- Title: Psych – Right Turn or Left for Dead
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24-hours after Lassie (Timothy Omundson) and Marlowe’s (Kristy Swanson) reception which ended with Juliet (Maggie Lawson) confronting him about the truth of his psychic abilities, Shawn (James Roday) begins going over the events of the night in his mind and speculates how things might have gone differently by making a couple of different choices. As the episode unfolds we’re shown two different realities. In the real series of events Shawn is forced to admit the truth to Juliet and goes home alone only to get pulled into an attempted murder case involving a young Swedish woman named Eileen (Lauriane Gilliéron) stabbed and left for dead.In the other reality, Shawn and Juliet leave the party together without ever having the talk and begin to investigate the same young woman’s murder the following morning with the help of Lassie’s (Timothy Omundson) new dog, Lassie Jr.
In both realities Shawn leads Lassie and Juliet to the crime scene where they discover a second victim, Eileen’s boyfriend. In the first storyline talking with the victim leads Lassie and Juliet to consider Eileen’s jealous ex-boyfriend to be their murderer while in the second reality Lassie and Juliet question the Eileen’s employer (Rose Abdoo) and are slower to tie the series of murders together. The real series of events also gives us another cameo of the continued unlikely friendship of Henry (Corbin Bernsen) and Lloyd (Jeffrey Tambor). In both realities Shawn discovers Eileen, who it turns out is a former mental patient, is the murderer.
After solving the case in both realities, the second storyline fades away returning the injured psychic detective to the cold reality involving his pissed off girlfriend, a mild concussion, and a crazy Swiss murderer still on the loose. “Right Turn or Left for Dead” offers a unique set-up to solve the week’s mystery as well as Shawn’s to attempt to deal with the events of the previous evening in a inter-crossing dual-story format that works really well. Although Gus (Dulé Hill) is spared the allergic reaction that nearly kills him in Shawn’s fantasy, I’m a bit sad that Lassie Jr. fades away as well. As to the fractured state of Shawn and Juliet’s relationship, it looks like it will take more than an apology for the fake psychic to win back his lady love, but I’m betting Shawn won’t give up without a fight.
