Psyched Out

Directed by Sigmund  Neufeld, Jr.

Written by Paul  Magistretti

Synopsis: The Simons are hired to  find out the truth behind a track star’s death.  A.J. goes undercover as a  student at the university, and Rick volunteers for a psych experiment.  The experiment strikes Rick as odd, and A.J. is definitely concerned when Rick tries to fly from a third story window.  They discover that the psychologist in  charge of the experiment is trying to build a better soldier so he can get the governmental funding. 

What he’s creating instead are students who think they are invincible to the point of hurting themselves, to the point of accidental suicide. 

Review:

I really enjoyed the scene in which Rick tries to fly.  The mix of Rick’s bemused state and A.J.’s concern is just fun to watch.

The experiment itself  was interesting to me.  Rick would take a special liquid and then control how hard a person had to run – if they didn’t run fast enough, they got a  painful shock.  When Rick had been on the treadmill, a student had gotten  carried away and set the treadmill impossibly fast.  The researcher tried to play on Rick’s desire for revenge to get him to be hard on the next student.  Kudos to Rick for not falling for it.

It reminds me of a famous study done on how cruel people can be when ordered.  The subject had  to shock an unseen person and the shocks became progressively worse until it sounded like the person being shocked was dying.  The frightening part was  that the majority of folks carried out their instructions, some of them with  tears in their eyes.  A scary reminder of the guards in the concentration  camps who said they were just following orders.  The point of the experiment was that perfectly normal folks can become cruel when authority  orders it.  It’s also a testament to Rick’s strength of mind (or  stubbornness, take your pick) that he didn’t succumb to pressure, even filled with a drug designed to make him more suggestible. 

I’ll give this episode an extra Camaro for the originality and intelligence of the  plot.

4 out of 5 Camaros

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