Psych- 8.4.06
Episode #5 – “9 Lives”
A quick synopsis of the show should catch you right up. It’s not been on that long, but it’s something I look forward to on a Friday night. The humor and the catchy storyline is a huge draw to have me coming back each week. Not that it’s too hard, after all, I am a total self-admitted TV whore.
Shawn Spencer, played by James Roday, was raised by his decorated cop father, and he taught him to pay attention the smallest of details. He is watching TV and sees an interview with a witness but catches on based on his observations that he’s actually the culprit. He calls the cops to give them the ‘tip’ but ends up as their lead suspect. His way of explaining how he knew who the perp was, was by saying that he was psychic. Let the games begin.
Over these 5 episodes, we see his strained relationship with his now retired cop dad, played brilliantly by Corbin Bernsen. He’s a cop, so he’s not very comforting or emotional and Shawn just uses his wit and sarcasm to combat the distance between them. Through flashbacks in each episode, Henry Spencer tries to teach Shawn and sometimes Gus some life lessons, while these lessons are usually harsh they do serve Shawn well in the end.
His best friend, Burton Guster “Gus”, played by Dule Hill of West Wing fame, is a pharmacutical sales rep but moonlights with Shawn more often than doing his real job. The banter between these two is a riot. Shawn is always dragging Gus into precarious situations and he protests at first, but jumps right in. Shawn’s nemesis, if you can call him that, is Detective Lassiter, they constantly spar, but Shawn always seems to have the witty come backs and one ups him on each case.
The opening flashback shows Shawn and his father outside and Shawn very determined to get the prize from the cereal box. His father tells him to turn the problem upside down to solve it,and this lesson works well for Shawn in this episode. In this weeks episode, there is a string of killings that are being made to look like suicides, but clearly aren’t. Shawn takes the first victim’s cat and begins the ruse that he’s channeling the cat. He notices all sorts of minute details that the police miss that lead him to believe the killing was not a suicide. When the second killing happens, they aren’t killed in the same manner but the killer still makes it appear to be suicide. All the clues start leading to a 1-800 stress line and Shawn and Gus go in to investigate. They set up a fake psychic hotline in the janitor’s closet near the stress line. They chat it up with a few of the employees and the manager there to get some information. There seems to be a few suspects there but as always they are totally off base. Turns out, that the first victim’s brother is the culprit. Shawn hits redial on the phone, realizes it’s Officer McNab’s house and they rush right over there to save him. Officer McNab is a cop on the force that works for Lassiter, he’s sweet but dumb sort of character. Seems that he was so stressed about his upcoming nuptials, that he called the stress line and the killer listened in on the call. The killer works for the telephone company, so he’s been eavesdropping on calls to the stress line, then getting that phone number and going to the callers home to do the deed. Shawn gives the cat to McNab as an early wedding gift and Gus is relieved.
The show closes with Gus and Shawn eating cereal and chatting about their lives. Gus is hunting for the prize in the cereal box, but Shawn has already taken it up through the bottom of the box.
This one is playing on Friday nights, at 10pm EST on USA. For more information go to www.usanetworks.com/series/psych
