"Dead Bear Walking" is the fifteenth episode of Season Five. The murder of the local zoo's polar bear trainer is quickly pinned on the polar bear, but Shawn believes the animal to be innocent.
Plot Summary[]
Lassiter shows up to work one morning with his (previously unmentioned) kid sister Lauren in tow. He explains that Lauren is a film student there to do a police documentary. Lassiter plays to the camera, trying to impress his sister with his "large and in charge" demeanor. Suddenly, they get the call that there's been a murder at the Greater Santa Barbara Zoo. Lauren films as the officers prepare to leave for the crime scene.
The SBPD shows up at the zoo. Shawn and Gus are already there and are shocked to see how normal-seeming and attractive Lassiter's sister is. They soon find out that the murder victim is the zoo's polar bear trainer, Jasper Zane. Zoo officials immediately point fingers at the polar bear, saying that the bear turned on his trainer suddenly. The trainer's fiancée, Gemma Kramer, steps up and claims that he devoted his life to raising the polar bear, so much so that they had to hold off on getting married for six years. She wants the bear to pay. Shawn examines the scene more closely and determines that the polar bear did not murder the trainer... She was framed. Much to Lassiter's dismay, everyone's attention, including Lauren's camera, is now trained on Shawn.
Later, at the autopsy report, Woody tells the team that he is still unsure as to whether or not the bear killed the trainer. Back at the zoo, the administrator, C. Lee Banting, announces that the polar bear has escaped its enclosure. Shawn immediately tries to convince Gus that they need to find the polar bear before Lassiter does, but Gus isn't having it. Shawn then postures that a group of activists, led by Macleod Sinclaire, could be the culprits behind this mess, so he goes to question one of them he saw hanging around the zoo. With Sinclaire's help, Shawn finds the bear. But, Shawn soon realizes that the trainer's killer actually may be the activist. So, he convinces Gus to escape the activist with the bear in tow... in a trailer attached to the back of The Blueberry. But, Shawn has another theory about who the killer may be. He finds out that the zoo has a huge insurance policy out on the bear, and in the event that it was killed they would be paid 2 million dollars. Sinclaire squashes this theory when he informs Shawn that the insurance would only pay out in the case of an accidental death, not if the bear is euthanized.
Meanwhile, Shawn hides the bear at Henry's house, but is soon discovered by SBPD. The bear is then taken to a holding cell to be placed on "death row." Shawn and Gus visit the bear and see that she has been wearing a heart monitor collar this whole time. From this, Shawn gets an idea. From the heart monitor readings, he is able to prove that the bear was indeed sleeping at the time of the trainer's murder, so the killer couldn't possibly have been her. At this point, they are back at square one. Shawn heads to the trainer's house to find more clues. Lassiter looks over all the evidence back at the station, showing Lauren the protocols for filing paperwork and retrieving evidence. While this is standard police procedure, Lauren is starting to get bored. She wants to get in on Shawn's action-filled investigation, so she leaves Lassiter. Shawn is questioning the trainer's neighbor, Ritch Renaud, and he tells them that he would always overhear the trainer and his fiancée fighting all the time, the most recent time leading to the assumption that the trainer was having an affair. Shawn quickly realizes the "other woman" in the relationship was the polar bear.
They head to the fiancée's apartment to question her. Lassiter, however, has beaten Shawn and Gus to the punch and arrests Gemma. Lauren films the interrogation while Lassiter grills Gemma about the murder. In the process, he makes a fool of himself, and Shawn one-ups him by proving that the blood on Gemma's shirt was her own. Lauren is embarrassed for her brother and deletes the footage from her documentary. Shawn thinks back to other clues and remembers certain aspects about the neighbor's house that lead him to believe he was in a property dispute with the trainer.
As a result, everyone heads to the neighbor's house for the breakdown. Just as Shawn is about to step up in front of the camera and do his thing, he decides to throw his case and give Lassiter the credit to impress his sister. Lassiter shows up with a file from small claims court pertaining to a property line dispute between the neighbor and the trainer. Things got heated the night of the murder, and Renaud strangled the trainer to death accidentally. Having to think quickly, Renaud took the body to the zoo and dumped it in the polar bear exhibit, framing the bear for murder. In the end, the bear is saved, and not only does Lassiter make his sister proud, he also proves that sometimes the most effective police work isn't always done out in the field.
Trivia[]
- The episode's title refers to the popular phrase "dead man walking" to refer to a condemned prisoner's journey to execution, most likely originating from the 1909 Thomas Hardy poem. There's also a 1995 film by that name.
- Mark Dumas plays polar bear trainer Jasper Zane, and at the time he actually owned the featured polar bear, Agee. Several real-life pictures of the two appear in Jasper's house.
- The teapot and corresponding mug at the hippie restaurant are decorated with painted pineapples, and the lid of the pot is designed like a pineapple top.
- While filming Shawn and Gus at the station, Lauren mentions the cases involving Zippy (S2E2 "65 Million Years Off") and Shabby (S3E10 "Six Feet Under the Sea").
- Shawn says that Gus will be played by Stoney Jackson if Lauren's documentary is ever dramatized. Jackson would go on to portray Fred Dozier in Psych S6E15 "True Grits".
- Shawn introduces Gus to Lauren as "Radio Star" and tells her "I'm afraid your video will kill him." This is a reference to the 1979 song "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles.
- While the filming location of the Greater Santa Barbara Zoo is the now-closed Vancouver Zoo in Stanley Park, the panorama view of the zoo is actually the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, CA.
Digital Releases[]
