PSYCH Recap: Office Space

Gus is freaking out when he awakens Shawn (whose hunt for soup with Juliet apparently went very well last week, they are in bed asleep at her place). He recounts the days events to Shawn, with panic evident in his voice. He had a confrontation with his abusive boss, Mr. Creech, who was berating his young assistant. He sent Creech a note, quitting his job and telling him to drop dead. Yes, that’s right….Gus was still working at his old company! Not even Shawn realized this. Gus later realized he needed his job and tried to retrieve the note, only to find his boss lying dead in his office. Someone stabbed him. From there things went haywire and everything Gus tries to do to cover up his tracks results in more trace evidence being left behind. He needs Shawn to help him clean the crime scene.

Pulling in Shawn might not have been the wisest choice, as he ends up adding some of his own DNA to the mix when he gets a nose bleed and sneezes it onto the body. They do their best with the scene, then go to Henry to beg for his help. He wants them to confess all they know before the police find out on their own that they were on the scene. The boys refuse. By the time they all arrive back at the crime scene the police are there and collecting evidence.

An observant security guard, a guy with the unfortunate moniker Leslie Valerie Sally, tips Lassie off as to abnormalities he sees at the crime scene. It’s obvious this guy fancies himself much more than a security guard. His attention to detail makes Shawn and Gus more than a little nervous. They follow him out to the garage, where his conjecture as to what happened is pretty spot-on with the details of Shawn and Gus attempting to get rid of evidence. At the end of his trail they find a coffee mug that is bound to hold some DNA evidence. The problem with that, it was Shawn’s cup. Or, to be more precise, it was Juliet’s cup. This discovery prompts Shawn to come clean to her with full disclosure…he and Gus were the ones trying to destroy evidence at the crime scene, and that cup is hers. Oh, and to ensure she doesn’t turn them in, he lets her know that he didn’t do the dishes as he had claimed, so her DNA is on the cup as well.

Juliet tries to hide her anxiety when Lassiter seeks her out to tell her that the killer destroyed the security camera hard drive, and but they think they can recover it. Gus overhears the conversation and can’t believe he didn’t think of destroying that hard drive. He and Shawn try their best to not look guilty as they walk around the offices searching for clues. They have to solve this murder before anyone finds the clues that point to them. Security guard Sally introduces the boys to company Senior Vice President Murray, who just arrived to attend Creech’s memorial service. Sally is collecting handwriting samples to try and find the source of the partial note found in Creech’s office. That would be the note Gus had written. At the memorial service, Gus notices that the young assistant Creech had yelled at prior to his death, Helen, is not in attendance. Gus swears to Shawn she’s never late for work.

It doesn’t take long for Woody to put the pieces together and place Shawn and Gus at the scene. He won’t rat his friends out. Well, he doesn’t want to, but apparently he can’t keep a secret. He has Shawn and Gus tie him up so that he can’t call anyone, it’s the only way. Juliet finds them with their captive, and is about to let him go until he tells her DNA evidence incriminates her as well. She reluctantly goes along with it, and they all return to trying to find the real killer before the police close in. Shawn remembers seeing a jogging log and map on Helen’s desk, so he and Gus go  to find her. They catch up to her on the jogging trail, and she quickly confesses to putting eye drops in Creech’s coffee. She came back later and found him dead, then she panicked. Only, he didn’t die from poisoning, he was stabbed, so Helen didn’t kill him. She’s greatly relieved by news she isn’t a killer. Gus thinks she has to know who would have hated him, since she worked so closely with him. She thinks someone from the sales team is most likely, corporate loved him.

When Shawn and Gus return to the offices, they are met by Sally and Murray. They have details of Gus’s confrontation with Creech the day before and Gus feels the walls closing in. Just when he thinks they are going to accuse him of being the killer, they reveal that they want to promote him to Creech’s job because he showed a lot of strength in standing up to him. After delivering the good news, they tell Gus the recovered security footage should be ready soon. Gus looks worried, but tries to cover.

Shawn zeroes in on their next suspect, a co-worker named Fincher who sounds like he has a crush on Gus. He goes on and on about the perfection of Gus. While the boys are distracted by a phone call from Juliet, Fincher disappears. As they chase after him, Sally stops them. He found the evidence they disposed of, but he knows Gus didn’t kill Creech. Only one person could have done that. Before he can reveal to them who did, he drops dead. As Shawn and Gus debate what to do about the bag of evidence, Lassiter arrives. Shawn and Gus run, and Lassiter stops his pursuit to check on Sally. He sees the test results Sally dropped that reveal the writer of the note they found was Gus.

Shawn and Gus gather all the employees together to reveal the identity of the killer. Shawn accuses Murray, having seen  remnants of shredded reports in the bag of evidence. As Helen told them, everyone at corporate loved Creech. In fact, they loved him so much he was going to take Murray’s job before long. Murray confesses, and Juliet is in the process of arresting him when Lassiter finally catches up to the boys. As if he wasn’t annoyed enough with them, they solved another murder without him. He didn’t even get to engage in any gunplay. Not Lassiter’s idea of a fun day.

Back at the Psych offices, Juliet tells the guys she has decided she wants to be left in the dark as to their methodologies in solving cases. Shawn swears to her there is nothing to worry about…he and Gus never leave anything behind. Of course, just as he gets the words out, they enter the room where they left Woody all tied up. Woody is still there.

Psych airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on USA.