Psych – “Feet Don’t Kill Me Now” – review

Feeling unappreciated by Shawn, Gus runs into Lassiter at tap class and decides to team up with him to investigate the death of Desiree Blake, who apparently lost control driving on a rainy night and drowned in a lake. Meanwhile, Henry lets Shawn and O’Hara also work Desiree’s case since the SBPD is already paying the Psych agency’s full rate for Gus’s participation.

Lassiter found a bag of pills in Desiree’s purse, and Gus identified them as clinical samples. Visiting the lab where the pills were made, Lassiter and Gus discovered thay were an experimental fertility drug. The lab technician on duty said she conducted the trials alone, but Gus knew there had to be two administrators in such trials.

When questioned at the station, the lab technician admitted she was covering for her partner, Ben, Desiree’s boyfriend, who was trying to have a child with Desiree. Lassiter, Gus, O’Hara, and Shawn arrived at Ben’s house to question him, but he slipped away from them. Lassiter and O’Hara believed Ben killed Desiree, having recently cheated on her. Shawn and Gus believed Ben was innocent, trying to reconcile with Desiree.

It was interesting to see the characters switch partners, but I liked that it ultimately proved how well Shawn was suited to Gus and Lassiter was suited to O’Hara. I thought the pacing of this episode was just right. Just when Shawn and Gus needed to question Ben to develop an alternate suspect, Ben turned up drowned in the same fashion as Desiree. When Shawn and Gus figured out someone at the lab was the killer, there were still two good suspects.

In last week’s review, I mentioned I was concerned about Henry’s new role supervising Shawn and Gus. In this episode, Henry took on Chief Vick’s usual job of supervising everyone. I think seeing both Chief Vick and Henry at the station too often would get too crowded, but seeing one at a time works. This may be a move to give Kirsten Nelson or Corbin Bernsen more time off.

I can never predict how well Psych‘s various themes will mesh with its usual murder plots. The tap dancing here worked to balance a fairly cold-blooded killer.