'Psych 2: Lassie Come Home' Review: It's a homecoming for Lassiter as Shawn and Gus get to their usual hijinks
Spoilers for 'Psych 2: Lassie Come Home'
When 'Psych: The Movie' first aired on USA network in 2017, it was clearly a love letter to the fans of the network's comedy procedural drama 'Psych' that ran for eight seasons and introduced us to the lovable characters of Shawn Spencer (James Roday) and Burton "Gus" Guster (Dule Hill). The other band of equally lovable characters includes Shawn's love interest Juliet "Jules" O'Hara (Maggie Lawson), her lead detective partner Carlton Lassiter (Timothy Omundson), the police chief Karen Vick (Kirsten Nelson), Shawn's father Henry Spencer (Corbin Berenson), and of course, the weird coroner, Woody Strode (Kurt Fuller).
'Psych' creator Steve Franks had to rewrite the script for the 2017 movie and relocate it from Santa Barbara to San Francisco when Omundson suffered a stroke just before filming and managed to include a phone video conversation between Lassiter and Jules to include the character. This time around, the 'Psych' movie is still a love letter, but from the cast and crew to Omundson, who takes on a much more central role. Lassiter's predilection reflects Omundson's after he was shot by an unknown gunman and is recuperating in a healthcare facility, the Herschel House, when 'Psych 2: Lassie Come Home' begins.
Lassiter calls Shawn and Gus to help — an oddity as 'Psych' fans would know — when he begins seeing strange things and hallucinating his dead father, played by the inimitable Joel McHale. Meanwhile, Jules herself takes up investigating the case in secret. Lassiter was her partner, mentor, and friend and she is determined to bring the criminal to justice. What unfolds feels like a stretched out 'Psych' episode that perhaps feels weaker because of scenes that often feel like fillers.
However, the movie is still made for fans, and for many, it may even feel like a long-awaited homecoming that is finally complete with Lassiter being back. We mentioned that the movie was a love letter to Omundson and there are many scenes that cement this — especially when Jules tells Lassiter, "You are the strongest person I know, and I am watching you get stronger every single day, and I love you, and I don’t know what I would do without you." This may even just be Lawson telling that to Omundson himself. The final scene involves Lassiter making the literal first step to recovery as he moves to his wife, Marlowe Viccellio (Kristy Swanson).
Among other things, 'Psych 2: Lassie Come Home' also features the Shawn-growing-up trope, when Shawn and Gus discover a pregnancy test in Jules' car. Shawn wonders whether he is ready and keeps telling Gus that it's him who always has been ready to be a father. This, of course, turns out to be true when it is revealed that the test belonged to Gus' girlfriend, Selene(Jazmyn Simon), whom we met in the first movie.
The whodunnit mystery of the movie is subpar, but 'Psych' was always more about its characters than the mystery that propelled each episode forward and judging by that, 'Psych 2' delivers. We were happy to see Omundson back as Lassiter, and could not agree more that this was a fitting way to welcome him back.
'Psych 2: Lassie Come Home' will be available to stream on NBC's streaming service, Peacock from July 15.