PSYCH: Shawn Rescues Darth Vader & Says Important Things

Psych is back!

In the sixth season premiere, “Shawn Rescues Darth Vader”, we open to see Shawn doing just that…rescuing a Darth Vader toy. Scratch that, rescuing a valuable collectible for his client, a young boy trying to retrieve said valuable collectible from the Ambassador’s son who refused to return it. It is located somewhere in a large residence rented by the ambassador and his entourage, and Shawn has crashed a party in order to gain access. In typical Shawn fashion, he snacks and plays with toys as he leisurely completes his mission, zeroing in on the target in a drawer in one of the bedrooms. As he tries to make his escape and get back to the car where Gus and their young client are waiting, he hears two men approaching and seeks refuge under a bed in the first room he comes to. A popular place to hide, I suspect, as Shawn isn’t there alone…there is a body under the bed with him. A young woman, dressed for the party.

Back at the station, Lassiter wants Juliet’s help with his polygraph machine and talks her into letting him strap her to it. He asks her name, then cuts to the chase and asks if she is dating anyone. He notes that she seems stressed. He’s visibly bothered by what he heard in the previous season finale, and fishing for confirmation that she is dating Shawn.

Shawn fakes having a vision in order to lead police to the body. Lassiter notes that Juliet is quick to indulge Shawn’s whims. When they arrive at the Ambassador’s residence they are at first refused entry, until Shawn describes the woman he saw. Richard (the Ambassador, played by Malcolm McDowell) realizes he knows the woman Shawn is describing when Shawn mentions her earrings, and allows them inside. When they get to the room where Shawn saw the body, it is no longer there. Shawn leads them to the backyard. He recalls running there during his escape and notes the door to the pool house has been closed. They go inside and find the missing body floating in the pool.

Juliet wants an apology from Lassiter, but he takes a shot at her regarding honesty. Juliet finally comes clean: she is dating Shawn. Lassiter wants a new partner, one he can trust, but when they go to the Chief, she refuses. She doesn’t care what their problem is, they need to work it out.

The victim was Annabeth York. The party was in her honor after she helped clear the name of a teenager, Collin Hennessey, accused of strangling his girlfriend, Sarah Peel. When the Chief mentions that security chased someone from the premises, Shawn realizes that was him and blurts out that that isn’t the guy who killed Annabeth. Henry also realizes that it was Shawn they chased and tells him he could be in a lot of trouble. Shawn believes the Ambassador was having an affair with Annabeth, due to his visible reaction when Shawn mentioned new earrings.

During the autopsy, they learn Annabeth didn’t seem to struggle with her attacker, so it presumably was someone she knew. Her strangulation marks are the same as the ones in the Sarah Peel murder, which Collin Hennessey had been accused of committing. They are looking for someone in this international circle who was present on the dates of both murders.

Back to their original case, Shawn and Gus’s young client argues with the Ambassador’s son who had taken his toy collectible. The kid angers Gus who starts to argue with him, too. Gus wants to pummel him, in fact. During the distraction, Shawn steals the kid’s house key so they can get back into the Ambassador’s quarters. Shawn finds the card that the Ambassador gave Annabeth with the earrings. When he hears the Ambassador and his assistant approaching, he hides under the bed again. The Ambassador wants to come clean about his affair with Annabeth, but his assistant is against it, explaining that it will make him a suspect. He wishes there was someone who might believe him and help, someone like that psychic that he was so impressed with. Shawn sees his opening and next shows up at their front door claiming he was inexplicably drawn there.

Annabeth had tried to contact the Ambassador that night, but she had been cryptic and he didn’t know what she meant. Shawn tries on various British accents while they discuss the events. The Ambassador wonders if he learned them all from cartoons. Shawn notes that the shoes he saw in the Ambassador’s closet that night are gone. The Ambassador doesn’t keep his shoes there, leading Shawn to the realization that the killer was there in the room with him and the body. He reflects more on the events of that evening again and realizes he saw a car that matches the description of Collin Hennessey’s. Shawn thinks Annabeth had realized Collin was guilty, and he killed her because of it.

Shawn goes to Collin’s house and sneaks in (while Juliet, Lassiter, and Gus wait outside). It’s a diplomat’s house, but Shawn is taking liberties with the diplomatic immunity he bargained with the Ambassador for when he took on the job. He finds photos of Annabeth, some with Collin in them. The envelope suggests they are Collin’s. Charles, Collin’s host, wants to know what Shawn is doing there. The others enter the house and tell him they only wish to speak to Collin, but before they can Juliet receives a message that a fingerprint was found on the body, and it wasn’t Collin’s. The print belongs to the Ambassador’s assistant.

The assistant admits that she moved the body in order to protect the Ambassador. She thought he had killed Annabeth because the body was in his room. Shawn realizes that she couldn’t have been the killer because of where she was located that evening. Reflecting on the scene that evening, he thinks their previous suspect was the right one, Collin. He and Gus go to Collin’s college looking for him, but he runs when they approach. Shawn tries to commandeer a car from a passerby, using Gus’s Which ‘Wich stamp card as diplomatic credentials. He causes a ruckus that results in Shawn, Gus, and Collin being arrested.

Collin is quickly released, but not Shawn and Gus. Lassiter has other plans for them. He shows a photo that was faxed to police, taken at the party, which appears to be Shawn ascending the stairs. Lassiter wants an explanation and Juliet listens intently behind him. Shawn denies it was him.

Lassiter straps Shawn to the lie detector. The questions start, and the topic quickly turns to Juliet. Shawn blurts out that he loves her, and all eyes are on the needle as it indicates he is telling the truth. Lassiter has one more question, “Are you psychic?” By now Henry and the Chief have gathered in the room. Shawn calmly replies “Yes” and no deception is indicated.

Shawn looks again at the faxed photo and sees a smudge on it, a smudge he recognizes from the glass on the fax machine at Collin’s host’s home. When they arrive and Charles descends the stairs, Shawn recognizes his stance…he was the man in the closet, the one whose shoes Shawn saw. He killed Annabeth because she had realized that he was the one who had killed Collin’s girlfriend, Sarah Peel.

With the case solved, Shawn tries to convince the Ambassador to allow him to keep diplomatic immunity, but to no avail. He tells the Ambassador that he ‘sees’ that his son is in danger….of becoming a serious a-hole. The ambassador replies that he doesn’t need a psychic to tell him that.

Juliet wonders if she and Shawn need to talk about what happened (the polygraph). Before they can have that serious moment, Lassiter interrupts and wants to talk to Shawn. They return to the lie detector, but this time Lassie straps it to himself. He states that if Shawn hurts Juliet in any way, he will unload his weapon in him. He is telling the truth.

As we close the episode, we are treated to a flashback to an earlier time, with young Shawn and Henry at home. Henry is coaching young Shawn on ways to beat the lie detector.

It’s great to have Psych back for a sixth season, and this episode was great fun in the same spirit expected from this show. It might have been a little Gus-light for my taste, but I have no doubt that Gus will be as involved as ever in upcoming episodes. What did you think? Did Lassiter accept Shawn and Juliet’s relationship too easily? Will Shawn admitting that he loves Juliet cause bumps in the road for them? Do you think Gus could have taken that mouthy kid if he’d really wanted to?