SEPTEMBER 7, 2007
ROB-A-BYE BABY

What's up, nerds? This is Daniel Hsia, one of the Psych writers here to share some insights on this week's fantastic new episode, "Rob-A-Bye Baby," written by Tami Sagher. Tami herself isn't available to do this blog personally, so I've volunteered to fill in for her because: A) I used to share an office with Tami and her dog, Bart, an experience that has blessed me with insight into the inner workings of Tami's mind; and B) I came up with the kick-ass title of the episode. Ka-chow!

Okay, so Tami wanted to write an episode that centered around Shawn and Gus trying to solve a personal problem for Interim Chief Vick, who, you may remember, had a baby at the end of "Shawn vs. The Red Phantom." When Shawn and Gus excitedly rush to the police station to receive their super-important case, they're surprised and a little dismayed to discover that Vick doesn't want them to solve a recent string of robberies...she wants them to help her find a nanny. Since you've all seen the episode you won't be upset when I say that eventually, the nanny search and the robberies wind up weaving together in a really fun and cool way.

Now, there were a couple of aspects of this show that changed from the initial outline to the final cut. At one point, the reason that Gus was really into the nanny search was because he had an awesome nanny when he was a kid. There may have even been a scene where Gus tracked down his nanny for Interim Chief Vick, but she turned out to be really, really old and totally wrong for the job. And at another point, we thought that maybe the cameras being used by the nanny agencies were hidden inside of teddy bears, but we realized the cameras had to be on the walls so that the bad guys could point them right toward the alarm panels in the neighboring houses. We also worked really hard to get a reference to Nanny 911 into Henry's dialogue because in real life, one of Corbin Bernsen's nannies is on the Nanny 911 show.

Since Tami isn't around to tell me what she liked best about her episode, I'm going to go ahead and speak on her behalf. First of all, Tami loved how Shawn and Gus sneak around at the crime scenes because "it makes everything seem more exciting." She also loved the part where Juliet, who says she's not into marriage or the whole family thing, is able to fabricate all kinds of details about the wedding and her childbirth when she goes undercover with Shawn. (In case you're wondering, a "doula" is somebody who assists in the emotional aspects of childbirth and the post-partum period. I didn't know this until two minutes ago, I swear.) Tami also wants us to remember the scene where Shawn deals with the clerk at the pet store, who only seems to identify other human beings based on animal characteristics. That guy was nuts. Oh, and I almost forgot, Tami's favorite thing about the episode was the kick-ass title. Bla-dow! Seriously, though, this was a great episode and Tami did an awesome job writing it. Be sure to tune in next week for our action-packed season finale!