A local weatherman is found dead the morning after a tryst; the man’s lover is charged with the murder despite her claims of innocence. Shawn is intrigued and becomes a defense consultant in order to gain access to the case.

The duo’s latest case, a gag from Lassiter, turns from an alien abduction investigation to a murder case with the discovery of naked body. Between tanning salons, speed dating and Henry disagreeing with their prime suspects, it’s possible Lassiter will solve the case before Shawn and Gus can.

Unable to bear a morose Lassiter who doesn’t rise to the bait, Shawn sets out to prove that Lassiter’s theory of murder is correct: that an astronomer did not die of natural causes.

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 – or was it just the other day? – and only the faulty memory of the retired officer gives them any hope of closing the case.

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.

Shawn reluctantly settles for a private client who claims a ghost has it in for him after Lassiter kicks Gus and him off the much more interesting case of a murdered psychologist, but the two investigations seem to be running parallel and Shawn may still end up solving the police’s case.

Shawn and Gus attend a Civil War reenactment rehearsal for the sheer pleasure of watching Lassiter have a nervous breakdown as he runs it, but when a scripted death turns real they end up donning uniforms themselves in order to find the murderer and perhaps prevent another.

Shawn claims a psychic connection with a cat so he can continue his investigation into a what he believes is a murder, but that the police have labeled a suicide, and the link he finds to a hotline may involve one of SBPD’s own officers