An episode of Psych sending up horror movies?! What's not to love?
The episode, as always, starts out with a flashback to Little Shawn and Little Gus. This time it’s 1988, and Mr. Spencer is picking the boys up from summer camp. Shawn is pissed (and rightfully so, I think) because Gus paired up with “Golden Boy Jason Cunningham” for the piñata contest (PINEAPPLE!), leaving Shawn with an unfortunate boy who wore a down coat the whole week.
POP CULTURE ALERT!! (heretofore known as PCA!!): According to my Tivo, we are exactly 0:00 minutes into the show and we already have our first pop culture reference. Shawn tells puffer jacket boy, “It’s a million degrees out! Why don’t you go live on Hoth, you freak!” (BtheW, that link? Wookiepedia? How cute is that??)
After leaving Jason with a super special secret handshake (just stick a knife in Shawn’s back, why don’t you??), Gus gets in the truck and asks Shawn what happened to his clown piñata. Shawn: “It’s not a clown… and wouldn’t you like to know.” Cue the creepy kids singing and zoom in on the lake, where we find Shawn’s not-clown has been whacked Soprano’s style with a rock tied around its foot.
In the present, a girl with cute short blond hair is watching some incarnation of Friday the 13th. She stuffily explains to the about to be dead actress in the movie that “that’s what you get for being a harlot!” I’m not going to call them out on the misogyny, because I really like the word harlot. I’m easy to please. Blondie hears a noise, grabs a bat, and goes in search of her own bloody death. Upon finding that it was just a banging window, she drops the bat, showing us that the cute blond hair is certainly not topping off an abundance of brains. Wouldn’t you figure out WHY the window was open before dropping your weapon? I know I would.
Blondie looks out the window and sees… something. Not really sure what, and since it’s gone a second later, she’s not really sure what either. The now on edge girl is startled by a whistling teapot, then the phone when the unfortunately named “Sissy” calls. While she’s on the phone, we see that there is someone peering in her window wearing a mask . And he does that classic creepy psycho killer wearing a mask head tilt thing that always freaks me out. Yeah, that’s really creepy. I’m going to be using the word creepy and its many variants a lot in this recap. Get used to it.
Of course she doesn’t see Psycho Killer, because what fun would that be? She drinks her tea right after pouring the water from the kettle. I only mention this because 1. that would burn the crap out of your tongue and 2. you have to let that steep, idiot. This further proves my more hair than brains theory. She goes over to the fridge, where she finds a sign that says “I SEE YOU” written in some sort of runny red substance, presumably blood (along with a PINEAPPLE!). Psycho busts through the window, and I’m thinking that’s the end of Blondie.
Shawn and Gus are walking toward Psych, discussing the finer points of Mexican cuisine. Upon reaching the front door, they find what’s left of Shawn’s Rick Astley piñata (See! Not a clown at all!) hanging from a noose. Yeah, that’s messed up.
PCA!! Rick Astley
Bonus PCA!! Gus tells Shawn it looks more like Ann Margaret, who will always be Medda, the Swedish Meadowlark to me.
Pan over to the bench, where OMG IT’S MACKENZIE ASTIN!!!! *pause for nostalgic squee* I can’t be the only one who’s Friday night was totally made by Mackenzie Astin being on my TV screen. This rocked!!
Anywho, Mackenzie is actually an all grown up (and adorable) golden boy Jason Cunningham, who thought the not-clown was either Eric Stoltz or Boris Becker. Jason explains that he bought their old camp, and found piñata Rick when they dredged the lake. Shawn is shocked that Jason would even go back there, and is less than psyched to find out that he’s there to ask for their help finding a missing counselor (Annie, aka Blondie). Did something happen at camp that summer that they’re not telling us about? Something even more insidious than dumping one’s best friend just to win a piñata contest?
When Shawn tells Jason that he should go to the proper authorities, Jason refuses, saying that if the press catches wind of it, the “camp murder stories will start all over” (hmmmm?) and his newly purchased camp will fail before it even opens.
PCA!! Shawn’s gut is saying no in THX.
Well, despite really, really, really not wanting to, Shawn agrees to help. You know… for the kids.
Our subplot this week deals with Detective Lassiter (Lassie from here on out) possibly reconciling with his wife. He adorably bought several bouquets of flowers and boxes of chocolates so that he’d “have options” and is now dumping the rejects on various women in the office (including the lady down in fingerprinting who, he discovers, “is a man… from birth!!!" *hee*). More on Lassie and his quest for love later.
Shawn and Gus are in the Blueberry (which is how I refer to Gus’ car, thanks to that hilarious episode with Tim Curry). They are heading back to their old camp, still arguing over the Piñata Incident of 1988, when they nearly run over a dude with only one tooth, but a jaunty hat and chipper outlook on life, who exclaims “You’re all doomed!”
PCA!! When Gus tells Shawn that jaunty hat guy is just kidding, Shawn says, “He has a folksy sense of humor. The Garrison Keillor of Camp Tikihama.”
Garrison rides his little bike back into the woods, and WOW, if Shawn didn’t want to leave before, he really does now! But Gus, once again, convinces him to keep going, and they arrive back at their old camp of DOOOOOOOM. We’re introduced to a few of the counselors: Clive, the funny guy who’s in charge of “all water activities or anything wet”, whatever that means, and Billy, “fitness, nutrition, body sculpting.” HA! Billy makes me laugh. And he has his shirt off for most of the show, so he can stay.
Hot chick counselor walks out of the lake in slow-mo in a bikini. Obviously. I always make sure everything I do in a bikini is in slow-mo. It minimizes the jiggling. Shawn tells Gus not to act like an idiot just because there is a cute girl around. I’d take bets against that happening.
Jason walks out and… what the hell happened to him since the last time we saw him? He’s wearing nurses shoes (both left feet) and carrying a large, creepy doll as if it was a baby. He greets Shawn and Gus as, “Burton and Shane” and tells them he tried to make biscuits but forgot to light the pilot. Yeah, I don’t think the stove is the only thing with the pilot light out, if you know what I mean. Shawn knows exactly what I mean, and asks Jason if he’s feeling okay.
Hot chick counselor walks up and Gus introduces himself as “Gus… but you can call me Slicks.” Well, there goes the whole not acting like an idiot thing. Turns out the hot chick is Sissy, who made that last fateful phone call to Annie. When Shawn tells the counselors that they’re there to help find Annie, they freak out. Seems Jason had lied and told them that she had called. He mumbles something about thinking she would call, but she never did, then wanders away from them in a daze, dragging his creepy doll behind him.
Shawn and Gus go into Annie’s cabin, and Shawn does his trademark “looking everywhere, seeing everything” thing, zooming in on a small piece of broken glass near the now repaired window that the killer came through at the beginning of the show. After looking around a bit more, the boys leave with Sissy, and we finally learn what happened at the camp all those years ago. Apparently, a repair man was electrocuted in the pool and the camp closed early. Yikes.
The trio wanders over to the laundry shack where, despite the fact that no one is supposed to do laundry there, the dryer is running. I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that if the dryer is a-rocking, you do NOT want to go a-knocking. Thankfully, there are no dismembered body parts (this is basic cable, after all), but they do find poor Annie’s pjs covered in blood. SCREAM! And cut.
When we return from the commercial break, all of the counselors are in the laundry shack. Shawn accuses Garrison of being the killer, and we learn that our favorite toothless optimist is actually the janitor, Irwin. Billy the Body Sculptor notices that the cycle on the dryer just started, and thinks they should go out looking for the killer. Clive the water dude, not wanting to “lose any of [his] extremities,” politely refuses, but Billy is having none of that. He hands Clive a pair of garden shears, grabs a big piece of pipe for himself (yeah, phallic much?) and hilariously says, “lets twist this” without a hint of irony. Awesome.
Sissy doesn’t want to go alone, so Gus volunteers to go with her. Shawn tries to talk some sense into him:
“We’ve never met Annie. She could be a terrible person. We’ve suddenly fallen into some kind of slasher movie scenario and we’re making all of the classic mistakes. We stay here. Shut the door. Wait for help.”
Makes sense, right? But remember that whole Gus-acts-like-an-idiot-around-pretty-girls thing? Yeah, that urge takes over and Gus heads out with Sissy, leaving poor Shawn alone. He pulls out his cell phone.
OOH! Killer vision! Gus and Sissy are talking about… something… when we are suddenly watching them through two crudely cut holes in what I can only assume is a very foul smelling mask that is now caked in poor Annie’s blood. Gus is telling Sissy that they call him “fearless Guster” when he hears a bird caw and chucks the shovel that he’s carrying as protection at a tree. “And there’s plenty more where that came from!” HA!!
Over to Billy and his pipe of manliness, falling into a large hole and presumably getting chopped up by PK, who at that very moment has arrived with his axe.
Subplot! Lassie arrives at the restaurant where he’s meeting his wife. He’s two hours early and thoroughly creeps the poor maitre-d out by telling him that he’ll wait. Standing. In the lobby. You see, as a peace officer, he’s trained to “remain motionless for 8 hours if need be.” The maitre-d wonders if he might be more comfortable in the bar, which is open. Upon walking into the bar, he finds his wife, Victoria, already on her second martini. Seems she was nervous too. Aw, cute! Oh, and Victoria is Justine Bateman, who is looking a little worse for wear. Although she looks great in the pic at her wiki, so maybe it’s just the lighting.
Back at the camp, Juliet (Detective Juliet O’Hara) walks in and finds Shawn hiding in a closet. Understandably embarrassed, he asks her to go back out and come back in so she can catch him doing something much more manly, like inverted sit-ups or anvil lifting.
It’s 6:00, which is when everyone agreed to meet back at the cabin after searching for the killer. Since we were privy to the whole ineffective pipe/ large hole/ scary dude with an axe debacle, we know that Billy won’t be making that appointment. But everyone else is worried. Juliet yells at everyone for being idiots (see Shawn’s “classic slasher movie mistakes” quote above), and ushers them all back into the cabin.
Sissy tries to explain that there is something Jason hasn’t told Shawn and Gus, but he creeps creepily in and stops her. He then goes ape shit when he finds out that Shawn called the cops. He calls Shawn “Iago” and stomps out. Seriously why isn't anyone else noticing that he's acting so weird? Only Shawn is calling him out on it.
PCA!! Shawn asks, “What does the parrot from Aladdin have to do with this?” *hee*
After a brief argument, where Gus explains that “[he’s] seen enough slasher movies to know that when the brother goes off to the woods, he doesn’t even sort of come back,” Shawn decides to man up and go after Jason himself.
PCA!! Shawn tries to refute Gus’ claim about black guys in horror movies by referencing Deep Blue Sea. It doesn’t work. Shawn is still going alone.
"You can call me slicks"
Shawn trudges back to the laundry shack, where he sees a blond girl sitting in a chair and assumes it’s Annie. When he touches her shoulder, her head drops back at an unnatural angle (*shudder*), and at the same time, the killer appears in the doorway. This is the first good look we’ve gotten at the mask. It’s burlap, with two holes cut for eyes (though if I’m being honest, the holes are not nearly the same size as the ones we were looking out during Killer Vision earlier) and X’s where the mouth would be. It’s creeptastic.
How much do I love when Shawn screams and runs away like a little girl? I prefer when Shawn and Gus do their girly screaming and running together, but this is good too, for the sheer speed of the running and volume and timbre of the screaming.
Despite the aforementioned impressive girly running, the killer is having no trouble keeping up. Whilst running, Shawn is flashing through the things that he’s seen since coming to the camp, finally figuring things out (wait, isn’t it a little early for this scene?). He sees the empty pool, the shard of glass from Annie’s cabin, and Gus wiping the blood from Annie’s pjs onto his pants. In classic slasher movie style, Shawn trips. However unlike most slasher movies, when the killer reaches him, he’s smiling. When Juliet goes all super cop and threatens to shoot the killer, Shawn jumps up and blocks her shot.
PCA!! Shawn explains that this is not Friday the 13th, it’s April Fools Day.
So it turns out it was all a joke. Ha-ha! Jason is the one in the mask, but the knife he’s wielding is fake. Now that the jig is up, Billy comes running up the path with Annie on his back. Seems Jason is planning on opening the camp again, not for kids, but as a “Murder Camp” for adults. I don’t know… would that be fun? I prefer my faux-danger in small increments – a 2 hour movie or a short roller coaster ride. Not sure I could handle having the ever loving crap scared out of me for a whole week!!
And Gus was in on it!! Remember the flash backs during the run from the psycho killer? Gus wiping the blood on his pants was suspicious, considering he has an intense fear of blood. Turns out Jason called him a week earlier, and Gus grabbed the opportunity to get back at Shawn for all the times he scared him.
PCA!! Shawn says that Gus and Jason are his least favorite tag team of all time. Clive says, “Really? With Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff on the table?” Yeah, I obviously had to look that one up. Shawn can’t believe he made that reference either.
Jason apologizes to everyone for scaring them, a big storm suddenly blows in (ruh-roh), and we have a montage of champagne drinking and photo taking to the song “Paranoia” by Harvey Danger. Perfect horror movie song.
Juliet is less than amused, but decides to stay due to the impending storm and Shawn’s offer of Chocodiles, which I’ve never had, but they sound really good. I’ll have to add these to the pro column of my pro/con list re: moving to the West Coast, along with great weather and flip flops year round.
I bet you thought the episode was over, considering Shawn figured everything out, right? Well, not so much, considering we’re only 32 minutes in and everyone’s favorite fake psychic just discovered poor Garrison/Irwin floating face down in the lake. And guess what! The road out of camp has been blocked by an overturned logging truck. OH! And the cell phone reception is down due to the storm. They’re pulling out all the stops here, folks!
Back to the subplot. Lassie and Victoria are sitting in the restaurant, and Lassie is talking about seizing the moment and not analyzing everything to death. He tells her he wants a second chance and gives her a necklace, which he was able to buy after selling some confiscated knives on Craigslist. Heh. I love unintentionally funny Lassie. Alas, poor Lassie is about to have his heart ripped out, when Victoria reveals that she only wanted to meet to give him the divorce papers. Aw! Sad Lassie!
Back at Camp Tikihama, Juliet doesn’t see any clear signs of foul play in the death of crazy old Irwin. The counselors decide to play a game of strip cribbage which, as Clive the water guy points out, “seems appropriate…with a dead guy on the porch.” He opts out and goes to play video games in the other room. Annie is also out, as she heads back to her cabin to take a shower. Again, with the stupidity!! Dead guy = do not go off by yourself. I’d ask if she’s ever seen a scary movie, but she was watching one at the beginning of the episode! Pay attention, woman!!
PCA!! When Shawn tells Juliet that he’s still getting bad vibes about this whole thing, she asks “can’t you do better than vibes?” Shawn says, “Jeff Goldblum and Cindy Lauper couldn’t.” OMG, I’ve never heard of this movie, but now I MUST see it! So much cheesy 80's goodness!
Shawn and Juliet head back out to see the body. Shawn notices a few marks on Garrison/Irwin’s neck, but isn’t sure yet what that could mean. Meanwhile, we watch Annie walk back to her cabin via Killer Vision!! If you’ve ever seen a horror movie, you’ve seen this scene. Chick gets out of the shower, wipes the fog off the mirror, sees scary killer in the reflection, gets axed. And despite the fact that it’s a total cliché, it’s still creepifying.
Back in the main cabin, Billy is naked. Apparently he’s not very good at cribbage. Remind me of this fact the next time Billy is at my house, because DAMN that dude has a nice body. Just as he’s about to put his clothes back on (NOOOOOO!), the lights go out. Thinking it’s just a breaker, Billy heads out to fix it.
Subplot: Poor sad Lassie is sitting alone at the table. Victoria comes back from the bathroom, and he hands her the signed divorce papers. He tells her he’s letting her go, because he knows that’s what she wants, but he still loves her. Man, I just want to cuddle the crap out of poor Lassie!! Y’know, if he wouldn’t arrest me for assault and throw me in the pokey.
Billy, who is now only shirtless, has gone to check on the breaker, which sparks when he touches it. He looks up to see the killer in the doorway, picking up a wet mop. Electricity + water = a shocking end for Billy the Body Sculptor. HAHAHAHAHAH! Ahem.
Apparently the shock of Billy’s untimely death flipped the breaker switch, because the lights come back on in the main cabin. And it must have flipped a switch in Shawn’s freaky psychic/hyper aware brain too, because we’re treated to another series of flashes as he pieces the puzzle together. He remembers:
1. The ring Clive was wearing on his thumb, whicht could easily match up to the marks on Garrison/Irwin’s neck.
2. The creepy way Clive was not smiling during the obviously fun Paranoia champagne/photo taking montage. Who doesn’t love a good montage? Clearly he’s the killer!
But he’s the funny guy! He can’t be the killer, right? Wrong! When the gang goes to find him, he’s no longer playing video games, having put the creepy doll that Jason was carrying around when they first arrived at the camp in his chair so no one would notice he was missing.
Juliet and Shawn go to look for Clive, telling everyone else to stay together and not to open the doors for anyone but them. Sadly, this is bad advice, considering Clive is actually still in the cabin and jumps out as soon as Juliet and Shawn are gone. Much screaming ensues, as Clive grabs Jason. Gus and Sissy make a run for it. Juliet and Shawn discover what’s left of Annie and Billy (ick).
Now I’m not really clear on the details here, because the last time we saw Psycho Clive, he was in the cabin with Jason, but now he’s near the pool with Gus. Lightning flashes and Shawn thinks he sees Gus face down in the rainwater at the bottom of the pool. He rushes down there only to discover it’s actually Clive. Oops! Turns out the repair man who drowned in the pool 20 years ago was Clive’s father (Me: “OF COURSE he was.” Shawn: “OF COURSE he was.”) Naturally, Clive isn’t cool with the fact that they’re taking his father’s death and making a game out of it with all of this Murder Camp nonsense. There's a lot of soggy fighting, including some silliness with a pool skimmer and a water noodle, before Juliet finally shoots Clive – through the hand. OUCH!
It’s the next morning, and…well, there’s Jason! He’s being wheeled out of the cabin on a stretcher, but there doesn’t really seem to be anything wrong with him. Based on their reactions when Juliet and Shawn found Annie and Billy, I have to assume they were GOOD and dead. Like really, really dead. One would think Clive would have had a field day with Jason, considering the whole Murder Camp thing was his idea. But whatever, I’m going to look past it, since this episode amused me greatly. Plus, I would have been super bummed if they had killed one of my original childhood TV boyfriends.
In the last scene, Shawn, Juliet and Gus are standing looking out over the lake, wondering how something so ugly could happen in a place so beautiful.
Okay, surely someone out there recognizes what horror movie this scene is lifted from. It's driving me crazy! If you recognize it (or any of the other zillion shout-outs to slasher films sprinkled throughout the episode), let us know in the comments!
Well, there you have it... my first recap. Considering next week is the finale, I guess my timing’s not the best. But feel free to leave me some comments! We can talk about the recap, the episode, the many pop culture references I’m sure I missed! Go nuts!
**Gus tells Shawn it looks more like Ann Margaret, who will always be Medda, the Swedish Meadowlark to me.**
OMG! My heart sings! Another Newsies fan!!
Carrying the banner! *hee* I just watched that around Christmas for the first time in years, and I still know every. single. word. The songs and the dialogue. LOVE it.
**Gus tells Shawn it looks more like Ann Margaret, who will always be Medda, the Swedish Meadowlark to me.**
OMG! My heart sings! Another Newsies fan!!
Carrying the banner! *hee* I just watched that around Christmas for the first time in years, and I still know every. single. word. The songs and the dialogue. LOVE it.
Oh, jerseybelle, you rocked this out! My heart weeps for all your PCAs, but, WOW, you’ve got those down!
I, idiot that I am, spent the entire episode yelling out, “It’s Shawn Astin!”, and then about five minutes before it ended…*small voice* “That’s Mackenzie Astin.” The really sad part is I LOVED Mackenzie Astin when I was a kid, and he was on The Facts of Life. I KNOW the difference between the hobbit and Mac, but NO!
Great recap, I really laughed my ass off…I’ll be reading it again, and that is the highest compliment I can think of to pay a recap!
Why, why, why don’t more people know about this show? They will now!
It's hard for me to even think of those two as brothers, because they look so different. Did you ever see the movie Dream for an Insomniac?If not, go rent it. You will not be sorry.
Everyone needs to be watching this show!
Oh, jerseybelle, you rocked this out! My heart weeps for all your PCAs, but, WOW, you've got those down!
I, idiot that I am, spent the entire episode yelling out, "It's Shawn Astin!", and then about five minutes before it ended…*small voice* "That's Mackenzie Astin." The really sad part is I LOVED Mackenzie Astin when I was a kid, and he was on The Facts of Life. I KNOW the difference between the hobbit and Mac, but NO!
Great recap, I really laughed my ass off…I'll be reading it again, and that is the highest compliment I can think of to pay a recap!
Why, why, why don't more people know about this show? They will now!
It's hard for me to even think of those two as brothers, because they look so different. Did you ever see the movie Dream for an Insomniac?If not, go rent it. You will not be sorry.
Everyone needs to be watching this show!
I’m not going to call them out on the misogyny, because I really like the word harlot.
Hee. Me too! It’s such an absurd, ancient word (ooo, poetry). Harlot, harlot, harlot!
I was so looking forward to this recap, and it did not disappoint, not by a long shot! I’m so glad you’re recapping this series because you go out of your way to find the references I don’t know (like the Iron Sheik). :)
Fabulous job, luv!
Thanks! Those references just about killed me – and I know I missed a TON!!
I’m not going to call them out on the misogyny, because I really like the word harlot.
Hee. Me too! It's such an absurd, ancient word (ooo, poetry). Harlot, harlot, harlot!
I was so looking forward to this recap, and it did not disappoint, not by a long shot! I'm so glad you're recapping this series because you go out of your way to find the references I don't know (like the Iron Sheik). :)
Fabulous job, luv!
Thanks! Those references just about killed me – and I know I missed a TON!!
Bravo! It’s been a while since I could catch up on Psych, so it was nice to read a recap. You did great!
The finale is on Friday, so there may be a marathon if you want to catch up. There were some AWESOME episodes this season!!
Bravo! It's been a while since I could catch up on Psych, so it was nice to read a recap. You did great!
The finale is on Friday, so there may be a marathon if you want to catch up. There were some AWESOME episodes this season!!
This recap made me laugh so hard. Kudos, girlie!!
You know my goal in life is to make you laugh. THANKS!
This recap made me laugh so hard. Kudos, girlie!!
You know my goal in life is to make you laugh. THANKS!
The last seen where the three of them are standing together and looking at the lake is taken from Friday the 13th as well. If you watch the episode on usanetwork.com there is an enhanced version that mentions all of the PCAs
The last seen where the three of them are standing together and looking at the lake is taken from Friday the 13th as well. If you watch the episode on usanetwork.com there is an enhanced version that mentions all of the PCAs
It's Wookieepedia. I'm a Star Wars geek.