"He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, He Loves Me, Oops He's Dead!" is the eleventh episode of Season One. Lassiter sticks Shawn with a case where a man shows up naked at the police station claiming to have been abducted by aliens, but Shawn's investigation soon takes him into an even stranger universe – speed dating.
Plot Summary[]
In 1985, Shawn comes running home with a baseball cap over his eyes. He almost makes it inside when his dad notices him, and asks him to come over. Henry asks him if he got into a fight again at school. He asks him who did it, and is shocked when Shawn says a girl hit him. He explains that the girl asked him to sit with her at lunch. She told a story that Shawn didn't listen to and she punched him for ignoring her. Henry explains to Shawn that he just experienced a date and that listening to a woman is incredibly important – just don't ask her about her age or her weight.
In the present day, the entire police station is gathered around Shawn who is able to correctly guess the age and weight of a female officer (Angela Moore), despite what his dad told him years ago.
Chief Vick wants Lassiter to take a case that he really doesn't want to. He sees Shawn and Gus and gets an idea. He calls them over and says he's got a case for them. He hands Shawn the case file and tells him the victim is waiting to give a statement. As they walk into the interrogation room, they find a fully unclothed man, Fred Turk (Malcolm Scott). With Lassiter happily watching through the one-way glass, Shawn and Gus proceed to give a very uncomfortable interview in which Turk claims he was abducted by aliens. As Turk tells them he woke up naked in a field with a headache, Shawn spots a faded ink mark on the guy's hand and chafe marks on the back of his heels.
The cops think Turk is a nutcase but Shawn knows the guy was dragged into that field. There was a crime committed here, he's just not sure what. Turk wasn't assaulted or robbed, but he was probably drugged with a hallucinogen. He also said he remembered a strong lavender scent and seeing barbed wire. Shawn knows exactly where that is.
When they get to the field, the police are already there – with another naked guy, Philip Keiser (Peter Benson). Shawn notices a tire pattern in the dirt, a broken strap off a woman's shoe and a spider web broken at a low level as if someone short had walked through it. Keiser says he doesn't remember anything and woke up with a headache, same as Turk. Shawn sees another partial ink mark on Keiser's hand and notices he has no tan lines anywhere on his body, same as Turk, which leads them to their next stop – the only tanning salon near where both the victims live that has the new "Insta-Tan" process, the only process capable of producing their flawless liquid tans. Jeff (Geoff Gustafson), the attendant at the salon, tells them that both Turk and Keiser were regulars and that it's always the single guys who keep up their tans. Shawn remembers the shoe strap and figures a woman might be targeting single guys at the salon, until they run into Henry who tells them as an ex-cop and a regular at the salon, they are looking in the wrong place. Just then Shawn gets a call. There's been another victim, but this time he's dead.
Back in the field, Shawn spots a green smudge on a fence post. He also sees that the victim is pale – so much for the tanning salon theory. One thing the latest victim does have in common with Turk and Keiser is the partial ink stamp on his wrist, all three of which, pieced together, form a four-leaf clover, giving Shawn his next lead. They head to Shenanigans, an Irish-themed eatery complete with green popcorn, and talk to Marvin (Colin Cunningham), the host. Shawn sees the stamp, which matches the marks on all the victims' hands, and Marvin tells them it's only used for their night-time event, speed dating.
They go and talk to Turk, who confirms he participated at the speed-dating event. He also tells them strange things have been happening to him ever since. He was the perfect candidate for a job he applied for but was rejected at the last minute. The company told him they received a call about him but said it was confidential. Shawn is even more convinced the key lies in the speed dating and talks Vick into ponying up the entrance fee after he tells her he's looking for a short woman with a particular tire on her car, and draws them the pattern he saw in the field. Lassiter tells them that the dead victim had the same non-lethal dose of drugs in his system of Turk and Keiser, but he had a pre-existing heart condition that made the dose fatal and the murder accidental. He thinks they should just haul the women into the station and question them all there but Vick says that would tip their hand. They all must go undercover at the speed-dating event.
Back at Shenanigans, Lassiter tells Shawn he ran the tire pattern and they are looking for a woman with a late model American sports car. Just then Lorraine (Ellie Harvie), the woman who runs the event, tells them the rules and gives them personality questionnaires to help match people up. During the speed dating, Shawn talks to a woman named Glenda (Teryl Rothery), who asks him about his mother's maiden name, his pet's name and his favorite color, but later on meets a girl named Darcy (Mayte Garcia), who not only fits all their suspect requirements, but also works in pharmaceutical sales, giving her access to drugs. Her questionnaire also matched perfectly with Gus's, so they set up a date to get more information. Meanwhile, Shawn and Juliet match up perfectly on their questionnaires, a speed-dating first according to Lorraine.
Gus, Darcy, and Shawn are out at the bowling alley, with Gus and Darcy being on a date. Shawn sees Juliet on a date with someone else named Kyle (Aaron Dudley). Juliet introduces Shawn to him as a psychic, and he gives Kyle a reading that he will face rejection in his personal life. On his date, Gus tells Darcy he lives at the beach, so when she says she wants to go back to his place, they are forced to go to Henry's. Darcy wants to take Gus to a field for some privacy, but he knows this is the robber's modus operandi and pretends he has hay fever. Darcy feels rejected and cries on his shirt. Henry tells Shawn (with both looking on) that Darcy is not the one they are looking for. She's too sincere.
Lassiter calls Shawn to the police station where they are holding Marvin. They found him outside one of the speed daters apartment and they discovered a stack of stolen questionnaires at his house. Shawn notices a green smudge on them similar to the one he saw on the post in the field. He knows Marvin had something to do with it and suggests they follow him to work and he'll lead them to his female partner.
At Shenanigans, the speed dating is already in progress and Shawn overhears Glenda asking another guy the same questions she asked him. She's also exchanging glances with Marvin and has a tan line on her ring finger similar to his. With that, he's figured out that they are not only partners, but also married. They used the speed dating as a cover to get credit card and personal information to steal people's identities and then drugged and dumped them into the field to cover their tracks.
Later on, Shawn and Juliet are sitting alone in the restaurant when she tells him that despite their perfect match on the questionnaires, they are better off being work friends. Shawn deflects the awkwardness by claiming that he simply copied off of her questionnaire, which is why the answers matched up so well.
Trivia[]
- Another floral motif like S1E9 "Forget Me Not", this title was taken from a whimsical game of French origin, traditionally using an ox-eye daisy, to determine whether the object of one's affections reciprocated, although the ending is obviously less traditional.
- Shawn drinks out of a pineapple juice box in a deleted scene, and the empty juice box is actually seen on his desk as he and Gus discuss the Turk case.
- Shawn refers to Darcy as a peach. The actress who plays Darcy, Mayte Garcia, used to be married to Prince, who wrote a song about her called "Peach".
- Shawn says that his skills can be both a gift and a burden, mimicking the repeated "It's a gift... and a curse" line from Monk, another USA Network show.
- Turk believes he was abducted by aliens, and Shawn has a mountain of mashed potatoes on his plate while he and Gus discuss his case in a nod to the 1977 extraterrestrial sci-fi drama Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
- Glenda, who is portrayed by Teryl Rothery, says he used to have a pet goat called Cassie. This is a nod to Rothery's role on Stargate SG-1 as Dr. Janet Fraiser, who had an adopted daughter called Cassie.
- Lassiter says "I told you that leprechaun was bad," which is also a reference to the villainous leprechaun played by Timothy Omundson himself in The Luck of the Irish.
- Psych writer and producer Andy Berman appears as Guy.
- The song playing during the speed dating scene is "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" by Lou Rawls. The song playing during the bowling scene is "Steady As She Goes" by The Raconteurs.
Quotes[]
Philip Keiser: [annoyed that the police photographer is taking pictures of him in a towel] What are you, some kind of pervert?
Lassiter: Cut him some slack, he's just doing his job. You think he gets his jollies taking pictures of your ding-dong?
Lassiter: Look, this is a copycat, okay? He saw Turk's picture in the paper. He's looking for attention.
Gus: So he wakes up and sees Turk in the paper naked, humiliated, the butt of jokes at the water cooler and says, "Hmm, how can I make this work for myself?" What?
Shawn: [scratching his elbow] Plus, it's really itchy out here.
Shawn: Maybe some woman is targeting singles at the salon. The question is, what kind of loser thinks getting a tan is going to help him score a woman?
[Henry walks out of a tanning booth]
Shawn: Dad?
Shawn: [looking into Henry's bag] What is that?
Henry: What?
Shawn: [taking and reading bottle] Exfoliating scrub, with pumice.
Henry: Whatever, Shawn. All I know is when I varnish my boat and I don't want it to streak, I sand off a layer first. Same thing goes with tanning.
Shawn: That is the single most disturbing analogy I've ever heard in my entire life. [slams down bottle]
Lorraine: This is a speed-dating first! You and you are a one hundred percent match from your personality questionnaires. I smell love!
[brief awkward moment]
Juliet: I need a drink.
Shawn: I gotta pee.
Juliet: I had no idea you were so serious about bowling.
Shawn: Quite serious, quite serious. Matter of fact, Lego wants to sponsor me this year.
Juliet: Oh my God, that's great.
Shawn: They also want me to wear shoes made out of Legos, so I'm torn.
Gus: Plus, she keeps wanting to rub my head. What's up with that?
Shawn: Gus, everybody wants to rub your head.
Shawn: He's cocky. He thinks he's on a roll, but I'm inside his head, Chief. And I'm about to hang a Lopez around the frontal lobe and shoot right out of his nose onto his vest. You smell where I'm stepping?
Gallery[]
The gallery for "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, He Loves Me, Oops He's Dead!" can be found here.
Digital Releases[]
