"Feet Don't Kill Me Now" is the second episode of Season Five. When a woman is found dead with a bottle of lab trial pills, Lassiter and Gus, who are taking the same tap class, team up to dance their way to catching a murderer, while Juliet and Shawn try their hand at teamwork, too.
Plot Summary[]
In 1990, Shawn finds Gus in the back yard tap dancing. He tells him to grow up and move on from dancing.
In the present day, a car is being pulled out of a lake; inside is the body of Desiree Blake. Lassiter and Juliet are on the scene, but Lassiter assigns Juliet to coffee duty, afraid she's still not ready to process the scene of a woman's horrific death. Shortly after, Shawn and Gus arrive on the scene. Shawn looks more closely in the car and determines that the dead woman wasn't in the car alone and therefore hypothesizes that she was murdered.
Gus tells Shawn he has to get to tap class. Lassiter overhears and inquires about it. At the tap class, Gus is surprised to see Lassiter show up. Lassiter insists Gus let him take the class with him as a means to follow through on his therapist's orders to try something new. Gus is hesitant, but helps Lassiter get in the class - which is clearly more advanced than his current skill level. Lassiter is a terrible tapper and, in turn, tells Gus he knew it was a waste of time. Lassiter is about to give up on tap all together, but Gus says he just wanted to show him it was hard, not to make him give up because he firmly believes that people who carry guns should always listen to their therapists. Gus leads him back to the middle of the room and teaches him a few simple moves. While they are shuffling their feet, they start to talk about the murder case they saw earlier. Lassiter discovers that tapping eases his stress but then gets aggravated because he forgot to call the lab. He calls the lab while holding an evidence bag with the pills in them. Gus sees the bag and points out that the pills he is referring to are trial sample pills. Lassiter thanks Gus for the help and asks him to tag along on his investigation, as Gus has proven himself useful. Shawn shows up and is immediately jealous that Gus is working with Lassiter on the case and not him. But, this gives Shawn a challenge: he bets he can solve the case before Lassiter and Gus can. Gus is game, since Lassiter gives Gus more respect as a partner than Shawn ever has.
Gus determines that the pills were, in fact, trial hormone pills, a fertility drug that is experimental, and that the test subject would have had access to them. At the lab the pills came from, Lassiter and Gus question Lillian, the lab tech that was on the job during the time Desiree obtained the pills. But, she denies any foul play; she was the only lab tech there. She admits that Desiree was the girlfriend of a lab tech she works with named Ben. Lilian admits that it was she who gave Ben the pills to give to his girlfriend. But, Gus figures it out that there must have been a second lab tech Lillian didn't know about because it was a "double blind" clinical trial. After Lillian leaves the room, Shawn shows himself, dressed as a lab tech. He had overheard everything Gus said and now knows their lead - Ben.
Since the Psych agency is getting billed as a whole for Gus's involvement on the case, Henry informs Shawn that he'll be working it, too. Juliet offers to partner up with Shawn as a way of getting back into the field and sticking it to Lassiter. They'll be working on the case that Lassiter and Gus are on - only they will conduct separate investigations. Now, the race is on to find Ben. The two teams, Lassiter and Gus, and Shawn and Juliet both show up at the lead's home at the same time. As they are in mid-argument, a car rips out of the garage - the teams immediately think it is Ben getting away.
Back at the station, Henry reprimands the teams for losing the lead, which has now led to a state-wide manhunt and made the department look bad. Lassiter and Gus try to tap in sync to help themselves concentrate on the case. They realize that the car they found Desiree's body in was shared between her and Ben - but they also determine that the car was rented not owned. Juliet and Shawn see them tapping and make fun of them.
Shawn and Juliet show up at a science research facility to find another lead. Shawn signs Juliet up for a clinical trial to create a diversion, so as to peek into Ben's office. It works, and he checks Ben's emails and finds an invoice for flowers he sent to Desiree's mother.
Gus and Lassiter are at the car rental place where they discover there was a tracking device on the rental car. They get the tracking I.D., and with that they determine that Ben has motive. But shortly after, Gus and Shawn get a bit of info that leads them to believe that Ben is not guilty. So, Shawn and Gus decide to team back up. Now it's Shawn/Gus vs. Juliet/Lassiter - things are back to normal again. Shawn and Gus arrive at Woody's office; they want to find everything out about the Desiree's autopsy. Woody tells them there is a mark on her ankle that looks like freezer burn. He asks, "Why would a drowning victim show no signs of struggle?"
Then, Lillian, the first lab tech, shows up at SBPD with some info on their case. Ben's name is officially cleared when she presents them with evidence that Ben was in the office at the time of the murder. Shawn recalls Desiree's mother talking about how Ben had cheated on Desiree. Shawn then realizes they never found out whom Ben was cheating on Desiree with. Before they can ask Ben, however, his body washes up dead on a beach shore after a surfing accident. Strangely, he showed no signs of struggle, either.
Woody determines that Desiree died from dry drowning caused by an overdose of anesthetic. Shawn immediately recalls the assistant at the science research facility. He accuses her of being the other woman and the person that took Desiree out, but the woman says she's just an assistant and doesn't have access to the anesthetic.
Shawn then figures out the case: Lillian the lab tech was the one that killed Ben, as she had access to the anesthesia. They were lab partners - and she fell for him. Ben and Desiree split up, but Ben wanted her back and Lillian didn't want that to happen. So, she killed Desiree out of jealousy in hopes of getting Ben to himself. She killed Desiree by overdosing her on anesthesia, put the body in the car, and weighed down the gas pedal with a block of dry ice, which then melted when coming in contact with the lake. But, because Ben didn't react positively when Lillian revealed this to him, Lillian had to kill him before he went to the authorities. After confronting Lillian with the evidence, she is forced to admit to murdering both Ben and Desiree, blaming the latter for her actions. As a result, Lillian is arrested.
Later, Shawn and Juliet attend a tap dancing performance. Gus and the tap teacher present a well-received performance. Lassiter takes to the stage with a children's' class before stopping mid-performance to announce that he has just solved a crime.
Gallery[]
The gallery for Feet Don't Kill Me Now can be found here.
Trivia[]
- 'Feets, don't fail me now' was apparently a catchphrase, perhaps originating in vaudeville, used by Afro-American actors in early 20th century films, usually as a prelude to scampering in fear. The 'tap dancing helps Carlton concentrate' layer simply adds to the title.
- Lassiter tap dancing may be a reference to his actor Timothy Omundson's role as the step-dancing villain in the Disney Channel Original Movie The Luck of the Irish.
- Lassiter's question to Shawn in regards to Tonya's arrest of "Am I cuffing Charlotte The Harlot, or what?" may be a reference to Iron Maiden's song of the same name from their 1980 studio album.
- Dulé Hill (Gus) has been tap dancing since the age of three and has toured nationally in a tap dancing role in the musical The Tap Dance Kid. Tap dancing is the reason he got into the entertainment business.
- Shawn refers to Lassiter's tap-dancing as "the Savion Glover treatment." Savion Glover is an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer, widely credited with keeping the tap dancing tradition alive in the 21st century. Hill starred alongside Glover in the original cast of the Broadway musical Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk, which Glover also choreographed.
Digital Releases[]
