Structuring the Pilot: Psych
A great way to understand a story is to break down exactly how it’s structured. Whether the goal is studying that particular story, or trying to learn to craft a story yourself, this kind of exercise can reveal a lot about how it ticks.
I find TV pilots especially interesting for this. They have the gargantuan job of telling a story themselves – they must be a complete episode – while also having to set up a series that in some cases can continue for hundreds of episodes.
Today let’s look at the pilot episode of Psych. Most pilots are just the average length of an episode for the specific series. Some are 2-part episodes. But then there are some, like Psych’s, with a runtime that’s about equal to an episode and a half.
With this difference in mind, let’s look at how the episode plays out.
(And hey, if Psych isn’t for you, or you just want other examples of this same kind of exercise, I’ve written more that you can find here.)
Psych – “Pilot”
Written by Steve Franks
Directed by Michael Engler
A plot = Shawn finds a purpose by becoming a psychic detective.
B plot = Shawn investigates Camden McCallum Jr.’s kidnapping.
C plot = Shawn reconnects with his father.
Teaser – How Shawn Got His Skills
(A + C) Young Shawn’s memory is tested.
(A) How present-day Shawn uses his deduction.
The episode kicks off with two quick scenes before the title card, both focused on making sure we know who Shawn is, and what he’s capable of.
The first takes place in 1986. Shawn’s a kid at a café with his father, Henry. If Shawn wants some cake, he has to close his eyes and answer questions, a test that it’s clear Henry has put him through before. These are questions like: which letter is out on the exit sign? What colour is the vinyl on the seats? What’s the manager’s name? And how many hats are in the room?
We get the idea that Shawn is good at this because Henry has trained him to be, and that Henry’s not great at showing his emotions. Shawn nails everything, but even though we see Henry’s pride swell up in a smile, he waves it off as just adequate.
On top of this, we get a very important piece of the visual language of the series. When Shawn needs to remember the name of the manager, we get our first in-Shawn’s-mind sequence. We see a flash of one of Shawn’s memories, but time is slowed, we get close to some detail, and the clue is highlighted. This is an effect the series will return to in every episode (though it changes its style in later seasons), so it’s important to clearly establish what it represents.
Young Shawn tells a waitress he’s never going to grow up, and it’s on this line that we fade to present day Shawn making out with a waitress in his apartment. The two of them bump into the remote as they fall onto the couch, and the news comes on. A reporter asks a man about his stereo store being robbed, and this distracts Shawn from making out because he can immediately tell this man is guilty. He stops just long enough to place a call to the Santa Barbara Police to let them know and then gets right back to what he was doing.
This scene lasts just long enough to tell us that after all these years the skills Henry trained into Shawn are still there, adult Shawn doesn’t take things too seriously, and most importantly, he’s not a cop (but he does have handcuffs).
Act One – The Lie Begins
(A) Shawn notices things around the police department.
(A+C) Shawn is pushed into claiming he’s a psychic.
(A) Shawn’s psychic powers are believed by everyone but Detective Lassiter.
(A+B) Shawn is hired by Interim Chief Vick to help on a case.
While the teaser is all about establishing who Shawn is and what he can do, act one is all about setting up the premise that will drive the series.
The first two scenes here are setup and payoff. Shawn comes into the police station to pick up reward money for the tip he called in. As he waits, he’s picking up on seemingly random details from all around him. When he’s finally brought in to talk to someone, it’s Detectives Lassiter and Barry, who accuse him of being an accomplice to the theft he called in about.
As the two – mainly Lassiter – push harder on the fact that Shawn must be guilty and that he’s about to be put in a holding cell, Shawn comes up with the lie that he’s a psychic as an explanation. He uses everything he saw in the prior scene and this one to sell that lie. And it works. Well, as we see in the next scene, it works on everyone but Lassiter.
Shawn leaves the station but is followed out by Interim Chief Vick. She’s introduced to us as skeptical of Shawn’s abilities, but not above giving him a chance. She offers him a deal. The feds are trying to take a case from the Santa Barbara PD, so they need results fast. It could be helpful if Shawn can use his psychic abilities to help find the kidnapped member of the McCallum family. But, if he’s not psychic and they find out, he’ll be prosecuted for hindering a police investigation.
With that we have the premise of the series. Shawn is a man with exceptional observation and memory abilities, who’s now faking being a psychic to work with the police. We’ve even been vaguely introduced to what will be the “case of the week” for the episode.
While Henry isn’t in this act, the show furthers our understanding of his and Shawn’s relationship through Shawn’s perspective. Both during the interrogation and then in the conversation with Vick, we have Shawn talking about his strained relationship with his father. We learn that Shawn has a criminal record specifically because his dad was trying to teach him a lesson, being at least one of the causes for present Shawn resenting Henry.
Act Two – Goofing with Gus
(A+B) Shawn gets Gus involved.
(B) Shawn gives Gus info on the missing person.
(B) Shawn finds empty bags of very expensive dog food.
(B) Shawn meets Katarina.
(B) Shawn’s lack of serious investigation stresses Gus out.
(B) Shawn is just messing around with the sketch artist.
(B) Shawn’s shenanigans cause Gus to quit.
Shouldn’t every Holmes have a Watson? This act is where Gus comes in.
Gus has an “adult job” – he’s a pharmaceutical sales rep – but he’s not totally above Shawn’s childishness. He does have a drawer full of candy after all.
Shawn and Gus are shown to have a history going back to when they were little kids. They’re even close enough that Gus has kept track of the 57 jobs Shawn has had since high school. It’s a fun tidbit that both relates their relationship to the audience while also priming us for exactly what to expect from their relationship in this act.
This scene also gives us some important exposition for the case. 6 days ago, Camden McCallum Jr., the sole heir to McCallum Textiles, was seen being shoved into his range rover at the dog park, and no one has seen him or the dog since.
The next scene continues with backstory on the case while Shawn and Gus drive to the McCallum house. Turns out, 18 months ago Camden McCallum Jr. seemed to turn his entire life around after driving a boat into the Morro Bay Aquarium. Shawn doesn’t believe it. This man was all about having fun (like him), why would he just quit it all so suddenly?
When they get to the house, Shawn goes through garbage and finds bags of expensive dog food. They go inside, and Shawn is immediately attracted to Katarina, Camden’s sister. Gus gets stressed over Shawn not being more serious. Shawn describes Katarina’s boyfriend to a sketch artist, freaking out the whole family. And then they leave, bumping into Camden McCallum Sr. on the way out.
All this fooling around is too much for Gus, if Shawn isn’t going to be a serious detective, he doesn’t want to be a part of this!
Through all of this we’re seeing this act balance setting up who Gus is, his relationship to Shawn, and Shawn’s investigation style, all while working through the case of the week. We get the major facts of the case, a major clue (the dog food), and two suspects who will end up being a red herring and the one responsible.
Act Three – Shawn is Good, But…
(B) Shawn solved the case; Gus is back in.
(C) Shawn learns his dad is back in town.
(A+B) Shawn and Gus find evidence that he is right.
(A+B) Shawn gets Lassiter to give in and listen to him.
(B) Shawn shows Lassiter where Camden Jr. is.
(B) Shawn’s tip results in finding the victim, but he’s dead.
After all of Shawn’s previous messing around, this act demonstrates just how capable he can be. Immediately, first scene back, Shawn believes that he’s solved the case.
Shawn believes that Camden Jr. didn’t just suddenly change 18 months ago on his own, it’s that his dad threatened to cut him off, and so he hatched a plan. He made it look like he cut ties with one of his close friends so he’d have an accomplice that no one would suspect. In other words, he started faking being the person his dad wants him to be, and we should put a pin in that.
This information is enough to get Gus back in. And while Gus goes to get dressed, Shawn finds a pineapple and offers to slice it up for the road. This isn’t a very important point for the episode in particular, but it is the start of a running gag of a pineapple appearing or being mentioned in every episode.
Shawn and Gus head out of town but get pulled over for speeding. Shawn tries to use his father’s name as a respected police officer to get him out of a ticket. It works, but it also has the officer who pulled him over reveal that Henry’s been in town for over a year, something neither Shawn nor Gus knew anything about. It’s a quick moment that vaguely advances the C plot, but mostly it’s quick reminder so we don’t forget about it before we come back to it. We haven’t heard about Henry for a while, we have to keep that plate spinning.
They reach a cabin belonging to Camden Jr.’s friend, see Camden’s dog, and that’s all the proof they need. Shawn nailed it. What’s especially fun here is how they talk about what to do next. Gus wants them to just call it in, get this done. Shawn has other plans: he’ll make a show of it, having a vision in front of everyone. He explains how he’ll give lateral hints and even twist the information around because “in the spirit world things get jumbled up and out of sequence.”
This is Shawn describing exactly the kind of thing he will do in every other episode, and his reason for doing it. But because we get such big explanation, we skip past it in this one. Instead, when Lassiter finally agrees to talk to Shawn, after a short scene showing us that Lassiter doesn’t want to believe Shawn at all while Barry is more trusting, it cuts to them after all of this has happened and they are on their way back to the cabin.
Turns out that Shawn was right that Camden Jr. and his friend were here… but they’re also dead.
What we get from this act is that Shawn nailed it. His ridiculous investigation style can get him results, even when it looks like he’s just messing around. But his observational abilities don’t make him infallible. Just because he can put together the pieces he sees, doesn’t mean he can always see the full picture.
Act Four – Reconnecting with His Dad
(B) Shawn he refuses to believe the case is solved.
(B) Shawn is suspicious of Camden Sr; the police won’t let Shawn near him.
(C) Shawn goes to see his Henry.
(A+B+C) Shawn is tested by Henry before getting some advice.
(B) Shawn and Gus see Katarina with a suspicious bag.
(B) Shawn is conflicted because he doesn’t think Katarina was lying.
(B) Shawn accuses Katarina… and he’s wrong.
We’re only halfway through the episode, so when Shawn argues that there is more to this case than a murder-suicide, we’re primed as an audience to be on his side. Unfortunately, Interim Chief Vick refuses to let Shawn talk to any of the family, even when Shawn notices a conspicuous bandage on Camden Sr.’s arm.
So, with Shawn out of leads and unable to talk to any witnesses, he does the last thing he wants to do.
Shawn found out that Henry is back in town in the prior act, now we get the payoff from that information by having Shawn go see him and ask for help. There’s an awkward air as we find out a little more about why the two have a strained relationship: Shawn is upset with Henry over the divorce with his mom.
The two go out for lunch and here we get the first of the couple of scenes that bring all the plots together:
A plot - Henry is claiming Shawn is going to get caught or quit this in 3 months, but Shawn argues he’s finally found a way to use his abilities. He’s found purpose in this.
B plot – Henry tells Shawn that if he’s right that there is more to this case, it’s because Shawn trusted someone he shouldn’t have and overlooked them.
C plot – As much as Shawn and Henry’s relationship is clearly strained, we see Henry’s quiet pride as Shawn nails his test, even if all he says is, “close enough”.
It’s worth noting at this point that Shawn’s fake psychic detective plans parallel Camden Jr.’s lies to his father. Shawn being a detective is him doing exactly what his dad wanted him to do, but under false pretenses. It’s a direct parallel to Camden Jr. lying about having changed to appease his father.
Henry’s advice gets Shawn looking more into Katarina. He takes Gus to spy on her, and they see her with a big bag that they are convinced is full of, what was supposed to be, the ransom money for Camden Jr.’s fake kidnapping. They follow her to a back alley where it looks like she’s making a deal with some guy, so Shawn runs in, rips the bag from her hands, and tries to get away.
When Shawn’s caught – because this was not a great plan – he accuses Katarina of killing her brother so that she can be the heir to their family fortune and get this ransom money as a bonus. But it’s not money… it’s clothes. They are outside of a thrift shop. The guy she appeared to be making a deal with is an employee that was taking a clothes donation from her.
Oops!
This act doubles down on Shawn’s fallibility. While we see he has great instincts in continuing to follow the case, he doesn’t have real detective experience, and this is where his dad comes in. Henry is someone Shawn will have to go to when just being observant isn’t enough, he needs that experience to help him out. When we get to the point that Shawn accuses Katarina, we’re seeing that just because he thinks something could be true, doesn’t mean it is.
Act Five – Finding the Real Killer
(B) Shawn thinks the bag is a clue.
(B) Shawn uses Gus as a decoy so he can get the bag.
(B) Shawn was right about the bag, but which family member is responsible?
(B) Shawn goes to Barry for police help.
(A+B) Shawn gets a clue while revealing that he can shoot.
(B) Shawn accuses Camden Sr. of murder.
After Shawn’s swing and a miss, it’s time for him to hit a home run for the penultimate act. He has to find the real killer.
It all starts with Katarina’s bag, because he wasn’t entirely wrong. He and Gus perform some shenanigans and get their hands on it. There are imprints inside to show that it did have money in it. A lot of money. The bag belongs to someone in the McCallum house, and it doesn’t appear to be Katarina. Our suspects are narrowed down, but Shawn isn’t sure how to get any closer on his own.
Shawn goes to Lucinda Barry for help from inside the police force. Just like going to his father for advice, going to get information that only the police have is part of how Shawn solves at least most of his cases. He can do a lot by his own means, but he still needs special access every now and then.
Barry gives in. Whether she fully believes he’s psychic or not, she does believe in his good intentions. But she can’t be seen helping him with what’s supposed to be a closed case out in the open. They go to the shooting range, where Shawn gets a big clue. Camden Jr.’s friend has a vehicle that is overly easy to identify because of its modified muffler forcing everyone’s attention.
While this is happening, we also get a fun fact about Shawn: he’s an incredible shot. When Barry has him shoot, at first it looks like he misses the target entirely, but it turns out he was aiming for Barry’s bullet holes. Only after pulling the target back for inspection do we see that Shawn managed to shoot so close to the existing holes that from a distance his shots were imperceptible. He calls it a “perfect match” and she looks impressed. It’s a moment that shows us that there is a serious person with serious skills under Shawn’s sillier attitude, but it’s also one that seems to hint at a possible romance between the two.
This is a bit of an aside, especially because Barry is replaced by Juliet, a new detective at the precinct, in the next episode. In the traditional network TV season, pilots are shot months before the rest of the series so that the network can decide if they want to put it on the air (ex: most shows that start in Sept/Oct will have shot their pilot before May). This means that a lot of changes can occur between the first two episodes. Some of these changes could be from studio notes, some could be from the showrunner seeing the strengths and weaknesses in the pilot and pivoting because of it, some are just down to things like an actor booking something else. Whatever the case was here, this scene appears to suggest that Barry could have been planned to have a similar trajectory to Juliet, becoming a love interest to him, but with the added conflict of her current relationship with Lassiter.
Anyway, back to the actual episode, Shawn takes Gus back to the McCallum house. Camden Sr. comes out pretty much as soon as they arrive, and after he calls this visit inappropriate, Shawn immediately accuses him of killing his own son.
This act basically takes what the previous act does in showing us how Shawn will use Henry’s experience and police resources to help him solve cases. Right before we get to see Shawn putting it all together, we have to see all the tools he uses to lay it all out, setting out his method for the rest of the series.
Act Six – Tying it All Together
(A+B+C) Shawn breaks down how the murder happened.
(B) Shawn gets the evidence he needs from Gus.
(B) Shawn gets a confession in front of Vick.
(A+C) Shawn finds out Henry vouched for him with Vick.
(A+C) Shawn (sort of) gets Henry’s approval.
It’s the final act. Shawn has accused someone of the murder, but we still need the explanation of the motive and the means. But Shawn isn’t a cop, he has no real authority, so he still needs to find a way to have this man arrested.
First: motive and means. Shawn breaks down almost exactly what happened. Camden Sr. got a ransom call before the cops were ever involved. He goes to drop off the money, but he sees Camden Jr.’s friend’s loud vehicle. Camden Sr. finds his son, they fight over this whole fake kidnapping, and Camden Sr. accidentally kills his son. He then kills the friend and makes it look like a murder-suicide to cover his tracks.
This is the second scene where all the plots come together, because there is a reason Shawn is able to work it out: he relates to the victim.
Shawn gives a big speech (Camden Sr. interjects a few times but I’m cutting them out for clarity):
“I know what your relationship was with your son. I have a father that I disappoint all the time. I know how you feel. This was it. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back, wasn’t it? To think, 18 months ago, he sat across from you, looked you right in the eye and said ‘dad, I’m gonna clean up my act this time. This time I am going to change, I swear.’ To know that he duped you. You fell for it all over again. It must have sent you into a state that even you can’t believe.”
Shawn looks at his current situation with his father, and how he claims this new job as a fake psychic will be the real deal for him, something he can get serious about. He’s comparing his lies (that his father is in on), to this other father finding out about his own son’s lies.
While all of this is going on, Gus gets sick because of all the talk of murder and runs to the washroom. When he comes back, he pulls Shawn out before anything Camden Sr. can retaliate for all of Shawn’s accusations.
When they leave, Gus reveals the final clue needed to wrap this up. He went through the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and found a drug that is prescribed for dog bites – Gus’s pharmaceutical knowledge for the win. Shawn realizes it’s proof that Camden Sr. was bitten by Camden Jr.’s dog when the murder happened, and this is what Camden Sr’s bandage is covering up.
From here, wrapping up the case is just a matter of Shawn calling the police on himself, waiting for a big enough audience, then having a big psychic vision that ultimately tells Interim Chief Vick that Camden Sr. has a dog bite that puts him at the scene of the crime. When Camden Sr. feels backed into a corner, he confesses.
With the case of the week solved, and the bad guy arrested, it’s time for some resolution for the A and C plots. We head back to the police station where Shawn finds Henry talking to Vick.
It turns out that the Interim Chief was doing a background check on Shawn, so she called in his dad to answer some questions. Henry leaves Shawn and Vick alone to talk, and Shawn learns, to his surprise, that Henry lied for him. Henry told Vick that Shawn does have psychic powers, and while his lie doesn’t totally match Shawn’s, Shawn makes it work. Vick not only says that Shawn’s on her speed dial, but also immediately gives him another case.
Outside, Shawn gets a little one-on-one time with Henry. Henry says he lied this one time but he’ll never do it again, and he’s not okay with any of what Shawn is doing. But while his words say one thing, much like in his other scenes, his actions say another. Henry has a copy of the newspaper with Shawn on the front page sitting in the passenger seat of his truck. Shawn sees it, and knows his dad is proud.
While on a plot level the case of the week is done, here we have a nice thematic connection. I’ve been mentioning the parallels between Shawn and Camden Jr., but a big difference is their relationships with their fathers. Camden Sr. wanted his son to be like him so much that he named him after himself. Henry wants Shawn to follow in his footsteps, sure, but he also gives him room to do things his own way, even if he’s not always happy with what that means.
And with that, the plots are all resolved. Shawn successfully sold his psychic detective lie, he solved his first case, and he and his father are on the road to maybe eventually getting closer.
But there’s still one scene left to go!
End Tag – Psych is Born
(A) Shawn shows Gus their new office.
After the final commercial break, we get a quick tag where Shawn brings Gus to the office that he leased under both of their names (forging Gus’s signature, of course). Shawn has named their psychic detective agency “Psych”, a fact that Gus absolutely hates because he feels like it’s flat out telling the police that they are lying.
But even through his frustration, Gus’s curiosity is enough to have him stay involved, for one more case at least.
Conclusion
Psych is a fairly episodic series, but one based around a premise that it needs the audience to buy into.
In a pilot for a series like this there’s a balancing act between time spent setting up what the series is and showing a case of the week to demonstrate what an episode will usually feel like. Often this means making the episodic case super simple so that it doesn’t need a lot of time and they can focus more on building out the premise. We can look at this like Supernatural for that.
The added runtime kind of gets around that problem. The episode’s case gets to play out with about as many twists as a normal episode might, while still giving the series’ premise all the time it needs to establish itself.
That said, we can see how the pilot uses the case of the week to really reinforce the other plots in order to have it all build into a cohesive whole. The Camden McCallum case is one that is used to build Shawn’s character and his relationship with his father by paralleling the relationships. It’s this sort of connection that means even when it seems focused on the episodic story, it’s always setting up main aspects of the series.
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