A man, Jamie, stares at the camera. He’s covered in blood, and asks the detectives interviewing him if they’ve ever been in love. They say that they have, but Jamie says that they haven’t like he is, and no man ever loved a woman like he loved her. The detectives don’t believe him, and ask Jamie to start from the beginning.
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Jamie works at the Cougar Culinary Laboratory in Chicagand creates artificial flavors for the food industry. He smells his co-worker Wally eating Fritos, and Wally congratulates him on his sense of smell. Later at lunch, Jamie is eating salad and explains that he gains weigh if he eats anything else. Wally asks how his love life is going, and Jamie says that he just needs a little time to think about stuff since his divorce. His co-worker invites him to his band’s performance that night, but Jamie isn’t interested. Wally talks about how his 45th birthday is coming up and he’s a failed rock star.
When Jamie gets home, he makes himself a sandwich for supper and sits down to watch a cooking show on TV. He flips over to a soft-porn movie and then turns the TV off and goes to bed alone and starts reading. His son Booth has scribbled on the pages, and Jamie looks at a photo of him and his son before turning off the lights.
In the middle of the night, Jamie dreams of chocolate. He wakes up and can taste it in his mouth, and realizes that he wasn’t dreaming: he tasted someone else’s chocolate.
The next day, Jamie goes to a home in the suburbs and knocks at the door. His ex-wife Vanessa answers the door, and Jamie sneezes when he smells her rose oil. He says that he stopped by to check on her and Booth, and Vanessa invites him in. As Jamie notices a hickey on Vanessa’s neck, Booth runs in and hugs his father. He wonders if Jamie is coming back, and Jamie assures him that now he gets to have two homes. Vanessa says that they have Booth’s dance class to go to, and Jamie suggests that he and Booth get together on the weekend. Booth agrees and they hug.
That night, Jamie goes to the bar where Wally and his band are playing. They hit the stage and Jamie listens from a table up-front. He holds his ears because they’re too loud for him, and a woman, Sue, sits down at Jamie’s table. She asks Jamie to do a magic trick with a quarter that Wally mentioned, but as he reaches for it, everything goes silent and Jamie can’t hear the woman or the band. Instead he hears classical music and the sound of champagne pouring. After a moment, it fades away and the band’s song returns.
As Jamie drives home, he congratulates Wally on his performance. Jamie sees a different street appear ahead of him and realizes that he’s seeing what someone else I seeing. He yells to Wally, saying that he can’t see, and the car swerves back and forth. Wally grabs the wheel and they just avoid an oncoming car. Jamie’s normal vision returns, and he discovers that Wally is laughing at the experience.
Later, Jamie wakes up when he gets a glimpse of a man lighting a cigarette. He asks who is there, but sees no one. Jamie goes down the hall and turns on the light, but there’s no one in the apartment. Despite that, he gets a brief flash of the same man lighting a cigarette lighter and asking if he woke him.
The next morning, Jamie wakes up and goes grocery shopping. A woman, Elaine, starts up a conversation about healthy foods and dieting. Jamie finally invites her back to their place and they gorge themselves on chocolate, and they say that they cured each other. They kiss and Elaine notices the white circle on his ring finger. Jamie says that he was divorced a few months earlier and assures Elaine that he’s safe. They end up in bed having sex, and afterward Jamie complains about a sharp pain in his stomach. Elaine gets him some pills and then lies down next to him when he feels better.
The next morning, Jamie wakes up sneezing and finds himself in a different bed in a different room. The man from his earlier visions--Dennison Hooper-- comes in and addresses Jamie as the person he’s seeing through their eyes. Hopper has sex with her and Jamie falls back as he feels what the woman is feeling. Elaine tells him to stop, thinking that he’s having some kind of attack. Vanessa arrives with Booth and Elaine, hearing her, quickly gets dressed. Jamie continues convulsing and Vanessa curses Jamie before leaving. The experience finally ends and he says that it’s a woman. Disgusted, Elaine storms out.
As Jamie shaves, he suddenly sneezes and has another sensory exposure. The woman he’s linked to has rose oil, and puts some animal figures in a curio box. She then writes a note saying, “I love you.”
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Jamie tells the detectives that he didn’t realize how potent love could be until then, and how shallow his life was.
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Later at the lab, Jamie looks at his reflection in an aquarium and sees the woman’s reflection in her mirror. When he calls to the woman, begging her not to go, Wally hears him and asks if he’s okay. That night, Jamie lights candles and pours champagne, he eats some chocolates, trying to force a connection with the woman. He finds himself in her bathroom as the woman--Catherine--she looks at herself naked in the mirror. Catherine then takes a shower and Jamie sees everything through her eyes. She masturbates and Jamie feels that as well.
Back at the lab, Jamie tries to tell Wally what is happening to him. Wally figures that Jamie is dating, and Jamie tries to explain how he is linked to Catherine. He describes how he felt Catherine’s sexual experiences, but Wally doesn’t believe him. Wally figures that Jamie is dreaming, but Jamie says that he doesn’t want it to stop. He figures that Catherine needs him and leaves.
At home, Jamie links with Catherine again. He sees her in a park sketching a cougar and then get into her car. Later, he wakes up and has another experience of Catherine walking up the styles of an old building. She goes into Hooper’s apartment and finds him with a young girl. Hooper invites Catherine to join them, and kiss the girl, but Catherine slaps Hooper again. Furious, he slaps her and Jamie experience Hooper choking Catherine. He shouts at Hooper to leave Catherine alone. Later, Jamie sees Catherine stabbing Hooper in the chest during sex and vomits from the experience.
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Jamie tells the detectives how he could feel Hooper’s blood running down his arms. He felt like sick and depraved like a murderer, and then the visions stopped.
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At the lab, Jamie is working and watching TV. He sees an advertisement for a car and realizes it’s the same one that Catherine drove in his vision. He remembers the license plate and does a search on it. Jamie narrows it down from the coast he saw in his vision and the time difference, and realizes that Catherine is on the West Coast. He finally comes up with a match in Vancouver and finds a street that matches the one he saw.
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The police wonder why Jamie set off to find a murderer, and Jamie says that it might have been a dream, or self-defense.
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Jamie goes to the street from his visions and sees a newspaper article about Hooper’s murder. Continuing on, Jamie comes to a chocolate store and buys a box of the chocolates that he tasted. He then goes to Hooper’s apartment and recognizes the hallway he saw when he was linked to Catherine. Jamie goes up to Hooper’s apartment and breaks in, He finds a nude painting of Catherine with her name as the title, Looking out the window, Jamie sees Catherine in her car and runs down, and she drives off... but not before Jamie sees her full license plate and memorizes it.
That night, Jamie goes to the address and enters the building. He goes to Catherine’s apartment and knocks at her door. She answers the door and Jamie asks if she knows him. Catherine doesn’t recognize him, and Jamie says that he has a delivery for her and offers her the chocolate. Furious, Jamie slams the door in his face and Jamie walks out, figuring the chocolates remind Catherine of Hooper.
The next day, Jamie follows Catherine along the shore. She doubles back and demands to know why he’s following her, and asks why he brought her the chocolates. Jamie says that he saw her sketching at the zoo and likes her work, and insists that he had to meet her. Catherine walks off and Jamie insists that he’s not a stalker. He suggests that they have lunch, but Catherine isn’t interested. Jamie persists, saying that he knows how complicated her life is. Catherine finally gives in and they go an outside café. Jamie keeps staring at her, and finally says he has to tell her why he loves her. She figures that he’s been spying on her, and Jamie says that sometimes he’s inside of her.
Catherine agrees to hear him out and Jamie explains that he can sense what she’s sensing and he can’t control it. He talks about how they’re psychically linked, and wondered if she could feel him. Catherine gets up and goes, and Jamie goes after her. She insists that she wants to be alone, and Jamie apologizes and walks away. However, as he goes round the corner, he sees the police waiting outside Catherine’s apartment and pulls her back. She bites his hand, and Jamie says that the cops are there and she has to trust him. He finally tells her that he knows she had to kill Hooper.
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The detectives wonder why Jamie ended up psychically linked to Catherine. Jamie admits that he doesn’t know, and maybe it was that he was so empty and she was so full.
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Jamie and Catherine go back to the park and Catherine wonders what Jamie wants from her. He insists that he never has and never will lie to her, and just wants to help her even knowing what she's done. Catherine admits that she's scared, and Jamie promises that he won't let anything happen to her. She asks him to take her home, and says that she trusts him because she has to.
Back outside of Catherine's apartment, Jamie makes sure that the coast is clear. They go in and Jamie assures Catherine that everything will be okay. He says that he loves her, and Catherine says that she did feel things from him through their link. She felt his loneliness and Jamie hugs her as she shivers. After a moment, Catherine gets drinks and says that she's glad Jamie is there with her. They drink and then Catherine kisses Jamie. Jamie starts to feel dizzy, unaware that Catherine has drugged his drink.
Catherine puts a gun to Jamie's head and demands to know what he wants. She figures that he's either a cop or a blackmailer, and asks if Jamie could feel Hooper die as she killed him. Jamie grabs the gun and they struggle, and the gun goes off in his leg. He knocks the gun away and tries to grab it, and Catherine digs her thumb into his leg wound. She grabs the gun and Jamie knocks it out of her hand with a lamp, and she grabs a knife and slashes Jamie's arm. He grabs a ceremonial spear head and throws it, impaling Catherine's hand, and grabs the gun as she pulls it out. Jamie begs her to stop, insisting that he just wants to help her, and has another episode where he sees himself through her eyes. Catherine realizes that he can't see her, and he shoots her randomly accident when she advances on him. She finally goes down and Jamie collapses from shock and experiencing Catherine's death through her senses.
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The detectives warn that it isn't an easy story to swallow, and they have the EMTs take Jamie to the hospital.
Written by Gadfly on Sep 25, 2016