PSYCH Recap
Season 2 – Episode 8: “Rob-a-Bye Baby”
Recap by: Mel

We’re immediately thrown into Henry’s awful 1987 “How are babies born?” talk to Mini-Shawn. It involves safety goggles, wayward fluids, and a pair of pliers, but I’ll let you visualize the rest. Mini-Shawn is so not buying it, and demands to be told how they’re made. A squirming Henry hems and haws until Mini-Shawn threatens to ask Mom. This was super surprising (at least to me) as Shawn’s mom has been mentioned once or twice over pretty much the entire series so far. We know she and Henry are divorced, but we don’t know the sordid details, which kills me. Anyway, Henry just can’t bring himself to say “SEX, my young, naive little friend,” and tells Mini-Shawn to tuck in his shirt before he talks to his mother. Hee.

Present day, where Gus and Shawn are hurrying to a big, top secret meeting with Chief Vick. They’re both super excited, and we get another awesome 80’s line by Shawn: “Do you realize what this means? It means we’re taking it to the next level! She said ‘Big’ and ‘Top Secret’. That’s TWO of our favorite 80’s movies!” I never, ever, ever get tired of the eighties references. EVER. The two bicker about what the meeting is about, but a glassy-eyed Chief with a face fulla crazy ushers them into her office before they can ponder any further. She needs them to find her a nanny. Ooh, fancy! Gus and Shawn are decidedly unthrilled. Actually, Shawn is unthrilled- Gus is spouting some crunchy, earthy, “children are our greatest resource” crap. I hate when people say that, cause I always picture them, like, eating babies for sustenance or something. Yucko. So, Chief’s nephew went back to nursing school, and she hasn’t slept in 80 years and can’t CONTROL THE VOLUME of her voice, and Jesus, Shawn, get the woman a damn nanny already. Shawn agrees, but also wants in on some awesomely cool yacht bandit case that may or may not be tyed into the search for a nanny (you never really can tell, can you?), but Chief is all, “Oh, nonono, I hired you PRIVATELY. You work for NO ONE but ME.” Lay off the No Doz, girlfriend.

Shawn is totally not taking this nanny thing seriously, much to Gus’s chagrin: “If we screw this up, we’ll be on her bad side for pretty much ever.” Gus is the cutest pansy ever. They decide to go to the playground to race on monkey bars and steal a nanny away from some other undeserving kid. Now, I love these two guys, but they look about as creepy as can be sitting on a park bench wearing dark sunglasses and taking notes. I mean, unless you catch your hair on fire and moonwalk through the sandbox, that’s about as creepy as it gets. A cute little girl walks by, and Gus whips off his shades and asks her if she’d like some candy. A more terrified look, you will probably never see on a child. They split up, and Shawn goes to spy on a couple of nannies gossiping about a recent break-in at a client’s house. They notice him, and he awesomely yells at the jungle gym, “Perry! Luke! I’ll be sitting right here! Remember- Stranger Danger!” Heeeee! Both of the nannies are from the Red Balloon Agency, and tell Shawn about the burglaries that’ve been going on in the area- they’ve all been daytime robberies, and all of the houses have had security systems.

Gus, meanwhile, eyes a super cute nanny sitting by herself, and manages to work “Do you spank?” into the conversation, effectively horrifiying poor, cute nanny. He meets up with Shawn, and neither of them understand why kids are running away faster than people did from JC Chavez’s last solo album until Cute Office Buzz shows up and tells them he’s responding to a report of two creepy men skulking around the playground. Ha! Buzz is super sweet and apologetic about it and offers to drive them wherever, and all the nannies and kids line up and stare them down as they leave. Shawn hears a burglary report on Buzz’s radio, and requests that he bring them to the location. When they pull up, they realize it’s also a homicide, and the EMTs are wheeling out a dead body. Horns of Mystery!

As the guys head in, Shawn notices that there’s a Startek security system sign on the front lawn, and the monitor inside is working. So, someone broke into the house while the dead guy was winding down from work, killed him, located the safe, cracked it, and made away with the valuables. The guy was killed with a lamp, so the robber probably didn’t think anyone was going to be home, and didn’t mean to kill anyone. Shawn thinks this robbery is almost certainly connected to the robberies the nannies were talking about. Before they can do much else, they eye Chief and sneak out. At the station, Chief is tearing Lassie a new one: “Head Detective, my ASS.” It a wondrous sight to behold. Shawn tries to convince her to let them work the robbery, but Crazy Chief ain’t havin’ it. Gus and Shawn are sent away, but not before Shawn snaps some photos of the crime scene photos of all the robberies with his cell phone.

At the Psych office, Gus believes he’s found three lovely candidates for the nanny position until Shawn awesomely blows his bubble: “Nope, no good. None of them. Slob, Psycho, Slut.” It’s hilarious. The first one is smelling her own armpit and the second is writing the same sentence over ad over into her journal. The last one’s not really a slut, but she’s engaged, and super busy with wedding crap, so she’d be no good. They send the girls home, and take a look at some of the pictures that Shawn took. He spies a few of those Startek security signs on the front yards, so off they go to the headquarters. Lassie and Jules are already there interviewing a total bitch of security guard. Lassie thinks the security guys might be in on it, but Shawn thinks otherwise. He wants to use Gus’s car to investigate the other houses that were robbed, but he is brutally rebuffed by his BFF.

Aw, there’s Henry! He’s driving Shawn around for recon since Gus is finding a nanny. They head for the first house, which Henry labels as “a stupid house to rob.” It’s true, though, as the security sign is in full view, much unlike the other houses on the block. This house was definitely chosen for some reason, as Henry acknowledges, and Shawn manages to slip in a Highlander reference, to which Henry replies, “Everyone can do Connery. Your Lambert SUCKS.” I would seriously marry Henry in about eight seconds. They eye a nanny leaving a house wearing Coach sunglasses, and smell something fishy going on, as a nanny really can’t afford crappy designer goods. Oh, and Henry watches Nanny 911. Henry = My Husband.

Shawn bursts into Chief’s office, where he starts begging and pleading for her to listen to him about these burglaries. She’s looking very pensive, which means she’s fallen asleep with her eyes open, and I can not express how incredibly creepy I find that. She is shaky and terrifyingly sleep-deprived and glassy-eyed and fires Shawn for disobeying her “No burglary case” wishes. Gus has his panties in a twist, but Shawn tells him not to worry. He wants to find out more about the nanny agency, and asks Gus if he wants to emulate ‘My Two Dads’ for the sake of the case. Once again, Gus cock blocks him, so he heads for Jules, who’s been taking a serious verbal beating from Lassie ever since Chief Vick went all Lorena Bobbit on him. He finally corners her at an outdoor cafe, and quickly wears her down. He asks her to marry him down on one knee and while ‘99 Red Ballons’ is playing in the background, and it’s adorable. She agrees to fake being married to him to delve further into the nanny agency, and everyone around them clap and cheers. It is all very cute and sweet, and I really love James Roday and Maggie Lawson together. And they’re dating in real life! How cute is that?! So much! While they’re doing that, Gus is hilariously interviewing awful nannies, also to the soundtrack of Nena’s awesome 80’s anthem.

So, Jules is explaining what their wedding was like at the nanny agency, and let’s just say that it includes an A Capella version of James Taylor’s ‘Only One’. That alone had me shivering in fear. Abby Daniels, the head of the agency, invites the new parents, Mr. and Mrs. Levon Tostig (Ha! Elton John’s ‘Levon’ lyrics: ‘Alvin Tostig has a son today/And he shall be Levon), into her office and asks them to tell her all about baby Millicent. Blah blah, they soon get introduced to Steve Hitchcock, who deals with installing all the nanny cameras so that the parents can check in at any time. Only the parents have the pass code to the video feed, so it’s PERFECTLY safe, says Abby and Steve. Whatever, Lassie calls Jules to an exotic reptile shop, where some stolen merchandise pops up. Shawn trails along, and ends up describing creepy Steve to the reptile guy. Jules heads back to the station to get a warrant. Gus calls Shawn and tells him that Chief has forgiven them, as Gus found her the perfect nanny. And guess which agency she works for! If you guessed the one that’s at the center of this episode, you’d be totally right! Go you!

So, Shawn and Gus head back to the agency, but Abby and Steve are out. Levon and Schmooel (seriously) are okay with waiting for them, and they irritate the secretary enough that she lets them hang out in her bosses office. They find a hidden compartment in the bookcase which hides all of the video feeds that only the clients are supposed to be able to see. None of the houses that got robbed have nannies in them, until Shawn realizes that all of them were next door to a house that had a Red Balloon Agency nanny working there. They eye Abby and Steve at Chief Vick’s house, and Shawn immediately knows what up. He calls Jules to meet him at Chief’s house: “I’ve had a big vision! Top seven of ALL TIME!” Hee!

They meet up with Lassie and Jules, and shower the chief with impromptu baby gifts- an AutoLock, Tic Tacs, a stuffed bunny, and a pineapple (Yay!)- before inviting themselves in. Oh, and in walk Abby and Steve, who’ve just gotten Iris to sleep and installed the cameras, respectively. Before Abby can really wonder why Mr. and Mrs. Tostig are in Vick’s house, Shawn expresses that ‘Mr. Softie’ would like to say a few words. Mr. Softie, by the way, is a light pink, fluffy, stuffed rabbit. Mr. Softie says that the cameras Steve set up are Army grade resolution, which Lassie agrees with. They retail for, like, ten grand. All the cameras have a good view on the houses next door. Abby says Shawn is ridiculous, but he outs their secret video feed in her office. That pretty much screws them, and Shawn, Gus, and Mr. Softie fist bump as Abby and Steve get arrested.

In fact everything’s gonna work out fine, as Chief’s nephew is transferring to a nursing school in Santa Barbara in two weeks. She’ll have her old nanny back, and until then, Shawn has a plan. Cut to Henry (hee!) playing with baby Iris on a park bench. Of course, Shawn and Gus jet before Henry can unload the baby back onto them, but it is the cutest sight EVER to behold. And the Psych-Out this week, you guys? James Roday and Dule Hill are singing Billy Ocean’s ‘Caribbean Queen’ while trying to stay afloat in water? Perfection.

Season finale this Friday, with a description from USA: “When an accused murderer goes on the lam, Shawn and Gus play bounty hunter, racing “Midnight Run”-style to bring him in before the cops and a real bounty hunter get him first. However, the chase gets complicated when Shawn realizes the guy they are bringing in is innocent.” And Hercules is coming to town! Kevin Sorbo is dreeeaaamyyyy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 8:36 pm and is filed under Ducky Does TV, Mel, Psych. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.