"9 Lives" is the fifth episode of Season One. When Shawn believes a suicide is in fact a murder, he keeps himself on the case by insisting he's getting information from the sole witness – the victim's cat.
Plot Summary[]
In 1985, Shawn and Henry are sitting outside on a picnic table. Henry is reading the paper, while Shawn is busy looking for the prize in the bottom of the cereal box. His dad explains that it is a waste of time worrying about what's in the box. He tells Shawn that the cereal people messed up, so he grabs another box and asks Shawn where the prize is. He tells him that it is at the bottom of the box. He then complains that he has to eat the whole box to get to it. His dad flips it over and now that it is at the top Shawn opens the box to get his mood ring.
In the present, Shawn and Gus crash a crime scene of the apparent suicide of Mortimer Tilden (Mark McConchie), one of several in the last few months. This one was an overdose of pills, or so it seems. While following around the Forensic Investigator (Paulo Ribeiro) inside the apartment, though, Shawn notices a few things that might point more toward murder. When no one believes his psychic vision of foul play, he insists he's not leaving until he talks to the witness – the victim's cat, which he dubs "Little Boy Cat".
Even Gus has a hard time believing murder until another body is found. Shawn, Gus and the cat arrive at the second crime scene to find Gloria Starks, a woman who apparently killed herself by shutting herself in her garage with the car running. Even though a suicide note is written in black eyeliner on the windshield, Shawn still doesn't believe it, and he and the cat point out more inconsistencies with the suicide theory. Lassiter and Juliet are starting to believe. Shawn and Gus are even more convinced after they discover the latest victim just got her big acting break in a local play. There's no way she would kill herself after that.
Meanwhile, Buzz McNab's wedding is getting closer and he's starting to get nervous about the wedding night. He goes to Lassiter for advice, which, needless to say, does not go well. Just then, Shawn, Gus and the cat arrive to tell Chief Vick that the cat doesn't think these are suicides. She tells them she can't reopen the cases based on a cat's intuition.
Since Shawn and Gus can't find any pattern in the killings, they decide to go back to the beginning – the crime scene of the very first victim, Bill Hiltonbock. They go to his apartment, where his brother Wes (Scott Michael Campbell) still lives. From Wes they learn that Bill was a talented musician who was going places. There were no signs of depression. While there, Shawn also 'liberates' an old phone bill from the apartment. It turns out that there are several calls to a stress line, including one made the day he died. Gus says that's not really proof of anything. If he were depressed, it would make sense for him to call a stress line. Shawn thinks this could be the link between the victims they've been looking for.
They find out from Juliet that all the victims called the stress line many times in the days before they died. Juliet says that just proves they were all troubled people who in the end took their lives but Shawn thinks it's even more proof that something weird is going on. Someone at the stress line must be killing the callers and making it look like suicide.
At the stress line, they meet the boss Terrance (Carlos Jacott) and a volunteer Rory Derkins (Michael Adamthwaite), the latter of which wears eyeliner and is working there as community service on an assault charge. At the same time, Lassiter and Juliet are running backgrounds on all the volunteers there. Lassiter immediately notices Rory, as he was the one who arrested Rory in the first place.
The police arrive and arrest Rory for the murders. But as he's defending himself, Shawn notices a guy from the phone company outside. This triggers memories of several encounters with a phone technician in the past week. While Gus is concerned that Lassiter has bogarted their big reveal, Shawn is now rethinking their suspect.
When they head outside to catch the phone guy, they find he's gone but left behind his receiver in his haste to leave. He was using it to listen to the suicide hotline's calls. Plus, all the dates of the murders coincide with when he was working on the phones. It all fits. They check the last number on the receiver to find his next victim – it's McNab.
They call the police and race over to McNab's to stop the killer, who turns out to be Wes Hiltonbock. Wes didn't kill his brother, but he did watch him throw himself off the roof. He was angry that he was weak, and became angry at everyone else who was weak, everyone who called the stress line in need of help. The tense stand-off between Wes and the cops ends with some timely heroics by the cat, which Shawn generously gifts to McNab as a wedding present.
Trivia[]
- The title refers to the multiple lives cats have according to superstition.
- Shawn and Gus gift the employees at the stress line a pineapple.
- This is the first episode written by Andy Berman, who joined the Psych crew after making Steve Franks laugh during the job interview with his idea for an episode where a cat is the only witness to a murder.
- Shawn incorporates several of his "Dazzle and Stretch" dance moves into his performance for Yang in "Psych: The Musical".
- Little Boy Cat is actually female, just like all other calicos (barring males born with the rare Klinefelter syndrome). This is later confirmed beyond all doubt when Gus complains about "riding shotgun to a cat, which, by the way, was not a boy at all" during S2E4 "Zero to Murder in Sixty Seconds".
- Psych writer and producer Carlos Jacott appears as Terrance and would go on to appear as Geoffrey in S6E8 "The Tao of Gus", Mortimer Camp in S8E3 "Remake A.K.A. Cloudy... With a Chance of Improvement", Hell Hag in S8E9 "A Nightmare on State Street", and Gus's Boss in Psych: The Movie.
- The location outside Mortimer's apartment building is re-used during the final scene of the finale.
- The song Rory is listening to when Lassiter unplugs his earbuds is "Up, Up and Away" by The 5th Dimension.
- Actor Scott Michael Campbell plays an almost identical role again in a 2008 episode of Criminal Minds, as an angel of mercy serial killer who attempts to make his murders look like suicide.
Quotes[]
Gus: How do you just eat when there's a dead guy laying there?
Shawn: What, is that rude? Am I supposed to share?
Juliet: Wow, I can see why you come out here to eat. It's beautiful. The sound of the seagulls, the smell of the ocean, the salt air...
Lassiter: Hmm, I never noticed.
Gus: Was he trying to help me? 'Cause I feel really creeped out right now.
Shawn: Dude, he put you on the creepy train headed for Creep Island where the natives drink creep nectar out of creepy coconut shells.
Gallery[]
The gallery for 9 Lives can be found here.
Digital Releases[]
