The best episodes of Psych
Ranked by viewer rating, highs first. Lit marks on the season rail place this list across the run. Vote on a placement to back it or contest it.
- 01
Shawn and Gus assist Lassiter and Betsy Brannigan, with the help of Henry and Woody, in solving the murder of real estate executive, Warren Dern. Meanwhile, Shawn has decided to move to San Francisco to be with Juliet, but is struggling to find a way to break the news to Gus.
- 02
Shawn Spencer is always moving on to the next fun thing and has never held a job for more than six months. He also has an incredible eye for detail and a near photographic memory, a skill drilled into him since he was young by his overbearing cop father. It's this ability that enables him to solve crimes just by watching the stories on the news. But as he goes in to pick up his reward check for one such helpful tip, he's hauled into questioning by Detective Lassiter for being in on the crime. No one could have that kind of information and not be on the inside. Backed into a corner, accused of being a partner in the crime, Shawn talks his way out of incarceration by claiming he got the information psychically. Since there's no way to disprove his claim, the police have to let him go.
- 03
An eccentric police consultant is brought into the SBPD to interview Shawn, Gus, Lassiter, and Juliet about their seemingly poor police work on a tough case.
- 04
A year after the arrest of Mr. Yang, a new killer starts playing games with Shawn and his friends - her partner, Mr. Yin.
- 05
On Halloween night in 1985, Shawn and Gus witness a troubled girl throw herself from her window at the Wispy Sunny Pines mental institution. From that moment on, "Scary Sherry" has haunted the halls of the now abandoned facility where we find a girl, Doreen Harthan, being chased by what appears to be her ghost through the halls of Wispy Sunny Pines, falling through the same window to her death below.
- 06
American Duos, Gus' favorite reality show, has come to Santa Barbara. Even better, its cantankerous host, Nigel St. Nigel has not only been receiving death threats and has already survived a couple of attempts on his life. He needs protection and does not trust the police. He needs someone who can anticipate his stalker's next move, yet can blend in and not attract attention. Shawn already has the perfect idea. He and Gus will become contestants on American Duos.
- 07
And Down the Stretch Comes Murder
Jimmy Nickels, Shawn and Gus' childhood bully, has called and is coming to see them at the Psych office. The guys are scared but determined not to give up their lunch money again, until they open the door to see that Jimmy has not grown an inch since they last saw him, which is one of the reasons he became such a successful jockey. He's come to hire them. He's been losing his races and he doesn't know why. Despite Gus' protests, Shawn agrees to take the case. He has felt guilty ever since he turned Jimmy in for hitting a teacher with a spitball, which led to Jimmy's expulsion. Shawn feels he owes him.
- 08
Shawn and Gus crash a crime scene of an apparent suicide. One of several in the last few months. This one was an overdose of pills, or so it seems. While in the apartment, though, Shawn notices a few things that might point more toward murder. When no one believes his psychic vision of foul play, he insists he's not leaving until he talks to the witness - the victim's cat.
- 09
Interim Chief Vick and Detective Lassiter are out of town on their way to a seminar on non-lethal weaponry, which leaves only Juliet to deal with a mother who comes to the station claiming her son, Malone Breyfogle, is missing. However, since her son is 18, the police can't get involved for 48 hours. Juliet believes something has happened to him, and so she enlists Shawn's help to investigate immediately.
- 10
Henry's old boss, Captain Connors, and his daughter Trish come to the Psych Agency for help. Connors, who is suffering from early onset Alzheimer's, thinks he's solved a murder but he can't remember who's been killed or who the killer is. The police don't believe him so he asks Shawn to psychically look into his head for the answers. Since Connors was always great to him as a kid, Shawn agrees to take the case.
- 11
Shawn's powers of observation work against him when he cannot help but reconcile his gorgeous Friday night date with her ex-boyfriend after solving the mystery of his series of white lies. Now alone in a bar, he spots Lassiter at a table, drinking heavily, marking a sad anniversary. Lassiter invites Shawn over and proceeds to pour his heart out, confessing that Shawn's skills astound him. While he doesn't believe he's psychic, Shawn somehow guarantees an arrest, whereas Lassiter, who used to be a great cop, now can't even solve the murder of a local astronomer. Everyone thinks Bryant Vallery died of natural causes, but the guy was relatively young and lived a healthy lifestyle. Lassiter tells Shawn that he knows there's more to it but can't prove it - then proceeds to pass out.
- 12
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, He Loves Me, Oops, He's Dead
Vick wants Lassiter to take a case that he really doesn't want to. He looks up and sees Shawn and Gus putting on a psychic show for the other officers and gets an idea. He calls them over and says he's got a case for them. He hands Shawn the case file and tells him the victim is waiting to give a statement. As they walk into the interrogation room, they find a fully unclothed man, Fred Turk. With Lassiter happily watching through the one-way glass, Shawn and Gus proceed to give a very uncomfortable interview in which Turk claims he was abducted by aliens. As Turk tells them he woke up naked in a field with a headache, Shawn spots a faded ink mark on the guy's hand and chafe marks on the back of his heels.
- 13
Zero to Murder in Sixty Seconds
A case involving a chop shop owner has Shawn having second thoughts, triggering an unexpected first for the would-be detective.
- 14
If You're So Smart, Then Why Are You Dead?
Two teenagers, Shockley and Goddard, come to the Psych office to hire Shawn and Gus for a case. They need help and the police won't take them seriously since they are kids. One of their teachers at the Meitner School for gifted students has killed someone and in two days, he'll kill again. The problem is, they don't know which teacher it is, who he killed or who his next victim will be. When they broke into school late one night to pull a prank, they accidentally hacked into a cell phone call being made from the campus. The only other information they could get is that the killer has a deep voice and a cousin named Muriel.
- 15
Eight-year-old Brittany comes into the Psych office in desperate need of help. She wants to hire Shawn and Gus to get Santa out of jail. She saw him being arrested at the mall and they need to get him out by Christmas Eve so he can deliver all the presents. She is so distraught that they agree to look into it as soon as they stop by the Gusters' to see Gus' big sister Joy, who has come home for the holidays. Gus is excited to see her but Shawn's feelings are mixed. He and Joy had a secret one-time fling and he doesn't want history to repeat itself behind his best friend's back. But Joy would love to pick things up where they left off and so jumps at Gus' offer for her to tag along on their Santa investigation.
- 16
There is a thunderstorm in Santa Barbara that has been causing the electricity to flicker on and off, but that doesn't stop Lassiter from making the bust of his career. Five years ago, he arrested Ernesto Chavez, second in command of the Cinco Reyes street gang, but the D.A. couldn't make the charges stick and Chavez disappeared. This time around, they've got enough hard evidence to get a conviction, something that Detective Drimmer and his gang unit has been unable to do. Everyone turns to watch Lassiter bring in Chavez, who glares at McNab as he walks by. Lassiter, then, hands off Chavez to be processed and put in a cell as he is called into Vick's office where the FBI is waiting for him. Lassiter is furious to learn that Chavez cut a deal with the Feds and will be entering a witness relocation program, thus avoiding prosecution. Vick orders an angry Lassiter to retrieve Chavez from his cell and turn him over. He leaves and the lights flicker out once again, only this time a shot is heard in the darkness. The lights come back on and everyone runs down to the holding cells to find Lassiter standing over a dead Chavez with a smoking gun in his hands.
- 17
Shawn Takes a Shot in the Dark
Juliet and Lassiter meet Gus at a vehicle storage yard in the middle of the night. Gus received a message from Shawn telling him that he'd solved the case and to meet him there but Shawn has not shown up and Gus is worried. He should be. Shawn is currently bound and stuffed into the trunk of a moving car. Shawn remembers a lesson Henry taught him as a child, and kicks out the rear light of the vehicle. Through the hole in the trunk, he's able to spot some landmark, and manages to text Gus cryptic descriptions of what he sees. Back at the storage yard, Gus is puzzled by the message. Lassiter finds blood on the ground and they realize Shawn's been shot and kidnapped. Gus calls Henry, who arrives at the scene and insists on helping find his son. So Lassiter and Henry team up to decipher Shawn's text and track him down, while Gus and Juliet retrace the steps of Shawn's latest investigation.
- 18
Gus is a closet fan of spelling bees. He knows everything there is to know, from the major players to the winning words each year. When Shawn catches him watching the Regional Spelling Bee that he Tivo'd earlier, they see that this year's favorite, Brendan Vu, collapsed while spelling a word. Shawn doesn't think it was an accident. He notices something is wrong with Brendan's inhaler. They get a call from Interim Chief Vick to come down and investigate. This is Gus' dream come true.
- 19
Dr. Blinn, a Santa Barbara psychiatrist, has been murdered in his office. Shawn and Gus show up at the crime scene and are promptly removed by Lassiter, but not before Shawn gets a quick look around - blunt force trauma to the head, the weapon and a chewed toothpick next to the body.
- 20
Cloudy... With a Chance of Murder
Shawn's motorcycle has been impounded, so he and Gus go down to the courthouse to pay the ticket and free the bike. While there, Shawn notices a sweet woman picking up a piece of trash in the hallway. Back at the Psych office, Shawn sees the same woman, Sandra Panitch, on TV. It turns out, she's on trial for the brutal murder of a favorite local TV weatherman, Jackson Hale. She is accused of having sex with him at the studio, then bludgeoning him over the head. But from what Shawn saw of her earlier, he's immediately convinced of her innocence. And from what he sees on TV now, he knows her bumbling, insecure lawyer, Adam Hornstock, needs their help to win the case.
- 21
Shawn and Gus are hanging out in the Psych office when Henry pays a visit. He criticizes everything about the place until Shawn stops him. They are waiting for an appointment. Henry says he is their appointment. A friend of his, Bill Peterson, called him and said he thinks his son Brandon is mixed up in something bad. He doesn't want to call the police and Henry inadvertently made him think Shawn could help. Henry leaves just as Peterson arrives. He tells them that Brandon used to work for him but he fired him in an attempt at tough love. He's been evicted from his apartment, had his cell phone turned off and forged a check of Peterson's for thirty thousand dollars. Now's he's missing. Shawn and Gus, deliberately against Henry's wishes, say they can help.
- 22
Detective Lassiter is on a roll. He's closed nine cases in a row and since he's been on such a hot streak, the department hasn't had to call for outside help, leaving Shawn feeling very unneeded. When a dead body is found on the beach, Lassiter invites Shawn along to show him how it's done. At the crime scene, there is little to go on except puncture wounds on the body. Desperate to get on the case, Shawn looks at the marks and claims he knows who is responsible - a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
- 23
Meat Is Murder, but Murder Is Also Murder
Gus' Uncle Burton is in town for a visit, and since Gus has spent all his life trying to live up to his namesake's expectations, he does not correct him when he mistakenly hears that it's Gus who is the psychic detective, for fear of disappointing him yet again. That means that when Uncle Burton tags along on their investigation into the death of Vince Wagner, a prominent restaurant critic, Shawn must help Gus find clues while Gus pretends to be psychic. Shawn looks around and sees leftover containers and evidence of bad cooking. He leads Gus to a "vision," quickly disregarding the wife as a suspect. She was a bad cook, but she was trying to get her husband to eat healthy, not kill him.
- 24
Interim Chief Vick calls Shawn and Gus down to the station. She has something big and top secret to talk to them about. The guys are excited until she tells them she wants them to find her a new nanny. Her last nanny left, she hasn't slept in weeks and she needs them to psychically screen the candidates for her.
- 25
The Santa Barbara police department is on high alert. Dwayne Tancana, arrested for the home invasion robbery turned murder of Isabella Cole, escaped custody on his way to arraignment by head-butting Juliet as they rounded a corner. Now it's a full on manhunt, and to Lassiter's chagrin, the victim's husband has hired bounty hunter Byrd Tatums to ensure his wife's killer is found and brought to justice. Juliet is eager to get out there and correct her mistake, but unfortunately Lassiter has to bench her at the office, ensuring her he'll use every resource to find Tancana. Juliet takes him literally and calls in Shawn and Gus. Lassiter tells them they are only to locate Tancana and call them in. He's too dangerous for them to bring in themselves, he explains, and shows them pictures of Isabella's strangled corpse as proof.
Shows like Psych
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