Psych: Deez Nups

“I'm good at what I do. And what I do is good.”

This episode was a weird hybrid: part road caper, part Lassie-centric wedding game-changer, and then, there was the end, which, whoa Nellie. I don't know if this was a good episode or just a full episode. Let's do this.

All right, so, we're set at a casino resort, “The Hangover” style. Okay, makes sense, Lassie's big day, whatevs. But, also consider this is maybe a season of too many “special location-based” episodes. The woods. Mexico. The Clue house. Now this? I'm starting to miss good old-fashioned Psych episodes where there's a crime and they amusingly solve it. But anyhow, it is what it is.

The thing that stands out here was how Timothy Omundson as Lassiter really can carry an episode, just like Corbin Bernsen (Henry). The reason for this, I think, isn't just the acting -- though certainly that, too -- but also how the character is written well and consistently in this episode. Lassiter and Henry in their big episodes this spring were funny and developing yet true to who they've been all along. I wish I could say the same about Gus and Shawn who, more and more, are just seeming like imitations of what they've been in the past. I barely laughed at them this episode.

The action-crime part about Lassiter saving Marlow and the mano-e-mano showdown thing with the Mob boss was pretty good. And I dig those two newlyweds together with all their nuttiness. I can't say she did much funny in this episode -- in fact, she was a bit underwritten -- but as background girlfriends go, or wives -- she will suffice nicely. It was a good payoff. God help us all if they have kids.

Which brings up another issue in this lovefest of an episode: I liked Gus being worried about Rachel being away, sort of, but all I could think was this conflict presented a story worth exploring in a whole episode -- the baby daddy jealousy issue -- instead of as an add on or way to get Rachel away for the wedding. Because, really, I'm losing a bit of patience with how Psych is utilizing Rus (Guschel?) ... basically, we barely see them together; five or six episodes in, we've only come to see them as a serious couple because they keep telling us they are one. That's lame. I mean, if they were only going to have Rachel be a background character, so we wouldn't feel bad for single Gus, why did they get a name actor like Parminder Nagra? You could have just had a random.

And that brings us to the major romantic turn of events in this episode. Jules put two and two and Michael Damien together and got fraud. In other words, she figured out Shawn is not a psychic and he admitted the whole thing. In an emotional moment, he saw his life flash before his eyes -- the moments since he's met Juliette -- and confessed, almost tearfully, that he's good at what he does, is doing good and never meant to fall in love with her or be a big fat liar (well, that last part was implied). Juliette threw a drink in his face and took off. To Be Continued. (That was also just implied...)

I liked a lot about this scene itself: the emotion, the fact Shawn isn't sorry for what he's done as much as how he's done it. Her attempts to explain it away kind of desperately. It was a weirdly dramatic scene for this show, but well-handled. Deftly so, one might even say. And frankly, I'm glad they got it out in the open instead of dragging it on.

But, here's the thing. There was an arbitrary-ness to the timing which felt like a let down. Put another way, we're meant to believe that after all this time of working with Shawn, Juliette has never said “Maybe he just saw that thing at the crime scene and deduced....” until ... now? That doesn't make any sense. And frankly, it's never made any sense that Jules believed Shawn was a psychic. But we went along with it. The show has asked us to suspend our disbelief that an intelligent professional detective wouldn't put it together within, say, a week. Now it is arbitrarily asking us to believe Juliette finally got a clue?

Not good. A nice payoff scene, surprising in timing, which was also cool, I guess -- and great emotion and sadness -- but set-up unconvincingly. I have always thought that the only proper reaction for the moment Shawn confessed he wasn't a psychic was for Juliette to say "Duh, no kidding. I've just been going along with it to not make a problem."

...Which isn't to say I'm not dying to see what happens next, 'cause I totally am!

Other nitpicks. Big Wendy was a tad stereotypical. And by “tad” I mean, to the point it was almost offensive to me, and I'm white. Yet, I think they saved it in the end for her; there was some unique weirdness to her: & her hookup with Woody was funny, for example. And her commentary got increasingly funny. “I feel like Kunta Kinte.”

I'm not sure if Vick should really have so much screen time... ever... But, this was a “very special episode”... I didn't get the whole parole officer thing at the end. Seemed tacked on.

And what was up with the use of the word “dong” approximately fifty times? Weird for this show. Also, weird they actually showed a bad guy shot to death; we rarely see that casually on Psych.

James Roday directed this episode, btw.

Well, Lassie's married, anyhow.

Psychlights:

• Buzz as a stripper worked because it is just so NOT him. Nice continuity shout-out to Francie
• Nice continuity shout-out to Vick's marriage, too.
• Buzz in a thong, pixeled out; Woody in a speedo, unfortunately not pixeled out. (Though, in that chest hairspraying scene, did anyone else notice Kurt Fuller's upper body is in surprisingly good shape...)
• Hey, Buzz and Woody? Is that a recurring Toy Story thing?
• Fantastic funny beat with all the cops drawing their guns at the wedding.
• Thumbs up to Roday and Maggie Lawson for that sad scene at the end.
• Henry and Lassiter were just right in this episode
• Stumpy being labeled a “db”...and being one.
• Herb was funny, sort of a Paul Giamatti wannabe
• “Herb I could kiss you right now.” “All right.”
• Marlow's red wedding dress: perfect. And nice tip of the hat to her blood-stealing crime.
• And my favorite moment: Gus looking down from the balcony at Shawn when Juliette ran off, and knowing what happened. Good return to the bromance (despite Lassiter's contention it's overrated...) and the center of the show.

What happens next? Can't wait to find out...

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