Throughout the series the producers used stylized visual sequences to illustrate Sam's intuitive leaps. Because the show debuted at the same time as the similarly themed "Millennium (1996)," which stared a profiler with actual psychic abilities illustrated with similar stylized segments, many assumed that Sam was supposed to be psychic. In reality the flashes were never supposed to be psychic. Instead they were supposed to illustrate Sam's thought process as she made intuitive leaps.
Takes place in the same universe as "The Pretender."