PSYCH Invokes Diplomatic Immunity

Psych‘s sixth season premiere opens with an intruder crashing a party at the British embassy in Santa Barbara. It’s revealed that 11-year-old Justin (Aramis Knight) hired Shawn to retrieve a 1978 collectible Darth Vader action figure that Justin’s friend Mason (Matthew Gumley), the British ambassador’s son, failed to return. While in Mason’s room, Shawn is forced to hide under the bed, where he finds the body of a woman.

Once he slipped away from embassy security, Shawn had to alert the SBPD without revealing he entered the house illegally. He pretended to have a vision of the dead woman and continued winging it until Ambassador Fanshaw (Malcolm McDowell) allowed Shawn, Gus, Lassiter, and O’Hara into the house. The dead woman was identified as Annabeth York, the lowest-ranking member of Fanshaw’s staff. York had played a vital role in clearing British exchange student Colin Hennessy of charges he murdered his girlfriend.

Shawn used Fanshaw’s fondness for him to become a temporary member of the ambassador’s staff and further investigate Annabeth’s murder. Shawn suspected that Annabeth was killed because she uncovered new information in Colin’s case. Fanshaw told Shawn he’d received a cryptic text message from Annabeth: “The witnesses were right.” This seemed to indicate that Colin had actually been guilty of murdering his girlfriend. Also, Woody the coroner (Kurt Fuller) revealed to Henry that the strangulation marks in the case against Colin were identical to those found on Annabeth’s body. Eventually, Shawn’s memory of seeing a pair of shoes in the ambassador’s closet helped crack the case.

Along with the tension of Shawn investigating while trying to cover up his embassy break-in, “Shawn Rescues Darth Vader” featured the fallout from Lassiter’s discovery that Shawn and Juliet were dating. After being tricked into taking a polygraph test, O’Hara admitted she was dating Shawn and had hidden it from Lassiter. In a separate polygraph test, Lassiter asked Shawn if he were psychic. This was probably the moment of highest tension in the episode and in the series so far. There was a small chance that, after six years, Shawn would admit he wasn’t psychic. Instead, he was able to lie well enough to fool the polygraph machine. This talent was supported by a flashback that ended the episode, in which Henry trained young Shawn to beat a polygraph.

As a fan of straight procedural crime shows as well as comedies, I sometimes roll my eyes at what Shawn gets away with on Psych. In this episode, for example, he shows no understanding of diplomatic immunity, and when he’s granted immunity working for Fanshaw, he abuses it. Many viewers have pointed out that Lassiter, O’Hara, and Chief Vick are usually portrayed as competent; Shawn would not plausibly be able to fool them as long as he has. I suspect by now they know he isn’t psychic, but they humor him. I know some people will never get the fun of Psych, but with its later-than-usual premiere this season, I realized how much I’ve missed the show.