PSYCH: “Heeeeere’s Lassie” Recap

Heeeeere’s Lassie, the title of this episode, conjures up images of Lassiter in a Nicholson-like pose from The Shining, and that alone is worth two thumbs up before the opening credits roll.

We start with Gus dismayed to find Shawn and Juliet hosting a yard sale in the Psych offices. There haven’t been any cases and Shawn is trying to raise funds, he still needs to pay Gus back for all that money he spent taking Juliet away for that romantic weekend. Gus suggests he just sell the engagement ring he didn’t give to Juliet. It’s his Grandma’s ring, though and Shawn can’t part with it. He put it in a new safe place, better than the Nintendo, a Thundercat. A kid is buying it, though, while Shawn and Gus are busy talking and Shawn has to pay a premium price to get it back.

Juliet is called in on a case, which means Shawn and Gus tag along to try and worm their way onto the payroll. A man has hanged himself, and Lassie can’t believe his good luck that his fabulous apartment is now available. He hopes the next of kin might sell him the furniture as well.

Back at the station, McNabb warns Lassie that the complex has a bad aura, but Lassie doesn’t believe in it. He invites everyone over for a housewarming, providing they come dressed for painting. His new neighbor, Amy, drops by to introduce herself, she does it for all newbies, and brings a basket full of gifts from all the other residents. The large rat traps are particularly disturbing. He tells her to spread the word that there is a new sheriff in town, he’s going to start by doing background checks on everyone in the building.

In answer to the age old question, we see that Lassiter does actually sleep with his gun. He is awakened by a noise at the door, but when he checks the hallway there is nothing there, until two elderly twins in pretty frilly dresses are seen at the end of the hall. He takes cover, but when he looks again they are gone. He ducks back to his apartment, and his dining room chairs have been stacked. Lassie is starting to freak out just a bit, so much so that he does the unthinkable.

Lassiter goes to Shawn and Gus for help. It’s difficult for him to admit that he’s seeing and hearing spooky things. Shawn and Gus are elated over the prospect of a haunted dwelling, they dance, then present Lassie with their contract. They show up at Lassie’s looking like they’re ready for a remake of Ghostbusters. Neighbor Amy runs into them in the hallway and is full of questions. It’s not every day the Ghostbusters show up in your building. Another neighbor, Rose Marie, a pregnant woman who looks a lot like Rosemary…the one with the baby…exchanges some words with Lassie.

Shawn notices names on a mailbox that he’s pretty sure belong to the elderly twins Lassiter saw. He knocks on the door, and it’s them. One problem solved, Lassie’s Psych bill is growing. The stacked chairs are no longer stacked, another problem solved and charges rung up. Shawn and Gus are ready to get paid and leave, but Lassie tells them something strange is going on, would he have gone to them if he didn’t think it was necessary? They can’t argue that point. They spend the night on Lassie’s floor. Lassie is awakened by noises again, and imagines his girlfriend is there. He finds a prison jumpsuit on the bathroom floor and a woman is in the shower, but when he opens the curtain there is no one there. He looks in the mirror, and he looks like the wolf man. Then his reflection reaches out and grabs him. He wakes up, relieved it’s a dream, but his wolf man reflection is there and tries to strangle him. He then wakes up again, for real this time, and is relieved again. That is, until Shawn and Gus scream for him. There is blood dripping from a light fixture.

Woody analyzes the blood from the light fixture, and it wasn’t human. It came from an animal, one with high triglycerides and apparently an STD. Woody is a fascinating guy. Lassie thinks the rat traps must be the answer. They are all over the building, Lloyd must have gotten one on the floor above Lassie’s. Since Lassie thinks he has the answer, he fires Shawn and Gus. They can’t let that stand, so they keep on the case. Shawn suspects Rose Marie’s husband. He was carrying renovation plans when they met him earlier, and he recalls Lassie had mentioned a competing bid for the apartment. The Rosemary’s baby family tells them they had withdrawn their offer on the apartment because their business had recently failed. Shawn and Gus move their questioning over to the building caretaker, Lloyd. He’s a bit creepy, he tells them to come in but when they do he has disappeared. He seems to be a hoarder as well. When they find him, he tells them he has seen many odd things in condo 536, and the culprit is the residents of 536. He’s seen many man move in there and then unravel. He thinks the condo is cursed. Back at SBPD, Henry has been looking into the building history. The last resident wasn’t the only one to commit suicide, the one before him did the same. Juliet learns the building architect had a lot of problems and was found in the building with his wife, dead from a murder-suicide. Shawn doesn’t believe in hauntings, but everyone else seems to be buying it. When Shawn and Gus get back to Lassie’s place, he’s watching static on his television while wearing a monocle. Lassie might be a bit off, even on a good day, but this isn’t normal even for him.

Shawn goes back to Woody and begs for help. Woody has results of blood tests on the previous resident, and there were drugs in them, poppers. He seemed to be a health nut, so Shawn is perplexed. He has Woody pull up results for other resident who committed suicide, and he had the same drugs in his system. Shawn thinks they are looking for someone who knows the building and has access to the units. He and Gus sneak into the caretakers apartment to look around. They find a gift they gave Lassie, and neighbor Amy’s paycheck. Lloyd has been stealing from the residents. Shawn finds a bottle of the drug Woody found in the autopsies. He sends Gus up to Lassie’s place to look around for any sign of the same drug. No one is there, but Gus notices something blowing in the vent. He opens the vent and finds a jar with a substance in it, soaked in a wash cloth. That’s how the residents have been drugged, it’s blowing through their vents. Before Gus can get back to Shawn, a drugged up Lassiter stops him, and draws a sword. Lassie is usually a little crazy, Lassie on drugs is off the charts. He chases Gus all over the building and has him trapped. Gus is trying to explain what has been happening, but Lassie isn’t hearing, he thinks Gus has been doing this to him.

Shawn calls Juliet to come down and question Lloyd. He gets a text from Gus and goes to find him. Gus, meanwhile, is still trying to get away from crazy Lassie. He hides behind the closed door of a laundry room while Lassie channels his best Nicholson and breaks down the door in a homage to the famous scene from The Shining. Shawn rescues him in the knick of time. That’s right, I said Shawn. He tells Lassie that it wasn’t Gus, it was Lloyd who was doing this to him, then he’s distracted by a noisy dryer behind Gus. Gus checks it, and it turns out it wasn’t Lloyd who was responsible for the weird happenings, because he’s dead and bouncing around the dryer. RIP Lloyd.

Juliet wraps a blanket around a now sober Lassie and tries to comfort him. Shawn brings him coffee. Or at least he thought it was coffee. Shawn brought gazpacho. Lassie takes it anyway, and apologizes to Gus for trying to kill him with his sword. Gus is curious, if Lloyd wasn’t the killer, who was? Shawn remembers the things they saw in Lloyd’s apartment, in particular Amy’s paycheck. They go back to the apartment and find it, only it wasn’t a check. It was a bill. They confront Amy. She doesn’t really work at a hospital, she sees a psychiatrist. She has mommy issues…and daddy issues…and acute rejection disorder, she’s been left at the alter twice. She fell in love with the first victim, who didn’t reciprocate, so she killed him. She used the stories of the architect and his wife to plant the idea of haunting in people’s heads. Same thing happened with victim two, who also wasn’t interested in her. Then there was poor Lloyd, his kleptomania resulted in him finding information that would incriminate her so she stuffed him in the dryer for a long cycle. The cops are on their way, they tell her it’s the end of the line. She doesn’t agree, she bolts up the stairs. Shawn and Gus give chase, but they aren’t in their best shape and tire before she does. Shawn does anyway, Gus says his problem is the thin air at that level. Shawn calls out and begs her to turn herself in. He knows why she was haunting Lassiter, he’s SBPD, and not going to leave any stone unturned. She had to get rid of him. By the time Shawn and Gus get to the rooftop she has disappeared. As they catch their breath she runs at them, and Shawn moves away just in time. Amy falls off the edge of the roof and lands on the awning just as police arrive. Shawn calls out to tell them she’s crazy and she’s the one responsible. Then he continues to catch his breath. Case solved.

Shawn finally remembers where he hid the ring, but Gus has already found it, in a toy frog. Shawn has an idea where he can safely hide it, but Gus suggests he put it back at Henry’s before he realizes it’s gone…unless he’s still thinking about proposing. Shawn insists it’s the furthest thing from his mind, but Juliet’s father arrives, telling Shawn he came as soon as he could. Shawn left him a voice mail saying that he was going away with Juliet for a weekend and wanted to talk to him first. It was more than a week ago, but he has been out of the country. Shawn goes into the story, how he had thought Juliet wanted him to propose, but he misunderstood. But since he’s there, he wants to ask permission to marry Juliet now, so that he already has it when the time comes. Mr. O’Hara doesn’t want Juliet to marry a man like him, and asks Shawn if he can honestly say he’s never lied to Juliet. He has had trouble with truth all his life and it’s taken it’s toll on those he loves, and he and Shawn are birds of a feather. An interesting thing happens next, Gus stands up for Shawn. His attitude towards the idea of Shawn taking the marriage leap seemingly changes from antagonistic to supportive. Meanwhile, as the conversation is momentarily sidetracked by Gus’s defense of Shawn, Mr. O’Hara manages to slip away without ever giving Shawn his blessing.

Psych airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on USA.