Recap / Psych S 06 E 13 Lets Doo Wop It Again

Season 6, Episode 13

Let’s Doo-Wop It Again

"Tell her to shoot me!" "I'm still holding you, Shawn!"

Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar

Written by Saladin K Patterson and Kell Cahoon

Quarterblack/Blackappella – Gus’ old college A Cappella quartet, plus Shawn – are singing at a benefit gala for Right Now, a community outreach charity program that tries to keep at-risk youth out of gangs. Unfortunately, Shawn’s appendix bursts immediately after their first song, and he’s rushed to the hospital. Shawn will be fine, but he’ll need to recover for the next few days. Unfortunately, a case suddenly drops into their laps—Deacon Jones, the charity’s founder, has been shot. He survives, but nobody knows who shot him, and he’s made a lot of enemies with his charity. With Shawn bedbound in the hospital, it’s up to the other three members of Quarterblack/Blackappella to try and solve the case, with Shawn helping as best he can from his hospital bed.

Tropes:

• Apologetic Attacker:
  • Marlowe apologizes to Lassie in advance before punching him in the face. To be fair, the gang needed to get information from a prisoner at the facility where Marlowe was staying, and her punching Lassie was done to make it easier for her to help.
  • The villain, Jimmy Brigham, apologizes to Deacon—and to a lesser extent, Shawn—as he prepares to kill them, saying he hadn't wanted to do this. He emphasizes that his original plan was to fire a shot near Deacon to scare people into re-hiring his security guards and he only hit Deacon by accident.
• The Bus Came Back: Tony, from “High-Top Fade-Out” returns.
• Chekhov's Gun: Since Shawn doesn’t have medical insurance, Henry is footing the bill for his hospital stay. At the end, this saves his life: when Brigham tries killing Shawn and Deacon with morphine overdoses in their drip tubes, Shawn just gets a lot of glucose, since Henry refused to pay for painkillers after 24 hours.
• Deception Non-Compliance: Shawn and Gus are discussing a case via webcam. The murderer (standing off-screen) forces Shawn to give Gus a false lead, which Shawn does while speaking very plainly and seriously. Gus realizes something is wrong, knowing that Shawn wouldn't normally talk without over-exaggerating or making a joke.
• Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: Tony and Drake were apparently headed down a dark road into gangs in their youth. Right Now helped them turn their lives around, and they’re deeply grateful for it.
• Delayed Reaction: At the very end, after Shawn has taken Brigham down, he admits that he feels great, despite probably hurting himself worse after the surgery in the struggle. Gus replies that it’s the adrenaline rush kicking in, and he’s gonna be in real pain soon. Gus is absolutely correct, and Shawn is bent double in obvious pain a few seconds later.
• Distressed Dude: Tony and Drake are kidnapped halfway through the episode by a gangster named Chuy. Tony seems to have this happen to him a lot.
• External Combustion: Someone rigs Chuy’s car to explode when he tries to make a quick getaway in it.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: After arguing back and forth with Gus over Blackapella's name, Shawn is suddenly startled and looking at something offscreen on the tablet with a serious expression. That's because Jimmy Brigham is holding a gun against him and Deacon, and forces him to lie to the police when they began to suspect Jimmy's involvement.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Jimmy Brigham, Right Now’s head of security. Right Now was doing very well for itself, and his security business was losing a lot of work. He shot Deacon to scare everyone into investing in his security business.
• Insistent Terminology: Shawn keeps insisting they call the group “Quarterblack”, instead of “Blackappella”. He’s the only one who really cares.
• Insult Backfire: McNab doesn't realize Lassiter's taking a shot at him.
  McNab We're knitting an afghan for granny.
  Lassiter: An afghan? I have to know: will their be a hibiscus flower?
  McNab: There would be, if this were 2004. This guy.
• Major Injury Underreaction: After hopping out of his hospital bed and jumping the murderer, Shawn should be bleeding profusely from multiple torn stitches and in serious pain. He just stands there feeling great. Then the adrenaline wears off.
• Mission Control: Shawn spends the whole episode laid up in the hospital, and watches what Gus is up to through his tablet.
• Moral Pragmatist: Deacon Jones was skimming money off of the charity to quietly pay off a local gangster to buy some of his younger members’ freedom.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The ending reveals that by insisting on skyping with Gus throughout the investigation, Shawn has been letting the culprit know everything that's going on about their investigation. Said culprit is the bodyguard of Shawn's hospital roommate and can hear everything Shawn says, giving them time to counter any leads that might endanger them.
• Open Secret: Gus, Tony, and Drake immediately head out to try to solve the case without Shawn. Shawn and Henry know exactly what they plan to do.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Near the end, Gus realizes that Shawn’s extremely subdued attitude to a break in the case is not a good sign, and they rush to the hospital to make sure he’s all right. This was the right call, since he and Deacon were being help at gunpoint.
• Ruptured Appendix: The appendix is removed with little fanfare, but Shawn staying in the hospital to recover means he’s Out Sick for the majority of the episode’s runtime.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Marlowe and Lassiter have this relationship by now, even with Marlowe still in prison.
• Simple Solution Won't Work: Upon learning that Chuy was planning to perform Self Stitching on himself to remove a bullet from his arm, Tony and Drake wonder why he didn't just go to a hospital. Lassiter realizes that hospitals are required to report any and all gunshot wounds to the police, meaning that, as a gangbanger, Chuy wanted to avoid that.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Tony’s brother Drake replaces Joon for the singing gig, since Joon apparently couldn’t make it. He has a similar goofy relationship with Tony.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Tina was a former gang member who now handles the charity’s money. She tries luring a gangster named Chuy in with money, then beating the hell out of him to figure out who shot Deacon.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In the opening scene, Drake replaces Joon as a member of the acapella group. Joon's absence is barely touched upon.
• With Friends Like These...: When Gus, Tony, Drake, and Shawn (who’s watching from a tablet) are held at gunpoint, Drake suggests that the gun simply be emptied into Gus. Shawn “volunteers” to get shot (since he’s just watching on the tablet), but Gus points out he’s effectively holding Shawn at the moment.