"Truer Lies" is the fourteenth episode of Season Three. Shawn and Gus must prove a pathological liar is telling the truth in order to stop an assassination plot.
Plot Summary[]
In 1987, Henry arrives home and hears a noise. He draws his gun and carefully peers around the corner to find Shawn sitting at the kitchen table eating cereal. He asks Shawn why he's home from school. Shawn tells Henry that there was a guy who hypnotized some students and one ended up thinking he was a kangaroo. That student punched the guy and the guy passed out before he could take the kids out of their trance. However, his teacher, who was an ex-Navy Seal, put all the kids back before six kids had to go to the hospital. Henry, without missing a beat, tells Shawn he wants to see the suspension note he got from his teacher. Shawn asks Henry how he knew he was lying. Henry says that he has the nickname at work as "The Human Lie Detector" and he spends every day analyzing the people who tell lies. Henry explains that every lie starts with a tiny kernel of truth. The fact that Shawn pointed out that his teacher was an ex-Navy seal was the only part of his story that was the truth. Henry tells Shawn that if he continues to lie, nobody will believe him when he actually needs them to, and it could put his life in danger. Shawn questions on if Henry means when he's older and a cop and Henry specifies that he's not talking about the future, he means "Right now."
In the present day, Shawn and Gus are at the police station when the cops bring in Ryan Bainsworth for murder. Ryan's hands are covered in blood, but he insists he's innocent. Juliet tells them they've arrested 'Lyin' Ryan', a notorious compulsive liar who has called in countless tips, only to lead the cops on wild goose chases. It looks like this time Ryan actually committed a crime himself. Shawn and Gus follow Juliet to the observation room, where they listen to Lassiter questioning Ryan on the murder of his super in his apartment. Ryan claims that he asked his super to fix his disposal after clogging it with cinnamon sticks and lemon wedges from a marinade and to check the pipes because the polarity is off, and the water drains counterclockwise. When he got home, he found his super bloody on the floor and tried to revive him. He insists the real culprits are actually two hired assassins. He tells Lassiter that the night before, he was in a restaurant eating special twice-fried fries, when a car crashed through a window across the street. As he turned to look, he overheard a guy with curly q's on his face talking to his companion about killing someone with his belt buckle. Obviously, the assassins realized he overheard them, came to kill him and got his super instead. When Lassiter, who isn't buying any of this, asks how they would know how to find him, Ryan admits he put up flyers around the neighborhood in an attempt to find them and stop them. The cops are incredulous, but Ryan is desperate, saying that if they don't believe him someone else is going to die. However, Shawn jumps in and states that he sees that this time Lyin' Ryan is telling the truth.
Shawn, knowing all liars' lies are based in a kernel of truth, and not wanting an innocent man to go to jail, starts his investigation with the fries. At the restaurant, Shawn and Gus discover Ryan was not only telling the truth about the fries, but also about the car crashing through the window across the street. The waitress also confirms the presence of two threatening looking guys in the corner, and remembers they ordered a beer and a cup of hot water with cinnamon sticks and lemon wedges. The hostess confirms that one of the men had a handlebar mustache - curly q's on his face - and a gun on his belt. Lastly, the valet tells them the men exchanged a bag of cash. Realizing that since Ryan was telling the truth about the hit men, he might be telling the truth about the assassination plot and someone's life could very well be in danger. But Chief Vick, having gone down this road with Ryan too many times, refuses to let them speak to Ryan unless they have concrete proof. Shawn and Gus head to Ryan's apartment, where they see the super's blood sprayed across the wall. If Ryan had killed his super, the blood would have been all over his clothes, not just his hands. Ryan was telling the truth about just trying to revive him. They have to find the assassins, and since the only way to do that is with Ryan's help, Shawn and Gus bail him out of jail.
On the way, they run into a very angry Lassiter who spent all day in court waiting to testify because the defense attorney didn't show up again. Once outside, Ryan tells Shawn and Gus he overheard a time - 10:00 to 4:30, a place - 420 something, and a name - Tom. Shawn sends Ryan on his way so he and Gus can research this new information at the Psych office. But Gus, who's been researching all the addresses that start with 420, is tired of doing all the work. He grabs his pharmaceutical case and tells Shawn he's going to his real job. He says that if Shawn needs help, then call "The Human Lie Detector" into the office.
Shawn gets Henry to the office and sits him down with Ryan, only for Ryan to confess to killing his super. Shawn gets frustrated and tries to get Ryan to tell the "truth" about how he didn't kill his super. Ryan walks out of the room and Henry tells Shawn that he's aware the man is lying, but when Shawn confronts Ryan, he says he lied to Henry because they don't know whom they can trust. Shawn, frustrated, insists Ryan stop with the lies and just be Ryan. Just then, Gus calls from his route. He's figured out where the hit is going to be - at the hospital. They call Lassiter and Juliet down, but the supposed victim, Tom Lieber, ends up being an amnesiac with a boring life who apparently ran into a car a few days ago just after 6 PM on Anapamu Street. Since he's slowly regaining his memory, the only thing interesting in his life is that his accident and recuperation are being covered by the paper. Seeming like another of Ryan's goose chases, Lassiter leaves to take a call from the Chief, who tells them the body of the missing defense lawyer was found in a building on Gardner and Carrillo.
Back at the station, Shawn asks the Chief if the murdered lawyer could be the victim of Ryan's assassination plot, but Vick, admitting the thought actually crossed her mind, tells him it's impossible. The lawyer was murdered on Tuesday around 6 PM, the day before Ryan allegedly overheard the hit men talking about killing someone. Buzz brings in surveillance footage near the crime scene, and the cops leave to take a look. Shawn holds Gus back, and they realize that the lawyer was murdered around the same time and place that Lieber was hit by a car. Everything connects back to Ryan's story. They catch up to the cops and see footage of Lieber running away from the crime scene. The cops take this to mean Lieber killed the lawyer then got hit by a car as he fled the scene. Vick sends Lassiter and Juliet to the hospital to arrest Lieber before he remembers what he did and flees. But, Shawn sees something else on the tape - two shadows chasing Lieber. He realizes Lieber saw Ryan's assassins kill the lawyer and ran for his life right into traffic. The killers, following Lieber's recovery in the paper, know Lieber becomes more of a threat every day and will try to eliminate him again.
Shawn and Gus race to the hospital to warn Lassiter and Juliet, but Lieber is already gone. Dejected, they get back in Gus' car to find Ryan and Lieber hiding in the back seat from the killers, who Ryan insists are right on their tail. Gus careens into traffic as Ryan explains he had to get Tom out for his own safety. Gus, not seeing anyone following them, pulls over into an alley. But just as Shawn convinces him to trust in his belief in Ryan, the killers pull up and start shooting at them. Gus crashes the car and they are forced to escape on foot. Tom, still recovering, has problems keeping up so Shawn has Gus take him to safety and call for help as he and Ryan try to slow down the killers. Shawn and Ryan then spin the lie of their lives and nearly convince the killers they are surrounded by cops. Just as the hit men realize they've been duped, shots ring out. Lassiter and Juliet have arrived in time, making it appear Shawn and Ryan had been telling the truth all along. Back at the Psych office, Ryan thanks Shawn and Gus for believing him, realizing that his lying might have cost an innocent person his life. He's turning over a new leaf and from now on he's going to be just Ryan, he tells them, only to more than likely contradict his announcement as he says he has to leave to captain a hot air balloon in a multi-state regatta.
Trivia[]
- The 1994 Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick True Lies inspired the title.
- Someone at the restaurant is eating from a pineapple and there are crates full of pineapples in the alley.
- Shawn gives a shout-out to Koko B. Ware (and his parrot) in another of the show's wrestling references.
- The list of addresses that Gus hands Shawn contains the names of several members of the Psych crew: Eric Jenkins (editor), David Rosychuk (assistant property master), Pat O'Brien (property master), Tim Micsko (associate producer, misspelled "Misco"), Jason Chu (post-production coordinator), Mel Damski (director and producer), Anupam Nigam (writer and producer), Saladin K. Patterson (writer and producer), Paul Jasper (animal coordinator), James Steuart (art director, misspelled "Stuart") and Vivien Nishi (art director). Also, Anapamu Street was named after Nigam.
- The vaunted Cuatro Quesos dos Fritos make their first appearance and would have further appearances or mentions in S4E8 "Let's Get Hairy", Psych: The Movie, Psych 3: This Is Gus and the first skit of the Psych Slumber Party.
- Shawn calls shotgun on a hot air balloon and Gus indignantly says he cannot do that. These same exchanges played out over a blimp in S2E8 "Rob-a-Bye Baby" and over a fire pole in S3E12 "Earth, Wind and... Wait for It", and in S8E5 "Cog Blocked" Shawn is on the other side of the issue when Emmanuelle called shotgun before the car was even in sight.
- Lassiter wonders who the villain's "mustache guy" is, which is a call-back to S3E7 "Talk Derby to Me" where he mentions he has "a new mustache guy."
- Shawn talks to Juliet in his "high-pitched eighth-grade Jules voice" that he first used upon meeting her in S1E2 "Spellingg Bee" and would use again in S4E7 "High Top Fade-Out".
- A Wilhelm scream is heard when Tom drops his video game console.
- While running in the alley Ryan twice yells "Serpentine!" in a nod to the boat scene in the 1989 comedy Weekend at Bernie's, which Ryan's actor Jonathan Silverman starred in.
- Shawn asks Tom "Are you part of Treadstone?" in a reference to the training program of the Bourne franchise.
- Shawn lays out the plot of the 1994 action film Speed when Ryan comes into the Psych office to thank the duo.
- The tracking shot of the golf ball combined with the swelling music is reminiscent of the dramatic stroke in 1996's Tin Cup, and Shawn's "self-commentary" before the swing may be designed to prod memories of the 1980 comedy Caddyshack.
- Shawn says he's "with the Big Uncles of America program," a joke inspired by the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America organization.
Gallery[]
The gallery for Truer Lies can be found here.
Digital Releases[]
