TVSquad

(S01E05) Let's not dilly-dally around this week. Let's get to the best scene of the episode. This would be the one where Shawn is "channeling" a recently dead singer/dancer in front of the police chief. Well, to be truthful, he's "channeling" the dead woman via a "psychic connection" with a cat (who was previously owned by another recently dead victim).

Shawn is grooving and gliding along, singing in a husky female voice, trying to prove to the chief of police that four recent suicide victims didn't really kill themselves at all. Rather, they were murdered. It was all very surreal, like a nightmare version of All That Jazz. Bob Fosse would have been proud. It was also very funny, as was the entire episode.

This was purely a Shawn and Gus episode (very little Henry Spencer this week), and it was heavy with investigation and keen observation. Shawn came to the early conclusion that the deaths were not all suicides, but rather the work of a serial killer; despite the fact that the police didn't believe him (are the police THAT stupid? I fear for our lives.). They all seemed to have one thing in common: they all called a free stress hotline prior to their deaths. Shawn and a reluctant Gus (isn't he normally reluctant) hole up in a utility closet near the offices of the hotline to find the killer. Unfortunately, the killer wasn't a member of the office team, but someone not even related to the hotline group.

That was the best part of this week's episode; the mystery of who the killer pretty much remained a mystery until the end of the show. In the last few episodes you could almost pick out the culprit when they were first introduced as some innocuous friend or family member who knew the victim. But, not this time. Frankly, I thought the murderer was the director of the non-for-profit hotline. But, it turned out to be the phone line repairman whose brother was the first, and only real, suicide victim.

The mystery was very well done this week, and featured plenty of "psychic" spells and keen observations from our friend Shawn. He even received a sort-of thanks from Detective Lassister for helping nab the murderer. Gus, on the other hand, was not good this episode. In fact, he was down right annoying at some points. I hope the producers of Psych give Dule Hill's character a bit more to chew on in the next few weeks rather than have him keep saying, 'Shawn, we can't do that.'.

Ready for this week's complaint? I promise it doesn't involve scenery. It's during the scene where Gus and Shawn confront the killer. In rush Detectives Lassister and O'Hara . . . and a pregnant chief of police ready to shoot to kill. Now, if I were a pregnant chief of police (possibly in my next sitcom) I wouldn't be walking into a crime scene where some guy has a gun pointed at me. Not only is that dangerous and stressful for myself, but also extremely perilous for my unborn baby. What happens if the serial killer decided to shoot at the cops and hit me? There go two lives down the drain.

Oh, one more thing before I close out this week's review: more Henry Spencer!