PSYCH – “This Episode Sucks” Vamps It Up for Halloween

In Psych‘s Halloween-themed “This Episode Sucks”, Lassiter is attracted to Marlowe (Kristy Swanson), who appears to have run out after meeting him and killed a man by sucking his blood.

This was another take on the classic plot of a new love interest who may be a killer. Lassiter’s objectivity was obviously compromised, so O’Hara led the official investigation. Most annoying to me, Shawn and Gus were both swept up in vampire lore, operating as if lore were fact (Garlic wards off vampires, holy water, etc.).

Yes, Shawn and Gus usually get silly, but the show has established that Shawn is a skeptic about most things, including ghosts, werewolves, and demonic possession. Typically, either Shawn or Gus is skeptical about something while the other believes it. The only other time I recall them both believing in a phenomenon was last season’s alien abduction episode. In the DVD commentary for that episode, the writers admitted it was unusual for Shawn to believe in aliens.

I liked that O’Hara remained skeptical of the vampire angle, but I also liked the twist that Marlowe’s brother had a rare blood disorder and required transfusions of O-Negative blood to survive. In other words, he was something of a real-life vampire. Marlowe had helped him acquire blood out of sisterly love, but even he was not a killer. He claimed to have left the episode’s first victim alive.

“This Episode Sucks” was good episode that avoided plot cliches. I would only rate it higher if Shawn or Gus had been skeptical of vampires.