculpture (he modeled busts with modeling clay at professional level in one episode) and painting, but also chess and studied this last to the point he became a grandmaster in his teenage years. Jarod finally became a renaissance man in the true meaning, a polymath, or a competent man according to Heinlein's mythology. It's difficult to think a man can acquires competence at nearly superhuman speed, in that case, this man would can be call God.

Simultaneously, The Centre allocate many projects to their "Pretenders": The pretender project is probably the more convertible into cash "sector" of The Center because those "intellectual giants" find completely new methodology that can be sell to some contractors ( more safe planes, better cure against some virus, strategic defense against some terrorist attacks, and so on). But in his rise for power, The Center establish itself offering in the same time supply and demand. Consequently, some of their pretender work for the better and some other ones work for the worse (Jarod vs Alex). Those valuable works are called simulations in reference to computer generated simulation. Jarod is used by The Centre to perform deep analysis of complex human reality: In the case of a plan crash with the lose of the black box, Jarod have to integrated both the technical data of the plan from the airline pilot point of view and the psychological state of the people involved in the critical moment. Simulations are recorded on data disc (DSA: Digital Simulation Archives) Jarod have taken with him when he escaped from The Centre. Jarod was trained in The Center's complex during 33 years, from 1963 to 1996, when he began to built on his tremendous practical experience of various specialty to help people which have been ruined by some nefarious other ones. From 1996 to 2001 Jarod discovered many "ordinary" things in society like candy, toys, comics, vernacular, or ice-cream and, set up lot of "special" friendships with people from different social level, to the point he insure they are fine long after helped them with their "big problem" by keeping in touch and catch up on them news. Jarod fought for come together again with his family and succeeded in find his brother Kyle (a pretender raised in The Center too, but under the care of Raines...) who was killed by Lyle in may 1998, he encountered his father too, "Major Charles", at the end of may 1999 and work together many times but have to stay far because of The Center's attacks.They discovered together that The Center have cloned Jarod in hope to take up again the pretender project with their "better member".They wrested this younger Jarod from The Center's hands and Major Charles take care of him. Jarod saved his sister Emily after she was thrown out of the window by a Center 's team of sweepers lead by Lyle. Jarod and Miss Parker discovered together they have an half-brother who came from Major Charles semen and introduced in Miss Parker's mother's uterus in order to create a being with both the "pretender ability" and "sixth sense". In fact, Miss Parker's mother (Catherine Parker) have developed throughout her lifetime, a parapsychological gift that enabled her to see and hear people which ones exist in another realm of existence (the afterlife), as well as make premonitions. This was made at the initiative of Catherine Parker herself who believed that Ethan would be the key to her own agenda: Catherine Parker a a woman of kindness in his purest meaning, wisdom and very brave was stayed in The Centre with the goal to show the criminal nature of The Centre as well as to save all the children and people convicted in the cell of the nightmarish sub-level of The Centre. Unluckily, she needed the help of the father (the demonic Abel Raines/Parker) of her beloved daughter (Miss Parker) to complete successfully her plan. But the latter manipulated her (Catherine Parker) to lead to his own plan using Ethan like a new kind of killer. Fortunately, Jarod and Miss Parker saved Ethan at the last moment in a metro explosion at washington, and dragged him out of Raines hands , in may 2000.