A Tearful Goodbye - Psych Series Finale/Season 8 Reaction/Review

It's never easy to say goodbye to something that you've loved for a long time. On Wednesday that is exactly what I had to do to one of my favorite shows, Psych. Now I know that I had been harsh on Season 7 of the show in the past but as someone who has followed the show for so long it was rather emotional to see this hilarious series come to a conclusion. The finale itself is hard to judge; on one hand it is an emotional and teary eyed finale that brings the series to a solid conclusion. On the other hand, it feels a little empty and some characters don't seem to get their due. Anyways, let's get into it.

The episode opens up on a note I really didn't expect. When I reviewed Season 7, I mentioned that it felt that Shawn as a character hadn't really developed over the course of the show. Sure, he grew up in certain ways, but at his core it didn't really seem like much had changed for his character from Season 1 to Season 7. However, this episode opens up with no jokes, no shenanigans. Instead we get Shawn Spencer speaking from the heart; this is the real Shawn, not the one who hides away in his jokes and pop culture references. Season 8 of Psych has had a feel of finality to it, things have changed and it appears that all the characters are ready to move on with their lives. Speaking of which, the entire episode is centered around Shawn's futile attempts to tell Gus that he's planning to join Juliet in San Francisco. There is a case in this episode but it serves more to show us that Shawn isn't really needed in Santa Barbara anymore. He's now outclassed by the SBPD's new Head Detective Brannigan and she beats him to the punch for every part of the case. The case itself is rather boring and like I said earlier, serves more as a way to show us that Santa Barbara doesn't need Shawn anymore. However, there's some hilarious scenes throughout the episode like Shawn and Gus sharing a drivers ed car and some classic Gus screaming over a dead body. All the while, Shawn continues to fail to tell Gus that he's leaving which leads us to the end of the episode and the series.

The bromance lives on

Since Shawn cannot bear to break the news to Gus or any of the main cast in person he leaves them all video messages. All of them are especially touching and show how the relationships between all of them have changed over the years. In Lassiter's video message, Shawn finally decides to reveal to Lassiter that he's not a psychic after all, this coming after Shawn acknowledges that Lassiter is truly his friend. However, instead of listening to the words that he's wanted to hear for so long, Lassiter elects to eject the disk and break it in half, choosing to continue to believe that Shawn was for real. Shawn leaves one's for Woody and for a random Dobson character who is introduced simply so Val Kilmer could finally make an appearance on the show (much appreciated by the way). The most touching of them all however is the one that Shawn leaves for Gus which actually brings the main character to tears. Psych has often struggled with the writing for when things are supposed to be serious but they nailed it here. Shawn laments that their adventures together have prevented Gus from living the life he's always dreamed about and that if he hadn't walked into his office 8 years ago, Gus might have gotten a normal life. Gus isn't pleased with this however and after changing his mind about 3 times chases Shawn to San Francisco where he has surprised Juliet and Chief Vick at a crime scene. Gus arrives and chastises Shawn for leaving him and convinces Shawn that he'll move to San Francisco too and Psych will continue to operate. So with all of the main cast all tied up we could finally move onto the big surprise at the end (wasn't really a surprise). Shawn proposes to Juliet in a way that only Shawn Spencer could before a thief makes off with engagement ring. Shawn, Juliet, and Gus then pile into a car and the thief into the sunset as the screen cuts to black. So there, 8 seasons culminated into literally 20 minutes.

Psych's final episode does a lot of things right. It ties up several plot points from the season and the relationships between several of the characters. Seeing Lassiter break the disk rather than hear Shawn admit he is not a psychic was a really strong scene. It was nice to see that Lassiter, who detested Shawn for most of the series, finally give a show of respect to him. However, the finale also does a few things wrong. For one, the touching and heartfelt conclusion of the series is packed into the last 15-20 minutes of the episode, most of that time is spent between Shawn and Gus reconciling and Shawn proposing to Juliet. We get jerked around from one moment to the other that there doesn't feel like there is much time to digest what's going on. Most of these moments have been set up throughout the season so there's at least some pretense to build of off which allows them to move to each storyline quickly. Everybody seems to get a happy ending but even with this pretense it feels a little too crammed together. Maybe it would have been better to avoid having a case altogether and focus on the character interactions (asking Psych to put aside jokes and focus on characters? Please). To be honest, aside from from Shawn and Gus, there really isn't much time to close things off with the other characters. It was surprising we even saw McNabb's storyline get closed off with with clarity than Henry's. I suppose that the episode was mostly going to be about Shawn and Gus but there's no excuse for two characters of the main cast (Juliet and Chief Vick) to only be in the episode for about 15 minutes. Also, I can't say that I was too happy with the way Gus ended the show. After all, throughout the run of the show Gus has been looking for love and many times it has ended terribly mostly due to the writers screwing him over. (his "break-up" with Rachel in Season 7 was an abomination of writing). It was sad to see him end the series still attached by the hip to Shawn without a girl of his own. However, despite my grievances with the series finale there's not much I can do to change it and obviously a series finale never pleases everyone. Overall it's a happy ending that should leave the fans satisfied knowing that even though we won't see it, Shawn and Gus will still be together solving cases.

Shawn and Juliet get their happy ending even if the latter wasn't present for most of the episode...or the season for that matter.

So where does Psych's eighth season stand overall? I thought that it was actually a well-done season and a return to what made Psych so good in the first place. The opening episode of the season was a brilliant one with Cary Elwes coming back in to play the role of Pierre Despereaux. Seeing Shawn and Gus in England was absolutely hysterical. It felt as though this season was a throwback to the earlier seasons. The jokes were crisp, the shenanigans were refreshing, and overall it felt like the writers actually cared as opposed to their terrible job in Season 7. Sure, there were some forgettable episodes thrown in there (the Lassiter focused second episode comes to mind) and Anthony Michael Hall's character was poorly written. Trout was implied to be a very skilled policeman and yet the show turned him largely incompetent and overly strange. It's obvious you're not supposed to like him but he didn't even make a good straight man to Shawn and Gus. However, these bad episodes were counteracted by some really great Gus themed episodes. Also, this being the final season we got to see some heart warming scenes between each other the characters. Like I said before, the season clearly builds to it's end. However, like the finale, there are several key things missing. Juliet, Henry, and Chief Vick played very small roles in the final season which feels like a disservice considering that they are main characters. Since the show was canceled midway through the season and only consists of ten episodes things once again felt a little rushed and somewhat forced. Perhaps a better way to think of the show is a ten episode long farewell tour for the show. In closing, Season 8 is not the best season of Psych but it's definitely not the worst. It actually produced one of the best episodes of the show ever ("Cog Blocked"). It's an enjoyable final season even with it's imperfections; a 3/5 in my book.

Lastly, I suppose it's time for me to write my final words about Psych. I'm definitely going to miss this show which is something that I couldn't really say after Season 7. I'm really happy that Season 8 ended the show on an imperfect but good note. Psych stood out to me more than other detective shows because it was led by a lovable cast and had great writing. It suffered in it's later seasons but any show that goes eight seasons is bound to have some hiccups. Psych lasted eight seasons which is a very impressive accomplishment. It was the first live action show that I followed intently over the entirety of it's run and I'm going to miss tuning in every Wednesday to watch Shawn and Gus solve another murder with plenty of hilarious hijinks. It was always a unique blend of pop culture (mostly 80's) and bromance that made Psych work. I'm going to miss this show so much and I want to thank it for giving me so many memories over the years and catchphrases to use. There's some rumors out there that the show could be getting a big screen adaptation. Whether it does or not I'm always going to look fondly upon this show. Thanks for everything Shawn, Gus, Juliet, Lassiter, Henry, and Chief Vick; it's been a great ride.

Goodbye, I'll miss you all