Psych Episode Review: This Episode Sucks

Synopsis: When a victim's body is discovered with puncture wounds in his neck and wrists and drained off all his blood, Shawn and Gus suspect a vampire. And the primary suspect is Lassiter's new girlfriend (Kristy Swanson).

What I liked about this episode: I'll admit, I had some doubts (Lassiter in love is a scary idea) but I loved the decision to cast the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Swanson in this episode. She pulled off the character perfectly and it was hard to tell if she was a vampire or just someone who looks guilty because of a bunch of coincidences.

The episode also does a decent job keeping the truth about whether or not there were vampires involved a secret until the very end; including a pretty cool scene in the blood bank where the thief seemed to be moving at super-human (vampire-like) speed.

What I didn't like about this episode: When a show has been on the air for several seasons like this one, there will be some episodes that all new episodes will be compared to.

In this case, I couldn't help but compare this episode to the Season 2 episode "Shawn (and Gus) of the Dead" and the Season 4 episode "Let's Get Hairy." When compared to those two episodes, which consisted of a mummy that seemed to rise from the dead and a guy who might be a werewolf, this one just didn't seem to be as good. The premise was pretty much the same. But it didn't have as much magic. In fact, I didn't even like this episode as much as the Friday the 13^th spoof episode "Tuesday the 17^th."

I'm also not sure I liked the cameo by Cory Feldman. I think, given the vampire references (Lost Boys, I believe), it would have been better to see him in a more prominent role; possibly as one of Swanson's roommates.

Final Opinion: While not as terrible as the title might hint at, this episode wasted some pretty decent guest stars by being average at best and not very memorable.