- Title: Perception – Lovesick
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Kate (Rachael Leigh Cook) enlists the help of Professor Pierce (Eric McCormack) to solve a wrongful death suit which may have played into another case involving a recently murdered therapist (William Ragsdale). After an exhaustive search through the man’s records Pierce comes to the conclusion that the therapist was indeed cutting loose patients of a specific insurance company for a kickback, but that’s only the beginning.
Pierce also uncovers a grieving father (Spencer Garrett) and a missing angry teenager (August Emerson) who physically threatened the therapist. He’s also surprised to learn that the “Secret Service guy (John M. Jackson) in aviator sunglasses glasses in a black SUV” that was following him is actually real, and not one of his hallucinations like the Weather Girl (Brooke Newton) who begins talking to him through the television. Kate also finds a woman (Jillian Murray), with a jealous ex-boyfriend (T.J. Hoban), who was having an affair with the therapist before his death.
However, the further they probe into the therapist’s patients the more bizarre the case becomes as they discover the man was prescribing unapproved drugs to his male patients with homosexual urges and enlisting their participation into having “mind-blowing sex” with the therapist to help turn them “normal” and cure them of their homosexual urges. And it turns out he wasn’t only the doctor, but also a patient with plenty of his own urges that needed satisfying which led to an affair with one of his patients (J.R. Cacia) and eventually his death.
The episode’s B-stories feature the continuing relationship of Kate and Professor Hathaway (Jamie Bamber), a cameo by Krista Allen as a wealthy donor to the university and big fan of Pierce, and the return of Laura Carswell as Kayrn, the student who flashed Pierce in his home and has now begun to date Pierce’s assistant Lewicki (Arjay Smith). With a series of twists, and a case where numerous suspects had motive for wanting the man dead, “Lovesick” provides a good mystery of the week. However, next week’s episode involving a schizophrenic suspect and the ensuing revelations and ramifications to Pierce and Kate’s relationship looks far more intriguing.
