Season 7, Episode 06
Cirque du Soul
"You know what they say about men with long arms..." "Yeah, that everything else is really, really short."
Directed by Jennifer Lynch
Written by Saladin K. Patterson
Marlowe has finally been released from jail, but even Lassiter vouching for her character won't help her with her parole officer - in fact, it's making things worse. The parole officer happens to be a former one-night-stand of Lassie's, and she's not thrilled about his new relationship. To get around her rules, Lassiter and Marlowe temporarily move in with Shawn and Juliet.Meanwhile, Shawn becomes involved in a missing-person case of a cirque acrobat named Francois. He and Gus take Max, Rachael's son, to the cirque - where the subject of Shawn's case slips off the trapeze and crashes to the floor, dead. However, Woody the coroner has some interesting news: it seems the acrobat was electrocuted, and died before he even got on the trapeze. Investigating, Shawn discovers several of the performers are using their skills to steal valuable tritium from a laboratory nearby - but there's more going on than meets the eye, and with Gus trying to get back in Rachael's good graces after her son watched a man apparently fall to his death, Shawn's got his work cut out for him on this case...
Tropes:
- Circus Episode: Well, Cirque, but close enough.
- Contortionist: Zola is one, and so are several of her coworkers. This comes in handy when Shawn uses a big backpack to smuggle them all into a warehouse.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Jeffrey Duke, owner of a successful portable outhouse business. He offered a group of immigrant circus performers forged documents for US Visas, if they would steal tritium for him. When one of them died in their first attempt, they tried to back out on the deal – so he kidnapped one of them to force their hands.
- Go for the Eye: Shawn temporarily blinds Duke and his thugs by spraying bug-killer in their eyes.
- High-Voltage Death: Francois apparently got electrocuted before getting on the trapeze. We later discover it was from touching an electrified fence.
- I Have Your Wife: Zola the contortionist was kidnapped by Jeffrey Duke to force her friends to steal tritium for him.
- Kavorka Man: At the very end, Juliet redirects Ursula’s obsessive affections by introducing her to Woody the coroner – who she promptly falls head-over-heels for.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Ursula Gibbs was a former one-night-stand of Lassiter’s. She’s still intensely bitter that he never called her back afterwards, and makes Marlowe’s parole as miserable as it is within her power to do.
- Missing Child: Max wanders off at the Cirque, and Shawn and Gus spend several tense minutes looking for him before Gus sees him coming out of an outhouse.
- Must Make Amends: After Shawn and Gus’ shenanigans get Rachael to break up with Gus, Shawn calls Rachael and accepts all responsibility for everything that happened to Max.
- Of Corpse He's Alive: It turns out Francois died before he got on the trapeze, and the other performers attempted to cover it up by letting him fall during a rehearsal.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Lassiter and Marlowe are downplayed versions of this, though they do agree to leave upon Juliet’s request.
- Too Much Information: Upon Woody’s mentioning a Casual Kink, he reveals he thinks TMI stands for Tell More Information. The others immediately shut him down.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: Lassiter and Marlowe’s storyline serve as the B-plot to Psych’s investigation.
