Season 1, Episode 4
Woman Seeking Dead Husband: Smokers Okay, No Pets
In 1989 Henry has dragged Shawn along on a stakeout for an important mission: catching the guy who’s been stealing their morning paper.
In the present Shawn is making himself comfortable in the chief’s office reading the sports section, and enjoying her pregnancy chair. He convinces Gus to try it out just as she comes back and boots them out, or tries to. Shawn tries to get in on a case involving a blonde woman, Raylene Wilcrofft, whose husband was involved in a Bank Robbery four years ago. His partners are getting out of jail and the police are issuing a warning to her about possible danger. She then remembers what she wanted to tell them, “Stay out of my chair!” and boots them out.
Shawn tracks down Lassie and Jules who are informing Raylene about the release. He introduces himself as the head psychic, despite Lassiter’s protests, and piques her interest enough to ask him if he does readings, then she and Gus begin to really hit it off before Lassie shoos them out.At the office, Shawn is going through stories about the robbery and how it involved a deadly car crash. Gus comes in and starts freaking out about a torn down wall, but seems to forget as he notices Raylene who Shawn tells him is their first real client.
She wants them to make contact with her husband, who’s dead. Shawn has a “vision” about a crash on a rainy night. She tells them her husband, David, was the one who was supposed to bury the money so they could come back for it, but since he’s dead, his partners are coming after her.Gus takes Shawn where Shawn very calmly and rationally explains how they will figure this out and Gus objects to the word “bingo.” Gus goes back inside and recommends she get police protection while Shawn agrees to help her behind his back.
At a hotel Lassie and Jules are staking out the bank robbers, Juliet is uncomfortable with Lassie’s former relationship with his old partner.Gus comes back to the office that evening to find Shawn conducting a séance, which Shawn points out he is well within his rights to do. His real motive is to talk to the people there and find out what they know. He’s already found out David had the cash for three days. He had help from someone.
Back in the room, Shawn grills Ellen, David’s sister, about the last call he made. He gets another name, Roger their cousin. She can’t think of where he might be and Gus finally gets fed up. He insists Raylene get protection when someone throws something through the window. Everyone looks around in shock, and Shawn fixes his hair and declares the séance over. They tell the ladies in the room to stay there for the time being, for their own safety, while they go after them…or it. Then they go get some tacos.
The next day they tell Juliet about the incident and insist they see the whole case file, but she refuses. Gus heads home for sleep, but Shawn sees the superstitious officer and begins talking about her grandmother’s spirit…who is in the records room. He has her close her eyes while he rummages through the witness list and writes them on his hand, before “losing connection.”
Gus wakes up to find Shawn in his room. The key is the cousin, who runs the cemetery David is buried in. Shawn finds the whole thing about all the people involved creepy. At the cemetery they knock on the door and get no response, but Gus smells laundry indicating someone’s there. They sneak around the back and run right into…David Wilcrofft, who isn’t dead. Gus faints dead away.
David tries to explain what happened, and Shawn figures out that he lost the money. He buried it on one of the hiking trails during heavy rain, which washed away the marker he made. Three and a half million dollars and he lost it. He figured he’d be better off dead and so took the opportunity the crash presented to become dead. He’s been trying to find the cash ever since.
He begs them not to turn them in so he can find it and get on with his life. Shawn agrees since he figures David’s not going anywhere until he finds the money, but he doesn’t want to tell Raylene just yet.
Back at the office Gus tells her David’s alive. Shawn, justifiably upset, explains that they have a plan to put the loose bank robbers back in jail. Lassie unwittingly agrees, something he would no doubt find horrifying, as he and Jules continue watching the robbers. She begins wondering who authorized this stakeout which results in her and Lassie having an argument about regulations that Shawn wins. He tells them they don’t know where the money is. He proposes they put these two away, on a dozen probation violations, and busting out his window. Juliet tells him they haven’t been near his office, but it doesn’t matter. Lassie lost them. Fortunately, Gus saw where they went, and they head to the hotel.
Shawn and Gus are breaking and entering, without breaking anything, when the robbers shown up behind them. He explains that he is a psychic and has a message from David, that he lost the money. One of them demands Shawn prove he’s a psychic. Once that’s done, he starts being really chummy.Lassie and Jules arrive back at the hotel, while the robbers explain what happened, and that Raylene was the one actually calling the shots. They just wanted to get away from her. They have to go out another way to avoid Lassie’s vigilant gaze.
On the way back, Gus tries to wrap his mind around Raylene’s true nature, while Shawn comes to the realization that they led her right to David. Back at the cemetery, they find her holding David at gunpoint. Shawn tells her he knows where the money is, in the crypt, but he’s really bluffing, hoping to stall for time, which is shot when the vault cover proves to be a lot more fragile than he’d expected. David’s partners show up, so now she’s outnumbered, but she still has the gun.
Just then Lassie and Jules show up and arrest David and Raylene. The next day the chief is going over the case, but is not happy about how the whole thing went down. Shawn explains how he figured out the whole thing by psychically reading Lassie’s mind. Lassiter pulls him out and tells him he knows what Shawn’s doing. Shawn catches on, and yells out, “You think I’m a psychic!” Everyone turns to look at them.
On Saturday Shawn drags Gus out to another trail that looks abandoned and is where David really hid the money.
Tropes:
- Bank Robbery: One which occurred four years ago. The money was never recovered, so police are tailing the two recently paroled robbers hoping to be led to the loot.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Raylene may seem like a poor bereft widow with an innocent air about her. But according to the robbers, she was the ringleader, so cold and ruthless that she was known as "the viper". Sure enough, she later reveals that she would have no qualms about killing five men in cold blood.
- Failed a Spot Check: Shawn laid down in the backseat of their stakeout car without Lassie and Jules noticing until he spoke up.
- Faint in Shock: Gus' reaction to seeing the supposedly dead David.
- Faking the Dead: David Wilcrofft, who's been hiding out since the robbery until he can find the money.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Henry has a stakeout (with Shawn so as to make it a teachable moment) to catch whoever's stealing his newspaper.
- Mocking Sing-Song: Lassie threatens to arrest Shawn if he doesn't give him useful information about the bank robbers. Shawn smugly answers, "They don't know where the money is".
- Precocious Crush: Gus is so drawn to Raylene because she reminds him of his babysitter.
- Sarcastic Confession: "Yes, I can, it's the reflection of the TV bouncing off the mirror to the, ah, to the water pitcher here."
- Shout-Out: To Lady Susan, by Jane Austen. "A man with many hats doesn't like his haircut."
