Perception - Alienation

While hiding both the fact that he's stopped taking his medication and the return of his hallucinations of Natalie (Kelly Rowan) from his real, but still secret, girlfriend (also Rowan), Daniel (Eric McCormack) is approached by Kate (Rachael Leigh Cook) whose latest case involves a woman (Hedy Burress) who believes her husband (Geoffrey Blake) was abducted by aliens and replaced with a duplicate. Daniel diagnoses the woman is likely suffering from Capgras syndrome, caused by a recent aneurysm, which has made the woman believe both her husband and best friend (Maggie Wheeler) are aliens from outer space.

After getting a frantic call, Daniel finds the distraught wife at home over the body of her dead husband. Believing she might be innocent of the crime, Daniel and Kate head to a local sci-fi convention to talk with a disgruntled author (Robert Picardo) who accused the dead man of stealing his life story for the basis of his recent novel about an alien abduction. Once again all the evidence points to the new suspect the FBI have in custody (including finding the murder weapons among his belongings), but once again Daniel is sure that they've arrested the real killer.


Although Daniel is able to unravel the real series of events with Natalie's help he's unable to save his relationship with Caroline who breaks things off after learning Daniel lied to her about both being off his medication and the depth of his feelings for Natalie. Kate also has some relationship knots to unravel after agreeing to go with Donnie (Scott Wolf) to see his grandmother (Teddy Vincent) in return for him finally agreeing to sign the divorce papers.

The path to find the real killer is a bit convoluted, but it plays out well and in hindsight the logic seems to hold up pretty well. Although the end of Daniel's relationship with Caroline makes his romantic life far less complicated it also means that Natalie, and the various hallucinations of the week (including this week's sci-fi geek) are back to stay. I understand the show wanting to give a broader look at Kate's life outside of work, but I'm already tired of both Donnie and his subplot.