My Own Place
Yuppie investment banker Sandy Darhaus (Perry Lang) has had to live with a trio of obnoxious roommates for years in the name of financial stability. That all changes when he's shown a large apartment to own for himself for only $285 a month. For Sandy, this deal means that all his dreams have come true, and he just can't wait to show his fiancee Laura (Nancy Travis) his new pad. However, he's in for a shock when he meets Ram (Harsh Nayyar), a mysterious man from India who claims to be his new roommate, but only appears when Sandy is alone in the apartment. Ram tries to make Sandy comfortable with their shared space and offers to assist in improving his spiritual well-being, but the bigoted Sandy rebukes everything Ram offers him, ultimately leading him to the discovery that Ram may not be his only new roommate.
Tropes:
- Asshole Victim: The bigoted Sandy is hurled out the broken window by the vengeful spirits of Ram's family, after he drove Ram into killing himself. Laura also dumps him halfway through the episode when he won't stop complaning about the roommate only he can see.
- Big Rotten Apple: Downplayed. Sandy says that he can see a smidge of Central Park through the broken window, but there are police sirens on the street outside. And let's not forget the fact that his apartment is haunted by the ghosts of a murderous Indian family who kill yuppies like him. Ram himself notes that when his one-room apartment got too big to hold his family, he started living on the sidewalk, and eventually in the gutter.
- Blatant Lies: The realtor's promise that she'll have the broken window fixed.
- Bookends: The beginning and end of the episode have a yuppie being shown around the haunted apartment and buying it after hearing about the low rent.
- Cassandra Truth: Since only he can see Ram, who appears only when he's alone, no one else in the episode believes Sandy about Ram squatting in his apartment, with Laura thinking the banker's feeling sick.
- Catapult Nightmare: Sandy's reaction to the dreams he has about Ram's family.
- Chekhov's Gun: The broken bedroom window, which Ram is said to have thrown himself out of in his shame at being a bad roommate to Sandy, who is thrown out the same window by the angered spirits of his family.
- Driven to Suicide: Ram is said to have thrown himself out the window after Sandy got upset with him, and he reincarnates into a bird which Cynthia points out.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Sandy has visions of Ram's family in their native country in his dreams and while he's awake early in the episode, before they appear at the end to throw him out the window.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As much as Sandy is prejudiced against Ram and his Indian culture, he genuinely loves his fiancee Laura and can't wait to show her around his new apartment.
- The Family That Slays Together: After Ram hurls himself out the broken window, his ghostly family gang up on Sandy and throw him out the same window as karma. The ending establishes that it's routine for the ghostly family to kill yuppies like him in this way.
- Foreshadowing:
- The realtor who sells Sandy the apartment notes that the landlord has been having problems with tenants' relatives, noting the annoying away in which they come and go. This hints at Sandy's first meeting with the ghostly Ram, whose similarly ghostly family kills him after shaming Ram into suicide.
- There's also Sandy's offhand suggestion that Ram got to the States by being flown on the back of "a little birdie", hinting at his eventual reincarnation into a bird.
- Ram's anticipation of "the monsoon" also comes into play in the ending, as it occurs when Sandy is killed by his vengeful ghost relatives.
- Freudian Excuse: Sandy is tempermental with Ram largely because he's always been forced to live with other people, like his parents and former roommates from college and work.
- Friendly Ghost: Though his family aren't such pleasant company to folks like Sandy, Ram is peaceful and chipper in almost all of his scenes, trying to help Sandy with his chores, cooking a traditional Hindu meal for him and Laura, and trying to teach him the ways to seek tranquility and enlightenment.
- Haunted House: Ram and his family are phantoms that haunt Sandy's apartment, and they're hinted to routinely kill any uppity yuppies that move in so they can reincarnate to a better life.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Towards the end of the episode, Sandy has a change of heart about boarding Ram up in the bedroom, and he's devastated to find his clothes hanging from the broken window, having jumped to his death. He's killed by the angered spirits of Ram's relatives before he can repent, however.
- Here We Go Again!: The end of the episode has the realtor (hinted to be a member of Ram's ghostly family) renting the apartment out to Cynthia, another uppity yuppie like Sandy.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Though he's overly mean-spirited about his situation, Sandy's reactions to Ram aren't a far cry from a person who has a squatter in their home that only they can see.
- Large Ham: Sandy, especially when he's angry.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Ram is astonished that Sandy's apartment has a toilet, running water, and a computer.
- Nepotism: Given the implications that Ram and his family haunt the apartment the episode centers around, the realtor gives it to yuppies like Sandy so cheap because she's a member of said family, setting the trap for Ram and the rest of her ghoulish relatives.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Though he claims not to be a bad guy, Sandy hurls bigoted insults and stereotypes at Ram, Hinduism, and India itself whenever he confronts his phantom roommate, even calling the apartment "the Taj Mahal on a budget" and Ram's incense a "stinkbomb".
- Rage Breaking Point: Sandy gets furious with Ram when his presence costs him his relationship with Laura, to the point where he boards him up in the bedroom before he goes to work.
- Reincarnation: It happens to Ram at the end of the episode, as the new tenant of the apartment notices a bird hanging around the broken bedroom window before flying away, as Ram described.
- Sex in a Shared Room: As Sandy wakes up post-coitus with Laura, he finds Ram waiting for him across the room. He's incredulous to learn that Ram heard everything he and Laura were doing, especially when he learns that Ram is bothered by it at all, as he used to hear his own relatives doing the same thing many times.
- Take a Third Option: Sandy notes that he can't kill Ram or throw him out of the apartment under unrevealed circumstances (his spiritual nature, most likely), so he instead decides to board up the bedroom to stop Ram from intruding on his life.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: This is the only way Sandy describes Ram that isn't bigoted, as he utilizes his old-fashioned methods of performing Sandy's new-fangled chores. Despite this, Sandy just can't find himself to throw him out on the sidewalk, likely from his phantasmal nature.
- Title Drop: Sandy tells Ram that he's upset with his presence because he's never had "my own place" for a good chunk of his life.
- Too Good to Be True: Sandy's huge apartment, with its cheap rent and wondrous view, comes with the phantoms of an Indian family who ultimately kill him.
- Vengeful Ghost: Ram's family, who throw Sandy out the window after he bullies Ram to suicide.
- Villains Out Shopping: Bigoted attitude and short temper aside, a few scenes in the opening act feature Sandy pleasantly riding his bike through the city, even celebrating the purchase of his new apartment with a bike ride.
