Psych – Don’t be William Zabka

(Season 3, Episode 12 – “Earth, Wind, and… Wait For It”)

Things were just a little bit different in Santa Barbara this week. Oh, there were still a lot of good gags, and a host of obscure references. At the same time though, there was a bit less of the psychic nuttery. Shawn and Gus once again managed to talk their way on to a case, but this one was a much more straight investigation. That could be attributed to the presence of the lovely arson inspector, Conrad (Milena Govich), who brought her own unique style to the preceedings. A fun character, but she didn’t turn out to be quite what I thought she would.

After the clues we’ve seen in the past couple episodes, I expected a beautiful girl like Conrad to set off the green alarm bells in Juliet’s head. Surely there would be some followup to all of those hints we’ve been getting. Yeah, not so much. That was probably the oddest bit of the episode for me, those Shawn/Juliet moments that we didn’t see. I suppose that is something we are just going to have to wait for.There was still plenty in this episode to enjoy.

Tim Matheson must have his own office down at USA HQ by now. Along with recent acting gigs on the one time series, then TV movie, To Love And Die, and Burn Notice, he’s also been directing up a storm. After three outings on Burn Notice, this marks his third episode of Psych. He even managed to work himself into the episode as the ten years dead Fireman Paul. One of the buildings scheduled for retro fit was also on Matheson Street, if you are playing along at home. And fans of Animal House had to enjoy the connection of having Bruce McGill in the episode as well.

The case itself was good. I liked the addition of Conrad and her unique, kind of odd, personality. The running gag with Shawn trying to get some kind of physical contact was funny, as each time he was shot down he named the reason. Rotator cuff. Carpal tunnel. It played well with her slowly changing opinion of Shawn, which went from her first reaction to meeting him, “You’re an idiot.”, to the triumphant fist bump in the end.

And, as I mentioned before, it was also light on the psychic act. I’m not sure if that was just a one-off oddity, or if it’s part of the natural progression as things change between Shawn & Gus and the SBPD. There are certainly signs of it being the latter after last week’s exchange with Lassiter. That was followed up this week by Lassiter letting Shawn have a go at the interrogation. I really liked Wiccan Shawn. What’s his passphrase? Knight Rider. Of course, we can’t wrap up talk of the case without mentioning Gus diving through fire to save/capture Johnson. Gus is a badass.

Finally, no Psych review is complete without some kind of  list of references/quotes. Here are some of my favorites from this week.

• “Trim that fingernail, Ming The Merciless.”  – Shawn to Lassiter. I will still watch the 1980 Flash Gordon with Sam Jones every time it’s on.
• The made up words for the murderer arsonist. arsassin, arsonurderer, firearseman, señor portaleña de fuego (That may be all kinds of wrong. I don’t speak Spanish, but my friend Google tells me portaleña is planks of which doors are made).
• “Don’t be William Zabka from Back To School.” – Shawn to Gus. William Zabka played Chas in the movie, but is probably best known as Johnny Lawrence in The Karate Kid.
• Shawn asks for a Zoltar machine. And you can get one of your very own, because the internet has everything.
• “You can’t plead Billy Preston.” – After Gus pleads the fifth, Shawn answers, “Element, Dimension, Beatle.” Billy Preston is one of a number of people that the “Fifth Beatle” moniker has been attached to. But he was the only artist credited along side the Beatles on an official release. The credits on the “Get Back” single read “The Beatles with Billy Preston.”
• The smoke detector – It’s not really a quote, or a reference, but the plate with an M&M glued to it was hilarious.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Jan 24, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT