Season 2, Episode 10
Gus’ Dad May Have Killed an Old Guy
"We wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy New - OH MY GOD."
Directed by Oz Scott
Written by Saladin K. Patterson
It’s Christmas time, and Gus’s family has invited Shawn and Henry over for dinner – a rare occurrence, as the Gusters think Shawn is a bad influence on Gus. Everyone decides to go caroling, but one stop ends with a gruesome discovery: the eternally-grouchy old man Fuller, hanging from his banister. While it initially looks like a suicide, further investigation reveals that he was murdered… and a lot of evidence points at Gus’s father, Bill. Now, Shawn and Gus have to clear Bill’s name, and figure out who could have killed this grouchy, miserable old man… who seems to have been blackmailing Gus’s family.Tropes:
- Absurd Phobia: Snowglobes apparently give Lassiter nightmares. Of course, Shawn finds out about this and gives him one. And then someone (heavily implied to also be Shawn) spreads a rumour that Lassiter wants a snowglobe for Christmas, meaning other officers get him some as well.
- Accidental Bid: As Gus is sniffing out everyone at Mr. Fuller's estate auction near the end, he accidentally buys a large confederate flag. Gus does not look pleased.
- Always a Child to Parent: Mr. and Mrs. Guster are coddling and condescending to Gus, still seeing him as a kid who can't make good life decisions. It takes them deciding to have Gus' grandmother, who is in a nursing home, come babysit him for Gus to snap and tell his parents to start treating him like an adult.
- Asshole Victim: Even without the blackmail, Old Man Fuller was a mean old bastard.
- Blackmail Backfire: What finally got Mr. Fuller killed. He had been blackmailing people all over the block for years, but as he got older and older, he started to go senile, and one of his victims finally decided that he couldn’t be trusted to keep a secret anymore.
- Broken Glass Penalty: A variation; The Cold Open has young Shawn and Gus' ball landing on Mr. Fuller's side of the fence, and Shawn talks Gus into going after it. This scene sets up Fuller as the neighborhood's grouchy old man, and the Gusters' opinion that Shawn is a bad influence on Gus.
- Christmas Carolers: Shawn and Gus’s families – and some other folks from around the neighborhood – go caroling for the holiday. It ends rather abruptly when they discover Mr. Fuller’s body.
- Christmas Episode: The first of three in the series.
- A Deadly Affair: Boil it all down, and the murder was about covering up an extramarital affair.
- Evil Old Folks: It comes with Old Man Fuller being a blackmailer.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: A variation. It turns out that Gus’s parents do not approve of Psych (or Shawn) at all, feel he should quit, and don’t take his offer of help seriously after Bill gets arrested… even though Gus is financially better-off than they are, and they do seriously need his help. They ease up quite a bit after Shawn clears Bill of all charges.
- Frame-Up: A possibly accidental one. Mr. Fuller was poisoned with weed killer that Mr. Guster owns, hit on the head with a hammer Mr. Guster also owns, and ultimately hung with rope from Guster's boat. Mr. Guster explains he used the weed killer to poison Fuller's shrubs since he refused to cut them, and that Fuller stole tools like the hammer from him all the time. The rope, however, he can't explain, which points investigators in his direction.
- Friend to All Children: Lassiter only thinks he's this. Juliet's nephews actually hate him for criticizing their Nativity scene and mercilessly beating them in Wii boxing.
- From Bad to Worse: Bill initially gets fingered by the cops as the culprit. In their efforts to clear his name, Shawn and Gus end up leading the cops to evidence that it was Gus's mom, as she had motive, being blackmailed by Fuller.
- Generation Xerox: Shawn and Gus confront the man in the photo they found, only it turns out the man they talk to he looks exactly like his dad, who was having an affair.
- Insurance Fraud: The Guster’s apparent motive: Bill's wife Winnie had accidentally set his boat on fire, but before she could confess, their insurance had already paid it off handsomely. Unfortunately, Mr. Fuller knew the truth.
- Never Suicide: Mr. Fuller’s death-by-hanging turns out to have been preceded by a violent struggle.
- Noodle Incident: Gus mentions killing the state bird in his list of reasons why Shawn is a bad influence. What specifically happened isn't said, but Shawn's comment implies they fed the bird alcohol.
- The Nose Knows: The woman who was half of a romantic tryst caught on camera by Mr. Fuller always smelled like White Linen perfume. Gus wastes some time trying to smell out the suspect before realizing the major component and smell of that perfume is Gardenias, which leads them to the real killer.
- Properly Paranoid: Shawn's asking some of the neighbors about Fuller.Shawn: Ah, Mr. Mitchell.
Mr. Mitchell: Yes?
Shawn: My name is Shawn Spencer!
Mitchell: I'm not interested in any fake vacation packages, I'm not giving you my social security number so I can gain the grand prize, and I'm not paying any damn subscriptions for magazines I know I'll never see! [Slams door]
Shawn: I am the head psychic for the Santa Barbara Police department! [door opens]
Mitchell: Oh, well, come on in, then! - Rasputinian Death: Old Man Fuller was found at least partly poisoned, hit in the head with a hammer, and hanged from his own banister. It turns out only the last thing killed him.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gus gives his parents a pretty good one for not believing he can take care of himself, to the point that they've called his grandmother to take care of him if the criminal case goes wrong... and he's in his twenties.Gus: Stop it! I can't take any more! All my life it's been "Gus can't handle this.", "Protect Gus from that.". Well, guess what? I'm the most responsible, well-prepared, non-criminal-record-having adult in this room, and it's high time you two stopped babying me. I'm twenty-nine years old! And, by the way, I know you've only been married for twenty-eight years. I did the math a loooong time ago, so stop protecting me from that. Starting now, I'm gonna take care of you. I'm gonna give you money. And we're gonna solve this case. Shawn may not have always been the best influence on me, but he's always believed in me, even when I didn't believe in myself, and right now I believe in him.
Bill Guster: Huh. We hear you son. [steps forward to shake his son's hand] - Scatterbrained Senior: Mr. Fuller was becoming one of these. This scared the killer, as she feared he would reveal her affair because of this.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Mr. Fuller is a Grumpy Old Man who wobbles between these tropes and Evil Old Folks – seeing as he’s a blackmailer.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the Cold Open, young Shawn gives Gus a boost so he can get into Old Man Fuller's yard and retrieve their ball. When Fuller comes out of his house to yell at them, Shawn speeds off and ditches Gus.
- Shared Family Quirks: It turns out Gus inherited his "super smeller" from his parents, seen when they pass around jerk chicken and deduce the spices by scent.
- Shout-Out: Shawn and Gus reference The Tell-Tale Heart and Psycho respectively to freak the other out.
- Sinister Surveillance: Old Man Fuller’s house was at a great vantage point for him to spy on his neighbors. He’s been blackmailing quite a few of them for years.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: When Lassiter mistakenly assumes that Juliet no longer wants him at family reunion because she's jealous of him being cooler around kids, she goes along.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: The initial murder attempt was tried through a poisoned drink. When that didn't work the killer went with hitting him in the head. When that didn't work either, they tried a third option.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The show’s B-plot involves Lassiter trying to ingratiate himself into Juliet’s family for Christmas, with… mixed results.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: When Shawn and Gus confront Mr. Fuller's neighbor Bruce with a picture of him seemingly having an affair, he reveals that it's a thirty year-old picture of his father (who is played by the same actor as Bruce).
- Variations on a Theme Song: The Christmas-themed version of "I Know You Know" was re-used for the show’s two other Christmas episodes.
- Why Won't You Die?: Part of Gladys Mitchell's motive. She played along with Fuller's blackmail for years because she figured he would die of natural causes soon enough. He did not, and then he started getting dementia.
- This also applies to Fuller's murder. He spat out the poisoned tea, survived a blow to the head with a hammer, and only died when Gladys hung him.
