Spellingg Bee

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“Spellingg Bee”
''Psych episode
Shawn having a “vision“ at the Spelling Bee.
Episode no.	Season – Episode 2
Guest stars	Richard Zemus Alexander Calvert Alex Bruhanski Issey Lamb Aleks Paunovic Julien Hill Kyle Pejpar Bud Collins
Written by	Steve Franks
Directed by	Mel Damski
Production no.	1002
Original airdate	July 14, 2006
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Pilot"	"Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece"

Spellingg Bee is the second episode of Season 1 of the USA Network television dramedy Psych.

1 Plot Synopsis
2 Arc Significance
3 Goofs
4 External links

[edit] Plot Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In a diner, Shawn loses his seat to an attractive blonde named Juliet O'Hara (Maggie Lawson), with whom he engages in a stilted banter. He deduces that she has two cats (one grey and one white) and that her parents have been happily married for 30 years. His display is cut short, however, when a shifty-looking man enters, and Juliet's attention is diverted. Shawn suddenly realizes that the woman is a police officer, and his deduction is confirmed when Det. Lassiter and several plainclothes officers arrest the shifty diner. Shawn is also amused to realize that he has witnessed Juliet's first time drawing her weapon.

In 1989, 13-year-old Gus (Julien Hill) is eliminated from a spelling bee when 14-year-old Shawn (Kyle Pejpar) feeds him the incorrect spelling of the word "aggiornamento". In 2006, Gus watches the American Spelling Bee finals in the Psych office; Shawn arrives, and when a clip of favorite Brendan Vu (Issey Lamb) collapsing is replayed, Shawn realizes that Vu's inhaler has been tampered with. Moments later, they receive a call from Chief Vick requesting their assistance on the inhaler issue.

Shawn and Gus arrive at the spelling bee, still in progress. Vick and Lassiter are also there. They have apparently taken whatever statements they intend to take, and they advise Gus and Shawn that if they wish to get results from the investigation that they had better interview all of the contestants that day, as soon the contestants would disperse to their home cities. In a resting room backstage, Gus and Shawn interview the spellers and their overbearing parents, including Jiri Prochazka (Alexander Calvert) and his father Miklos (Richard Zeman). Before the next round can begin, however, the Spellmaster Elvin Cavanaugh (Alex Bruhanski) collapses in the balcony booth, tumbling over the railing to his death.

When the attending security officer (Aleks Paunovic) refuses to let Shawn into the booth, Shawn fakes a supernatural encounter with Cavanaugh's poltergeist in order to scare the guard off. It works, allowing him and Gus to investigate the balcony. Shawn finds the cryptic digits "1953" scratched on Cavanaugh's notebook, and Gus finds partially-eaten Chinese food with an odd smell.

Shawn takes a sample of the lo mein as Lassiter and O'Hara arrive to give a press statement. He meets the detectives in the auditorium as they are about to announce a heart attack as the cause of Cavanaugh's death, so Shawn fakes a "psychic vision" about Chinese food and declares that Cavanaugh was murdered.

Shawn visits his father Henry's home with the Chinese food sample, and requests that Henry pass it on to one of Henry's friends in the department with access to an analysis lab. Shawn offers any service in return for the favor, and Henry immediately takes him up on the offer. Henry takes Shawn to the garage whence he produces the skeleton of a rickety half-built doghouse. Henry tells Shawn that he'll get the lo mein to his lab-tech friend when Shawn finishes the doghouse; after some discussion, Shawn agrees.

In 1989, Shawn begs his father for a dog. Henry claims that Shawn isn't mature enough to take care of a dog, and Shawn demands a chance to prove he is. Henry relents, agreeing that if Shawn can build a doghouse, Shawn can have a dog, but clearly, Henry is no fan of dogs. Shawn attempts to fashion a residence for his prospective pet, but the workmanship is not up to Henry's high standards.

In 2006, Henry checks up on Shawn's progress, and finds the workmanship lacking; he reminds his son that he established parameters in 1989, and that the doghouse under construction does not fit those requirements. Frustrated, Shawn heads out to get supplies to start the project over; lost in thought, however, he finds himself run off a dark road by an imposing white van in the middle of the night.

Gus gets a call from Shawn in the hospital and picks up his partner. Shawn's injuries were minor, but he sports a leg brace. Also, his knee injury seems to cause him a lot of pain throughout the episode since he is constantly limping around while solving the case. On the way out of the hospital, He also stops off at Vu's room to talk with him, and learns from Gus that the name of the doctor who supposedly prescribed Prochazka's inhaler, a Dr. Zavin, does not exist. Shawn returns to Henry's house to finish the doghouse, and gets unexpected help from his father, who tells Shawn that he never helped him with anything because Shawn "never asked." Once the doghouse is finished, Henry gives Shawn the lab results on the Chinese food, which was, in fact, poisoned.

Shawn and Gus return to the Spelling Bee, lock the new Spellmaster (John Shaw) outside during his cigarette break, and sneak into the balcony booth for further investigation. This time, Shawn notices a triad of circular indentations in the carpet; in the closet, he finds a camera on a tripod, which fits the triangular configuration of the divots. Testing out the three angles the camera could have faced, Shawn realizes that Cavanaugh had been watching Miklos Prochazka in the auditorium. Meanwhile, Shawn also fills in for the Spellmaster, offering "banana", "onion", and "Mitchum" as third-round words.

Eventually, the Spelling Bee comes down to two contestants, and Juri Prochazka is one of them. As the boy attempts to spell his championship word, Shawn watches his father; Gus, meanwhile, has determined that the final-round words are all previous championship words from prior competitions. He also realizes that Miklos Prochazka was the champion from the 1953 Spelling Bee; and Shawn watches as Miklos surreptitiously looks up Juri's word, then coverly taps on his hand. Juri's hand, meanwhile, is clutching his inhaler, prescribed by the fictitious Dr. Zavin.

When Juri Prochazka wins the 2006 American Spelling Bee, Shawn joins him on stage in mock congratulations before exposing Miklos. It had been Miklos who had tampered with Vu's inhaler in order to knock out Juri's stiffest competition; further, he exposits, Cavanaugh was a vigilant opponent of cheating, and had been spying on Miklos from the balcony based on suspicions that Miklos had won the 1953 competition by cheating. When Miklos realized that his son's championship was in jeopardy, he snuck into the balcony booth during intermission and poisoned Cavanaugh's lo mein. Realizing that Shawn was on his trail, Miklos had attempted to run him off the road either to kill him, or to send a very clear message. He then proceeded to continue his cheating scam, wherein he tapped out the spelling of words in a code that was transmitted to Juri's receiver: the fake inhaler.

After Juri and Miklos are arrested, Shawn reveals to Gus that he had intentionally fed him the wrong spelling of "aggiornamento" when they were kids so that Gus would lose the spelling bee; his rationale being that a brainy label would have haunted Gus through adolescence, whereas by losing, Gus was able to be smart and popular. Shawn later returns to Henry's house to finish the doghouse and presents his father with a gift: a new puppy. Henry's dislike for dogs becomes painfully obvious, but Shawn assures Gus that the dog is his neighbor's, and he'll just take a lap around the block to let Henry stew for a few minutes.

[edit] Arc Significance

Gus is shown to have an in depth knowledge of surprising trivia: in this case, it extends to his being able to remember winning words from spelling bees decades old.
Shawn reveals his protective streak over Gus in this episode.
Henry continues to demand more from Shawn than he wants to give. Shawn can rise to his father's expectations when required, but will also try to turn the tables on his father to assert his own independence.
This is the first appearance of Gus as a kid.

[edit] Goofs

It is never specifically stated how Miklos found out that Cavanaugh was aware of the cheating scheme; nor is it explained how or why Miklos had such a deadly toxin on hand, or where he acquired it on such short notice.
It is never explicitly stated how Miklos knew how to find Shawn to run him off the road with the van.