9 Lives (Psych episode)
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9 Lives is Episode 5 of Season 1 of the USA network television dramedy Psych.
| Psych episode | |
|---|---|
| “9 Lives” | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 5 |
| Guest star(s) | Sage Brocklebank Scott Michael Campbell Carlos Jacott Michael Adamthwaite Chris Eastman Mark McConchie Paulo Ribeiro Liam James |
| Writer(s) | Andy Berman |
| Director | Matt Shakman |
| Production no. | 1005 |
| Original airdate | August 4, 2006 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Woman Seeking Dead Husband - Smokers Okay, No Pets" | "Weekend Warriors" |
Contents |
[edit] Plot Synopsis
In 1985, Shawn (Liam James) and Henry have breakfast outside, and Shawn has a minor tantrum over a "missing Captain Delicious Magic Mood Ring" from his cereal box. He begs his father to drag "them" in for questioning, but Henry suggests that Shawn use the skills he's been taught and outsmart them. Henry then demonstrates with a second box of cereal that "you don't have to dig so deep; all you gotta do is turn something upside down to make it rightside up and then you get your prize."
In 2006, Gus admits to Shawn that he's exhausted from the last full month of cases. Shawn listens as they walk, but Gus is annoyed to find that Shawn has led them to a house where the police have found a body. Shawn talks his way past Officer McNab (Sage Brocklebank), who tells him that someone from the phone company found the victim, and he and Gus slip into the living room of Mortimer Tilden, who appears to have been dead for three days or more and the third "11-44" in the last four months. Shawn and Gus follow a forensics officer into the kitchen where they find a steak marinating in the refrigerator, indicating to Shawn that Tilden did not commit suicide. Lassiter catches up with Shawn and demands that he leave the crime scene, so Shawn fakes a "psychic vision" of the murder, claiming that the killer had a sliver of grease on their shoe and that there had been no struggle. When Lassiter instructs McNab to escort Shawn and Gus from the scene and insists that there was no murder, Shawn claims that there was a witness: Tilden's cat.
Shawn and Gus leave the scene with Tilden's cat and return to the Psych office. The cat clearly does not like Gus, who claims that he buys Lassiter's suicide theory because "a few suicides is not uncommon." Shawn argues that Santa Barbara is not statistically conducive to suicide because most people who kill themselves do so in dreary, depressive climates. Shawn pretends to agree that suicide is the likely explanation, until he produces his police scanner and asks how Tilden's suicide explains the second body that was just found.
Shawn and Gus arrive at the home of Gloria Starks, who was found in her car with a tube feeding the exhaust into the vehicle. Shawn pretends that the cat told him that Lassiter takes his coffee with three creams and two sugars, then notices a note written on the inside of the car windshield reading "I don't know what else to do" with another unintelligible line of scribble including "sorry" and "I hurt." Shawn lets the cat climb into the car against Lassiter's orders, then points out that the fresh dry-cleaning in the backseat contradicts the suicide theory. When the police turn on the car to test the carbon monoxide level, they are surprised to hear the radio set to heavy metal.
Driving back to the office, Shawn lets the cat sit in the front-passenger's seat while Gus is cramped in the backseat. When Gus hands Shawn a newspaper to lay down so the cat doesn't ruin the seat, Shawn finds a headline reading "Struggling actress lands big break in Santa Barbara play" with a picture of Gloria Starks and an article about the play "Dazzle & Stretch." At the SBPD squad room, McNab asks Lassiter for advice on wedding-night performance; Lassiter takes great offense at the question, and McNab hurries out of the vicinity. Shawn and Gus take the cat to visit Chief Vick and suggest that the closed suicide cases of the past few months were all, in fact, murders. He convinces her by faking another "psychic vision" of Starks's role in the play and showing her the newspaper article, and insists that they need to stop waiting for another suicide and start looking for a serial killer.
Shawn and Gus examine the four "suicides" of the last four months — Bill Hiltonbock (supposed jumper), a woman who supposedly killed herself by sticking her head in an oven, Mortimer Tilden (supposed pill overdose), Gloria Starks (supposed carbon monoxide poisoning) — and admit that there are no similarities between the victims. Shawn remembers Henry's advice from 1985, and decides to go back to the first case, Bill Hiltenbock; he and Gus pose as prospective renters to interview the victim's brother, Wes (Scott Michael Campbell). Hearing that Shawn and Gus intend to rent the apartment together, and learning that they have a cat that is "sort of like [their] child," Wes makes the assumption that Gus and Shawn are dating, and Shawn plays along.
Looking through the bathroom, Shawn finds a piece of mail and pockets it before "learning" that Wes wants to give up the apartment because his brother committed suicide there. They also learn that Bill had been a smart and talented singer who "was really going places." Driving back to the office, Shawn shows Gus the piece of mail, a phone bill, which shows 16 calls to a 1-800 stress line, including the last call that Bill Hiltonbock made. They stop at the SBPD squad room and appeal to O'Hara to pull the other victims' phone records, and Lassiter informs them that they already did; all of the victims did, in fact, call the stress line multiple times. Shawn apologizes for wasting the detectives' time and leaves, telling Gus that the stress line is the answer to the murders.
Shawn shows Gus a door with a sign read "DIAL-A-PSYCHIC" claiming that it is the newest branch of their business. Gus is incredulous until he realizes that the door leads to a supply closet, and Shawn only rented the door-sign to get into the building out of which the stress line operates. They stop nextdoor to deliver a pineapple as a gift, and meet the man who runs the stress-line, Terrance (Carlos Jacott); Shawn introduces himself as "the lead psychic for the Santa Barbara Police Department." The stress-line employees request a demonstration of Shawn's power, and he determines that one eyeliner-wearing employee named Rory (Michael Adamthwaite) is a poet. He also notices a man in an orange jumpsuit working on the phone lines outside.
O'Hara meets Lassiter at a waterfront rendezvous with a summary of the the volunteers from the stress-line, and Lassiter recognizes one of the employees. In their supply-closet Dial-a-Psychic office, Shawn puts up a "Hang in there!" poster and notices the telephone maintenance schedule. He then outlines a plan in which Gus will call the stress-line, pretend to be depressed, and ask for Rory while Shawn sneaks nextdoor to watch the counselor in action. Shawn visits Terrance with a coconut as a gift and finds out that the stress-line is non-profit, then finds out that Rory is donating his time by court-order, having been sentenced to 250 hours of community service for an assault charge because he got into a fight with a "guy who didn't like [his] poetry."
Terrance gets Rory to take line six, on which Gus has called, and Shawn sets by to watch. Gus gets into some actual stress counseling before Rory strays abruptly into the poetry of suicide. Shawn leaves and meets Gus back at the Dial-a-Psychic "office," where Gus claims that Rory made some good points about taking risks; Shawn also informs him that Wes Hiltenbock called back to tell them that they got the apartment. Gus tells Shawn to call the police, but Shawn insists that Rory's only crime is bad poetry, and that they have to wait until they have evidence that he is connected with the deaths. At that moment, Lassiter, O'Hara and Vick arrive to arrest Rory.
Lassiter explains that Rory's eyeliner pencil matches the note that was scrawled on Gloria Starks' windshield, and that Rory's affinity for heavy metal matches the music that was left playing at the scenes of both Starks and Mortimer Tilden's deaths. Rory demonstrates that his taste is for folk music, however, and claims that he uses details from his callers to write better poetry. Shawn also notices the man in the orange jump suit working on the phone lines in the middle of the night and remembers having seen him inside the building earlier in the day. Lassiter has Rory arrested and Gus laments that they won't get paid for solving the crime, but Shawn informs him that Lassiter hasn't solved the crime.
Outside, Gus climbs the telephone pole, and Shawn notices that Gus's shoes pick up a distinctive sliver of grease from the spikes that matches the one on the floor of Mortimer Tilden's living room; he also remembers seeing a key-rack in Wes Hiltenbock's apartment made with hooks designed to look like miniature phone-poll spikes. He deduces that Hiltenbock works for the phone company, and that the murders coincide with dates that Hiltenbock worked that particular route because he could tap into the phone calls going to the stress-line. He also determines that by redialing the test-phone, they can determine who Hiltenbock's next victim will, and they call through to find that Buzz McNab was the last caller.
Shawn calls Chief Vick to warn her that McNab is in danger, then rushes with Gus and Tilden's cat over to the officer's house. They arrive just in time to stop Wes from forcing McNab to hang himself at gunpoint, and Lassiter, O'Hara, Vick and a small squad of officers show up moments later. Shawn deduces that Wes's brother Bill actually did commit suicide, and that Wes's anger, frustration and helplessness with what he saw as Bill's weakness made him angry at anyone he perceived to be weak; further, he deduces that Wes never actually killed any of his victims, but rather forced them to kill themselves at gunpoint. Shawn insists that everyone has stress, and blusters until Tilden's cat, having snuck into the room before Lassiter arrived, attacks Wes from the top of a bookcase, allowing Lassiter to move in and subdue him. Lassiter complements Shawn, saying that his performance was "adequate," but Shawn insists that Lassiter thank the cat; once everyone else has left, Shawn gives McNab the cat as a wedding present.
That next morning, Shawn and Gus discuss how good their lives really are over breakfast. Unfortunately, Gus discovers his Captain Delicious Magic Mood Ring missing from the cereal box, and throws a minor tantrum when he realizes that Shawn had opened the bottom of the box and taken the ring, which he is wearing on his pinky.
[edit] Allusions
- Shawn refers to the mathematical analysis of the CBS drama NUMB3RS.
- During his demonstration, Shawn mentions 20th Century American poet Robert Frost and 1980's British alternative rock band The Cure.
- Later, Shawn makes reference to the 1979 Clint Eastwood film Escape from Alcatraz.
- The fictional cereal Fruity Puffs appears to derive its names from a hybridization of Froot Loops and Cocoa Puffs
[edit] Nitpicks
- Henry's advice to Shawn in the flashback differs from Shawn's memory. In the flashback Henry tells him "Sometimes, Shawn, you don't have to dig so deep; all you gotta do is turn something upside down to make it rightside up, and then...you get your prize." According to Shawn's memory of the event, Henry tells him "Sometimes, Shawn you don't need to dig so deep; you just need to turn things upside down, to make them rightside up. And there's your prize." The discrepancy may be intentional if the flashback is considered to be an actual representation of the scene, while Shawn's memory is not perfectly reliable after 21 years; unfortunately, this conflicts with the notion of Shawn's eidetic memory, and presents him as a slightly unreliable narrator. Of course, it's also possible, given that Shawn's memory is presented as an acquired and practiced skill and not a flawless superpower, that the perfect photographic quality of minor details may fade over long stretches of time.
- Shawn tells Gus that McNab's first name is Buzz although in Woman Seeking Dead Husband - Smokers Okay, No Pets, Shawn refers to McNab as Buzz while Gus is in hearing range. Gus should have already known.
[edit] Quotes
Henry: "Sometimes, Shawn, you don't have to dig so deep; all you gotta do is turn something upside down to make it rightside up, and then...you get your prize."
(watching Tilden's cat lick itself)
Shawn: "Wow. I'm jealous."
Poster in Shawn's office, "Hang In There"
Shawn: I don't care what Lassiter says. The cat is not my new partner. That's ridiculous.
Gus: Then tell me again why the cat gets to ride shotgun.
[edit] Trivia
- The title of the episode refers to the old-wives tale which purports that cats have nine lives. The myth is probably based on the fact that cats almost always tend to land on their feet when they fall from more than a few feet, although both cats and the number 9 seem to have other mythological connotations which may lend themselves to combination.
- One of Shawn's affectionate nicknames for Gus appears to be Gus "Silly Pants" Jackson despite the fact that "Gus" is already a nickname for Burton Guster.
- Shawn refers to having investigated the "Edmond robberies," which was never shown.
- Lassiter complements Shawn by calling his performance "adequate," just as Henry complemented Shawn in the 1989 flashback at the beginning of the pilot episode by calling his performance "adequate."
- The license plate of Gus's Echo is "4TRI019."
| Psych | ||
| Current Main Characters | Shawn Spencer | Burton Guster | Henry Spencer | |
| Police Officers | Head Detective Carlton Lassiter | Junior Detective Juliet O'Hara | Interim Police Chief Karen Vick | |
