Season 7, Episode 14
No Trout About It
"Do you believe in psychics now, Mr. Troutman?" "No. In fact, even less than I did two minutes ago."
Directed by Brad Turner
Written by Bill Callahan and Carlos Jacott
While chasing down a particularly elusive suspect, Gus and Lassiter end up crashing their cars into one another in the middle of a charity run’s public path route, to the outrage of the participants. The mayor has hired a consultant named Harris Trout to turn the department around, but first, Trout wants to hear the events leading up to the accident. Shawn fills him in on the story, which began when a critically poisoned lawyer named Leo Quinn came into Psych’s office, asking them to figure out who poisoned him. Leo’s wife is shot shortly afterwards. It seems she was part of a conspiracy to steal ten million dollars in diamonds from a safe deposit box belonging to one of Leo’s clients. There’s still at least two more participants in the robbery, however, and Leo’s life is fading fast… as is Trout’s patience.Tropes:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Trout announces he is changing things up by refusing to hire Psych, demoting Lassiter, and...painting the walls.
- Ashes to Crashes: Shawn is holding the urn containing Leo’s (actually Dr.Umma’s) ashes during the car chase. The lid comes loose, and douses everyone but him in the crash. Shawn initially claims the stuff is cake mix, but eventually comes clean. Lassiter promptly tries to strangle him.
- Brutal Honesty: The doctor is forced to use this when he admits Leo’s been poisoned, and won’t live more than a couple days.
- Expert Consultant: Trout was a police chief in Philadelphia and Baltimore, and is also a consultant on an in-universe show called “Badge and Honor”. He’s called in to see what he can do to make the department more effective and efficient after the screw-up in the car chase.
- Faint in Shock: Mrs. Lauderbach has this reaction to learning her diamonds have been stolen. She recovers pretty quickly.
- Faking the Dead: Leo faked his own poisoning, killed and cremated the doctor who helped him, and then knocked off everyone else involved in the diamond theft so he could skip town as a very wealthy “dead” man.
- Good Is Not Nice: Trout is a former police chief with impressive credentials, is one of the few people who can keep up with Shawn’s train of thought, and is firmly on the side of law and order. He’s also a loud, impatient, obnoxious bully who everyone quickly grows to hate.
- How We Got Here: Most of the plot occurred over the course of two days leading up to the accident, and is summarized over the course of the episode with Shawn explaining everything to Trout in Chief Vick’s office.
- I Can Change My Beloved: Leo admits that his wife, Rita, has a problematic history, but insist that he’s changing her for the better. Rita, for her part, has little respect for him, and Really Gets Around, though she’s subtle about it to the point that Leo is unaware of this. Except Leo knows more than he’s letting on, and he eventually murders her.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Trout is incredibly rude and obnoxious, but he’s not wrong in pointing out that Lassiter and Shawn can be immature and unprofessional at the best of times, and flout protocol with alarming frequency.
- Kick the Dog: Trout ends the episode by randomly firing McNab and taking Vick's job.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: At the climax, Trout forbids the police and Psych from heading to the airport to catch the actual mastermind behind the diamond theft and the murders. They head out and do it anyway. This has major repercussions when Chief Vick takes responsibility and is put on a six-month suspension for it.
- Self-Serving Memory: Lassiter briefly tries to take over telling the story from Shawn, but his portrayal of the situation involves him making a quippy one-liner that showers him in adoration from the rest of the police. Trout tells him to stop, and hands the story back to Shawn.
- Sudden Downer Ending: After the Shawn and company solved the case and are feeling great about it, Harris Trout announces that he is suspending Chief Vick, taking over her job in the interim, disavowing Psych from future cases, firing McNab for his side job as a stripper, and demoting Lassiter from Head Detective. In just the span of three minutes.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Shawn points out to Trout that they’ve solved well over a hundred murders over the last seven years. Trout replies that Santa Barbara has a frightening reputation for a medium-sized city, what with all those murders. Since almost every Psych episode involves at least one murder being investigated, it stands to reason that they’ve really been piling up lately.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: At the end of the episode, Chief Vick pulls a Heroic Sacrifice and takes responsibility for Shawn, Gus, Lassiter, and Juliet going against Trout’s orders to catch Leo. She’s given a six-month suspension, and Trout takes over as the new interim police chief. He immediately fires McNab and Psych, and demotes Lassiter from head detective.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Leo is a nebbish, balding, skinny middle-aged man, but Rita is a ridiculously attractive young woman.
- Whodunnit to Me?: Leo is dosed with enough poison to kill him in no more than two days by someone unknown. There is no cure. He wants to find out who did it before he dies, and accompanies Psych on their investigation as best he can, given his failing health. Or at least, that's the story he gives to Psych.
- Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: At the very beginning, Henry asks what kind of idiot drives down a public pathway... cue Shawn waving from the window and yelling “Hi, dad!” as Gus speeds by.
