In a moment of weakness, Shawn agrees to take a ferry to the Channel Islands to help Gus with an environmental cleanup. Four prisoners are also aboard on a work furlough, escorted by a Corrections officer (Chi McBride). Soon, Shawn and Gus find the Corrections officer, Craig, tied up. Shawn calls Henry for advice, but he also decides to try and stop the escaped prisoners on his own.
Early in the episode, Shawn, Gus, and Craig tried to sneak up on the prisoners, who planned on getting away aboard the ferry’s lifeboat. Shawn foiled their plan by cutting the lifeboat loose. He figured this would trap the prisoners, who would then be forced to wait for the police. He didn’t count on the prisoners taking the ferry passengers hostage.
This episode seemed to have two competing tones. On one hand, a hostage standoff with four criminals on one side and SBPD snipers and tear gas on the other is about as serious a dilemma as I’ve ever seen on Psych. I suppose we can always count on Shawn to get himself (and Gus) into trouble. I had a more difficult time believing Craig, a veteran Corrections officer, would go along with Shawn’s plans. Craig was shown to be a bit of a screw-up, but why would a screw-up be put in charge of four violent criminals?
Halfway through the episode, two of the criminals took two hostages into a cabin and apparently shot them. It turned out the criminals simply switched clothes with the hostages so they could slip away when the police raided the boat. Admonished by the police as usual, Shawn, Gus, and Craig continued to pursue the criminals, who were after $1 million stashed by a dead comrade.
While this episode lacked too much realism for my taste, Shawn and Gus’s banter with Craig was funny. I couldn’t get a handle on Craig’s character, but the writers intended him to be nuanced. I think they also anticipated some plot twists would be hard to swallow, hence the title “Ferry Tale.” I forgave all of the above flaws because “Ferry Tale” had the spontaneous feel I’d been hoping would return to Psych. This was not a case Shawn and Gus were assigned from the beginning. They stumbled onto a crime and improvised their way to a solution.
