Who Is Selene, Why Was She Involved With a Gunrunner, and Will Gus Get Married Before the Baby Comes?: Psych 3, This is Gus (2021)

When Psych 3 came out my friend and I were super excited! As it had become our tradition to watch together we loaded up on the treats and set out to view it.

I can’t wait.

We start off with Carlton (yay Timothy Omundson is back!) cyrano de Bergerac-ing the solving of his case with Gus and Shawn. It seems that even though he’s back to work he’s very insecure in his abilities.

It’s so cute seeing them all be buds together, although Carlton would rather not be so emotional. It’s a great throwback to the show.

Along with callbacks to the TV show

They drop Carlton off at home and we see his adorable daughter, so cute! Shawn goes to visit his dad who has a great new big house (remember Carlton bought the previous one). They start talking and Henry reveals that Carlton has plateaued in his recovery and may not get better. Shawn also wants his father’s advice as he and Gus have been drifting apart. Shawn doesn’t like this and wants them to be same level of besties as before.

Gus is going overboard in planning his wedding and baby’s birth. The reason Gus is going so crazy is that Selene is still married and has refused to have Gus help her find her husband so they can get the papers signed. Gus is tweaking out as the clock is ticking and he doesn’t want his his baby born out of wedlock.

Shawn is getting suspicious about Selene and starts planning something! I’m on Shawn’s side as this is extremely suspicious. Why wouldn’t she want to divorce her husband? I mean in CA it’s really easy, she doesn’t need her husband to sign papers, if she has no clue where to find him she just has to post a notice in the paper of where she thinks he could be, and that’s it. Even if he didn’t want to her to divorce him he can’t stop it, and if she worried for her safety her fiancé and his partner work with the police, and her two best friends (Juliet and Chief Vick) are cops. The only conclusions I can draw is she does not want to be divorced, she committed some crime that she does not want her real identity revealed, or her husband has nothing to do with it she just doesn’t want her real identity to be discovered. In all those scenarios it’s Selene that is the issue.

Hmm…

Meanwhile Juliet is having second thoughts about no kids. Hmm…maybe film 4 will have baby Starfish Spencer?

Chief Vick is hoping to take her first vacation in years, but I don’t think that will happen. Chief Vick also wants fo help find Selene’s husband and leaves her office unattended with Shawn so she could go ahead and run the background check. Shawn looks up Selene and finds nothing.

But in the first film she have Gus a resume and references. Hmm…

Hmm…

Shawn knows something is up and that does not surprise me at all as I already thought she was off and after all, almost all the women Gus has either dated, been involved with, tried to date, or were into him; have also been crazy. Let’s run through the list. There was:

1. The woman who looking for her “dead husband” but turned out to be a master thief who’s husband faked his death to get away from her. She tried to kill Gus and Shawn.
2. Robert had dissociative identity disorder and one of his identities, Regina, had the hots for Gus.
3. The girl from the planetarium who was a suspect in murder
4. Mira who was A Lot.
5. The model who couldn’t spell her own name and was a suspect for murder.
6. The girl who murdered the member of his a cappella group.
7. Willow who is a Wiccan and her brother thought he was a werewolf.
8. Ruby who was is into extreme and intense things, of which one best friend is a embezzler and the other a murderer.
9. The older woman who was murdering her best friend’s lovers
10. Maudette the pedophile librarian
11. The girl who’s father was on the fugitive list and tried to get with Gus to steal his phone and so they could murder him.
12. The woman who has dissociative identity disorder, one of the identities being a plumber named Frank.
13. The girl in a cult.
14. Rachael who was a murder suspect and also left him for her ex-husband when she told him not to worry about him.
15. Miranda the radio owner who was a murder suspect and trying to seduce Gus knowing he had a girlfriend
16. Emmanuelle the private detective, something was off about her.
17. Selene who acts crazy
18. The nurse with a blackmail ring.

Did I miss any?

Shawn acts a little weird at dinner as he is trying to get info out of Selene, deciding to steal her purse and discovers her wallet has an imprint from a previous ID.

Gus find him and they have an all out brawl. At first this surprised me, but the amount of stress that Gus is under, it makes sense and it also reminds me when they fought while Uncle Burton was in town. they eventually hug it out and decide to go speak to Selene’s sister to try and get more info on Selene and prove that Selene is real.

While they make those plans, Gus tries to get Kurt Smith to play his wedding. It is funny how much these two adore him, and how he has become a part. From Psy Vs Psy to 100 Clues to now Psych 3.

They go to Whitney‘s house, Selene’s sister, but she takes off when they try to question her. You’ve guessed it, she is not really Selene’s sister. Selene lied and paid her to pretend to be related to her.

Whitney is an actress and has done this many times before. She warns them that Selene told her that if anyone found out about their arrangement it would be very bad. They are able to get the skinny on where the two women met, Santa Monica, and set off.

Gus and Shawn head to Selene’s old apartment and question the general manager who remembers them and is not happy about Selene and her husband taking off in the middle of the night. That’s all she says and Shawn gets an idea of pretending to be prospective tenants, not the first time they have done so. They split up and head off to Spirit and Halloween City.

Let’s put on a disguise!

The two show up and all I can think of is the episode when they went undercover in 70s threads. Gus dresses up as a ventriloquist Willy Tyler, while Shawn looks like Rob Zombie. It’s hilarious because he totally does. If they ever wanted to make a movie about Zombie, they have the perfect actor. Shawn uses the apartment managers assistant’s mistake of thinking him Rob Zombie to mess up the apartment ceiling and get a box left by the former couple, hoping it’s Selenes.

Bryn actually remembers the couple and says they were very cute and very attractive. Gus tries to open up the locked box and Bryn tells them that the last night they were there they got into a fight and were never seen again. Gus gets the case open and they find a ton of fake IDs and a gun with filed off serial numbers.

That’s not good.

Henry looks at the IDs and tells them they are really good ones. Whoever is involved in this is in it deep…he then realizes that it is Selene.

Henry tells them that one of the IDs is not a fake. They follow the address on the real ID and end up in an abandoned town in the middle of nowhere. They get into the house and are looking through it when they run into Selene’s husband. They see his “murder wall” and that he has been stalking Ronald “the Bull” Cole who is a an arms dealer.

Selene is upset that Gus missed a wedding appointment and has also discovered that someone (suspecting Gus and Shawn) went through her purse. She recruits Juliet and Chief Vick to help her.

Selene’s husband Alan Decker was an investigator at a security firm and Selene was an insurance investigator. They met when they were on a case and fell for each other, marrying when Decker’s cousin came to town. They witnessed a gun fight and tried to tell the police but they weren’t interested as the person who committed the crime, Roger “the bull” Cole. They kept running but his goons were always after them. Decker tells the guys he left to save her, but Selene tells the women that Alan dumped her on a post card and she never saw him again. Since then Decker has been staying in the abandoned town to “try and finish the job” while Selene gave up and created a new life.

I also wonder did they even file the wedding certificate? If they were always secret and on the run it sounds like they didn’t and if they didn’t then they aren’t legally married.

Hmmm…

Decker makes Gus and Shawn a deal, they help him out and then he will divorce her. Decker has a plan, but Shawna be Gus have a “better” one that sounds like an amalgamation of some of their favorite films, but turns out to be the Take On Me music video. Remember when they sang that song to Tim Curry? Decker’s plan is for the guys to trip the power and Decker to go for the safe room.

Carlton is at home chilling when Henry comes back over to hang out and help Carlton out. He brings him the gun with the files off serial numbers to look over. The two have a sweet heart to heart and I hope that means Omundson will be in the next film as they supposedly have two more planned.

The girls are on the case and they head to the apartments to try and track the boys. When they get a call from Henry they are back on track and know exactly where to find them.

Time to get on the case!

Meanwhile Shawn and Gus have infiltrated the microbrewery/gunrunner faciltiy. Things start off well but then when they cut all the power and the security cameras stop. This causes the team to go out searching the facility.

Not long after they hear gunshots and Gus suggests their superhero personas from a few seasons back. The two find a dead body, a random dude who turns out to be “The Bull”. Gee I wonder who killed them? Who do you think? It’s Decker!!! Decker did it! Who else would have killed him?

Decker did make it to the safe room and got his “stuff”, “information”, “proof”? I was never quite sure what he was after. Decker admits he did kill the Bull and that he was never married to Selene but lied to keep her with him. Decker plan to cover up the murder by killing the guys and making it look like the Bull killed one of them, and that the other killed the Bull. Yeah that’s not going to work these guys are involved with the SFPD and the SBPD there are going to be a lot more questions and a big investigation. Decker is insane.

Selene finds out that Decker killed the Bull and it doesn’t even phase her, as he “was a monster”. Like she’s not concerned at all that Decker murdered a man and was planning on murdering two more.

Yeah Selene is weird. I don’t think Gus should marry her.

To save them, Gus throws his gender reveal box at Decker, and they end up knocking him out. Turns out they are having a boy! And of course because this is a movie Selene’s water breaks.

They try to find a way out and end up lost and stop in the safe room, but unfortunately the door shuts and they are locked in. They want to make sure they are married before the baby is born and video call Father Wesley to ordinate the ceremony while Curt Smith plays.

Only in a TV show episode would the baby come so soon and of course Shawn delivers it.

Shawn asks if they have Decker in custody but they don’t, they only found the dead body of “the Bull”. This was kind of a weird ending; we had no interaction with the “villain” (I’m still counting Selene as one), we have no real closure with Decker as why he decided to murder the Bull, what else was he lying about, etc. And Decker is just gone in the wind? I’m not happy! There better be a Psych 4!

We then see Curt Smith in the new “Wom” [Wham] band (something briefly mentioned earlier) and they make a music video with everyone that is basically a ripoff of Last Christmas, or as much as they can do and not get sued for copyright infringement. It’s hilarious but that’s it that’s the end? What about Decker?

After the credits we get another end scene and it’s Decker printing film photos of Gus, Selene, and their baby. Creepy! This better mean there is a Psych 4 being planned! Come on peacock, Steve Franks, and James Roday Rodriguez.

For more Psych, go to Is Lassiter Crazy or Has He Discovered a Criminal Case in a Recovery Hospital?: Psych 2, Lassie Come Home (2020)

For more detectives, go to He Comes Here to New York and, Bing, There’s a Murder. He Goes Back to the West Coast…Bing, There’s Another Murder. He Comes Back Here, Meets This Lois MacFay and…Bing – Bing – Bing! There’s Another Murder: Another Thin Man (1939)

For more mysteries, go to Pick Us Up Another Thin Man, Will Ya Nick?: After the Thin Man (1936)

Xactly Why I Think Beastly is An Xcellent Story

Day 24) X is for X: Choose a book whose author has an X in their name

An X?

I couldn’t think of anything, of any name that had an X in it. I decided that I would just shelve it for now and come back to it later.

But then the days passed and we grew closer and closer to the 24th and I had no idea what to pick.

But then my friend returned my book Beastly, by AleX Flinn, that I had let her borrow. I looked at it and I knew!

This was the book I was going to use for my X.

Beastly (Kendra Chronicles #1) by Alex Flinn

So I don’t know exactly how I stumbled onto this book. But I read it, loved it, and then went on to read everything else Flinn wrote.

Flinn is a master teller at taking fairy tales and rewriting them in modern times with youth audiences and characters.

Now I read this years ago, a few years after it was published and just absolutely loved it. Then I heard the movie was coming out based on it, and tracked that film; so excited to see it on the screen and dragging two of my friends with me. But then I saw it:

It was horrible. I did not like it one bit. They just cut the heart and soul of the book leaving a shadow of what it was. The book was much better.

Now when I first read the book I had only previously seen Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and read the tale it was based on. Since then, I have seen a few other things and I have noticed that Flinn pulls from both La Belle et la Bête

And the Beauty and the Beast TV show from the ’80s.

In fact one of the characters is called Lindy in the book and Linda Hamilton played “Belle” in the TV show. Coincidence? I think not. Plus the way he looks, the way he protect Lindy, havoc on the subway, etc.

Well that’s enough of that, let’s check out the book.

So we start in a way I have never seen a retelling of a fairy tale start before. With IMing between a bunch of different fairy tale characters. We have the little mermaid from The Little Mermaid, the Bear from Snow White and Rose Red, the frog prince from The Frog Prince, and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast,  And who is the chat room run by? Mr. Anderson.

No, not that Mr. Anderson. Anderson as in Hans Christian Andersen.

So then we flashback to how our Beast, became a beast.

Part 1: A Prince and a Witch

Kyle Kingsbury is a freshman at a private school, Tuttle, and the son of the very wealthy news anchor, Rob Kingsbury. Kyle is a perfect dreamboat, utter perfection in height, looks, etc.

But while the outside is a treat, how he acts is the exact opposite.

All he cares about is his looks and popularity, hurting and being cruel to others around him. This year they are getting ready for homecoming and have their election for freshman Prince, of which Kyle is nominated. As they start voting, one person speaks out.

Kendra Hilferty is not what most would call beautiful. She has a strange green hair, is rather plain, and dresses in black “gothish” type clothing. She is upset about how this contest is all about looks instead of who they are, telling Kyle he is ugly where it really counts.

Kyle is angry over what Kendra said so he decides to play a trick on her. He invites her to the Homecoming dance, all the while planning on going with his real girlfriend, Sloane, and roasting Kendra.

She’ll get what’s coming to her.

When Sloane hears that Kyle will be going with Kendra, she is livid, but Kyle calms her down when he tells her about his “joke”. Kyle doesn’t really like Sloane, she’s really annoying and bratty, but she is the hottest girl and after tonight is going to let him come to her house while her parents are out…well as long as he brings an orchid.

Kyle goes home and tries to talk to his dad, but he doesn’t care. Kyle doesn’t have a mom as she left years ago and has never tried to contact him. His dad is super shallow and only cares about himself and his needs, never thinking of his child or the example he is setting.

That night Kyle is ready to go to the ball, dance I mean (I’m reading too many fairy tales), when it turns out his maid Madga didn’t buy the orchid but bought a single, white rose. Sloane is furious about there being no orchid and refuses to have the rose. However, there is a scholarship student taking the tickets who exclaims over its beauty. Kyle gives it to her, the only genuine, nice thing he has ever done.

How sweet!

When Kendra arrives and discovers what he has done she tells him he will pay for what he has done and will be as ugly on the outside as he truly is on the inside.

She’ll get what’s coming to her.

Kyle is upset, and scared, but continues to do what is expected as Prince of Homecoming. But at twelve o’clock that night Kendra appears to him and reveals she is a witch, and Kyle is turned into a beast.

NOOOOOOO!

Part 2: The Beast

When Kyle’s father discovers the transformation, he carts him all over the United States to see what they can do. But nothing can change him.

He cuts his hair, it grows back. He slices his skin, it instantly heals. Kendra gives him a magic mirror that allows him to see anyone he wants, and she uses it to “call” him throughout the book. Nothing can destroy him, and nothing can change him back except if he could find someone to love him in this bestial form. And he has two years, because of his gift of the rose, to find it or be stuck as a beast forever!

And this is what I don’t like about the film. They just give him a bunch of tattoos, but that isn’t as hard to love as something that doesn’t even look human. Plus they cut out how long he has to be a beast, removing his first year of angst, anxiety, and depression and being pushed apart from the rest of the world.

Part 3: The Castle

Yes, Kyle’s father can’t stand the sight of him and ships him off to an old brownstone in Brooklyn which has old windows that can’t open and no one can come in and see him. He sends Magda to take care of him and things to amuse him.

Kyle decides that he is no longer Kyle. After careful consideration, he chooses Adrian as it speaks of his new nature. He tries to find love online, but Kendra warns him that won’t work.

After deciding he will spend the rest of his life alone, he blackmails his father into providing him a tutor. The father complies, but selects a blind tutor, that way no one will hear of what his son is.

Will, the tutor, comes into Adrian’s life and he and Magda become his only friend, besides those who also have been transformed that he IMs. This is really interesting as they follow what occurs in those stories too.

Adrian discovers that Will used to have sight, but lost it as he aged. Magda had a family, but they weren’t allowed into the country so she is alone now. Adrian calls Kendra and works a deal that if he finds his love to break the spell, Kendra will grant the wishes of the others.

Adrian begins to read and study as he has nothing else in his life.

Something else he does with his time is watch people from his former life and school. One day he looks up the girl he gave the rose to, Lindy. Lindy is from a poor neighborhood and is a scholarship student. Her father is a drug addict and pusher, and she tries as hard as she can to take care of him. She spends as much time as she can reading, the library being her refuge.

Part 4: The Intruder in the Garden

One night everything changes. Adrian hears a crash and discovers that someone is trying to break into the house.

He goes to protect it and threatens the man with police. The man, in fear for his life, offers to trade his daughter for his life. He shows Adrian a picture and it is Lindy.

Adrian is horrified that he would do such a thing, but accepts as he wants to protect her and has hope that maybe she is the one to break the spell.

Lindy moves in, and things do not go according to Adrian’s plan. Lindy is furious and wants to leave. Will at first feels the same way, but after meeting her father agrees with Adrian’s solution.

After giving him a lot of time, Lindy starts to come around as she is just as lonely. At first she is weirded out by Adrian’s appearance, but as their friendship grows she begins to enjoy being around him.

Part 5: Time Lapses, Autumn and Winter

Adrian begins to care more about Lindy’s feelings than his own desires to have the curse broken and gets his dad to rent them a place in the country where they are freer to roam and hangout. He also decides to release Lindy from her commitment to stay with him, and she decides to remain there.

How sweet!

However, one night Lindy says how she is worried about her father and Adrian shows her the mirror. When she looks into it, she sees her father, sick and shaking. She leaves to go take care of him and promises to return.

Months pass and no Lindy.

Adrian starts to become depressed and decides that he will be a beast forever.

They move back to the brownstone and still no Lindy.

Adrian watches her in the mirror but she never comes to him. All have given up hope except Magda, who keeps encouraging Adrian. It comes down to the final day and still no Lindy.

Then at night Adrian hears Lindy scream and looks her up in the mirror. She is being held up for money owed by her dad. Adrian takes off in the subway, not caring who sees him, but going to her aid.

When he arrives, the other pusher is so freaked at his appearance he shoots Adrian, who continues to run at him tossing the gun aside and saving Lindy. As Adrian starts bleeding, Lindy says the words he has always desperately wanted to hear:

Instantly, he is transformed into Kyle again.

Part 6: Happily Ever After

The police come and after they deal with that mess they return to the brownstone. When they get there it is revealed that Magda is really Kendra.

She too had to serve a sentence and Kyle’s breaking of his spell has allowed her to return home to her family. Will’s eyes are healed and three pick up their lives; Will teaching at Tuttle and Lindy and Kyle attending. They continue to live at the brownstone, a happy family, with Kyle being a better person.

In the end we hear from the chat group how each has completed their own journey, some with happy endings and others with ones that were not quite what they expected.

It was a great book and I just LOVE it.

I highly recommend it for any fairy tale fan.

To start the 30 Day Challenge from the beginning, go to It Was a Pleasure to Burn: Fahrenheit 451

For the previos post, go to There’s a Cyclone Coming: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

For more Alex Flinn, go to Someone is Killing By Copying Old Murders!: Real Murders

For more on Beauty and the Beast, go to Waiter, There’s Some Disney in My Jane Austen

For more fairy tales, go to I Found this Blank Book of Stitched Together Pages…I’ll Record the Details of Our Confinement: Book of a Thousand Days

For more Audrey Hepburn quotes, go to At Midnight, Your Coach Will Become a Pumpkin Again, and the Animals Will Regain Their Original Shape Until Your Next Ball: Ella Enchanted

For more on Hans Christian Anderson, go to I Will Not Bend, I Will Not Break

For more G. K. Chesterton, go to A Book Only a Reader Could Write

Let me just start with this, George you will be missed.

So as this book is about true and false love, I decided to go with the song that has been on the radio nonstop, Last Christmas by Wham!

I love Wham! I’ve been obsessed with them for a looong time. This isn’t my favorite by them, for the longest time I didn’t even like this song; but after hearing it on the radio constantly I grew to really love it.

It was written by the late, great George Michael and tells the tale of someone giving their heart to someone, only to have it broken as they were unfaithful.

But luckily they find someone to give their heart to that will protect it.

It has been extremely popular and been constantly redone by other artists. Wham! is my favorite, not just because I love the band, but because it is nice to hear the broken heart from a guy’s point of view instead of always a woman.

For more ’80s music, go to No Mere Mortal Can Resist the Evil of the Thriller: Thriller (1983)

For more Christmas Carols, go to It Looks…as Though We are Being Kidnapped: Five Were Missing