Season 6, Episode 15
True Grits
"Oh no... y'all just got cop-blocked. But who needs the police when you got a psychic, right?"
Directed by Reginald Hudlin
Written by Saladin K. Patterson
Thane Woodson, a former chef at a Santa Barbara restaurant, has just been released from prison after his lawyer, Jerry Mandelbaum of the Innocence Project, has exonerated him of having robbed a restaurant he worked at. Thane has studied law while in prison for two years and eight months, and learned that the state owes him a major chunk of cash in restitution – if the person who actually committed the crime is discovered. To that end, he hires Psych to figure out who actually robbed his employer almost three years ago. Complicating matters is the fact that Juliet is the cop who put him away, and she still thinks he’s guilty… and quite a few other people think the same thing, especially after someone who looks suspiciously like Thane starts robbing places around Santa Barbara...Tropes:
- Clear My Name: A lot of people still think Thane is guilty – initially, Juliet among them – and Thane wants to find out who’s responsible for the robberies. It helps that he also stands to get a sizeable restitution settlement.
- Cop Hater: Downplayed. Thane doesn’t want the police involved because they’ve already thrown him in prison, and still think he’s guilty. He warms up after Juliet apologizes, and starts working to help him.
- Drives Like Crazy: Thane spends most of the episode without private transportation. When he gets a car, he soon proves himself to be a terrible driver.
- Enemies List: Lassiter has one. It includes the Innocence Project, Internal Affairs, UNICEF, and Lance Bass.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Carl is disturbed to learn that his father murdered someone thirty years prior and was only preventing him from getting arrested so that the cops wouldn't figure that out. In retaliation, Carl surrenders himself to the police.
- The Glomp: Thane’s a hugger.
- Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook: Downplayed. Thane will occasionally get aggressive and belligerent over relatively minor slights, but apologizes afterwards, admitting he’s resorting to instincts developed in prison.
- The Matchmaker: Lassiter offers to play this to Juliet when it looks like her relationship with Shawn is getting bumpy. He claims Marlowe has found someone perfect – even though that would mean the person is in prison, and a woman. Lassiter isn’t sure why these might be a problem.
- Miscarriage of Justice: How Thane got into prison, due to bad eyewitness testimony.
- Mistaken Identity: Someone who looks a whole lot like Thane has been robbing stores all over Santa Barbara, and quite a few people mistake the two of them. Turns out it’s a day laborer named Carl Dozier.
- Must Make Amends: When Juliet realizes she made a mistake sending Thane to prison, she puts all her effort into helping Psych catch the real robber.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: After Thane is exonerated of having killed Mercer, an annoyed Lassiter asks how “many get-out-of-jail-free” cards a person gets. Shawn points out a standard Monopoly game actually does have two, one in Chance, and one in Community Chest.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Shawn and Gus tell Juliet about Thane’s case, Juliet explains she already knows all the details – because she worked on his case and put him away in the first place. As Shawn stammers nervously, Gus spins around, sprints back to the Blueberry, hops in, and speeds away.
- Sudden Soundtrack Stop: As Shawn and Gus take the case to fight back against injustice, the music swells as they all cheer. Shawn gets carried away, takes the office’s garbage can and throws it against a window akin to Do the Right Thing. Cue this trope, as everyone stares at him like he’s nuts.
- Villainous Lineage: Carl’s father, Fred, has been covering up Carl’s crimes so his DNA would be kept out of the national database and nobody would find out that Fred himself murdered a man in 1981. His son’s criminal habits were becoming a serious headache for him.
