Psych: Why Declan Rand Was an Underutilized Character on the Series

As I go through another re-watch of the series Psych, I find myself a bit amazed at the number of characters who were introduced, some with multiple-episode stories, only to be written off the show and never mentioned again. 

My opinion about this is mixed. While some of the characters, like Freddie Prinze Jr.'s cameo as the alien-obsessed Dennis Gogolack made sense as a one-off, other characters, such as Shawn Spencer's (James Roday Rodriguez) long-time love interest, Abigail Lytar (Rachel Leigh Cook) seemed like they should have been around longer than they were.

There is one character, however, that I find myself lumping into a different category - someone who both deserved a bit more time on the show but also in a different capacity. I am referring to Nestor Carbonell's Declan Rand, a character that I think would have made an awesome supervillain but was never given the opportunity.

A quick recap for anyone who doesn't remember Declan. Introduced in the season 5 episode "Shawn 2.0," Declan was portrayed as Shawn's rival, both in his ability to solve cases as a criminal profiler (and, like Shawn as a fake psychic, was lying about his credentials) as well as for Juliet's (Maggie Lawson) affections.

Declan's time on the show was short. By the end of "Shawn 2.0" he and Juliet are dating, but only after he confesses he is a fake but also wealthy. He appears in one more episode and is then written out of the series by the end of the season when Juliet chooses Shawn instead. Throughout this short stint, he and Shawn are, for the most part, on friendly terms, with Declan even helping the latter solve another case. The Declan storyline also indirectly sets up a later plot twist involving Juliet figuring out Shawn has been lying, something that leads to a brief breakup, by making it clear how she feels about men who aren't fully honest with her.

That's where the show dropped the ball in my opinion. Instead of completely forgetting about him after Shawn and Juliet became a couple, the series should have given Declan a chance to get his revenge, both on Shawn and the woman who left him for Shawn. 

In a lot of ways, Declan could have been a supervillain that was even better than Shawn's biggest nemesis, Mr. Yin (Ally Sheedy). He was at minimum as intelligent as Shawn. He had plenty of financial resources and, most important, he knew Shawn wasn't a psychic. It was a combination that could have created some great episodes.

Instead, he just bowed out gracefully, never to be heard from again. It's an injustice that maybe a future Psych movie will finally correct.

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Here is some more Psych-related content:

Movie Review: Psych: The Movie (2017)

Psych: Why Henry Spencer is one of TV's Most Underrated Fathers

Movie Review: Psych 2: Lassie Come Home (2020)

Movie Review: Psych 3: This is Gus (2021)