Meta: Detective Juliet O'Hara (Psych)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This post contains SPOILERS for all aired episodes of Psych, through the Season Five finale, "Yang 3 in 2D."
Meet Santa Barbara Police Detective Juliet O'Hara (played by Maggie Lawson), one of my favorite female characters. In any other group, she'd be the Crazy Girl, but, surrounded by the other characters of Psych, she's the Sane One. She is genuinely a nice person, it's also Important to her to be liked, which ties into her competitive nature. She's diligent, hard-working, and dedicated, without it making her into a miserable bore. She has an underlying geekiness, and she can sometimes get overly invested in silly things. Some of what I like about Jules is, admittedly, intangible: she just makes me happy.
Jules also almost always rescues herself or rescues the boys. As ciderpress explained in her a fabulous character study of Jules, starts with a creamsicle, ends with a holla!:
One of the things I love best about her is that she frequently rescues the damsels in distress (Shawn and Gus), she's the one who shoots people in the hand or saves Gus and Shawn from becoming killer roller derby road-kill or brings down a psychotic woman with a knife with mad skills. There's this thing that Psych does which I think is pretty peachy keen; the show sets up Shawn and Gus to see Juliet in danger and the big giant dorks think they're going to save her, and... they don't.
The one exception to this was in the episode, "Mr. Yin Presents . . .," the middle part of a trilogy about a pair of serial killers who went by the assumed identity of Yin/Yang. Jules is kidnapped, tied up, and dangled from a high clock tower à la Vertigo, about to be dropped when the clock strikes the half-hour. As much as I swooned when her partner broke protocol *and* went against the Chief's direct order to rescue her (and I totally did swoon - I won't lie), there was a tiny part of me that was slightly uncomfortable with the concept of the menfolk having to ride in and rescue the wimmins from danger.
Hence, I was so happy when, in the final part of the trilogy, the series had the girl(s) save the boy(s). Jules figures out the way into Yin's House of Horrors. She defeats and captures Yin's crazy apprentice, Allison. Jules also rescues herself, both literally from Allison's attack and figuratively by bringing closure to her trauma. Jules isn't just no longer the victim, but she's ultimately the hero of the piece.
Also, I love the friendship between Jules and her partner, Carlton Lassiter. Their relationship has evolved naturally, with moments that you can point to as "important," without ever feeling like the character moments were dragging the story to a halt. Carlton and Jules have learned from each other, taken on some of the other's personality traits, and have developed a mutual respect. They challenge each other but not in a malicious way; rather, in a way that brings out the best in both of them.
The one time Jules did need rescuing, Carlton was there for her but that doesn't mean he treats her like a victim afterwards. When she insists on going inside Yin's house with Yang, he's apprehensive, but he respects her enough to let her do it and to stay put when she tells him. He knows that she's a competent police officer and trusts that she can take care of herself.
Fannish resources & meta:
Rationalizing Shules (that's the Shawn/Jules 'ship) by bombshell-dolly and the flip-side Not Shipping Shawn/Juliet Doesn't Make Me A Bad Feminist by garrideb
ship_manifesto for Jules/Gus and for Jules/Carlton.
More meta by ciderpress - i told you that two years ago. he was a cashier in the shoe shop, shawn, about the episodes set immediately post-"Mr. Yin Presents . . .", with some wonderful analysis of Jules.
List of Jules-centric fanfic recs compiled at psych_finders.
Three lovely interview vids with Lawson and Omundson, from the 2010 Comic Con press room, where they talk about how Jules haw become a badass over the years and the evolution of Jules and Carlton's partnership: here, here, and here.
I also started a thread for her in The Unpopular Woman Love Post.
ETA: The day after I posted this, pocky_slash created a A Celebration of Juliet O'Hara essay and picspam for 14valentines.