PSYCH: “The Tao of Gus”

Ever wonder why Gus just doesn’t get any love? He’s a nice guy. A little eccentric maybe, but a nice guy. This season he’s been making an effort, he wants to find his girl, but he couldn’t be much worse at selecting women. So far this season we’ve seen him trying to woo a killer’s daughter and a multiple-personality patient at a mental institution.

This week begins with Gus and Shawn waging a sit-in at the station, waiting for Henry to hand over their paycheck. They need it so they an hit the opening of a new cupcake store. They barely even have it in hand when Gus spies a beautiful woman across the room, deep in conversation with Lassiter and Juliet. Gus glides over and cuts into the conversation, using multiple cheesy pickup lines. Juliet feels it necessary to apologize on Gus’s behalf. Gus really has no game. The woman, Nicole, likes him though, and Gus is encouraged.

Juliet pulls Shawn and Gus aside for a little talk. She and Lassiter have concerns about the woman’s sanity. She meditated while Lassie and Juliet questioned her, among other things, and the crime she supposedly witnessed sounds unlikely…a murder in which there is no victim to be found. Gus still wants to give it a shot. Shawn agrees with Juliet and Lassiter for a change.

Shawn and Gus take Nicole to the scene of the crime. She didn’t see the killer, barely saw the victim, and she was alone in the alley where it happened. While Shawn and Gus have a little sidebar to discuss whether a crime actually did happen, someone intentionally tries to run over the woman. Shawn is finally sold, there is a case, and they will help her. Gus couldn’t be more delighted.

With someone trying to kill Nicole, they need to protect her. Shawn takes her to Juliet‘s place, but Juliet can’t let her stay there, legal implications and such. The trio goes in search of another place, and she suggests they could take her home. Meanwhile, home alone, Juliet finds Nicole’s scarf she left at her apartment and tries it on, just before a bullet shatters her window. Someone mistook her for Nicole.

Shawn, Gus, and Nicole arrive at her home, a commune. Shawn is terrified of all the happy, loving people approaching them with weapons and farm tools in hand. They mean no harm, they are just welcoming them, in a creepy, scary, Children of the Corn sort of way. Then appears Eli, the leader of the merry little band. Nicole tells Eli the story of the murder she witnessed. Shawn wants to get out of there, but Nicole wants them to stay. The group welcomes them with open arms. Gus is thrilled, as he’s still smitten, but Shawn isn‘t really feeling the love. When they enter the dining hall with the group, they see a huge portrait of Eli and realize that this is a cult.

Juliet reaches Shawn by phone to warn him that someone is trying to kill Nicole. She is sending someone for them, although Shawn doesn’t really know where he is.

Morning at the cult comes early. Shawn is an unhappy camper. This is a major changeup in the duo dynamic, it’s usually Gus who is miserable and Shawn who is oblivious to it. They have to get to the Peace ash for morning rituals, which some would call exercises. Shawn calls Juliet, and while they talk someone runs a red light and almost hits her as she crosses the street. Shawn remembers seeing a sign at the crime scene indicating traffic was camera enforced. He later sneaks into an office and calls Henry to have him search for any clues. He finds two men talking, and Henry knows one of them. He is an Internal Affairs agent, and was talking to a man in a hood. Nicole wanders in while Shawn has the photo up on a computer screen. The man in the photo is the man she saw killed.

While they browse the cults organic market, Shawn briefs Gus on what they know about the murder victim. A truck full of rednecks pulls up and starts shouting rude comments. One of the cult guys, Jeff (a former hedge fund manager) gets into an altercation with them. Gus goes after them and gets knocked over the table. Shawn steps in and beats the men with fruit and bread. Gus is about to join back in the melee until he sees that Shawn is now losing. He then pretends to be unconscious until it’s all over and the men leave.

Lassiter and Juliet question the head of Internal Affairs about Dan Cooper, the agent who was killed. He won’t answer any of their questions unless they can prove something actually happened to Cooper. The guy has quite a lengthy record on Lassiter though, he’s happy to talk about that.

Juliet calls Shawn to read him the riot act over his blowing his cover by getting into a fight. It was reported. She tells him they hit a dead end with Cooper, he was low end at IA and covered things like evidence handling. Shawn remembers a cop lurking around the station when he was last there with Henry, handling evidence and not signing for it. He thinks it may be connected. The cop’s name was Pierce. Jules goes to check it out. Shawn delivers laundry and uses it as an opportunity to sneak into Eli’s house. There are a lot of ‘family photos’ at Eli’s place. Photos of himself with his followers going back for several years. Shawn browses around his desk until he hears noises coming from the kitchen. It’s Gus and Nicole making out. Shawn wants to speak to Gus outside, but Gus starts quoting brother Eli. Shawn tries his best to get through to Gus, he’s really too far gone though.

Juliet calls Shawn to let him know that he was right about Pierce. He was misappropriating evidence. Shawn’s excited, they can leave the farm if the danger has passed. He calls Gus aside for another powwow, gets him into the car under the ruse of going to the Peace ash again, and takes off driving to get out of there. They don’t get far before he spies the car that tried to run down Nicole, slightly concealed by tree limbs. Shawn realizes this means Pierce wasn’t the person who tried to kill Nicole after all, and the killer just got there.

Shawn and Gus rush back to the cult to find Nicole. She’s fine. She’s almost naked, but she’s fine. Shawn and Gus don’t mind the naked part. Juliet and Lassiter arrive. Lassie is disgusted by the hippies, and they don’t seem to think much of him either. They go to look at the car, and find berries in it, the same type that Jeff had told a customer will turn red after a couple of days. These are already red. Whomever was driving that car didn’t just arrive, they’ve been there the entire time.

They return to the farm just in time to witness an open discussion session with the cult members. They take turns holding a gourd and confessing thoughts. No one can talk unless holding the gourd. One of the hippies, Dot, confesses her fantasies about Shawn…they have a history, he washed her bloomers. Jeff uses his time to call out Nicole. She didn’t go into town to buy something, she went to see a man. She stands up and takes her time with the gourd to deny it, the guy was just asking her questions about their community, they exchanged emails. She was going to meet him, but didn’t because she witnessed a crime on her way there. Shawn listens to this conversation with interest. Lassiter wants to ask a question, but is told he has to hold the gourd to speak. Lassie is put off by this, but does it. I do love seeing Lassiter do things that make him cringe. There was a partial email address Shawn saw in Eli’s desk, and it was Agent Cooper’s. He was the man Nicole was emailing. Nicole is upset, he never said anything about being a police officer. Shawn questions her about Jeff, his anger and jealousy. Did she have a prior relationship with him? Turns out Jeff was her ex husband.

Next the group follow the clues and pays Jeff a visit. He answers the door of his cabin, but before they can enter Shawn sees something odd coming out the door to the shed. When Lassiter opens the door, agent Cooper’s dead body falls out. Lassiter arrests Jeff. Juliet goes through Cooper’s things while discussing the case with Shawn and Gus. There is a photo of a woman in his wallet, but he was single. Shawn recognizes the woman from one of Eli’s ‘family photos’. Dot remembers her. Her name was Cynthia Cooper, one of the first women to join the commune. She left about six years ago. When asked where she is now, Dot says the she heard she lived in a trailer park and had become mentally unstable.

Shawn and the others rush to the Peace ash just in time to hear Eli ask who wants to be his partner. Shawn begs to be picked. He gets up on the platform with Eli, but says he has another exercise, called “Raise Your Hand If You’re A Swindling Crook Pretending To Be A Spiritual Leader?” It seems everyone there was wealthy before they joined Eli’s family. They all signed a pledge of simplicity when they arrived, a power of attorney that basically gives everything they have to him. He killed Cooper because his Cooper’s sister Cynthia had been in the group and it had ruined her. He was intent on exposing Eli. Eli tracked Cooper down and killed him, but didn’t expect Nicole to be there and witness. Eli planned to take all his followers former possessions and flee to Antigua, to the nice house he got from Jeff’s assets. When Eli tries to flee, his flock chases him down and beats him.

Gus and Nicole have a very lip locked goodbye. She says she will miss him. Gus is rattled, why will she miss him? She’s going to India, to another cult somewhere. As she reveals her plans, Gus starts to realize that she really is crazy. They say their goodbyes. Shawn and Juliet go to the organic produce stand the group runs. He wants her to taste the produce. Dot still hasn’t gotten over her hot dreams of Shawn. She and Jeff bought the produce stand, though, and will make their life there now that Eli is gone. While Shawn is stuck in a big group hug with Jeff and Dot, Juliet grabs more peaches and makes her getaway.

Once again, Gus failed to get the girl, but it’s probably for the best considering she was a little on the crazy side. Will Gus ever get a nice, normal girl? As much as I believe he deserves one, I think I might be rather sad when that day comes, because seeing him choose the wrong ones is so much more fun.