- Title: Perception – Inconceivable
- wiki: link
Kate (Rachael Leigh Cook) calls in Daniel Pierce (Eric McCormack) to help work an unusual case involving a grieving mother and the woman (Sadie Stratton) who stole her fake baby doll. Where one woman was a grieving mother who had the doll made to resemble the son she recently only to lose him when the dollmaker (John Hans Tester) sold him to another customer the other would-be mother honestly believes the baby doll to be completely real. When one woman turns up dead, with the baby missing and the other woman with an ironclad alibi, one of the show’s more unique murder investigations begins and only gets stranger when they discover a real missing baby is at the heart of the entire sordid mess.
Talking with the woman’s ex (Steven Helmkamp) and mother (Amanda Carlin) Daniel and Kate get a feel for why the woman gave up her real baby only to seek out a doll weeks later. Discovering the truth about the baby’s whereabouts only comes from investigating the mother’s attempt to give the baby away a shelter and uncovering the fireman (Jeff Branson) who decided to take it home as his own. However, to solve the murder the pair will have to stop looking at the case of the baby and delve back into the that of the still-missing stolen doll by returning full circle to the man who created it.
The episode’s B-story involves a gung-ho Donnie (Scott Wolf) scouting large houses and already planning a large family before he and Kate even make it back down the aisle. The case doesn’t calm Kate’s concerns about having children, but although she’s able to discuss her fears with Daniel it isn’t something the FBI agent feels comfortable discussing with her husband-to-be foreshadowing big problems for the couple down the road. Meanwhile Daniel struggles with his own baby hallucinations and the fact that despite his concern about passing on his mental illness the professor does want a child of his own.
