Psych: Why Shawn & Gus Still Have The Student Driver Car

Psych 3: This Is Gus revealed that after all these years, Shawn (James Roday Rodriguez) and Gus (Dulé Hill) still have the student driver car. Throughout the show’s eight-season run, the duo’s primary mode of transportation was the Blueberry, a company vehicle that Gus drove when he worked at his pharmaceutical job. Now, they’re driving the driver’s ed car instead.

The student driver car has been in all three Psych reunion movies, even though it barely had a presence in the show’s eight-season run. In fact, it only made a single appearance in the show, which was in the Psych series finale. While chasing Billy Zane’s Psych character at a high school, the two ended up having to steal the driver’s ed car in order to apprehend him. Instead of returning it to the high school, Gus used the car to follow Shawn to San Francisco, where they’ve lived ever since. It was shown in Psych: The Movie that they chose to keep it after the episode’s events. As of Psych 3, the car is still in their possession.

The student driver car’s role in the Psych movies can be attributed at least partially to it being an Easter egg to the Psych series finale. But perhaps most importantly, it’s a replacement for a key element of Shawn and Gus’ cases in Psych. The series always had them ride around in the Blueberry. The car endured several unfortunate accidents, but would always be repaired. Even getting split in half failed to stop the show from reviving the Blueberry. However, Gus quitting his pharmaceutical job in the series finale meant it was time for the character to finally move on from the Blueberry, given that it was a company vehicle. That made the finale the right time to give Shawn and Gus a new mode of transportation.

The student driver car serving as a fill-in for the Blueberry is reflected by its new name. In Psych 3: This Is Gus, Shawn told Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) that they call it the Dualberry now. Of course, Psych could have just given Shawn and Gus an ordinary new vehicle to take the place of the Blueberry, but it was such a recognizable, consistent component of their shenanigans in Psych that it made sense for the series to move on from it by using something else that has at least some degree of nostalgic value.

The student driver car is an appropriate evolution to the Blueberry for Shawn and Gus. A car with two sets of brakes and two steering wheels sounds like just the sort of vehicle that characters like Shawn and Gus would drive. It also fits with their constant bickering and their tendency to disagree with each other in regards to where to go in an investigation. All things considered, it won’t be surprising at all if the Dualberry is still around if and when the Psych: This Is Gus cast returns for Psych 4.

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