Psych – Recap & Review – High Top Fade Out

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Psych
High Top Fade Out

Original Air Date: Sept 26, 2009

Em – TwoCents Reviewer
em@thetwocentscorp.com

This week’s episode of Psych gives me something that I don’t believe I’ve ever seen in all my years of loving TV: a bike chase. You’ve seen one car chase, you’ve seen them all, but this is a new level of cool. The bike rider is being chased by a couple of very intimidating guys. He gets just enough of a lead to get back to his apartment, hook up his digital camera, and send an email. Then the scary guys catch up to him and it’s lights out, bicycle man.

Our bicyclist gets a nice memorial service, and we learn his name: Leonard, or “Diddle” to his friends. It turns out that Gus was not just a friend of his, he used to be Diddle’s band mate. He and the other two guys sing at Diddle’s memorial service, which Shawn also attends. You’d think Gus would have learned not to bring Shawn to these things by now. Still, he’s got a lot on his mind; in addition to Diddle’s death, there’s some weird issues between him and his former band mates, Tony and Joon. They haven’t spoken in ten years, and Gus isn’t telling why. Shawn might get his chance to find out anyway, as the guys recognize him from the news. They think that Diddle was murdered and they ask him to investigate.

The band mates had all received an email from Diddle just before he died. The subject line was “It’s so hard to say goodbye,” and it had an encrypted attachment that none of them were able to open. Gus didn’t even try; while he stayed close to Diddle over the years, he ignored any attempts at getting the band back together, which he assumed this email was. It might be something a lot more important than that, though. Diddle worked for a company that protects online transactions, and Tony and Joon think that he stumbled on some big secret – something worth killing to keep secret.

Since the email gets them nothing, they head back to Diddle’s apartment. They find their old band jackets and get swept up in some dance moves before they remember that they’re feuding. Shawn uses the opportunity to look for clues and notices some computer equipment that should be there is missing, while the safety gear – which Diddle would normally wear while cycling – is still in the apartment.

They visit the police department and find a dead end. Juliet tells them that Diddle’s death was just a hit and run, and since the department is cutting back on spending, Shawn can’t investigate. Lassiter shoos them out, so they sneak into the morgue, Shawn posing as a coroner and Gus as a cadaver. They question the coroner about Diddle’s death and find out that he had a crushed larynx and hyoid, which could be from asphyxiation. The accident was just faked to cover up the murder.

Shawn and Gus tell the guys that Diddle’s killer might know about the email, which would put them in danger, too. Tony and Joon start pretending they don’t know about the email, and then try to make a get-away, but when Tony unlocks his car, it explodes.

The explosion is enough to get Lassiter and Juliet on the case, but they still won’t let Shawn and Gus in on it. This time, they claim that there’s a conflict of interest, since Gus knows the targets and is a target himself. Shawn asks Juliet if she’s just getting back at him for the Abigail situation, and Juliet rightly shuts him down and lets him know how cruddy a move that was.

Looking for new avenues of investigation, Shawn and Gus visit Diddle’s old employer, Cybervault. Diddle’s boss tells them that he was the best at encryption, so there isn’t anyone that can help them with the email attachment. They stop at his desk and find the last things he wrote: a couple of addresses. They also notice that his books were arranged in such a way as to give him a perfect view of one of the women in the office, Chelsea. She tells them that Diddle had just asked her out before he died. Gus gives her his number.

They go back to Henry’s to pick up Tony and Joon, whom they had left there so they’d be safe. Chelsea calls Gus, and the guys get mad at him, saying that he’ll always sell out his friends for a girl. They say that’s why the band broke up. Gus claims it was because they slept with his girlfriend, though they say she was just a groupie and band members aren’t supposed to fall in love with groupies anyway. Gus and Shawn storm out, telling Tony and Joon to stay put, and check out the first address, a cleared out warehouse in a sketchy part of town. Tony and Joon follow them, and get kidnapped.

Taken as a whole, this episode fell flat. It lacked any of the tension that one would expect from an episode where three characters, one of them a main character, were repeatedly stated to be in mortal peril. The solution to the case was anticlimactic, and predictable if you know the “Gus has terrible luck with women” rule of Psych.

That said, there were a lot of individual things about this episode that I loved. First and foremost, that it let us see something of Gus’ life outside his relationship with Shawn. It’s good to see that the guy has other friends. Throw in some inside jokes about LA Law, a debate about “the guy code,” and have a cappella save the day, and this was still a fun episode.

How did you like it? Did it strike the right chord or did it miss a few notes? Leave me your two cents!