Skipping the usual childhood flashback, this episode opens with two younger men romancing older women. Shortly after a drink of wine, one of the men stumbles and falls from a balcony to his death. Lassiter believes one of the women (Jean Smart), whose husband died suspiciously years ago, is behind this latest death. On the other hand, Shawn and Gus believe the killer is a charming man who teaches a course on how to act like a gentleman (John Michael Higgins). Chief Vick and Henry decide to let Shawn and Gus pursue their theory while Lassiter and O’Hara pursue their own theory.
For me, this episode lacked Psych‘s usual fun factor. Older women dating younger men isn’t all that interesting or funny to me, but, more significantly, I felt the episode juggled screen time poorly between its two murder theories. I didn’t get the sense of evidence pointing in one direction, building to a climax.
Also, there wasn’t much of Shawn’s psychic fakery in this episode. I sometimes wonder why Shawn bothers pretending. Does the SBPD really believe he is a psychic anymore? Though the true cause of death wasn’t obvious, the possibilities weren’t so mysterious as to require Shawn’s psychic services. There was no scene of him being drawn to the case by something bizarre or for personal reasons; he just showed up as if he were a regular detective.
Shawn eventually deduced that the killer was a lesbian friend of Lassiter’s original suspect. Wanting Lassiter’s suspect to herself, she poisoned anyone who seemed to threaten that relationship. Enough clues to the friend’s orientation had been planted, but people are wrong about orientation often enough. This twist may have been a convenient way to tie up the plot.
Usually, I can go along with Psych‘s themes easily: Shawn and Gus volunteer as firemen, Shawn and Gus try extreme sports, and so on. “Shawn and Gus act as cougar bait” fell flat for me. Here’s hoping for better luck next week.
