TVSquad

(S01E07) They changed it up a bit this episode. We've had some pretty standard mysteries during the early run of Psych, but this time they gave us a little twist on who committed the crime. Plus, there seemed to be two crimes happening at the same time that didn't correlate to each other. Well, at least in the beginning they didn't connect.

It began with the murder of a local doctor who was a client of the pharmaceutical company Gus worked for. Shawn and Gus thought this was going to be their case until a man came into their office ranting that a ghost was trying to kill him. In a change of pace Shawn was not interested in taking the case while Gus was raring to go.

After that things got a bit weird for our duo. First, while spending the night at their client's house, the 'ghost' started a fire in the living room. Then, someone tried to slam their car into Gus' sub-compact. Nothing made sense. Then, Gus and Shawn discover an attic full women's clothes, wigs and makeup. It turns out that their client may have been housing more than one person in his head.

It was actually two more, and they turned out to be the 'spirits' haunting the man. One personality was a woman; a woman who was a patient of the doctor who was murdered at the beginning of the episode. Another personality was one of a murderer; a murderer who actually killed the doctor. It turns out that the woman persona wanted an operation to permanently become a member of the female sex. The murdering personality didn't like this and killed the first doctor. It was on the way to kill a second doctor until Gus and Shawn got involved.

Not much to say about this episode. James Roday's performance as Shawn Spencer was fine as usual, but not as laugh out-loud funny as in the last few episodes. Dule Hill continued to grow into his character as Burton "Gus" Guster. In this episode he seemed to have a bit more confidence in how to deal with his client, especially on how to bring out the girl in him.

We did get to learn a bit more about Detective Ronald Lassiter. It seems that he is on his way to divorce, but is still trying to reconcile with his wife. Maybe that's why he always seems to have a stick up his tush. His partner, Juliet O'Hara, is becoming more comfortable around Lassiter, and giving more freedom to Shawn and Gus to perform their investigations. The only problem I have with Juliet is her clothes. I'm no fashion maven, but it seems that she wears the same pants suit with a different wide-lapelled shirt every episode. Perhaps she can mix it up a bit once in awhile.

By the way, the guy/girl/murderer was played by Frank Whaley, one of those actors you see everywhere but don't know who he really is. He's also been on Law & Order, Law & Order:CI, and NCIS. He also had a recurring role on The Dead Zone back in 2003-04. So, he's no stranger to the mystery genre.

Next week -- comic books and George Takei.