James Roday Rodriguez, Dule Hill and Maggie Lawson talk to ET about 'Lassie Come Home' and if Shawn & Juliet are ready for parenthood.
Spoiler alert! Do not proceed if you have not watched Psych 2: Lassie Come Home on Peacock.
Shawn and Gus are back with their antics once again -- and we wouldn't have it any other way. The original Psych crew reunites for their latest movie, Psych 2: Lassie Come Home, the second of (maybe) six films in the beloved franchise if creator Steve Franks gets his way. The sequel, which welcomes Timothy Omundson back into the fold as Carlton Lassiter, was a far more emotional time for all involved.
"That's exactly right," James Roday Rodriguez told ET of likening Psych 2 to a family reunion. "This time was a little bit more than that because we were bringing Tim back, not only to the fans but also to the crew that didn't get to see him the first time we got back together. So he missed the reunion. It was really just about giving everybody the Lassie and Tim that they've been missing and it was a beautiful thing for sure."
The film, which was completed over a year ago in Vancouver, marked Omundson's first major project since suffering a stroke in April 2017. (He made a brief cameo in 2017's Psych: The Movie.)
Psych 2 kicks off when Lassiter is ambushed by a mysterious culprit in a sting operation gone wrong and left for dead. Shawn and Gus return to their old stomping grounds in Santa Barbara to be by Lassie’s side, as he recovers from a stroke. The duo, in all their 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."
Rodriguez's response? "Nice..."
Maybe we'll get that third Psych movie after all.
Psych 2: Lassie Come Home is now streaming on Peacock.
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