Psych Episode Review: "Shawn Takes a Shot in the Dark"

Guest stars include Michael Rooker, John Hawkes and Sarah Edmondson.

One of the ongoing stories from this series are the various lessons Shawn is taught by is cop father, Henry. And, usually, there is a situation when the advice helps him out a bit. This episode, however, took things a little further because the advice, which honestly seemed to be a bit extreme when he was a kid, saved his life and, ultimately, made this a really good episode.

I think the most interesting thing about this episode was the way his dad and Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) had to find him using only the very few clues he sent Gus (Dule Hill) via a text message while Juliet (Maggie Lawson) and Gus tried to retrace his steps in an effort to figure out what he had discovered. This was a nice change of pace from most other episodes, when Shawn solves the mystery by himself, and gave the other characters in the series a chance to show off their own detective skills, though, admittedly, they did ultimately need Shawn's help (via a cell phone call) to pinpoint him.

The chase scene at the end of this episode was also very entertaining, especially the way nobody wanted Shawn to jump on their cars out of fear of causing damage to them (rather than, you know, worrying about him getting injured further). That was the kind of joke I'm used to seeing from this series and I couldn't help but laugh at how silly it all was.

I think my only real complaint about this episode is it's kind of unclear why, exactly, Shawn was still alive at the end. Rooker's character, Garth, obviously had no intention of killing him. But, his partner, Rollins (Hawkes), didn't seem to be too afraid of pulling the trigger and, after killing Garth, you would think he would have simply pulled the trigger a second time to kill Shawn too. The only thing I can figure is he thought he needed a hostage. But, it was never fully explained and I do think the episode had plenty of time to clarify that. 

This was a good episode that almost made me late getting back to work because I was watching it over my lunch break. It has a good mix of comedy combined with plenty of action and suspense and was worth watching.

My Grade: A