Episode 2
I tried to get tickets but you've got to know somebody
Yea, somebody lame
July 15 2006
We start out in a diner, where an attractive woman steals Shawn's seat. Which normally might bother a person...but as I mentioned, she is attractive so its alright. He then proceeds to notice things about her (ie: cat hair on her shoes, picture of older couple in her purse, and so forth). By now those who watch the show know that extreme close up vision the camera does when he notices things. He then proceeds to hit on her. He wouldn't be Shawn if he didn't try to pick up the girl. Sadly, she doesn't really want to have anything to do with him. She actually seems rather preoccupied. Shawn shows off his skills, but it still doesn't do much for her. Though he does get her name, Juliet. Then a creepy looking guy walks in, and Juliet perks up. That's when Shawn realizes that she is a cop. She denies it of course, but the fact that she pulls out a gun and points it at the creepy guy at the same time that a bunch of cops (including the dreaded Lassiter charge in) sort of puts a damper on her denial. She looks rather shaky, and when the other cops leave with the creepy guy she puts her gun away sheepishly. Shawn says "first time pulling your gun?" She replies "Maybe" and then walks away.
We then flash to a scene from Gus's past. He is at a spelling bee where he has to spell government. Which by the way I can't spell...I just googled it and it corrected my spelling for me. You've got to love google. Gus is very nervous, and starts out "agg...." and someone in the audience mouths the letter 'O' after a few miscues, Gus accepts the advice and says "O" however that is wrong (as you can see from my rather impressive...if google assisted correct spelling of the word).
We now see Gus and Shawn in the Psych office where Gus is watching the spelling bee championship. Shawn mocks him for a bit. Particularly the fact that Gus is shocked that a favorite is eliminated early, it seems that he has had a bad spell. However, when they showed the incorrect spell, Shawn became interested. He things that the kid's inhaler was tampered with (though Gus doesn't believe him). They then get a call from the chief asking them to go investigate. It seems that the kid thought something was wrong with his inhaler as well...and it seemed to disappear after the incident. Gus is excited to be going to the bee...so Shawn asks him why he can't get him this excited about girls.
They get to the bee just as the chief is leaving. Evidentially, its not quite as high of a priority for her as it is for Gus. They go into interview the kids and find that the Spellmaster has called a press conference after the round was over. We here a kid trying to spell a word tough enough that my google fu can't even help me spell it.
They go to the back to the back room to interview the kids and their parents (where Gus keeps using big words). We find that Gus is still upset about that spelling bee when he was a kid. They interview some creepy kids and some equally creepy parents.
We flash to the front room where the Spellmaster is getting ready to give a press conference. However, instead of the press conference, he starts to act distressed and falls of a balcony to his death.
Seeing as there is a dead guy now, the cops decide to show up again. Lassiter comes in with the cop from the dinner (Juliet) and she tries to convince him (unsuccessfully) to be sensitive. Meanwhile, Shawn is upstairs convincing a superstitious cop that there is a dangerous spirit up on the balcony. Hey, he has to get some alone time with the crime scene somehow.
After investigating, he finds that the chinese food may be poisoned...and that the spellmaster was suspicious about one of the contestants. However, Lassiter is in the midst of a press conference where he declared it to be an accident. Shawn of course goes into one of his 'psychic' fits and declares that the spellmaster was murdered.
Gus tells Shawn that he will never prove that it was poisoned ...particularly since the cops won't let him use their lab since they think he is full of crap. So Shawn of course goes to his father for help. At first his father refuses to help, but then says that if Shawn completes the doghouse that he started in 8th grade he will help. Evidentially, he thinks that Shawn never completes anything so he wants him to actually complete it. We then flash back to when Shawn was assigned to build the dog house in order to prove that he was responsible enough to get a dog. Evidentially, he never proved himself responsible.
After a while, Shawn's dad came home and told him that he didn't approve of Shawn's efforts. Evidentially he did not follow the specifications that he was given in 1989. Shawn leaves on his motorcycle as we have a flashback to when his Dad told him he did it wrong the first time way back then. We are brought back to the present when someone tries to run Shawn off the road.
Gus is a a restaurant where he is watching the spelling bee where he noticed another kid uses an inhaler. He looks puzzled and writes down the doctors name. He then gets a call saying that Shawn is in the hospital. While they were there they stopped by and saw Brendan (the kid who had the faulty inhaler). Gus then tells Shawn that the other kid has a fake inhaler. They decide that perhaps he gave Brendan a faulty inhaler.
Shawn goes back to his father's house where he works on the doghouse. His father comes over to help him, which shocks Shawn at first, but his Dad points out that Shawn had never asked for help before. When they finish the house, his Dad gave him the lab results...and tells him that it has a very dangerous drug. The Dad tells him that the guy at the lab was in his poker game, so it was easy to get the results.
Shawn then goes to the police station and tells him that the Spellmaster was poisoned. The cops are not impressed with Shawn's belief that he was poisoned...and since he is trying to keep up his psychic reputation, he can't give them the results.
They go back to the spelling bee where they are able to sneak in by stealing the ID of the new Spellmaster. They go into the Spellmaster booth to investigate, and find evidence that the old Spellmaster was investigating a kid..and had a camera set up. However it becomes time for another word to be given. Shawn panics and gives the word "banana." Now that is more my style. The next word by the way was Onion.
They go out to see the end of the bee. They think they know who was being investigated, but don't know how. They have a nice discussion about winning words while the kid who was being investigated by the Spellmaster is up spelling a word. We then see that the kid's dad has a dictionary and is looking up the words...and seems to be doing something with a transmitter in his hands. The kid wins, but Shawn calls the cops.
When they are giving the kid the award, Shawn goes into a 'psychic fit' and tells them that the kid was cheating. He tells everyone that the kids father was transmitting the words via a wireless transmitter connected to the fake inhaler. The kids father killed the Spellmaster because he knew that he had been caught.
It turns out that Juliet had also run the food through the lab, and she found the poison as well. Everything ends well...and the bad guy is arrested.
At the end, Shawn admits that he gave Gus the wrong letter back in 8th grade. He said that he did it for Gus's own good (he was trying to keep him from being a looser). It seems that Gus didn't appreciate the 'help.'
We close out with Shawn at his dad's house. He thanks his dad for the help...and then gives him a dog to go into the house. :) The look on his dad's face was priceless. Nothing like a bit of revenge.
I love this show. Not only to we get a good mystery...we get a great comedy as well. I still think the best thing about the show is when we see him noticing things. I love how the camera zooms in on an item, and they put extra light on it to show him seeing it. It is a small thing, but it really adds to the show.
The relationships between the characters are great as well...and they added a new cop that seems to be siding with him a bit (at least more than Lassiter). The chief still isn't quite sure about him, but that is to be expected. She is a cop, and he is claiming to be a psychic after all.
I also liked seeing Shawn's relationship with is father progress. It seems that that will be a major theme of the show. Shawn had problems with his dad in the past, but he is starting to work through them. While his dad acts like he doesn't approve of Shawn's work, you can tell that he is really proud of what Shawn is doing.