- "Well, I'm just a dream catcher in human form with a chin that's coveted around the world."
- — Dr. Simpson clearly doesn't lack in confidence
Dr. Ashford N. Simpson is the dream therapist Gus turns to when his night terrors threaten to overwhelm him in "A Nightmare on State Street". He may, however, merely be yet another layer in the onion of incubi torturing Gus, and his existence in Psych reality remains questionable.
Gus sleeps in Simpson's office several times, always under close observation by the doctor himself. He has told Simpson that his nightmares must be the result of the uncertainty surrounding his relationship with Emmanuelle, but Simpson quickly discovers that Gus actually fears being abandoned by Shawn, since whenever Shawn leaves him in his dreams things quickly go downhill. During the next session, Simpson finetunes this diagnosis to say that Gus fears dying while working with Shawn when he hears Gus sleeptalk about feeling "imperiled" by his work for Psych.
Dr. Simpson often advertises his new book, called In Dreams I Walk with You. During Gus's final nightmare, he is doing a book signing at a local college. There isn't much interest, however, which annoys him and causes him to lash out a student named Ung, claiming he was promised "massive radio and social media support". When Shawn and Gus visit him, he lies that it's been a "madhouse" and that they came during a rare quiet spell.
Excerpts[]
The doctor reads two excerpts from his book throughout the episode:
As a child, my small frame would buckle at the girth of my outsized intellect.
When one is in a perpetual state of panic, all the body's resources are recruited, leaving precious little energy for other things. Hopes, goals, even our relationships wither and die.
Trivia[]
- He calls Gus "Blackstone" and "Slappy".
- He often hits Gus with some kind of large fly swatter at seemingly random moments. He also hits Shawn once.
- He says he was one of the top 13 Santa Barbara dream therapists in 2007.
- He thinks he's quite a celebrity, partially because he has a verified Twitter account.
- His book has a foreword by Sanjaya Malakar, which is a reference to the controversial American Idol star by that name.
- He says he once entered Kate Capshaw's dream and interacted with her, which earned him a court case.
- The name "Ashford Simpson" is a reference to the husband-and-wife singer-songwriter duo Ashford & Simpson, but it's also a reference to Bruce Campbell's role as Ash in the Evil Dead franchise.
- Dr. Simpson's final line is "Come get some", another reference to the Evil Dead franchise. It also causes Hell Hag to appear, who looks a lot like the Old Woman from Army of Darkness.
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