Psych Finale ("a thing that recovers the doubt...")

The first post and it's about Psych? Really?

I could try to be coy, and write a little about the staggeringly awesome pair of vintage style Penguin sneakers I bought (just like der Bingle used to wear!), or kvetch about how godawful that Repo Men movie looks; but what it comes down to is this: I really needed the Psych season finale to be excellent. Shawn and Gus have been largely disappointing for the entire second semester of this season. It's felt flat, forced, and unfocused. Too many guest stars of varying quality. For whatever reason, the show kept forgetting to be interesting.

In the season finale, Shawn, Gus, and Mary Lightly revisit the Mr. Yang slayings. This was worrisome to me, because, in all candor, I felt like the Season 3 finale with Mr. Yang was one of the riskiest shows Psych had ever done. There was so much happening and such breakneck vacillation between screwball comedy and high tension that it felt like it could all have fallen apart in the blink of an eye. The entire narrative was flirting with disaster even then, when it felt like Psych was on top of its game. So as soon as I learned the premise of the episode, I had a queasy feeling this could turn into the episode that sunk the series for me.

Instead, the episode was excellent. The plot was actually appreciably busier, and more complex, than the original Mr. Yang episode with the introduction of a second psychopath and a second damsel in distress as Abigail stopped by long enough to get herself into a life or death predicament. A cleverly campy Hitchcock motif was carried through from start to finish. The writers avoided the temptation to cave in and give Shawn/Juliet any kind of cheap grace. Henry is still underused (this is kind of my mantra w/r/t Psych) but his contribution is memorable and he's set up for a bigger role during the show's return for summer school.

I may post more about this later, but for now I want to avoid any major spoilers. Suffice to say:

1) I still don't care for Abigail. I understand the necessity of an Aigail-type existing, but ever since her memorable appearance in the high school reunion episode it's been entirely too apparent that she's a mere contrivance, a plot device. Various one-off characters have been far more memorable, as characters, than Abigail. The thing is, Rachel Leigh Cook does the best she can with what she's given. I'm not sure why the Abigail character herself just never comes alive for me.

2) The very last scene of the season is a nod to The Royal Tenenbaums! It's actually not just a nod, it's outright theft, but in a fun "this was cute so nobody is going to press charges" senior prank way. This is part of why I still love you, Psych, even when you're not namechecking Night of the Comet enough for my taste.

3) I admire the show's ability to introduce real tension and drama but stay goofy. At this point, all the characters have developed a Spenserian detachment from drama and danger. Except Henry, for whom everything is a matter of life and death and always will be. On a similar note, I admire the show's ability to end the season on a note of emotional tension without giving into the temptation to allow the last episode to turn into an over-the-top cliffhanger the way Burn Notice does every. single. season.

The episode was a necessary return to first principles. Clever. Conceptual. Campy. Funny. Above all, it was fun again.