Father Peter Westley is a priest, teacher at St. Atticus Divinity School, and a long time acquaintance of Shawn and Gus. He is portrayed by Ray Wise.
Appearances
The Devil is in the Details... and the Upstairs Bedroom
Father Westley was first introduced in The Devil's in the Details... and the Upstairs Bedroom. He was the church school teacher of a young Shawn and Gus who wasn't sure how to handle Shawn's questioning of such things as Noah's Ark, and recommended he and his father Henry Spencer to a "Methodist Church down the street". In the present, there is a supposed suicide at St. Atticus Divinity School, and Father Westley believes the girl jumped and killed herself because she was demonically possessed. After further investigation by Psych, where Gus agrees with Westley, while Shawn is the skeptic, they encounter another girl who is believed to be possessed. Father Westley performs an exorcism on the girl, and she then stops acting strangely.
After the exorcism it turns out that the first girl was drugged with L-Dopa, a drug Father Westley takes for Parkinson's Disease, and it is believed Westley drugged the girls so he could create fake exorcisms, to prove exorcisms were still needed. Father Westley maintains his innocence in jail, and gives Gus a clue about who had it out for first girl, through a part in the bible. It turned out the girl who got the exorcism was faking, and actually drugged the first girl using Westley's drugs. Father Westley was then freed, and thanked Shawn and Gus for proving his innocence.
Dual Spires
In the episode Dual Spires, Shawn and Gus call Father Westley to translate Latin that they found in a murdered girl's diary. He relays most of it, but is cut off before he can finish. He later comes to tell them the rest of the passage, and saves the two from a burning library. He, along with Shawn & Gus, is taken to a cabin by Bob Barker, where Bob explains the town of Dual Spires's history. He is then almost killed by Sheriff Andrew Jackson, but is saved by Lassiter and Juliet.
Trivia
- The actor who played Father Westley, Ray Wise, was part of the main cast of Twin Peaks, which is why he was brought back for the episode Dual Spires
- Father Westley is mentioned in the season six episode This Episode Sucks. Gus tells Shawn that Father Westley blessed some water over the phone to make it holy water, so they could spray it on vampires.