The Casavin Curse
Gina Casavin (Catherine Parks) of the wealthy and formerly-prosperous Casavin clan wakes up in her bedroom, covered in blood with the mutilated body of her latest lover (Tyler Harrington) across from her. Dr. Jeffrey Webster (Scott Lincoln), a psychiatrist called to the family estate to analyze Gina after police arrive on the scene, learns that this problem has been going on for sometime, as Gina tells him that her bloodline was cursed many centuries ago to kill whoever they fall in love with, starting back when her great-great-grandfather Anton Casavin killed Mirabel, the gypsy he had been married to, when refused a divorce. Jeffrey initially deduces that this curse is some kind of psychological gambit played by Gina's incestuous cousin Nicholas (Joe Cortese) to keep her under his power, but the truth is more apparent than he thought it was, especially since he may be developing feelings for Gina himself.
Tropes:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Miranda is successful in eradicating Gina and Nicholas, wiping out the Casavin clan once and for all as revenge for her murdered great-great-grandmother Mirabel. There's also no indication that she won't kill Jeffrey to get rid of any loose ends.
- Bed Trick: As a means to try and have sex with his cousin Gina, Nicholas notes that they don't actually "love" each other, and therefore the curse wouldn't make them kill each other.
- Bookends: The episode begins and ends in Gina's bedroom, where a murder has taken place.
- Cartwright Curse: The titular curse of the episode forces all members of the Casavin bloodline, such as Gina, to turn into a monster and brutally kill anyone they fall in love with.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Gina's cousin Nicholas is a corporate executive with "half the city in his pocket", and not only is he sexually attracted to Gina, he tries to keep her on as tight a leash as possible, largely by filling her with drugs and gaslighting her with old family stories. Furthermore, he's strongly implied to have made his fortune through a criminal background, as Lt. Wright notes that his company routinely deals in drugs.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Miranda Dean, Gina and Nicholas' assistant, turns out to be Mirabel's great-great-granddaughter, having worked behind the scenes to ensure that the cousins die as revenge for Mirabel's death.
- Downer Ending: The Casavins have died out by the end of the episode, with Jeffrey accidentally killing the transformed Gina in self-defense, and it's likely that Miranda will kill him to get rid of any witnesses to her plot.
- Dying Curse / Gypsy Curse: Gina's great-grandfather Anton was married to the gypsy Mirabel, but had the chance to marry into a royal family. When refused a divorce, Anton killed Mirabel in his rage, but she used her last breaths to invoke the episode's titular curse upon him and his descendants, ensuring that they would destroy whoever they loved romantically.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Lieutenant Wright doesn't believe in the Casavin family's curse, and speculates that Gina murdered Tyler in a fit of drug-induced paranoia, claiming that her bedroom was filled with enough narcotics to sedate an elephant.
- Foreshadowing: Before the start of the final act, Miranda removes a dagger from a hidden panel in Gina's bedroom, staring at it with contemplation. The climactic scene has Gina nearly killing Jeffrey with the same dagger when transformed, and ultimately making him kill her with it in self-defense. Miranda then steps in to reveal herself as the great-great-granddaughter of Mirabel, who was killed by her husband Anton Casavin with the dagger, too, having been waiting and plotting from the shadows to exact revenge on the Casavin family for her death.
- Frame-Up: Miranda hints that Tyler's murder, as well as that of Gina's first lover Paolo, was committed by Nicholas while Gina was unconscious, and he was gaslighting her into thinking a gypsy curse was responsible for her killing them instead.
- Jerkass: Nicholas, an incestuous corporate big-wig who handles numerous shady enterprises from his office, and pumps Gina full of drugs and plays mind games to keep her all to himself.
- The Killer in Me: When asleep, the Casavin curse triggers Gina to transform into a monster with black claws for fingers who butchers her lovers, and leaves her with no memory of the event when she snaps out of it.
- Kissing Cousins: Nicholas is strongly attracted to his cousin Gina, indicating that the family curse is a mind game he plays to get her to heel. He tries to seduce her into sleeping with him as an experiment in preventing the family curse from activating, since they don't love each other romantically. It doesn't work, as Jeffrey and Wright come in to save Gina, the latter hauling Nicholas to the station.
- Last of His Kind: Nicholas tells Jeffrey that he and Gina are the last of the Casavin family.
- Mr. Exposition: Nicholas relays the history of the family curse to Jeffrey to let him in on the truth.
- Neck Snap: The monstrously-transformed Gina murders Nicholas this way near the end of the episode.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Gina's horrified reaction to seeing Tyler's brutally killed body in her bedroom, after awakening to find both her and the room covered in blood, is to claim that the family curse is responsible for costing her another lover.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Two examples set the plot and general idea of the episode.
- Chronologically, there's Anton Casavin's murder of his gypsy wife Mirabel, who put the titular curse on his family.
- Regarding the actual plot, there's Gina's amnesiac murder of her latest boyfriend Tyler Harrington, which sends the police after her and prompts Jeffrey to psychoanalyze her.
- Primal Scene: A rarity for this series, occurring when Gina and Jeffrey end up in bed together.
- Real After All: The Casavin curse was real all along, as Gina physically transforms into a monster after Nicholas, who was suspected to have created the curse as a mental gambit to keep her under his rule, is hauled off to the police station.
- Skepticism Failure: Jeffrey believes that Gina's family curse is some sort of mind game that Nicholas has been playing on her to keep her under his thumb. He soon learns otherwise when he sees her as a monster.
- Start of Darkness: Anton Casavin killed his gypsy wife Mirabel when she refused a divorce so he could marry into wealth and royalty, and it's thanks to the curse she put on him with her last breath that Gina ultimately becomes a monster and murders her cousin.
- Super-Strength: Gina gains an increase in strength as a monster, breaking Nicholas' neck with one hand. When Wright inspects Tyler's body, he estimates that the culprit responsible must have been "built like a gorilla".
- Voice of the Legion: Miranda's voice is heard echoing as Gina's fractured mind tries to put what happened to Tyler and herself together.
- Wham Shot: Gina turning into a murderous monster after she and Jeffrey have sex, revealing that her family's curse was real all along.
