PSYCH Recap: Santa Barbarian Candidate

Shawn seems to be crushing on Mayor Channing after a ceremony in which the Mayor presents Chief Vick with an award. Shawn even thinks he and the Mayor could be surfing buddies. When Channing invites he and Juliet to his home, though, his illusions are quickly shattered. First Juliet won’t go with him because they are broken up, although he doesn’t seem to get all that it entails. Then when he arrives with Gus he finds the mayor’s body being taken away by emergency personnel.  It appears he had an accident while surfing.

Woody says the mayor has been dead four hours, but that troubles Shawn because there were no waves that early. He learns from Channing’s campaign manager, Jason Straub  that the new mayor, Swaggerty, wants to move ahead with a shopping mall that Channing had opposed for years. Shawn thinks Channing was murdered and Swaggerty is looking like the prime suspect. They have to keep Swaggerty out of office  long enough to find evidence against him.

Gus discovers a loophole in the city bylaws that might help. If someone challenges  him for the job, they have to have an election. Shawn decides to run for Mayor, with his trusty campaign manager Gus right beside him. His first interviews don’t really go over well, except with Woody. He calls to congratulate Shawn on speaking to the issues he cares about. He also tells him that there were no traces of coral or anything else that someone who died  as Channing did should have.  Channing’s campaign manager drops by and offers to assist with the campaign. He tells Shawn he’s going to need the help, Swaggerty has a lot of public sympathy because his fiancée died in an accident at home recently.

The first thing Shawn needs to do to turn things around is appear at a Founders Gala, and he needs a date. Juliet grudgingly goes along, but makes it clear that she’s there to find evidence against Swaggerty.  During a photo op with Swaggerty, Shawn tries to steal a hair from the man’s head, to see if it matches one Woody found on the body. Swaggerty reacts by shoving him away and Shawn plays it up in front of the cameras. Swaggerty does tell Shawn that he liked Channing, and he has a solid alibi for the time that Channing died.

Shawn leads Juliet onto the dance floor under the ruse of needing to increase his press because Swaggerty is stealing all his thunder. She’s surprised at how well Shawn can dance, because he didn’t go to the dance class she signed them up for. He reveals that he had lied to her to get out of that class, and he felt so guilty he went back and took the class all by himself. Juliet seems touched by the gesture, but still can’t handle all the lies. If Shawn wants her to forgive him he needs to tell the truth…to Chief Vick. He insists he can’t do that, because everything ends then. All the good he can do with his ability, the people he can help, it ends if Vick finds out.

After the gala, Shawn is leading the polls and well on his way to becoming mayor. Henry thinks he will have to move, and Lassiter can’t believe he will have to assassinate a public official. Shawn is having fun with it, but he has no intention of being mayor and plans to drop out of the race now that he knows Swaggerty isn’t the killer. Henry points out that if Shawn drops out, it will invite public scrutiny and that is something he doesn’t want given what he does. He has to stay in the race, but Gus will work on making him less appealing to the public by sabotaging their race.

With Swaggerty out of the picture, Shawn has to find a new suspect. He sees a photo of Channing at his last public event, and a necklace worn by a woman in the background catches his attention. Straub showed him a necklace just like that in Channing’s office, and told him that Channing often gave them to people as gifts. Shawn recalls seeing exact replicas on quite a few women, and deduces that Channing had a lot of lady friends. His new suspect is Channing’s wealthy wife, and he goes to see her. She admits knowing her husband was having affairs, but she didn’t care. She’s having an affair too. It was her hair that was found on the body, but that’s because she slept with him that night…she felt she should get something for the $50,000 she gave him that night for his exploratory committee. She was looking forward to his being elected Governor.

The $50,000 wasn’t found in Channing’s home, so Shawn theorizes he was robbed and whoever killed him must have taken the money. It had to be someone with access to the house…the housekeeper, the gardener, or the plumber. Lassiter clears the first two, Shawn and Gus check out the third. They go to Mike the plumber’s home, and find him dead on the floor. Shawn remembers seeing the man at the Mayor’s public appearance the day he died. Gus finds a bank record of a $50,000 deposit, and Shawn finds photos on his computer of Channing and Swaggerty’s late fiancée. Apparently they had had an affair, and also had an argument. Shawn looks at the bank records Gus found, and locates another large deposit that occurred days after the woman had died.

Shawn goes straight to a town meeting and takes over the floor, explaining what happened not only to Channing, but also the woman, Abby. Channing had an affair with Abby. They had an argument and she accidentally fell down the stairs. Channing didn’t know what to do, so he called his right arm man, Straub. They got the body out of Channing’s home and back to her own, making it appear she had an accident there. Mike the plumber had seen the whole thing, though, and had been taking photos since he saw Channing and Abby kissing when she first arrived at his home. He blackmailed Channing, and Channing paid off…the first time. When Mike returned and wanted more money, Channing wanted to come clean about what happened rather than continue to be blackmailed. Straub couldn’t let that happen, so he killed Channing. The only other person who knew of his involvement in covering up Abby’s death was the plumber, so he killed him too. With his secret out, Straub tries to run away, but Lassiter and Juliet are standing at the door. Lassiter arrests him.

Back at the precinct, Shawn decides he will meet Juliet’s demands if that’s what it takes. He darts into the Chief’s office and is about to tell her the truth about his psychic abilities. Juliet rushes in to stop him, and instead blurts out that Shawn is trying to cover for her. She lies that she went into Mike the plumber’s computer without a warrant. Chief Vick yells at both of them and issues a warning about never doing anything that’s not above board. They leave together, and later go for a walk.

Juliet tells Shawn that when he refused to tell Chief Vick the truth, she thought he was selfish. But when she saw him charge into that office, she realized how selfish she was being. She’s not ready to get back together, and gracefully dodges Shawn’s attempt to kiss her. But they seem to have found a good place to start trying to rebuild the trust that was lost. They head off to find some soup together.

Psych airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on USA.