Written by Asia Martin
Cable TV’s favorite pop-culture referencing duo returned last night in the Psych season premiere with “Lock, Stock, Some Smoking Barrels and Burton Guster’s Goblet of Fire.” The episode channeled exactly what the title cites, although it seemed more like Guy Ritchie’s film Snatch would be a better match. After being banned from the Santa Barbara Police Department last season, Shawn (James Roday) and Gus (Dulé Hill) went across the pond to help the international thief Pierre Despereaux (Cary Elwes) pursue a case.
The show starts off with Gus dressed in a Hogwarts uniform eager to attend a Harry Potter convention and Shawn showing off his newly slimmed down body with a tight-knit sweater. The watered down and revamped form of Sherlock and Watson meet up with Desperaux at Interpol, an international intelligence agency, in hopes of solving a case and working for Queen Elizabeth, whom Shawn dubbed the “Q.I.L.F.” Desperaux surprisingly reveals that he is not a thief, but an undercover agent and then recruits Shawn to pose as a thrill-seeking crazy getaway driver for local thieves led by Ronnie Ives (Vinnie Jones – Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels). Shawn finds some way to incorporate Gus into the gig as an explosive expert named The Wizard and, as usual, Gus renames himself The Wiz.
As you laugh out loud and follow the guys as they pretend to be American brutes in London, your biggest question is, were Shawn and Gus duped by Desperaux, once again? The two find themselves questioning Desperaux when Lassiter does a background check on the undercover Interpol agent and doesn’t find a match. The pair is lead to recruit another Interpol agent played by Theo Devaney (The Fabric of Life) to work on the Ronnie Ives case with them. Shawn and Gus manage to avoid Despereaux until Ronnie becomes paranoid of a snitch amidst his company. Ronnie literally throws the “snitch” out of the moving getaway van and picks up his new member, Despereaux.
The team heads out to the home of a royal family and Shawn and Gus find that the place has already been pillaged and the owner is dead. Not only has Gus and Shawn been played by Desperaux, but now they are being set up to be framed. Despereaux comes to the rescue and takes down Ronnie Ives with some MMA moves.
The show ends with Shawn still man-crushing on Despereaux and Gus never fully convinced that Desperaux is innocent.
