Burton "Gus" Guster II (b. December 1977), also known as the "Vault of Secrets", "Fearless Guster", and other aliases, is the best friend and crime-solving partner of psychic detective Shawn Spencer. He is portrayed by Dulé Hill (Carlos McCullers II in flashbacks).
Biography
Gus has been a partner to the impulsive adventures of his best friend Shawn Spencer since they were kids. It gets him into plenty of trouble, which may be why he keeps trying to convince himself that the straight and narrow--a job as a pharmaceutical sales rep, a 401(k), and a regular paycheck of $48,000--is right where he belongs. After all, he is a "sympathetic crier" who enjoys softer interests and doesn't like heights, planes, corpses, or jumpsuits. He also has two left knees. So being part of psychic investigations isn't his idea of fun...and it brings him closer to realizing his fear that the story of Gus ends in a tragic, wrongful conviction.
Still, the idea of being a private investigator intrigues him, and while he is befuddled by Shawn's behavior most of the time, he knows that the excitement and adventure of their detective enterprise might just make it all worth it.[1] He does, after all, bring many things to the table: 1) the Blueberry, 2) the Super Sniffer, and 3) a positive work attitude. He can also use skills he picked up from Navy Scouts and an encyclopedic knowledge of pharmaceuticals. In most episodes, he gives Shawn the necessary background knowledge to solve the case. And it probably helps that Gus is 1/16th robot (not the evil kind).
Gus was described in the serial killer Mr. Yang's book as "laughing on the outside, crying on the inside. The fastidious wrinkle in the brow of Psych". Yang also wrote that Gus has "skin of pure cocoa velvet-iness" and that she would like to "use that skin to make children's dolls". Burton has many hobbies. In season 8, Gus finally manages to gather the courage to quit his job, realizing he wants to do more with his life.
In The Breakup Gus gets a better job, but leaves it to move to San Francisco to continue being a private detective with Shawn.
Education
As a child, Gus applied for and was accepted into the Meitner School for gifted students. His parents turned down the placement. They told him it was too far to drive, but they were concerned about separating him from his close friend Shawn. They attended school together through high school, where Gus was voted Most Well Liked and King of Howdy-Day, as well as Most Likely to Succeed (or Become Great). Gus also did one semester of pre-law in high school. The only time Gus and Shawn were separated was when Gus went away to attend college. According to what he says in 100 Clues, Gus attended Pomona College.
Gus' intelligence leads to the creation of many, often hilarious, theories and philosophies. For instance, Gus has a Teen Wolf theory, based on the movie Teen Wolf (or Teen Wolf II). This theory states that, if some guy in his high school turned into a wolf, he wouldn't be cool with him just because he could dunk basketballs. He also believes that Michael Jackson faked his death, having learned how to from Lisa Marie--since Elvis didn't die until 2008.
Family
Gus's parents, Bill and Winnie, who own a time-share in Chula Vista, are overly protective of their son...though they didn't appear to be around when Gus once got locked in a closet with an incontinent tabby named Mr. Bee. Even as an adult, they regard him as a child who needs looking after. They even protected him from the fact that they were not married when they had him, and were shocked when he told them that he knew. They also disapproved of his friendship with Shawn, whom they regarded as a bad influence. Although, after Shawn and Gus solve a murder for which Bill and Winnie had been wrongfully arrested, they mellow towards Shawn, and offer him cash to look after their son.
Gus also has an older sister Joy, which does not make sense considering the fact of his parents' marriage as stated above, who shares a mutual attraction with Shawn. Gus has stated that he thinks that she may have been adopted, while he was a "perfect little miracle." He may have a brother, as one has been referenced in Gus' blog on the official USA Network website, but received no mention in the show as aired. In the deleted scenes for "Gus's Dad May Have Killed an Old Guy" on the Season 2 DVD, Gus's mom mentions a brother who lives in Connecticut. Gus also has his uncle after whom he was named -- "Burton Guster", nicknamed "Burt" for short. The uncle seems to hate him for choosing to go by Gus instead of Burton.
Relationships
With Mira Gaffney
One could also include Gus's first wife in his family--up until their marriage ended. While in Mexico on Spring Break in 1997, Gus met Mira Gaffney and married her on a drunken binge. He broke off the relationship soon afterward, and the two lost contact until 2008, when the marriage was annulled in anticipation of Mira's upcoming wedding. Despite this, they were good friends with one another and Gus and Shawn ended up discovering the truth, resulting in the marriage being cancelled.
With Rachael
Gus is currently dating a woman named Rachael who he met on an online dating site. She and Shawn didn't get off on the right foot, with him going as far as to accuse her of being a serial killer, however they do make a step forward, as Shawn is going to object to her saying an apple being a snack, however he just kept his mouth shut and looked for an apple. As this is happening, she introduces Gus to her son, Maximus, shocking Gus. Gus continues to date Rachel despite this, and even starts having days where he spends time alone with Max, but when Shawn took Gus and Max to an investigation, and Max saw a man die (despite the fact that the man was already dead when Max saw him) and later was arrested after following criminals into a laboratory and thus trespassing, she broke up with him. At the end of the episode, Rachael and Gus get back together after it is shown that Max missed him. Rachael told Gus that Shawn called her and told her what happened, revealing that Shawn both sabotaged and repaired Gus's relationship. Max has been useful in solving cases with Shawn and Gus by noticing people and objects that both Shawn and Gus missed.
Trivia
- Dule Hill played Sam the Onion Man in Holes, a film that was referenced in "65 Million Years Off", and he had the same creepy stare that Gus has when he's hitting on a girl.
- Gus is 1/4 Jamaican.
- Gus often gets confused with Bud from the Cosby Show (a situation probably not helped by his mom being played by Claire Huxtable a.k.a Phylicia Rashad).
- The "head peel" is his 4th greatest fear.
- Gus is also known for his skill on the tap floor in "Feet Don't Kill Me Now". Gus was tap dancing since a child, and was ridiculed often by Shawn for his love for it. Dule Hill is a tap dancer in real life, as he explains in the "Psych Out" titled "All Tapped Out".
- Gus is almost never introduced by his real name, as Shawn usually makes up an alias like "MC Clap Your Handz," "Lavender Gooms," "Clementine Woolysocks," and "Ernesto Agapito Garces con ya de Abelar" (which was actually given to him by Shawn's uncle). He even is shocked when Lassiter introduces him by his first name in "Feet Don't Kill Me Now". See a complete list of nicknames here.
- Gus's stress-relieving fantasy is to shoot Shawn in the head.
- Gus pees sitting down because all the Men's Health journals say it's better for the circulation.
- Gus goes into a mild catatonic state when a stream of blood hits him in "This Episode Sucks". This shows he has a fear of it. He also shows fear in the Pilot after seeing a supposed suicide and murder, although this could be because of his fear of dead bodies. He is also shown to faint at the sight of blood. In "Christmas Joy", Gus appears rattled when Shawn imitates the sound effects from the Edgar Allan Poe short story "The Tell-Tale Heart", although Gus gets his own back by making the rocking-chair move and the noises from Hitchcock's "Psycho". Presumably his haemophobia is a large part of why Gus is a pharmaceutical sales rep, rather than the doctor many people seemed to have expected him to become.
- He gets seasick, although he has been on Henry Spencer's ship with Shawn and did not shown any signs of seasickness.
- Gus has a subscription to Safecracker's Monthly, and is an expert safecracker, as shown in "Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece", as well as in "Viagra Falls".
- Gus got married once ("There's Something About Mira").
- According to Shawn, he has achieved "pitch perfect AK-47 mouth action," meaning he can imitate the sounds of gunfire from the aforementioned AK-47.
- He has defused a bomb, despite running away from another.
- Gus is allergic to edible gold dust. We find this out in the episode "Right Turn or Left for Dead".
- He become a volunteer at the fire department after the caught the bad guy in Earth, Wind, and... Wait for It
Quotes
- "The extra T is for extra Talent"
- — Gus (from American Duos)
- "Now everybody on my mom's side of the family thinks that I'm a psychic detective, and they think you're..."
- — Gus (from Meat Is Murder, But Murder Is Also Murder)
- "Eating my breakfast. I was having a poached egg with hollandaise sauce on an English muffin."
- — Gus (from Lights, Camera... Homicidio)
- "Wasn't Howie the victim at one point?"
- — Gus (from Murder? ... Anyone? ... Anyone? ... Bueller?)
- "Now, that's the one that bothers me. Why do people say, 'I could care less' when they really mean, 'I couldn't care less?"
- — Gus (from Disco Didn't Die. It Was Murdered!)
- "C'mon son!"
- — Gus (From Cirque du Soul)
Gallery
The gallery page for Burton "Gus" Guster can be found here.