Six Unanswered Questions from Psych

My wife decided to do some work in her sewing studio yesterday evening and since a trip to Noodles & Company meant I didn't need to make dinner, I found myself watching some reruns of Psych while waiting for her to get home.

The show, as always, was entertaining, even though I've seen every episode multiple times and know who the killer is ahead of time. However, as I watched, I realized there were some things that were left unanswered by the series and the three (so far) movies that followed.

Here are six of those unanswered questions:

Why did Shawn (James Roday Rodriguez) pretend to be a psychic in the first place? OK, in addition to it being the whole premise of the show, the series did sort of answer this question in the pilot. What I mean by this though is, of all the explanations he could have given to avoid being arrested by Carlton Lassiter (Timothy Omundson), why choose that one?

It seems like explaining he had a heightened sense of observation that had been honed by an overbearing cop father would have been just as easy to prove, would have likely gotten him the same opportunity to earn money as a consultant and would have been a lot easier than keeping up with the pretense. 

And before you argue it was a spur-of-the-moment thing brought on by panic, how often did Shawn get flustered to that point? It wasn't as though Lassiter had any real evidence to hold him on.

On that note, did Henry Spencer (Corbin Bernsen) never discuss his son? We know Henry, though retired, had worked in the same police station at the same time as Lassiter and Karen Vick (Kirsten Nelson). There were likely others still there who knew him as well. We also know Shawn spent some time at the station, hanging out with some of the officers, while his dad was on duty.

So, shouldn't there be someone who was already familiar with Shawn's gift?

Did Shawn perjure himself in court? This is a question I've asked in the past because it is something from the show that always bothered me. He was the person responsible for many arrests and because of that, it would only seem logical he'd be required to testify at trial and have multiple defense attorneys make him claim, under oath, he was a psychic and maybe even prove it in front of a jury.

It's one of those things that also makes me take note of the fact you pretty much never (or at least very rarely) see the arrested individuals get convicted.

Whatever happened to Declan Rand (Néstor Carbonell)? I've stated in the past how I thought the show wasted his character because of the potential for him to be a great villain. The more puzzling thing for me though is why he just disappears after Juliet (Maggie Lawson) breaks up with him. I would have absolutely loved to have seen the awkwardness of Shawn asking him for assistance after that but he was never mentioned again.

Did Abigail (Rachael Lee Cook) know Shawn's secret? This falls into a similar category as what I said above about Henry's coworkers but maybe with a bit more emphasis. Abby went to school with Shawn, long before he claimed he had psychic abilities, and was familiar enough with him to know how he likes to spin things. She was also an educated and intelligent woman who I feel wouldn't be fooled easily. 

Adding to this is another one of his former classmates, Dennis Gogolack (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) who showed no indication he believed Shawn was psychic. Abby would have spent quite a bit more time with Shawn and unlike with Juliet, he had no reason to lie to her, so did she know?

Did Yin/Yang know his secret? One of my biggest problems with the way the Yin/Yang trilogy played out - starting out with Yang (Ally Sheedy) being an established serial killer who wants to challenge Shawn because of his success as a detective but then expanding the story to reveal Yang and, by extension, Yin (Christopher Turner) had known and followed Shawn since he was a child, completely changing the narrative.

Did they decide to challenge him because they believed he was psychic or because they knew he was lying and wanted to test the limits of that lie?

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