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"Shawn 2.0" is the eighth episode of Season Five. While pursuing a murder case involving victims on a liver transplant donor list, Shawn is faced with a man whose criminal profiling skills, and hair, rival his own.

Plot Summary[]

In a flashback to 1990, Henry teaches Shawn the lesson that he should always try to compete with the best in order to avoid complacency.

After a night in of drinking and listening to the chick-lit book series ‘Internity’ on audiotape, Shawn stops at a coffee shop with Gus before they go to a crime scene. Shawn, the worse for wear, tells barista Minka (Katie Findlay) that he will be getting his free since he will guess the movie trivia question again, as always. However, he is beaten to the punch by a handsome and charming man (Néstor Carbonell). Shawn wonders who he is as he leaves, but soon finds him across the street at the crime scene of Lucy Friedman. Declan Rand, it turns out, is a criminal profiler, brought onto the case by Chief Vick.

Shawn looks around the scene and sees an aerosol can. He then recalls that morning's obituaries of Veronica Miller and Peter Hodges, and concludes similar cans were involved in their deaths. But before he can tell anyone about the link in the cases, Declan beats him to the punch, and then asks Juliet out for a date.

Back at the station, Declan delivers a profile of the killer to the police. He tells them the murders seem to be humane and are probably the work of a woman in her mid-thirties. Shawn then pulls Henry aside to protest Declan's hiring, but Henry says competition will be good for Shawn. Shawn then tells Declan he doesn't believe he can get a psychological take on someone they don't know. Then Declan nails Shawn's personality spot on.

Woody tells them all the victims suffered from different liver diseases. Then Shawn, remembering something from the doctors on ‘Internity,’ concludes the victims were murdered for their placement on a liver donor list. They get the list from the hospital, proving Shawn's theory right. But the next person on the list who stands the most to gain is a woman in her mid-thirties, just as Declan said. Declan is also right and gets all the praise.

They track down suspect Catherine Bicks (Meredith Monroe) and find out she's been out of town. The next two down on the list of suspects are also a bust. A witness to the first crime scene completes a sketch of the person who left the aerosol can and it's Catherine. Shawn isn't convinced, and after he hears Declan quote ‘Internity,’ he realizes he's a fraud and now suspects him of the murders. Shawn and Gus confront Declan as his mansion where Curt Smith is playing by the pool, discovering Declan is a multi-millionaire who decided to become a criminal profiler for fun, but he didn't kill anyone. They believe him, Shawn saying Declan should tell Juliet the truth, but Declan counters by revealing he's figured out Shawn is not psychic.

The police say Catherine is now on the lam, but they discover her dead in a parking garage with Declan over her body. They arrest him, but Shawn knows he's innocent. He figures out the truth, and goes to an apartment above the garage where he is not shocked to find Catherine's twin sister Maddie (Meredith Monroe), who needs a new liver. However, she wasn't eligible for a transplant because she's an alcoholic, so the sisters' plan was for Maddie to use Catherine's ID and be put on the list that way. Unfortunately Maddie started growing impatient and decided to kill the three people above her during Catherine's trip to Switzerland. When Catherine found out about this and threatened to go to the police, Maddie went into a rage and accidentally killed her sister by pushing her into a wall. Declan tells Juliet that he is a phony. Shawn expects that Juliet will push Declan away, disgusted, but instead she admires his honesty and continues to date him.

Trivia[]

  • The title implies that Declan is the ‘new and improved’ version of Shawn.
  • This episode marks the first of three appearances by singer Curt Smith playing a fictionalized version of himself.
  • This episode features a Curt Smith sung version of the theme song during both the opening and closing credits.
  • This is the second episode to highlight Shawn's fandom of Tears for Fears, following S2E1 “American Duos” where he dresses up like Roland Orzabal.
  • The transplant list contains several names of Psych crew members: Brad McMurray, Jennifer McNeil, Darsi Morgan and Max Torroba. In addition, the paper with the obituaries contains the name of Chris Banting, a camera operator.

Quotes[]

Juliet: I love the philharmonic.
Shawn: Oh, me too. I'm just kidding. Not.
Gus: Stop trying to single-handedly bring "not" back into vogue.
Shawn: Okay. Not. I'm also gonna bring back "said the liar".
Gus: That one is even dumber.
Shawn: Said the liar.

Shawn: Criminal profiler, huh? Sounds like one of those job titles that only exists in cheesy TV shows.
Declan: No argument here. What is it that you do?
Shawn: I'm a psychic detective.

Henry: Specifically we'll be bringing in Psych because of their experience working with serial killers.
Shawn: We help them write and produce one-act plays on the weekends.
Gus: They're usually very dark.

Lassiter: I do not enjoy pointing my gun at innocent women.
Juliet: You don't?
Lassiter: No. I'm not 29 anymore.

Digital Releases[]

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