Recap / Psych S 03 E 16 An Evening With Mr Yang

Season 3, Episode 16

An Evening With Mr. Yang

"Hey everybody, I'm back - for one night only. I'm going to kill someone tonight. Guess who? Guess where? Guess how? This is going to be so much fun! Signed - Mr. Yang. PS. ...Oh, and bring your psychic along."

Directed by Mel Damski

Written by Andy Berman and James Roday Rodriguez

During lunch, Gus calls Shawn out on his immature behavior, specifically citing his tendencies to flirt and not follow up. Deciding to prove Gus wrong, Shawn schedules a date with Abigail, his high school crush that he reconnected with at the beginning of the season, and asks her out. However, the fun stuff comes to a quick end. The police have gotten a message from the Yin-Yang Killer, their first in several years. "Mr. Yang" is a terrifyingly effective serial killer who has murdered at least eight people, but was never caught. Yang enjoys finding "playmates" within the department, challenges them to solve a series of riddles to free an innocent civilian within a time limit, and murders them if they fail. Nobody has beaten Yang yet, and now, Shawn is the killer's newest playmate - and his chosen innocent civilian is the waitress where he and Gus ate lunch. While Shawn initially blows Yang off as just another thug he can take down before his date, the killer turns out to be a lot smarter, more ruthless, and more effective than anyone Shawn has faced so far. Even with the assistance of Juliet, Lassiter, and Mary Lightly, the police profiler, Shawn finds himself pressed for time. As the riddles grow harder and time grows short, Shawn starts to wonder if he's finally met his match...

Tropes:

• Admiring the Abomination: Mary Lightly is unabashedly impressed by Mr. Yang’s efficiency and ability.
• Arc Symbol: The Yin-Yang symbol; it's generally found wherever Mr. Yang has been active.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: While in the Psych office, Juliet notices a series of pictures on the wall: one of Shawn, one of Gus, one of young Shawn and Gus… and one of the waitress, Bound and Gagged in an unknown location.
• The Bus Came Back: In the second episode of the season, Shawn reconnected with his high-school crush, Abigail. In this, the last, he finally gets the nerve to call her up and ask her out.
• Creepy Good: Mary Lightly's odd mannerisms make Shawn uncomfortable, but he is instrumental in taking Yang down.
• Criminal Mind Games: Mr. Yang plays with a new officer of the SBPD every time someone shows up who Yang decides is a Worthy Opponent. A person is kidnapped, and a Linked List Clue Methodology is set up with multiple riddles and a new stopwatch for every riddle.
• Cut-and-Paste Note: Mr. Yang leaves several of these (some with Alpha-Bits cereal or rat food in place of text), each one with a clue or riddle leading to the next one.
• The Dreaded: Mr. Yang is this for the entire SBPD. They have never been caught, they have never been bested, and anyone who’s targeted by Yang is considered as good as dead. By the end, she’s this for Shawn, too.
• Drive-In Theater: Yang's riddles lead everyone to the drive-in.
• I Have Your Wife: Invoked by Yang. Shawn pretends to quit the case because he knows Yang is watching… so Yang decides to make it more personal, and kidnaps Shawn’s mother.
• It's Personal: Mr. Yang initially goads Shawn's interest by telling the police to bring him along in the initial note, then uses the waitress where he had lunch as the chosen hostage. When it looks like Shawn's going to quit anyway, Yang takes his mother hostage to deliberately invoke this trope.
• Knight of Cerebus: In previous episodes of the show, the killers were generally either overly ambitious, career criminals, were out for revenge, or had killed by accident and were trying to cover it up. Mr. Yang is the show's first legitimate Serial Killer played completely, horrifyingly straight. Mr. Yang also started the trend of making the season finales far Darker and Edgier than the rest of the show, often with a case directly tied to the Yin-Yang murders.
• Meaningful Background Event: Yang is quietly lurking in the background of a lot of scenes.
• Off the Rails: When Shawn finds one of Yang's clues - a ringing cell phone - Shawn realizes that the killer must be surveying the area and watching them in order for the phone to start ringing at just the right time. Shawn grabs the phone, and throws it into the ocean, completely derailing Yang's plans and forcing the killer to start improvising in order to continue the "game".
• Oh, Crap!: Shawn is keeping it together, beating Yang at his game... then Yang kidnaps Shawn's mom and Shawn falls into a chair in shock. Everyone else has their OC moment when Shawn throws Yang's phone in the water.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Shawn finds himself having to work harder and harder on the case, and can't spare the brainpower or energy on his usual goofiness, leading to a surprisingly tense atmosphere. He ends up asking Gus to make stupid jokes in his stead to keep the mood light and prevent him from sinking into despair.
• Papa Wolf: Henry tries his best to keep Shawn from facing Mr. Yang at all, since he knows just how dangerous the killer is. It’s hinted the last two detectives who faced the Yin-Yang Killer – and failed - were ultimately Driven to Suicide.
• Pet the Dog: Mary Lightly adopts the rat used in one of Mr. Yang's clues as a pet... simultaneously averting What Happened to the Mouse?.
• Poorly Timed Confession: Juliet finally admits she's interested in Shawn and wants to go out on a proper date... while Shawn is in the middle of a date with Abigail.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: Gus's voice while he's slightly out of breath from chasing a train apparently sounds too fake to be real to Abigail on the phone.
• Red Herring: Yang's riddles are full of false leads and misdirects, up to faking a sniper rifle at the drive-in using a laser pointer.
• Refuge in Audacity: This is always Shawn's MO, but throwing Yang's phone in the ocean to derail their plans really knocks it up a notch.
• Riddle Me This: Mr. Yang leaves multiple riddles across the city for Shawn and Gus.
• Running Gag: Shawn ends up having to push his date with Abigail back again and again while he tries to beat Yang.
• Samus Is a Girl: "Mr." Yang is a woman.
• Strapped to a Bomb: Mr. Yang does this to Shawn’s mother near the end.
• Unexpectedly Dark Episode: The first two season finales tended to have more "horror movie" overtones, with a ghost story and a mummy mystery. The third season seemed to continue the trend, with a slasher parody with an unusually high body count... only for the real finale to turn out to be even more sinister and personal.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: The only reason Yang didn’t kill Shawn’s mother was so that she could talk things out with him at the end. She seems deeply obsessed with him, and vows to write a book about their experience. Worse, it turns out she’s a Stalker with a Crush… and she’s been watching him from a distance throughout their entire case (And, it’s hinted, since long before).
• Worthy Opponent: Yang views Shawn this way.