When Shawn Spencer is arrested for calling in an accurate tip to the police because only the perpetrator would know the details, his only way out is pretending to be a psychic. It turns out Santa Barbara PD isn't done with him. They ask him to consult on a kidnapping case, and a business is born. The international version of the pilot was cut for time and features many deleted and alternative scenes to the domestic version.
Gus is ecstatic when it turns out the only real clue in his and Shawn's missing-person case is TriCon, the comic book and science fiction convention currently running in Santa Barbara. As bodies start turning up, they must balance their newly-scammed and increasingly onerous duties as George Takei's assistants with finding the killer and saving the teenager.
Henry's old captain believes he's solved a murder, but his Alzheimer's has caused him to forget the most important details: the crime, and who committed it. Henry calls in Shawn and Gus who find themselves investigating a murder that happened decades ago and only the faulty memory of the retired officer gives them any hope of closing the case.
Juliet asks Shawn and Gus for assistance on her undercover assignment. They're only too glad to help, since it involves sorority sisters. Unfortunately, what's supposed to be an easy case turns out to have ties to their past and may endanger Juliet. Meanwhile, Lassiter locks horns with the oldest rookie the departments has ever trained.
Shawn and Gus take on academia as lecturers at a school for the gifted where two students suspect a teacher of murder, they just don't know who's been murdered or the murderer's identity. At the precinct, Juliet lobbies hard for lead position on the next case, and Lassiter hands her a "gimme". The same case Gus and Shawn are working.
The star of a Spanish telenovela has been murdered by another actor on the show. The murderer insists that it was an accident and claims that the prop knife was switched with a real knife without his knowledge. Shawn and Gus believe that he was framed and investigate the crime. Gus is especially excited to be working on the set of his favorite soap opera, but it's Shawn who gets a recurring role on the show.
Henry bails on his weekend outing with Shawn, stating that he's too ill to leave the house. Shawn is nowhere near upset until he and Gus catch Henry driving by, clearly not sick at all. Naturally, they follow him and discover he used to be a member of the Monarch Lodge, a clandestine society. They barge inside looking for an explanation and are surprised to find one of the Lodge members lying dead before them. Shawn suspects murder, and in order to conduct an inside investigation, he becomes a member of the society.
It's Gus' birthday, so Shawn takes him to the launch party for Ciao clothing's new fall line. While Gus tries to make a move on his favorite model, one of the owners of Ciao is suddenly electrocuted via the stage's microphone. Shawn is certain that his death was no accident, so Shawn and Gus move in to the loft where the Ciao models live.
Lassiter and Juliet get called to a museum to investigate the disappearance of a 3,000-year-old mummy. Lassiter insists it's just a prank that's not worth his time. He's busy working on another case involving the death of philanthropist William Wyles III. However, the assistant curator insists that something weird is going on, something possibly supernatural that requires special help. Shawn is then brought in on the case, and he declares that the mummy was not stolen, iit walked away on its own.
A surveillance tape from the latest robbery in a string of break-ins leads Shawn to believe that women are the culprits. He further narrows the suspects down to a local roller derby team and suggests that in order to pinpoint the people responsible, Juliet needs to go undercover as a member of their team.
Shawn and Gus spot an art thief whom Lassiter has been trying to arrest for years. So, although they are on a skiing vacation in Canada, they appeal to the local constabulary with mixed results: someone gets axed, another finds himself interrogated and Pierre Despereaux may get away scot-free, once again.
Lassiter reluctantly asks Shawn and Gus for help when his surrogate father, sheriff of Sonora, thinks a ghost is wreaking havoc in his town. And even though this Wild West re-creation town is bigger on show than facts, it turns out a real crime is being planned and the murder of the Sheriff's business rival is only the beginning.
Raj, a young East Indian man whose serious girlfriends have all met with suspicious accidents, is convinced that he is the victim of a curse, but Shawn and Gus aren't buying the supernatural explanation. They are convinced that a mysterious assailant is actually responsible and they're out to catch the culprit.
In 2003, Juliet made a pact with her boyfriend Scott Seaver (Josh Braaten) to meet up in seven years. After he fails to show up, Shawn finds him, and by extension endangers his life since he was a key witness against mobster J.T. Waring (Arnold Vosloo), who was convicted for the murder of a U.S. Marshall. When Waring denies killing the Marshall, Shawn must prove him right in order to protect Scott.
Shawn and Gus return to Vancouver to visit their old nemesis Despereaux in prison at the felon's request, who then uses them to escape and pull one last job before he is extradited to the United States. Only while he is out, he is framed for the murder of a Crown Attorney and now asks the guys for help clearing his name of this most recent – and frankly unseemly – charge.
A man enters the morgue and tells Woody that he was framed for the murder of the person lying dead on the slab. When Woody won’t let him take the body, the man pulls a gun on him and holds Woody hostage in order to get what he wants. Shawn, Gus, Lassiter and Juliet try to resolve the situation calmly and carefully, but Interim Chief Trout has a plan of his own.
Lassiter is determined to be appointed Chief of Police, so he sets out to prove himself worthy of the job by solving the murder of the Mayor’s beloved uncle, Archie Baxter, who was killed back in the 60s but the case was never solved. Meanwhile, Juliet receives some news that tests her relationship with Shawn.
Shawn and Gus are bummed to find out the owner of their favorite food truck has been murdered. The two of them go undercover to learn the food truck ropes and find out who the killer is. While working on the case, Marlowe visits them to cure a pregnancy craving and goes into labor at the most inconvenient time.
Shawn is ecstatic when he discovers he’s finally been invited to a prestigious paranormal convention for police consultants. As the main event begins, the leader collapses on stage, and it is clear he has been murdered. All of the police consultants on the panel jump to solve the murder, and everyone’s unorthodox crime solving skills are put together to catch the culprit.
In a vintage Psych-style Hitchcockian nod, Lassie begins to see impossible happenings around his recovery clinic. Shawn and Gus return to the Chief's side in Santa Barbara and are forced to navigate the personal, the professional, and possibly the supernatural. Separated from their new lives in San Francisco, our heroes find themselves unwelcome in their old stomping grounds as they secretly untangle a twisted case without the benefit of the police, their loved ones, or the quality sourdough bakeries of the Bay Area. What they uncover will change the course of their relationships forever.