Perhaps it’s a little silly that I love the Psych theme song so much. Yet if I don’t hear it and the beginning of the episode something just feels incomplete. One of my favorite moments of the series came in the season two episode “Lights, Camera… Homicidio” where the theme song was replaced by a Spanish version to fit the Spanish soap opera theme. When I originally heard about the sixth episode of season four, “Bollywood Homicide” I was hoping to hear another original twist on the theme. Needless to say I was more than pleased with the Bollywood version of the song. After this I had hope that the rest of the episode would be equally pleasing.
Admittedly, there was another reason I wanted to love this episode so badly. While I certainly love Psych it is not the only show that I watch every week. When I saw Sendhil Ramamurthy of Heroes fame was going to be on the show I had high hopes that this episode would be one of my favorites as it combined some of my favorite actors from two of my favorite shows. In this episode Ramamurthy played Raj, a man who is convinced that it is his fault that all of his girlfriends have been a part of serious, almost deadly accidents.
After the childhood flashback the episode begins with Raj meeting his girlfriend Mina during a break in her Bollywood inspired performance. They talk of their love and how they will be together but not until Raj tells ‘her.’ At this point the ‘her’ in question is still left a mystery for the time being. After Raj leaves Mina returns to her pre-show routine. Suddenly, a truck comes rolling down the street right at Mina who cannot escape.
This leads back to the SBPD where Detective Lassiter questions Raj about the incident. Raj admits that this is not the only time similar things have happened to his girlfriends and that all of it is his fault. Lassiter is overjoyed at what seems to be a crime solved in record time and asks Raj to write down his confession. Here it is revealed the twist in the story. Raj is not a cold blooded murder after those he loves, he is a superstitious man who believes he is cursed. At the mention of curses Lassiter decides to call their resident psychic in to deal with the supernatural elements. Or perhaps it was just to fool around with Shawn’s mind to make him believe he was alone in a room with a murderer who can’t help himself. With their relationship and the constant battling between the two this episode you would probably go with the latter theory.
Now I should mention why Shawn was at the SBPD already. As we’ve seen in previous episodes Shawn treats the department as his own personal playground. This time it’s his date of choice. Abigail, the always mentioned rarely seen girlfriend of season four makes another rare appearance this episode as Shawn gives her a tour of his work at the station. Previously I’ve said that I’d like some character growth and that if Shawn being in a relationship helps the series to move in a new, but good direction I’d all for it. But from this episode it is almost absurdly clear that Abigail won’t last long. The character seems rather dim at times considering she’s supposed to have a witty, smart relationship with Shawn. She never notices how close Shawn is to Juliet O’Hara even when it is obvious to everyone else. To me it seems like Abigail is just a stepping stone to getting Juliet and Shawn together, another relationship I could handle in the series. But Abigail could have been a better character and shown a different side to Shawn. Instead throughout the episode she is dragged by Shawn all over on the case and never really serves a real purpose other than having another female presence on the show.
Now back to the actual plot. Shawn decides to help Raj discover what is happening. Shawn ever performs his own ceremony to rid Raj of this curse and assumes everything will be fine after that. In this episode Shawn actually seems to pick up the Lassiter viewpoint of there being nothing more to the case than what we initially know. It is Lassiter and O’Hara who look into the accident and discover that the trucks brakes had been cut on purpose causing the truck to almost crush Mina. It’s an interesting reversal of initial views but doesn’t really last long. When Shawn and Gus decide to watch Mina’s show they witness a trap door giving out under Mina, almost killing her yet again. Upon investigation they realize someone is purposefully trying to hurt Raj’s girlfriends, it is no accident or curse.
The rest of the episode follow a similar outline of every other episode. We meet a few characters who could be suspects. Mina’s understudy, Jay the choreographer of the show who happens to be both Raj’s brother and a bigger fan of the understudy for the part than of Mina, and Jay’s fiancé who is constantly trying to push back the wedding. As usual multiple characters have a motive that can be pieced together and Shawn manages to convince Lassiter to arrest the wrong people multiple times. Nothing was too remarkable in the crime solving portion of the episode but nothing seemed overly pointless or impossible either. The writers themselves probably best summed it up with a discussion between Shawn and Abigail after witnessing Lassiter arrest an innocent man. Abigail questions Shawn with “business as usual?” He replies, “it’s a process.”
I can’t say I loved this episode but it certainly wasn’t bad. It was nice to see a Bollywood theme instead of a normal murder or missing person. Also Shawn being allowed to physically save the life of Mina rather than just saving an innocent person from prison added a little extra excitement to the episode and change of pace. I must say that overall this episode seemed to have a different tone than others. The horror episode are always tinged with suspense but other episodes stick to comedy. This episode still had humor but it wasn’t obtrusive nor as constant. The episode was as close to a drama while still maintaining it’s humor that I’ve seen in an Psych episode outside of a season finale. It was a nice surprise to have this different feel in the middle of the season.
