A Very Juliet Episode (2024)

"A Very Juliet Episode" is the twelfth episode of Season Four. When Juliet asks Gus to help her track down an old boyfriend, she inadvertently exposes a dark and closely guarded secret.

Plot Summary[]

Juliet goes to the train station to meet Scott Seaver (Josh Braaten), her college boyfriend. They had planned to meet there exactly seven years after they said goodbye, but he never shows up. At first dejected, she quickly becomes curious as to why he didn't turn up. She starts to use police resources to track him down, but Karen puts a stop to that before she can find anything. She sees Gus at the station, and asks for his help - but with the proviso that he must keep Shawn out of it. With everything that's happened between them, it would be weird. Gus agrees and goes back to the Psych office, where Shawn immediately figures out he's doing something behind his back. Gus has to admit he's finding someone for Juliet, but doesn't let him know Scott was Juliet's ex-boyfriend, claiming he is simply a missing person case. The next day, an elated Shawn tells Juliet he found her missing person and he's dead. A distraught Juliet runs out of the room, and Gus must admit to Shawn who Scott really is. A guilty Shawn then decides to look deeper into what happened to Scott to give Juliet some answers. He and Henry get the police report on Scott's fatal accident and find many inconsistencies. Shawn and Gus then rope Lassiter into the investigation, who tells them that Scott used to work at a legitimate business front for the mobster John T. Waring (Arnold Vosloo), who is currently incarcerated. Scott must have gotten in over his head and was taken out. They need to know more about Scott, so Shawn surreptitiously asks Juliet to tell him more about her old flame. Juliet raves about Scott, making Shawn a little jealous, but she also tells him about a rare figurine collection Scott had. He broke up the set and gave her the Dumbo because he knew she loved it.

Shawn then does an Internet search and discovers someone is selling that exact set minus the Dumbo. He and Gus go on a road trip to find the seller, thinking it must be Scott's killer, only to find Scott alive and well. They bring him back and surprise Juliet, but they get another shock when U.S. Marshal Daniel Wayne (Craig Sheffer) arrives and tells them they just exposed a witness out of the protection program. Wayne and Scott then explain that there was a raid where Scott worked and an agent was killed in the process. Scott testified against Waring, putting him in the room with the dead agent, and has been in protective custody ever since. Wayne wants to take Scott back, but now that he's out and has reconnected with Juliet, he refuses to return. Juliet lets Scott crash at her place to keep an eye on him, and that night Lassiter nearly catches a man who was lurking around the house. After that incident, Wayne points out to Vick that Scott is not safe with them. Shawn, then, decides to fix the situation at the source, and he and Gus go see Waring in jail. Waring is evasive on whether or not his people are trying to kill Scott now that he's out in the open, but he does promise Scott will be safe from him if Shawn and Gus vindicate him. He may not be innocent, but he did not kill the agent.

Shawn and Gus take Scott back to the scene of the crime. Shawn has Gus lie down and be the body, but Scott tells them Gus is facing the wrong way. He also says he saw Waring standing over the body, but instead of shooting, he just ran. Gus tells Shawn that according to the report, the bullet went right through the agent but was never found. Shawn realizes, that with the body facing the way Scott said, the bullet must have gone straight out the window. They all go outside and find the missing bullet in a tree. But as Shawn climbs up the tree to confirm the find, shots ring out. Someone is shooting at them. They all take off and return with the cops, but by the time they get back, the bullet is gone. The real killer removed the evidence.

Back at the police station, Juliet says goodbye to Scott as Wayne takes him back into custody. Shawn asks Vick why Wayne is so invested in the case and she tells them that the dead agent was Wayne's partner. Looking out Vick's window at Wayne and Scott departing, Shawn notices tree sap on Wayne's hands, the same sap that got on Shawn when he was climbing the tree. Wayne took the bullet, and Wayne is the one who killed the agent. Shawn, then, gets on his motorcycle and chases after Wayne before he makes Scott disappear for good. He catches up to them and tells Wayne he knows the truth, that the shooting was an accident, a result of the chaos of the raid. But he saw an opportunity to pin it on Waring, and send him away for good, something the government had since been unable to do. Finally, he hid Scott in witness protection to wrap up the loose ends. Wayne, who originally tried to avoid killing to cover up his mistake, realizes his only way out now is to get rid of them both. After Wayne cold-co*cks Scott, Shawn manages to knock Wayne's gun under the car. Shawn and Wayne engage in a lengthy fight. Wayne breaks free and gets to his gun to shoot Shawn, but Scott regains consciousness just in time to strike Wayne with a metal pole, rendering him unconscious. The cops arrive, and Lassiter arrests Wayne. With Scott now safe, he no longer needs to go back into protective custody, but he and Juliet know the timing still isn't right for them. So they say goodbye, agreeing to meet back there in a year.

Trivia[]

• The title is presumably a variation on the 'Very Special Episode' label which was used frequently in the 1980s to describe 'message' episodes of shows aimed at teenagers.
• Shawn believes that there's "something really Billy Zane-ian" about Waring and that he has "Billy Zane-ian qualities". This is a reference to the common misconception that it was Billy Zane instead of Waring's Arnold Vosloo who portrayed Imhotep in adventure flick The Mummy. Also, in a 2005 interview Vosloo confirmed that such a misconception existed the other way around as well by remarking that some people mistakenly believe him to have played the villainous Cal Hockley from Titanic, a role really portrayed by Billy Zane. Billy Zane would later go on to play Ian Collins in the Psych finale.
• Within the context of the show, it's unclear whether Scott and Juliet had their rendezvous a year later, as that one year later fell in the break after Season Five and before Season Six.
• The song playing when Juliet is waiting for Scott in the train station is "Strung Out" by Steve Perry.
• The train station at the start is Pacific Central Station in Vancouver, BC.

Quotes[]

Juliet: I really do appreciate you being my sounding board through all of this.
Lassiter: I want you to listen to me, O'Hara. And believe this, because I mean it from the bottom of my heart. All romance ends in despair. Or death, but mostly despair. Gut-wrenching despair. I hate to say this, but I'm happy that this happened, because now you know, and it's just gonna make you a better cop to realize that all people are essentially just out there to destroy any chance of happiness you would ever have.
[Juliet looks down in dismay]
Lassiter: I feel a hug coming on.

Wayne: Mr. Seaver here's a hero.
Vick: Wow.
Shawn: I'm sure any of us would have done the same in his place.
Gus: No, we wouldn't. Remember when you saw that accident and then you pretended to be blind? [scoffs]
Shawn: [whispers] That's different, our movie was gonna start in eight minutes. Why would you bring that up?

[in a prison phone booth]
Waring: I was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and the murder got pinned on me.
[Shawn and Gus press a button on the handset and start whispering to each other]
Shawn: My God, he's convincing.
Gus: Convincing? He's a criminal.
Shawn: Yes, but he has a great head, and a real presence. There's something very Billy Zane-ian about him.
Gus: You and Billy Zane are the only ones who use that term. The man is playing you. He's a murderer, a liar, and the lowest form of trash.
Waring: [repeatedly presses the button on his own handset] You know these things don't turn off, right?

Digital Releases[]