"Not Even Close... Encounters" is the third episode of Season Five. Shawn and Gus get themselves hired onto the case when an unstable lawyer claims his assistant was abducted by aliens.
Plot Summary[]
Young Shawn, Young Gus and their super nerdy friend Dennis Gogolack are visiting the station to see Henry. They tell him they saw a weather balloon that could pass as a UFO. Henry does not believe them.
Present day, we see a lawyer, Kessler, doing some work in his home. Suddenly, the house begins to shake violently and the TV flickers. He goes for some pills but there aren't any. Just then, a co-worker named Toby arrives with more work and a refill on his pills. All of a sudden a light appears from the sky and a vessel of some sort lands on the lawn. A slender figure comes out and Toby walks towards the light as Kessler pleads with him to stay.
Lassiter, Juliet, and Henry arrive at Kessler's place the next day. The cops immediately dismiss his theory that a UFO abducted Toby. Shawn and Gus arrive and instantly intrigued by Kessler's theory and decide to take on the case. Henry warns them that it's a bad idea, but they decide to help Kessler anyway. The guys start to analyze the property and notice signs of possible UFO activity. Kessler tells them that Toby's car is still there and despite being brand new will not start.
Shawn and Gus go to visit their old nerd friend Dennis who is now athletic and married to a gorgeous woman named Molly. But the second Molly leaves, Dennis brings Shawn and Gus to a hidden room that is complete with Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek memorabilia, along with a sci-fi style computer set up to track UFO activity. After Shawn and Gus tell Dennis about Kessler and Toby, Dennis hacks into the national weather service's computer and pulls up the satellite image from the exact moment, place and time that Toby was supposedly abducted. After seeing a weird orb-like aircraft over Kessler's house, both Shawn and Gus admit they think Toby was abducted. Gus calls Kessler to tell him they believe his story.
Not long later, when Shawn and Gus are at their office, a news report comes on and Kessler is being interviewed. When Kessler points out that Shawn and Gus believe him, a picture of the two of them comes up on the broadcast. Shawn answers the phone when it suddenly rings and picks it up without even saying hello, automatically telling his dad that they are on their way to the station. When they get there, Henry tells them that Kessler has a history of psychotic episodes. He once claimed to see a giant panda in his kitchen, and several years ago claimed to have seen a UFO. When Shawn and Gus state that Toby is still missing, Henry points to Toby who is sitting in one of their conference rooms. He explains that when Toby's car wouldn't start he called a cab and went to stay at his parents place overnight. He overslept and that's why they couldn't find him that morning.
All of them go into the conference room to hear Toby's story. Toby's states that he was there the previous night when Kessler began ranting about strange lights and sounds. He explains that Kessler is acting crazy because he wasn't properly taking his meds. He wonders if the atmosphere is going to be weird on Monday when Kessler comes in. Juliet says that the firm has suspended him until he completes a month's stay at a psychiatric health facility. Toby asks who's going to be taking over Keller's cases and Shawn and Gus crack a few jokes. However, while they are listening to his story, Shawn notices a strange mark on Toby's arm.
After Toby finishes explaining things, Shawn and Gus excuse themselves and walk out of the conference room to discover all of the officers in the station glancing at them and snickering quietly when they walk by the duo. Shawn tells Gus that they will never again investigate another case that involves on of their childhood obsessions. Gus asks if that also applies if there is ever a pop rocks murder, and Shawn says that'll be the exception. Lassiter comes up and makes fun of them, asking how they feel now that they are a walking joke. Shawn taunts him back but Lassiter is too overjoyed and begins to dance away from then. They turn and walk away, with Shawn saying that they are going to find out what really happened no matter what so that they can clear their good names. However, before they leave Gus points out several things and tells Shawn he still believes that Toby was abducted. He just didn't tell the truth because he didn't want to hurt his reputation at his job.
They head back to Dennis's place to analyze the signs of abduction. Shawn develops a new theory that Toby tried to embarrass Kessler, since he has now been given all of his cases.
The guys spy on Toby outside his firm wearing sci-fi disguises they swiped from Dennis's secret room. Much to their surprise, Toby suddenly sprints off. Toby is able to lose them but he calls Shawn's cell phone after realizing it was them behind him. Over the phone, he admits that Kessler was telling the truth and asks them to meet him in front of a hotel in an hour. Later at the hotel, Shawn and Gus wait outside for Toby's arrival. However, Toby's body suddenly lands in front of them, apparently the result of a suicide jump from the roof. Gus points out that suicidal tendencies are a sign of abduction.
At the station, Juliet tells them Toby wired all of his money, $500,000, to a charity just before his death. On their way out Shawn snags a few pieces of papers, one of which is Woody's report showing that a strange object is caught inside Toby's stomach.
At the coroner's office, Woody tells them that the object was a flash drive, but it is now in Lassiter's possession. Shawn and Gus then go to Dennis's home and convince him to hack Lassiter's computer to grab the flash drive at the same time Lassiter is trying to extract info from the drive. The drive contains legal documents related to a textile company that was recently responsible for a major chemical spill that Kessler believed to be intentional. Henry told Shawn and Gus earlier that Kessler was suing the company.
Shawn and Gus go to the town where the spill occurred and find a vehicle that is a machine that sends sonic vibrations into the earth in order to find oil. From this evidence, they determine that the textile company planned a purposeful chemical spill in order to drive residents away so that they can keep the oil for themselves. Then all of a sudden a bright light appears in the sky – it's a helicopter from the textile company coming to pick up Shawn and Gus. When the chopper lands, the guys find themselves in a warehouse. It is here that Shawn tells them what he thinks their evil plan is – with Kessler on their heels, they paid Toby to help discredit Kessler. Toby began having second thoughts and they killed him. When it appears the guys are about to be shot, Dennis comes into the room pretending to be a delivery guy. Suddenly, he pulls out nun chucks and tries to disarm the guards in order to save Shawn and Gus. Just then Juliet and Lassiter burst into the room and take the criminals down.
Shawn and Gus are then seen as heroes for bravely uncovering the conspiracy, and as a result, Henry has to reluctantly give them another job.
In the end, Molly ends up discovering that Dennis is a nerd. Fortunately for Dennis, it turns that she is a closet "nerdette" herself.
Trivia[]
- The seminal Steven Spielberg 1977 sci-fi film Close Encounters of the Third Kind is the source of the title. The film is also referenced alongside another seminal sci-fi film by Spielberg, 1982's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, when Shawn jokes that they'll need "a Speak & Spell and seven pounds of mashed potatoes" to solve the case.
- There is a pineapple air freshener hanging in Dennis's secret room.
- As they walk up to Kessler's house, Shawn tells Gus that "it's never the crazy suspects. It wasn't a mummy, it wasn't the devil, it wasn't even Bigfoot." These are references to S2E16 "Shawn (and Gus) of the Dead", S4E4 "The Devil Is in the Details... and the Upstairs Bedroom" and a "missing school bus" case that's not seen in any episode (which Gus's failure to remember hints at) and is mentioned again by Shawn when Kessler brings up he once saw Bigfoot. The next case assigned to Shawn and Gus (which Henry calls "this counterfeit thing") is also never seen.
- When Dennis is remotely controlling Lassiter's computer, they discover that one of the sites he's visited is "squirrelassassins.com". This is a reference to the previous episode, where Lassiter tells Gus his neighbor is suing him for killing his squirrels.
- Shawn is wearing an ascot tie from Dennis's house when he and Gus are about to witness Toby's suicide, and Kessler is wearing it in the final scene. This is the same tie Charlton Heston wore in the dystopian thriller Soylent Green, and Shawn spoils the film's shock reveal by rhetorically asking "Is Soylent Green people?" The tie is also a reference to Freddie Prinze Jr.'s portrayal of Fred Jones (known for his orange ascot) in 2002's Scooby-Doo and its 2004 sequel.
- Bunting's plan and his attempts to make it seem like something supernatural/extra-terrestrial is involved are typical of Scooby-Doo villains.
- Among the people on Lassiter's "crap list" are Psych writer and producer Andy Berman as well as Hillary Clinton (twice), Michael Moore, Chris Tucker and Tyne Daly (the last of whom appeared on Judging Amy alongside Timothy Omundson).
- Psych producer Geoff Garrett is mentioned several times as an antagonistic classmate of Shawn and Gus's when they were young.
- Psych crew members Randy Hutniak (art department) and Matthew Chipera (co-producer) are mentioned on the court document Dennis finds on Lassiter's computer.
- Shawn and Gus consider Bunting to be "Stephen Lang-esque". Stephen Lang appeared in Psych S4E5 "Shawn Gets the Yips" as Salamatchia and is known for his villainous roles.
- In the flashback to 1990 Henry is on the phone with a Jerry, most likely Jerry Carp.
- Charles Martin Smith also appeared in Starman, a 1984 sci-fi film about an alien who's come to Earth.
- At one point Shawn says "the only thing we were blinded by is..." and Gus completes the thought with "...science!" This line references Thomas Dolby's 1982 song "She Blinded Me with Science", and Gus's delivery and gesturing imitate Dolby's.
- When Molly finds the secret room she is holding Dennis's inhaler in her right hand, which means she had already discovered one of his secrets and wanted to ask him why he has one.
Gallery[]
The gallery for Not Even Close... Encounters can be found here.
Digital Releases[]
