- Title: Psych – Santabarbaratown 2
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In the conclusion to last season’s cliffhanger Henry (Corbin Bernsen) fights for his life in the hospital, and deals with the unwanted affection of Chelsea (Arden Myrin), and a sleep-deprived and destructive Shawn (James Roday), with the help of Gus (Dulé Hill), searches for his father’s old friend Jerry Carp (Max Gail), who shot Henry and left him for dead. After finding a secret room in the man’s house and clues to continue searching, but also being caught in the act of breaking “half his house” by Juliet (Maggie Lawson) and Lassie (Timothy Omundson), Shawn once again promises to leave the case to the SBPD.
Ignoring his promise to stop investigating, Shawn creates a scene at Jerry’s gun range which is owned by Jerry’s old partner Jack Atwater (Jerry Wasserman) who Shawn put in jail at the beginning of the case, but getting Jack temporarily released to share information only allows Jerry, or one of his accomplices, to put a bullet into another one of his old friends. Although officially telling Shawn to stand down, Police Chief Vick (Kirsten Nelson) unofficially gives her blessing to Shawn continuing to work the case.
Returning to the gun range (with the worst disguises of all time, and where they have been banned for life), Shawn and Gus find their sniper in another former cop now working as a security guard for a charity which is a front for a gun runner (Oliver Muirhead) who receives weapons from Jack’s gun range and ships them all around the world to third world nations under the guise of his charity work.
When the other personal bodyguard to the head of the charity proves to be an undercover FBI Agent (Jake Busey), Shawn and Gus are thrown off the case, again. With Juliet unable to convince Shawn to stand down, Shawn and Gus track down Jerry in a house rented by the charity owner and protected by three heavily armed guards. Of course Shawn has a plan. An insane, completely ridiculous plan that leaves the Blueberry ripped in half and Gus leaving Shawn on his own. Realizing Shawn will never stop, and without his help will likely get himself killed, Lassie shows up to provide the psychic detective with a plan to get Carp (which accidentally poisons Gus and blows up his uninsured temporary replacement for the Blueberry), but it still takes a last-second save from Juliet to save Shawn’s life.
Although it doesn’t rank very high in terms of one of the show’s more wacky and fun episodes, it does have its moments (the destruction of the Cranberry, the running gag of Woody showing up with body bags, a cute moment in the police station between Shawn and Juliet once the case has been solved, and Henry’s first line in the episode). The second-half of the two-parter is certainly compelling as it explores how much trouble an emotionally unstable psychic can get into when one of his love ones is threatened, and works better than last season’s finale.
