Friday, February 7, 2014

Psych - Cog Blocked


Dragged to a crime scene against his will, Gus (Dulé Hill) becomes obsessed with the apparent suicide of a man whose life eerily mirrors his own. Taking things personally, to an absurd amount, Gus bullies the pair onto the case convinced a man like Gus couldn't have committed suicide. Humoring his best-friend, Shawn (James Roday) and Gus' investigation lead them to a beautiful private investigator (Kali Hawk) with serious martial arts skills and a penchant for pretending to be blind, a shady Russian night club with a great buffet, and to the discovery of a complicated insurance scam that got their victim killed.

After a pair of mediocre episodes that felt like the show was treading water, "Cog Block" delivers as its share of laughs when an out-of-control Gus forces Shawn to be the responsible one. Constantly confusing his own life with that of the victim, whose home and work environments are almost identical (except for the missing presence of a fake psychic best-friend), Gus' obsession leads the pair to solve a murder no one, including Shawn, thought was a crime. Along with finding himself a new love interest and solving the case, Gus' new found zest for life leads him to quit his job as a cog and begin a new journey as the show moves forward with its final five episodes.

While giving Gus a new journey to follow in the series' remaining episodes, and apparently beginning Shawn's journey to become more self-sufficient, "Cog Block" works on both as an entertaining single episode and a major marker in the show's final season. With so few episodes left I don't know how much we'll see of Hawk, but I'll applaud the show for finally finding Gus the right woman. Even if we don't get any of Juliet (Maggie Lawson), and if there are a few major plot holes (such as being purposefully vague as to who is actually running the SBPD during the entire episode), "Cog Block" appears to get the show back on track and ready for the final stretch.

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