PSYCH: “Let’s Doo-Wop It Again” Recap

This week episode opens at an event honoring Deacon Jones, a man who runs an organization that helps at-risk youth and put them on the right path. Shawn, Gus, and Gus’s friends from college, Tony and Drake (his fellow Blackapella members) are there to perform, because Tony and Drake were two of his success stories. Shawn is standing in as their fourth member because their other member couldn’t make it. He’s also changing their name to Quarterblack. The guys perform a song, and no sooner finish than Shawn collapses onstage in a great deal of pain.

At the hospital, Shawn wakes and learns that his appendix has been removed. As he worries whether he can survive without an appendix and ponders transplants, Deacon is wheeled in for emergency surgery…he was shot after the event, and his assailant wasn’t caught.

The bullet went straight through Deacon and missed vital organs, so he’s going to be okay eventually. The only lead on his shooter was that a black SUV was seen speeding away. Gus, Drake and Tony want to investigate, but Shawn protests Gus doing so without him. Gus agrees…until he gets outside Shawn’s room. He’s on the case then. Inside his hospital room, Shawn knows they’re going without him.

Police know Deacon was shot in the green room, but there were no security cameras in that area. Gus, Drake, and Tony want to help. Drake tells Lassiter and Juliet that the gang that has been affected most by Deacon’s work was the Rolling Ones, who have been around since he and Tony were kids. They are led by Little Sis, who is currently in jail but still runs things. Gus notices that Little Sis is in the same unit as Lassiter’s girlfriend Marlo, and if she were to help them get info it could help her get an early parole. Lassie, who has been trying to ignore them and all their help until now, suddenly is excited to have their input.

Marlo is happy that her boyfriend is so committed to being with her, and wants her to get an early release. She’s having trouble getting close to Little Sis, but figured out a way that might help. She tells Lassie to remember this is for them, then slugs him in the face and is dragged away by guards. Little Sis witnesses the whole thing from the prison yard, and the seed is planted. When Marlo is brought into the visitors room to see Lassie later, she has corn rows in her hair….she has successfully gotten closer to Little Sis. She learned that there’s a rumor that someone in Deacon’s organization has been skimming money. As Marlo and Lassie say their goodbyes, Gus gets a call from Shawn, who hears prison sounds in the background and figures out what’s going on. He suggests Tina, the financial officer in Deacon’s organization, must be involved. She’s helping out at the Right Now Boot Camp, but Shawn insists that if Gus values their friendship, he won’t go without him. The solution is to include Shawn via Facetime streaming video on the iPad.

Gus, Drake, and Tony arrive at the boot camp and see Tina enter the office. She locks the door so they have to sneak and watch from a window. She removes a large sum of cash from the safe and leaves with it in a backpack. The guys follow nervously follow her. Drake notes that black guys in movies never make it out of these situations alive. They eventually see Tina entering another building and they charge in after her, only to find she’s waiting for them behind a door with a loaded gun.

She wants to know what they’re doing there, and is surprised to learn she’s their prime suspect. She tells them they have no idea what’s happening and she has bigger problems. She orders them into the closet. They resist, but when they hear a vehicle pull up outside they do as she says. It’s a guy named Chuy, and Tina wants to know why Deacon was paying him off. He’s hostile and threatening, and demands his money. As the sounds of someone being beaten fill the room, the guys rush out to help Tina, only to find she’s the one doing the beating. When they pull her off him, Chuy flees. She’s angry, because of their interference she still doesn’t know why Deacon was paying Chuy. Drake can’t believe Deacon would do such a thing.

Back at the hospital, Shawn is now sharing a room with Deacon. Drake and Tony beg Deacon to tell them that he didn’t steal that money. Deacon sadly admits that he did. The only way he could get the kids out of the gang was to pay the gang leader to let them go. He did it to save lives. Chuy is now their top suspect as the gunman, so they need to find him. Shawn noticed a tattoo on his neck, and Deacon confirms that one of his rumored hideouts was a tattoo parlor. Shawn begs Gus not to confront the bad guy, but instead call Juliet and Lassie. Gus promises they will, then outside agrees with Drake and Tony that they have to do it themselves. Involving the law would get Deacon in trouble for embezzling. They find the tattoo parlor, and decide they need to get a photo of Chuy getting into the SUV there that looks like the one from the crime scene. Gus leaves Drake and Tony on the street and goes to take the photo. He puts change in the meter for 20 minutes of parking, then makes his move…but he stops short when he sees the SUV leaving, with Tony and Drake in the backseat looking terrified.

Police arrive at the scene, and Gus tries to explain to Juliet and Lassie what happened. He did see part of the license plate, it ended with “2910”. Shawn is back onscreen and wants to know what happened. Gus is ashamed that he got Tony and Drake kidnapped. He also got a ticket because his 20 minutes of parking expired. Gus tells Juliet and Lassiter that they need to get inside Chuy’s headquarters and find some clues. He’s in luck, Lassie is wearing his “probable cause kicking shoes”. Once inside, Gus manages to search on his own so he can show Shawn what he finds. Shawn spots an article about the shootings, it mentions the Rolling Ones, and Gus tells Shawn they are called that because they control all the neighborhoods along Jefferson Blvd., from 100 to 190. Shawn recalls the license plate Gus saw had 2910 in it, and suspects it was a vanity plate 1002190. If they can find that SUV, they’ll find Tony and Drake, and Deacon’s shooter as well.

Lassiter and Juliet lead a raid on the address given in Chuy’s registration, and find Tony and Drake tied up there. After an exchange of gunfire, Chuy tries to get away. As he turns the ignition in his SUV, it explodes. Someone killed him.

Lassiter informs the guys that none of the guns they found on the scene matched the one that shot Chuy. He wonders if Drake and Tony learned anything that might help, and Tony tells him they heard Chuy talking about the shooting. He told his gang that he didn’t do it. He said he had a way prove it. Drake and Tony are both happy the cops arrived when they did, because they think he was going to torture them. He had knives, blow torch, bandages, Lidocaine. Gus interrupts, that’s a local anesthetic, something you’d use when performing surgery. Shawn remembers a bandage on Chuy’s arm, he thinks there must have had a bullet in it. They need to retrieve that bullet from Chuy’s arm, so they go to Woody’s lab. Woody informs them Shawn’s theories were right, there was a bullet. It had gone through Deacon and hit Chuy, and that’s how he knew it would prove his innocence. Since they know Chuy didn’t do it, the only other people with access to that area were Blackapella, Deacon Jones, and Jimmy Brigham the head of security. Shawn says Tina also had access. In fact, Shawn tells them he has a very strong premonition that Tina is hiding something. He’s 100% sure. After they disconnect, Jimmy is seen holding a gun to Shawn’s head.

Jimmy tells Deacon he wasn’t trying to kill him, he only meant to scare him. His company is suffering because Deacon has cleaned up the streets so well. If Deacon was attacked, people would fear the gangs again and need him to protect them. Jimmy is about to shoot Shawn, but Shawn points out to him he’s in the middle of a hospital, so that isn’t a smart idea. Jimmy realizes he’s right, and turns up Shawn’s IV in order to give him a morphine overdose instead.

Gus is having a bad feeling about Shawn’s being so sure. He said he was 100% sure, and Shawn would never say that. If he was really sure, he would say he’s 200% sure. He also called the group Blackapella, which Shawn would never do. Gus begs Juliet and Lassiter to trust him, something is wrong.

Deacon is trying to reason with Jimmy. He’s high on painkillers, but he’s giving it his all. Shawn is loopy as well. Jimmy looks out the door to check what’s going on in the hallways and make sure the coast is clear. While he is distracted, Shawn slips out of the bed and jumps on his back. It turns out Shawn wasn’t high on painkillers at all, Henry was paying Shawn’s hospital bill and wouldn’t foot the bill for painkillers after 24 hours. Shawn’s IV was glucose, he faked the morphine high. Lassiter and Juliet bust in and apprehend Jimmy, followed quickly by Gus. Juliet tells Shawn that Gus deserves the credit, he knew something was off. As the friends pat each other on the back, Shawn’s adrenaline high runs out and he collapses in pain on Deacon’s bed. Deacon soothes him, he thinks he’s a cat.

Back at the Psych office, with Shawn out of the hospital, Shawn asks Drake and Tony if they can stay around a few more days. They would love to, but don’t have time to hang around Santa Barbara being a couple of sidekicks. Their hopeful looks tell Shawn and Gus that being sidekicks is exactly what they want. Psych doesn’t have any more cases for them, but Shawn does have one more gig for Quarterblack. They perform for the female prison where Marlo is incarcerated. During their performance, one of the inmates throws a chair at them and a riot ensues. The guys rush off the stage, and back in the audience Marlo tells Lassiter that duty calls. She jumps into the melee as well.

Psych airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on USA.