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| Spellingg Bee | |
| Season | 1 |
| Episode | 2 |
| Air Date | July 14, 2006 |
| Written by | Steve Franks |
| Directed by | Mel Damski |
| Guests | Kirsten Nelson Richard Zeman |
| Previous episode | "Pilot" |
| Next episode | "Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece" |
Recap[]
The episode starts out in a diner, where an attractive woman steals Shawn's seat. He then proceeds to notice things about her (i.e. cat hair on her shoes, picture of older couple in her purse and so forth). He then proceeds to hit on her – but she doesn't really want to have anything to do with him. Shawn shows off his skills, but it still doesn't do much for her – though he gets her name, Juliet. Then a 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 guy at the same time that a bunch of cops (including the 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.
The episode then flashes to a scene from Gus's past. He is at a spelling bee where he has to spell aggiornamento. Gus is very nervous, and starts out "agg...." and Shawn in the audience mouths the letter "O" after a few miscues, Gus accepts the advice and says "O" however that is wrong.
Gus and Shawn are 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 becomes interested. He thinks 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. Evidently, it's 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.
They go to the back to the back room to interview the kids and their parents (where Gus keeps using big words). Gus is still upset about that spelling bee when he was a kid. They interview some children and their parents.
In the front room 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 it. So Shawn 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 eight grade he will help. Evidently, he thinks that Shawn never completes anything so he would like him to actually complete it. The episode then flashbacks to when Shawn was assigned to build the dog house -- in order to prove that he was responsible enough to get a dog. Evidently, 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. Evidently 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. Returning to the present someone tries to run Shawn off the road.
Gus is at a restaurant where he is watching the spelling bee where he notices another kid uses an inhaler. He looks puzzled and writes down the doctor's 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 gives 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".
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 kid's father was transmitting the words via a wireless transmitter connected to the fake inhaler. The kid's 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.
At the end, Shawn admits that he gave Gus the wrong letter back in the eight grade. He said that he did it for Gus' own good (he was trying to keep him from being a loser). It seems that Gus didn't appreciate the "help".
Pop-Culture References[]
- Shawn: (looking at the Spellmaster) "He sits up there all by himself in that fancy box? What is he, the Phantom of the Opera?"
The Phantom of the Opera is a fictional character from the French novel by Gaston Leroux and the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of the same (English) titles. The Phantom demands that box 5 of the opera house be reserved for his personal use. Also, Shawn asks Jiri to spell the word "soubrette," a word used in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical to describe another fictional character, Christine.
Trivia[]
- Gus tells Shawn to guess the kid who got the winning word from 1953. Shawn later asks Jiri to spell "soubrette". This was indeed the winning word from 1953.