As part of Pop Culture Zoo’s behind-the-scenes visit to the Psych, we roamed the Santa Barbara sets (in Vancouver) and saw an explosive live shoot. But we also got to pick the brains of the Psych cast, and find out what’s in store for Season 5.  In honor of Psych’s Summer Finale  — airing Wednesday — we’re posting edited transcripts of the interviews.

The first person to talk to us during Psych-day was Maggie Lawson, who plays Detective Juliet O’Hara. In Season 5, the character has recently taken a slightly darker turn, along with her hair color. (Being abducted and used in Hitchcock-inspired killer’s plans would take their toll on anyone.)

Lawson was very cool during the interview, and answered our questions, from where she’d like to send Juliet undercover, to what it’s like working alongside your significant other, as well as her growing relationship with Lassiter – and why she’s glad he rescued her at the end of Season 4.

Maggie: Yeah. I love that. I think that, at first, Juliet was sort of like—if she doesn’t play by Lassiter’s rules, obviously he’s going to be very upset. He’s not the nicest guy. But I think he’s—the character, I think they’ve done a really good job with writing him as well, because he has sort of let her do her own thing and find her own way. And so, over the seasons, rather than this always—you know him—like, the biting back and forth, it’s become more of a mutual respect, and I think she really does look up to him and how he works. I don’t think it’s the way she’s going to do things ever, but I think that she does respect the way he does it, and I don’t think she would be the cop, the detective that she is without him.

And I think we really got to see that, which was so nice, at the end of last season, in Yin, where, you know, that—just that moment. I mean, as simple as it was, just Juliet having that breakdown. I loved so much that it was Lassiter who was there for her and not Shawn, because I think the characters have just so earned that over the season. So I think that shows a lot about how they feel about each other in all their differences. I don’t know if they—I think if either lost the other, it would be like losing a limb. I think they really are dependent on each other.

Panel:  How would you like to see Juliet and Shawn’s relationship develop?

Maggie: Good question. I think—again, I think we’ve done a good job, over the last few seasons, of really playing out how a relationship like this might go. So many complications are going to come into play when and if these characters get together. So I think that we’ve exhausted a lot of that now. I think some very serious things have been said, and it’s just like—it’s like a little ticking bomb that I feel like is going to—it’s going to happen, somehow, in a big way. It’s either going to be great, or it’s going to be a crazy fall-out. Shawn has a huge secret and if he’s going to have honest relationships, how does all that work? And so, I would like to see—for both of them to be honest about their feelings with each other, however that’s going to play out.

Panel: Does he have to learn to bowl?

Maggie: Yes. I’ll still beat him, though.

Panel: So you already referenced the [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder], so will that come into play later on in the episodes?

Maggie: Well, we’ve already seen it a little this season, just because, you know, she left for as long as she did, and it was sort of that weird line of, “How long are you going to be away?” It’s clearly affected her…

She’s almost a little bit more bitey and a bit more defensive, and I think in this season more than others. So I think there’s a level of that that’s going to hang around for a while, and I like that. I like it. I like that they’re writing toward it, and I like that— I like getting to play that, because sometimes I think things like that happen, and they’re just ignored. So I feel like the longer that my darker hair stays around and stuff like that, and who knows how long that’s going to be? But just for me, I think I like that there’s—it’s still hanging around just a little bit.

But I also think even the Lassiter stuff this year has been a little stronger, it’s been a little deeper. So there’s been a whole fallout from that. I don’t know if we’re seeing Juliet in therapy, but maybe her version of that is—this is how she’s dealing with it.

Panel: Well, anyway, I did like that they were kind of slowly continuing—

Maggie: A little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do, too. I do, too, because it was— that’s a big thing that everybody on the show went through. It feels so serious when I say it. It’s usually a little light, like, goofy. I like it.

Panel: I have a question. You’ve already made James blush at Comic-Con this year when you were asked to compare Shawn to James.

Maggie: I did, and I love doing that.

Panel: So how would you compare you to Juliet?

Maggie: Good question. Let’s see. How would I compare? I would—well, I would like to think that I go at things the way Juliet does, which is— she sort of stops at nothing whether she’s going undercover and whatever. I like to think that I’m that way, though I’m not always.

But, let’s see. I think that Juliet, sometimes, is a little bit clumsy, and I am definitely that. Yeah. I’m trying to think of other things. But I have a lot of [similarity] and I think this sort of helped in dealing with the characters that my character has. I think, like, we’ve said it before. Like, four or five brothers. I think it may have changed over the seasons, how many brothers I have. But I have two brothers in real life, so I think that, naturally, I have tomboyish tendencies which, obviously, Juliet has as well. So just from being around boys.

Panel: Part of the fun of the show is all the guest stars. Are there some that you have bonded with more than others, or that you’ve had a lot of fun with, or that you were really excited to work with?

Maggie: Yeah. We’ve  had so much fun. Like, Franka [Potente] in this one, she’s so great. She’s so much fun. There are some guest star casts that we are a little more social with than others, not based on liking them or not. But, yeah, we’ve been out with Franka a few times this episode, which is fun.

I hope this is because people enjoy being here, but I feel like just about every guest star or guest cast that we have come on, we end up having, like, a real experience with them, almost like a movie shoot with them or something.

But yeah, I’m trying to think of, like a season—well, Nestor Carbonell, this season, he’s been on. He’s been in a couple. So we’ve had a good time with him.  And we have Freddie Prinze Jr., who’s a friend of Dule’s, so we had fun with him.  I don’t know. To say, some over others is kind of hard because what if they read these? You can turn the tape recorders off. Then we’ll talk! We love them all the same.

Panel: Will we ever see an episode like the roller derby episode?

Maggie: Like it?

Panel: Yeah. Well, for Juliet, because I guess that was one of my favorites.

Maggie: You know what? I kind of—I haven’t been undercover in a while. Like, I don’t know if I’ve done anything since then, actually, like the roller derby one, because I have the ‘Scary Sherry’ in first season, and then, the [‘American Duos’], which I guess I wasn’t necessarily undercover. I was just the drill sergeant dancer. And then roller derby. Yeah, I think we’re due for another really silly Juliet episode.  Well, I think we are, anyway. I think we’re due. I don’t know if the producers would feel that way.

Panel: We could start a campaign for you.

Maggie: Thank you. Will you? But yeah, I would like to see something. I would like to see something really, really, fun and dark where Juliet’s just scared out of her mind, in some prostitution ring or something. You know, USA’s version of that, not—

Panel: Well, let’s talk a bit more about the serious tone. The show has sort of gone more serious tones for all the characters, but can you just expand on, like, working with, like  Dulé and, you know, the other characters? Like, I love the relationship between you and Dulé, right? I just feel it hasn’t been explored enough yet.

Maggie: Yeah. I agree. There—every now and again, over the seasons, there’s always a moment where we bond over something. You know, last year in that refrigeration truck. You know, [‘Shawn Takes A Shot in the Dark’]. We go on sort of our own case together. And they’ve bonded over being, like, nerds a little bit.

Panel: Comic-Con?

Maggie: The Comic-Con [‘Shawn vs. The Red Phantom’], yeah. So I would like to see that a little more as well.  But it has been a little bit more serious. I feel like the last two—this season and season four sort of have led us into a deeper look at all of their relationships, which I think, naturally, makes it seem a little more dramatic because we’re going to darker—a little, you know, darker places. But in that, I think we’re, obviously, still finding the comedy, but I think it can almost promote more because it’s so it’s kind of uncomfortable to go to some of those darker places sometimes. But this season, definitely. This episode that we’re shooting right now is crazy.

Panel: Well, Gus saved you, right?

Maggie: And Gus saved me, yeah. Totally. Yeah. Yeah, there’s a whole relationship there that’s not—that hasn’t been totally explored yet. But I do think—I know that there are some more Gus/Juliet interactions in the future.

Panel: At Shawn’s expense?

Maggie: Well, yes.

Panel: Can you define “interactions”?

Maggie: It’s not necessarily romantic, but there are some out-of-office things that happen out of work and case scenarios that I know are coming up in some episodes. Yeah. Soon. That—no, not like that. Can you explain “interactions.” I did say that a bit, like, coy, didn’t I, right?

Panel: Speaking of relationships, is it difficult working with someone that you are actually dating?

Maggie: I think that it can be, yeah. But for us, it’s not. We have really— we had Psych before we had our relationship, and I kind of love that we’ve held on to work is work, and when we’re at work, we’re working. And his partner at work is Dulé. My partner at work is Tim. And I feel like it’s been a really healthy, awesome, like, approach. We’ve, I think, done a good job of keeping thatThere were people who, on the crew, that still come up to me and they’re like, “You guys are dating? Like, really?” It’s not like we don’t speak at work. It’s just that we have a definite line of when we’re at work, it’s about work, and we keep i about work. And then we can get all, you know, lovey-dovey after work.

Panel: I know there’s, you know, a lot of people who think, you know, “Will they?  Won’t they?” type thing between Juliet and Shawn. Do you feel, as an actress, that when the couples on the show cross that line, it actually causes the show to suffer? Because a lot of shows like Moonlighting, for example—

Panel: Jumped the shark.

Maggie: Jumped the shark. I have a couple of different takes on that. I think that it’s a—it’s just a fine line. It depends on where the show is. It depends on the characters. I think Moonlighting, it would be—Moonlighting would be if Shawn and Gus got together.

Panel: It would be a completely different show then.

Maggie: Whereas Juliet isn’t his—isn’t the other person.

Panel: You could get a ratings boost from that, though.

Maggie: Crazier things have happened.

Maggie: Yeah. Well, I’m going to mention it. But there are arguments to both sides because—again, I think what is so important about this show and how we’ve developed all or our relationships is kind of what I just said about life, in our real life, too. It’s like it’s Shawn and Gus, and that’s the core of the show. And then there’s Juliet and Lassiter, and there are these—you know, Henry and Shawn. There are all these other, like, peripheral relationships. And I think that—I do think that it can work if the “will they” happens, because I have—I mean, we’ve seen before—like, you know, the Ross and Rachel. The get together episode—season one, and it went back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth, and I don’t think that show really suffered because of that. And the other one is Carrie and Big.

It was sort of like the coming together in the—and without necessarily physically going there. I think we’ve done that a little bit, and I think it’s good. I think it raises the stakes for when that day actually comes, and then what that really means. It’s so big. But even Carrie and Big didn’t officially get together until, you know, the end. So I guess that’s the other side of the argument. Same with Ross and Rachel, right?

Yeah, the felanji. He’s a lobster. Anyway. I’ve never seen that show before in my life.

Panel: Is there a—with the subculture that you found most interesting or had your eyes opened to that you didn’t know existed…?

Maggie: Yeah. I really loved tap dancing. I felt like that was the world. But no. I mean, for me, the undercover stuff. I think I had the most fun with Scary Sherry, sorority, and the axe fight. That was a world that was fun to explore. It was like, the sorority girl outfit with an axe in my hand. But one world more than—I mean, I love—I’ve loved—right now, the Franka episode [‘One, Maybe Two, Ways Out’], and this sort of getting into the whole—the secret agent side of things, like the one with my—with my brother last year, with John Cena. I’m always fascinated by those episodes. I always like how they even write them. And I’ve loved the Yin and Yang episodes as well, with the riddles and it’s just good stuff.

[Hopefully it goes without saying, but PCZ is grateful for the chance to be part of the set visit. We’re also thankful for the transcribed interviews and photos from the set, as well the opportunity to hang out and talk to some writers from some really cool outlets. Thanks for a great day, guys. -RI]