Season 2, Episode 12
The Old and the Restless
"He has a very weak heart. All he can eat is egg whites and powdered dirt."
Directed by Jason Ensler
Written by Anupam Nigam
Shawn and Gus are having a bit of trouble on their latest case. The subject of the case is one Oswald Chester, who disappeared from Glorious Pines, the most prestigious retirement community in Santa Barbara. Security at the place is tight, so Shawn has Henry go in as their cover, under the identity of another man named Talmadge McGulager. Shawn finds that Mr. Chester was prone to disappearing for days at a time, before turning up again on his own. The real McGulager is scheduled to move in in three days, and in those three days, Shawn has to find if Mr. Chester really is just out training for a marathon – as the evidence in his room suggests – or if he met with foul play…Tropes:
- Bleak Abyss Retirement Home: Zigzagged. Glorious Pines is a pretty pleasant place (despite the unnaturally complex security system). There's plenty of recreational activity, good food, and people are eager to get in. However, Sunshine Meadows, another retirement home, has bad food and miserable residents who are desperate to get into Glorious Pines.
- Break Them by Talking: After Lassiter wastes quite a lot of time trying to intimidate the deputy mayor's son, (see the entry for Delinquent below) Juliet finally pulls him into a back room, and starts talking to him. We never actually learn what she said, but he comes back out of the room considerably quieter and more contrite.
- Casanova Wannabe: The deputy mayor’s son spends most of his time onscreen hitting on O'Hara.
- Comatose Canary: Shawn, posing as a doctor, admonishes the interns to speak positively around the coma patient, lest they frighten him into remaining comatose. This is a dodge to get them to speak layman to Shawn about the patient's condition.
- Cool Old Guy: A few, (along with some Cool Old Lady types) particularly Shawn’s grandfather in the Cold Open, who doubles as a Dirty Old Man.
- Delinquent: The deputy mayor’s son, a slovenly, obnoxious Spoiled Brat who’s been acting out and raising minor hell. The mayor wants Chief Vick to straighten him out, and Vick delegates that assignment to Lassiter and Juliet.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Food service volunteer Meredith Cloverfield was quietly killing pensioners with high blood pressure at Glorious Pines… to move people up the establishment's waitlist and get her mother out of a Bleak Abyss Retirement Home.
- Going Native: After a day or two, Henry actually starts enjoying himself at Glorious Pines.
- No-Respect Guy: Jervis Kent, a part-time worker at Glorious Pines. Nobody took him seriously when Mr. Chester disappeared, even the police, since Mr. Chester often disappeared for a few days before turning up on his own – even though Jervis insisted this time was different. Turns out to be somewhat justified, as Juliet and Lassiter remember his disastrous days in the police academy involved accidentally setting his car on fire and shooting someone’s toe off.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Pamela, the chief administrator of Glorious Pines, is a strict Rules Lawyer who holds up Shawn and Gus’s investigation by making them go through a mountain of paperwork.
- Oddly Overtrained Security: The Glorious Pines retirement community has electrified fences, high walls, and no-nonsense guards. Shawn and Gus need to make Henry look older and bring him along to even get inside.
- Race Against the Clock: Rather humorous example: their cover story for Henry is that he's another man who was supposed to join and said man thinks that Glorious Pines is being fumigated for three days. So, our heroes have three days to solve the case before the real Talmadge comes.
- Scare 'Em Straight: Lassiter tries doing this to the mayor’s son by sticking him in a room with a huge thug they pulled out of a local prison. It backfires when the thug turns out to be fairly amiable, and he doesn’t mind living in prison.
- Scary Black Man: Lassie tries to scare a punk kid straight by introducing him to a black convict. Subverted when the guy says prison is pretty okay.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Meredith Cloverfield hospitalizes several people at Glorious Pines with overdoses of blood pressure medication. It was only intended to get them kicked out, as Glorious Pines does not admit people who need constant medical care and supervision, but their near-deaths also get the job done.
- Younger Than They Look: Shawn makes Henry look old and out-of-it by making him wear his glasses, putting on an ancient hat, and spilling coffee on his shirt. It’s good enough to get him past the guards. Downplayed because Henry’s already up there in years, so it’s only a minor boost, and a few people note he still looks pretty young.
