tomfoolery, find themselves secretly untangling a twisted case without the benefit of the police, their significant others or the perks of living in the Bay Area. But, as they soon discover, what they uncover will change the course of their relationship forever.
As Rodriguez and co-stars Maggie Lawson and Dule Hill recalled, having Omundson back on set for Psych 2 was a wholly different experience because of the uncertainty and the harrowing recovery their friend went through to reach a place where he could return to work.
“Just because of the grave reality that we all went through a few years prior, the appreciation that we were all still together. Just how insanely lucky we were to still have him,” Rodriguez reflected. “And then, just the daily inspiration that came along with watching him perform at such a high level, knowing where he started and how far he’d come. It’s nothing short of remarkable. It gives you perspective and it’s a really great reminder of how lucky we all are to still be together and still be doing this after all these years.”
“It was really emotional for all of us. We love and respect and appreciate each other so much, but because of Tim and how inspiring he is and how much we missed him the first time around in making these movies, it reminds you to not take each other and anything for granted,” Lawson echoed Rodriguez’s sentiments. “Watching him recover and where he is now has been so inspiring for all of us and uniting for all of us. It was a really powerful, beautiful experience.”
“Tim is a hero of mine,” Hill praised. “To go through all he went through and to be able to come back as strong as he has, to deliver the performance that he did in Psych 2: Lassie Come Home has been inspiring. As Maggie said, it does remind you to enjoy the moments. In life, I try to enjoy the moments — I try my best to do that — but even more so, coming back to this set and doing the movie and seeing Tim there. It keeps that reminder of, you know what, life is good. In this slice of life right here, in this moment in time, life is good.”
It wouldn’t be a Psych movie without a delicious surprise at the end (with hopefully a third movie to follow). After Shawn mistakenly believes Juliet is pregnant with his child, they find out that, gasp, it’s Gus(!) who will be a father after Selene (played by Hill’s real-life wife, Jazmyn Simon) sets the record straight. First thing Gus will teach his future son or daughter? Hill had a classic Gus answer.
“For Gus being a dad, I think the first thing he’d want to teach his son or his daughter is how to use their ‘super sniffer,'” Hill said with a laugh, referencing his character’s powerful sense of smell. “He’d really want to test that out, to see if they had a Super Sniffer or not. And if they did, then he’d really teach them how to hone it. His version of Henry to Shawn would be Gus to his son or daughter.”
“Working with Jazmyn Simon is always a blast,” he added of working with his wife, who made her debut as Selene in the 2017 Psych movie. “We only had one scene on all the years of Ballers that we were working together. To be able to play around on Psych has been so much fun. She’s phenomenal in what she does. She brings a lot of comedy gold to our Psych world and I look forward to seeing where we go next if we’re blessed to do another Psych movie.”
But will Shawn and Juliet follow in Gus and Selene’s footsteps anytime soon? Rodriguez and Lawson didn’t seem sold on the idea of parenthood for the couple… for now.
“I think we have a moment where we kind of celebrate at the end how relieved that we both are that that’s not us. I don’t know that that is Shawn and Juliet’s journey,” Lawson admitted. “I don’t know that they’ve figured that out yet, but as of right now, I think they’re very much on the same page when it comes to that.”
“I think Juliet would make a phenomenal mother but I also think she recognizes that Shawn is a bit of a question mark in that regard,” Rodriguez observed. “She’s nothing if not patient as she’s proven over the years, so there might be some catching up that needs to happen there.”
“I’m going to disagree! I’m going to disagree with you!” Lawson chimed in. “I think she actually believes Shawn would be a great father but I think he needs to believe that he would be a great father before he could be a father.”
