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"Psych" Episode 7 Recap: "In For A Penny..."

Stephanie Case |
December 1, 2011 | 10:19 a.m. PST

Staff Reporter

James Roday, Dule Hill and William Shatner (daemonstv.com)
James Roday, Dule Hill and William Shatner (daemonstv.com)
This Wednesday's "Psych" was all about Shawn and Juliet...and William Shatner.  The happy couple's relationship was tested when a figure from Juliet's past, her con-man father (played by Shatner), returns to make ammends.

Juliet and her father, Frank O'Hara, have had a rocky relationship to begin with.  We flash back to one of Juliet's childhood birthday parties, where she eagerly sits inside as the other children play, waiting for her dad to arrive--but he never shows. 

29-year-old Juliet is much less optimistic.  When Shawn offers to invite Frank to her classy 30th birthday party (complete with a moon bounce, clown, and two ponies, of course), she shoots him down.  Her relationship with her father is too broken to repair.

But while Juliet puts up the stop sign, Shawn misreads it as full-speed ahead.  As the self-proclaimed "master of women", he jumps to the conclusion that Juliet secretly wants him to fix her estranged father-daughter relationship.  "There are certain things about women that no one else in the world understands except for me and NBC anchor Brian Williams," Shawn quips.  "When a woman complains about a personal issue, she doesn't want the man to just listen.  She wants him to solve the problem."  Men, take note: This is a terrible idea.

Shawn and Gus meet up with Frank and are floored by his lavish lifestyle (Mansions? Yachts? Yes please!).  When they tell Juliet, she gets angry and exposes the real reason behind his wealth: her father is a con-man.

Frank's knowledge of deception and crime comes in handy when a group of criminals begin a burglary spree around Santa Barbara.  He tells the police department that the robbers might be after a rare penny, worth $2 million, at a local coin fair.  To Juliet's frustration, Shawn and Gus follow Frank's lead and hire him on the case.

The police stake out the coin fair to protect the penny, but little do they know, the real penny is hidden in a safe.  Just as they find this out, they discover the safe has been broken into, and the penny is gone.  Juliet and the police suspect the criminal group has evaded them again, but Shawn realizes that the real robber is someone they know well: Frank.  Juliet's father used his sway with the police to pin the penny on the the criminals, while really orchestrating his own con to steal it.  Feeling guilty, he returns the Penny to please his daughter.

Shawn and the police eventually catch the original criminal group in action, but the real conclusion comes from Juliet and Frank's sweet, albeit cheesy, reconcilliation.  A tearful Frank confesses that he was too afraid and ashamed to play a bigger role in his daughter's life.  They hug, wipe away the tears, and Juliet finally invites him to her birthday party.  The scene seems too unbelievable--30 years worth of resentment solved in two minutes?  Nevertheless, it's hard not to be happy for the two.

The main cast showed off their stellar acting chops in this episode, especially Maggie Lawson as an angry and disappointed daughter.  Shatner's acting was so-so.  Aside from Corey Feldman's vampire bartender, Shatner had the most interesting guest character of the season; but his star status made it hard to focus on the plot line.  It's hard to see William Shatner as anyone else but, well, William Shatner.  I kept expecting him to go into Priceline Negotiator mode.

Next week: Shawn and Gus protect a murder witness (Diora Baird) by hiding her at a commune.

"Psych" airs Wednesdays at 10 PM on USA.

Reach Stephanie Case here.

Read Stephanie's Episode 6 recap here.

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