Psych: Christmas Joy

What’s better than cute clothes and shiny jewelry and series DVDs under my tree on Christmas morning? Getting an episode of Psych to tide me over until next year’s new season!  Oh, how I’ve missed these two crazy kids who make me laugh when I’m down and laugh even harder when I’m up.  I’ve never seen USA do an original series special holiday episode two years in row, but this oddball show couldn’t have been more of a perfect choice.

Gus’ family is in town, but this time mom and dad brought along a sister too.  The siblings are eerily close, and Gus is oblivious to the tension between Shawn and Joy.  The two shared a passionate tryst, one time long ago and haven’t seen each other since. (The fires apparently still burn bright.)

The caper begins when a little girl uses her tears of persuasion to convince Shawn and Gus to get Santa out of jail.  As the weepy one points out, how can Santa get all his present to all the many children when he’s in the slammer?  But they quickly find out the girl and her Santa were simply a well practiced daughter-father con fam.

The two prove that Santa is extremely difficult to break, especially when a dozen protective kids and impatient parents are his backups and his daughter can bawl like a kid being told Santa and the Easter Bunny never existed.  Joy offers to perform some recon as Santa’s helper, but as best as she can tell, Santa is pretty darn straight and sweet.  He even asks the kids what they like most about Christmas, what they’re thankful for and who they’ll be visiting for the holidays.

With his superpowered deductive skills, Shawn realizes that Santa Carl and his partner, Santa’s Village bouncer, Ted, plan on getting parents’ addresses to find out who’ll be out of town for the holidays.  All the more ripe to steal from without problems.  Shawn has a pretend vision, which definitely makes Joy swoon, but when they arrive they don’t witness a burglary.  They do, however, find Ted dead.

By bringing in Carl, Santa is interrogated, and seeing a man questioned in that big red suit is most definitely off-putting.  When Shawn brings Santa to tears, Gus can’t help but unleash tears of his own. (A grown man crying makes me cry too, Gus.) The Santa confesses that a potential bookie they were in to for $10,000 could be a suspect.

Back at Gus’ house, Shawn is crashing due to a termite infestation for the holidays which sis likes a lot. (I would too, honey!) And here, Shawn learns that he and Joy weren’t the only two hiding secrets from the family.  Both parents are too worried to divulge their secrets to the ones they love the most, but Shawn, being the sweet guy that he is, can’t help but bring the family closer together, pushing them to confess.  Though, theirs is one secret that’ll tear a friendship apart, and most siblings, and even an only child like myself, know there’s only so much some friends can take.

One of the funniest scenes included advice time between Shawn and his father.  It went a little something like this:

“Gus’ sister and I sorta hooked up awhile back and for some unknown reason she announced it to the whole family and…he’s kicking people out.”

“Well fooling around with your best friend’s sister certainly wasn’t your most brilliant idea.”

“No that was the toaster alarm I invented in the third grade that woke you up by smacking you in the face with a waffle.  I think I peaked too soon.”

Shawn and his father share that father-son bond which epitomizes the perfect comedic relationship between two related men.  For instance, each Christmas, we learn, the two try to guess what the other person is going to buy.  A game Shawn apparently wins every year, and a game that even includes getting each other down to matching gift wrapping paper.  In the end, his father bought him an iPhone (Oh, the levels of product placement), and Shawn bought an iPhone cover with the Psych logo.

Helpfully, Papa’s pep talk flips on a light bulb in Shawn’s head that screams, the con men must of had another partner.  The two do find out another man was picked up with Ted and Carl in the past.  In fact, he was the man Santa Carl had been brought in for possibly assaulting.  He deducts that this other partner must have been more prone to violence, the exact MO that Santa Carl claimed to be strictly against.  If one detective chooses to take Santa Carl at his word, Shawn deducts the partner must have started the fight with Carl but deserved the punch and he, also, must have killed Ted.  In a creatively executed sting (Lassie dressed as Santa), the usual suspects plot to catch this partner in the act of Carl’s attempted murder.  Of course, they did.  Once again proving Shawn to be the cosmic, fabulous detective that he is.

Not to be forgotten, Gus and his family realize that only family can antagonize each other like Shawn  antagonizes them.  And if they can still love and forgive each other, they’d of course do the same for him.  But Papa eagerly tells Shawn he doesn’t have to go home, but he’s sure as hell not sharing a roof with his daughter anymore.

A sweet little investigation to save Santa and a Cosby-like family reunification definitely left more of a saccharin taste in my mouth than your typical Psych episode.  I can’t help but think that they drowned the episode in Christmas a little much (Holiday-themed music overkill.  That’s what the radio is for from now until the end of December.) And the scenes wouldn’t normally be so overly maudlin if the relationship between Joy and Shawn didn’t dominate so much of the episode, but I accept it as a warm-up and can’t wait for the season to return.

Season 3, Episode 9: Christmas Joy (originally aired November 28, 2008)

Psych returns to USA in January 2009

Photographs courtesy of USA