Psych: Bollywood Homicide

So it was a special Bollywood-themed episode of Psych tonight, with the theme song remixed in Hindi and a guest appearance by beautiful Heroes star Sendhil Ramamurthy. I’ve been Sendhil-deprived as of late, so this was a balm on my troubled soul.

Recapping Psych is something of an exercise in futility, since the episode plots are frippery and frothy and inconsequential, and since the great charm of the series lies in the rapid-fire jokes and the self-amusing sight gags, but here goes: Sendhil plays Raj, the impossibly beautiful fiancé of Mina, an actress in a local Bollywood-esque musical theater production. After Mina narrowly escapes injury when a runaway truck backs into her, Raj turns to the Santa Barbara Police Department for help. Raj believes he’s cursed: his last four girlfriends have all met with near-fatal accidents. Somehow this confession results in Shawn hugging Raj and telling him he loves him. Shawn, hon, I’d’ve done the exact same thing.

(Granted, I have a well-established pro-Sendhil bias, but strictly viewing this episode from a clinical and dispassionate perspective, it’s hard to shake this conclusion: Sendhil is smoking hot.)

Via strategic use of dry ice and a plasma sphere, Shawn and Gus try to convince Raj they’ve lifted his curse. Raj buys it at first… until Mina is almost injured when she falls through a malfunctioning trapdoor during a performance. After Shawn discovers the trapdoor was sabotaged, Gus and Shawn stop by Raj’s house to tell him he’s not cursed: Someone is actively trying to kill Mina. They end up joining a dinner in celebration of Raj’s brother Jay’s upcoming wedding. Jay, by the way, is played by actor/writer/director Jay Chandrasekhar, who: a) directed this episode (and, y’know, the Dukes of Hazzard movie -- thanks, Jay!), and b) is Sendhil’s real-life cousin. Shawn and Gus fumble their way through an authentic Indian dinner (“My God! Even the water’s spicy!”), until Lassiter and Juliet arrive and arrest Jay, the musical’s director, for the attempts on Mina’s life.

Shawn clears Jay of suspicion and continues his investigation. Gus and Shawn realize the attempts on all of Raj’s former girlfriends’ lives happened only after each relationship grew serious, so Juliet goes undercover as Raj’s new girlfriend to lure the attacker out into the open. The culprit turns out to be Sita, Jay’s fiancée, who secretly loves Raj and sabotaged his relationships in an attempt to win him for herself. Sita is arrested, and Raj and Mina are free to marry in peace.

I only joined the Psych bandwagon this season, and I’m embarrassed it took me so long. It’s fun, it’s clever, it’s genuinely funny, and stars James Roday and Dule Hill appear to be having a blast together. Throw Sendhil and his impeccable bone structure into the mix, and it makes for a pretty damn good Friday night.