Mr. Booty Man. Review: Psych - “Nip and Suck It”

Season 7, Episode 13

Air Date: Wednesday, May 22, 2013, 10/9c on USA

Rating: ★★★★★

Henry Spencer P.I

Henry (Corbin Bernsen) comes across a dead body while out bird watching. (Yes, bird watching). This discovery revitalizes the passion and drive he had when he was a cop in search of killers. Only one problem, he’s no longer a cop.

Not only was I disappointed in this episode, I think “Nip and Suck It” is probably the most boring Psych episode in seven seasons, not to mention several other issues I had with it.

During the opening scene, we find beer drinking, fishing, grilling, man’s man Henry Spencer bird watching with a group of senior citizens. What!? Bird watching? It would have been understandable earlier in the season after Henry survives a gunshot. They could have him go through a type of mid-life crisis where he starts partaking in various activities he feels older people do. Even Gus (Dulé Hill) and Shawn (James Roday) can’t quite believe their eyes.

Gus: “Your dad does realize he’s retired, right?”

Shawn: “Yeah, but he had a tough year. Come on, he got shot…that’s really it, I guess.”

In these last twelve episodes, Henry hasn’t shown the slightest inclination that being shot impacted his life so to start this now seems a bit out of place. Is he going through a mid-life crisis or does he now simply enjoy bird watching?

Finding the body rejuvenates Henry’s detective skills and he is excited to jump right back in. But since he is no longer a member of the police force, he does the next best thing—he becomes a private investigator. Sure, why not? It sounds fine as long as we don’t recall the pilot episode when Henry tells Shawn: “When I was in the department there was two things I hated in this world— private investigators and psychics.”

Henry’s new P.I. job leads to a competitive race between him, Shawn and Gus to find the killer. It should be interesting but after several scenes of Shawn and Gus trying to beat Henry to each location, and vice versa, I became bored and disconnected. So much time is put into clever ways for each to be first at a location, the location becomes irrelevant, which makes the murder and murderer insignificant.

The rest of the cast is pushed into the background and seemingly unnoticeable. I wouldn’t have even known Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) was in the episode had he not had a scene where he engages with a suspect named Brianna (Anne Openshaw), whose very large, half exposed breasts seem as if they are going to fall out of her top. I don’t even know why she is a suspect, and it’s not because I was distracted by her boobs but because she is about the fourth suspect who turns out not to be the killer. After a while, I just stopped caring.

Shawn and Juliet, back together

I really object to the way we learn the status of Shawn and Juliet’s (Maggie Lawson) relationship. There is no scene, only a mention of them dating again. To shock us like they did and then drag it out for weeks, only to resolve it off camera feels empty and unsatisfying. I would have rather seen a heartfelt scene where the two of them work it out.

I get that product placement helps pay the bills and gives shows some realism but having characters promote the new Psych book by cramming it into the story just seems self- serving and cheap. To make matters worse, this isn’t the first time Psych has done something like this with a Psych product, but this time it really felt like an shameless advertising plug.

The ending does set up some interesting possibilities for season eight. Ever since Juliet discovered his secret, Shawn has been making more observations rather than claiming to have a vision. Will Henry continue to be a private investigator, with him joining the Psych office in season eight? If so, would that make Shawn his boss? Will both of them be able to handle that? I doubt it.

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Greg Staffa

I provide testosterone to the site. You won’t be reading about how nice a actress looks in a dress or how much of a hunk Matt Bomer is in my reviews. I describe colors using words like brown, not taupe. My twitter name is @staffaroadtrip because I love road trips and have done two different 48-state road trips since 2008. My favorite show is White Collar.