Thursday, March 14, 2013

Psych - Lassie Jerky


Shawn (James Roday) tricks Gus (Dulé Hill) into the woods to meet up with a pair of film students (Kate Rogal, Alex Enriquez) attempting to capture proof of Bigfoot on video. Convinced the pair are concocting a hoax of their very own to win a student film award no one is more surprised than Shawn when the foursome are attacked a very large furry creature, but not as surprised as Gus when he stumbles into a shallow grave containing three fresh corpses (and one panicking pharmaceutical salesman) while running from Bigfoot.

By the time Lassie (Timothy Omundson) and Juliet (Maggie Lawson) arrive the bodies have mysteriously vanished. Finding themselves dragged into Shawn's latest insanity doesn't please Lassie, but then again neither does stepping into a bear trap and falling off a cliff into the lake and nearly drowning. Making camp for the night, the group awakes the next morning to discover footage of an unconscious Lassie dragged away by Bigfoot. The super-sniffer leads the group in a circle back to the cave near the student's Bigfoot blind and eventually to a nearby cabin owned by an extra-large hermit (Big Show) with a full-body fur camouflage costume (explaining the earlier Bigfoot footage).


While the others enjoy the hermit's delicious dry-rub (which the group original mistook for smoked Lassiter), Shawn does a little snooping and finds the wallets of two missing members of the Serbian crime syndicate whose grave Gus stumbled upon the day before. In an interest twisting, Lassie's "angel in wolfs, bears, and elks' clothing" turns out not to be the killer but his latest victim as he stumbles back to the cabin with an ax stuck in his back. The ensuing shoot-out at the cabin with the Serbian hit team leaves most of the group injured but alive, thanks in large part to Juliet kicking serious ass for the second week in a row (even shooting one killer with a crossbow).

Filmed mostly on shaky-first-person-cam "Lassie Jerky" the episode has a unique, if at times annoying, look and feel. That said, the choice certainly fits the feel of an episode the celebrates and pokes fun at found-footage flicks at the same time. And Shawn's edit of the film is a big success back at the precinct, except for one small issue involving Gus' lack of credit (once again).

No comments: