Villainess Review: Lucy Ryan (Psych)

I enjoyed watching Psych for all eight seasons, especially Season Four, which had some very amazing and interesting episodes. The season's fourth episode, "The Devil's in the Details...and the Upstairs Bedroom," was one that stood out with me, as the episode's victim was a Catholic college student named Agatha Brontus, who suddenly jumped off the roof and fell to her death. Shawn and Gus' investigation saw them reunited with their former teacher, Father Peter Westley, who voiced his belief that Agatha was possessed by the Devil. Agatha's death was witnessed by her friend, Lucy Ryan, whose home was visited by Shawn and Gus, as they looked to get answers from her.

What Shawn and Gus got was a warning from Lucy's mother that she had been acting strangely, and they later enter Lucy's room and see her acting violently and spider-walking, leading Gus to repeat Father Westley's sentiment and believe that Lucy was possessed. Lucy also spoke in tongues, furthering Gus' belief, though Shawn voiced his immense skepticism, which briefly put them at odds. Father Westley performed an exorcism later on, but afterwards, Shawn ended up being right about Lucy's possession being phony, as during the exorcism, Lucy revealed a childhood fact about Shawn, which she got from Shawn's internet page. In addition, the tongue that Lucy was speaking was German, and she was reciting a line from her favorite movie, Run, Lola, Run.

Shawn also mentioned Agatha, as he revealed that she had L-Dopa, a medication for Parkinson's Disease, in her system, and because Agatha didn't have Parkinson's, it made her unstable and resulted in her fatal jump. The owner of the medication used turned out to be Father Westley, which made him Suspect #1 and resulted in him actually being arrested. Shawn believed that Father Westley wanted to create a situation where he would be needed to perform an exorcism, but when Gus spoke to Father Westley in holding, a revelation was provided that happened to mention Agatha's boyfriend, Cameron.

Shawn and Gus (along with Carlton Lassiter and Juliet O'Hara) found Cameron in his apartment with Lucy, as they had been seeing each other. Lassie's fingering of Cameron as the culprit behind Agatha's death ended up making Shawn certain that the culprit was actually Lucy, as Shawn knew Lassie's guesses weren't always accurate. At that moment, Father Westley's conversation to Gus was revealed: Lucy was in love with Cameron--not only that, but she actually revealed her feelings to Father Westley during confession! She wanted Cameron to herself and devised a scheme to break up Cameron and Agatha, which involved stealing Father Westley's medication and using it to drug Agatha to make her crazy and force Cameron to see that she wasn't right for him. In a surprise, Agatha ended the relationship, but as mentioned before, Agatha's instability resulted in her jumping to her death, with Lucy attempting to save her friend.

Lucy knew that she was responsible for Agatha's death, and that all of the details would come out; however, after overhearing Father Westley's possession theory, the scheming villainess saw it as a way out and decided to act possessed to cover her tracks. Cameron was shocked over Lucy's actions, and afterwards, Lucy claimed that she never intended on hurting Agatha, but added that Agatha wasn't right for Cameron, making her statement as she was being arrested.

This episode of Psych aired on August 28, 2009, and featured (IMO) an underrated villainess in the form of Lucy Ryan, played by Alexandra Krosney. Her "possession" scenes were spectacular, I remember liking what I was seeing from Krosney when the episode aired. I also recall being a bit surprised that Lucy was the culprit, and the more times I watch Krosney's episode, the more I adore Lucy as a villainess. She was very scheming and calculating, and Krosney played those traits very well, but we also see Lucy's fear and guilt over Agatha's fate. Now it is clear that Lucy had no intentions on actually killing Agatha, but even so, she goes on an all-out mission to cover up her villainous actions with her "possession." Overall, Lucy Ryan was a villainess who knew what she wanted, schemed to get it, though it resulted in a death that she didn't intend on causing. Even so, she knew she'd be held responsible, so she continued scheming to cover up her role, and in all regards, Krosney played Lucy's bevy of emotions and traits to perfection.

If the name Alexandra Krosney is familiar, it should be. After her villainous appearance on Psych, Krosney originated the role of Kristin Baxter on the long-running sitcom, Last Man Standing. Krosney also guest-starred on shows such as Without a Trace, Medium, and the original CSI, and also appeared in the 2015 film, Barely Lethal.

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Click here for Lucy Ryan's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!