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May 1, 2013 · Santa Barbarian Candidate: Directed by Richard Coleman. With James Roday Rodriguez, Dulé Hill, Timothy Omundson, Maggie Lawson. When the mayor is found dead, Shawn and Gus try to prove that he was murdered by the mayoral successor.
- (819)
- Comedy, Crime, Mystery
- Richard Coleman
- 2013-05-01
- Overview
- Plot Summary
- Trivia
"Santa Barbarian Candidate" is the tenth episode of Season Seven. When the mayor dies in an apparent surfing accident, Shawn decides to run for the office.
The Santa Barbara Mayor, Gavin Channing, is thanking everyone at the SBPD for keeping crime at an all time low. Shawn and Mayor Channing instantly hit it off, and he invites Shawn over for brunch at his beach house. Shawn and Gus show up the next day, but upon arrival, they learn that Mayor Channing is dead, his body having just washed up on the shore.
Woody determines that it must have been a surfing accident, but Shawn remembers from the Surf Report he heard on the radio that there were no waves at the time of Gavin's death. Something isn't adding up. Shawn goes to confront Gavin's right hand man, Jason Straub, at City Hall.
There, he also meets Gavin's de facto successor, Tom Swagerty, Head of the City Council. Swagerty is carrying an agenda for the next City Council meeting, and Shawn sees that a proposal to lift developmental restrictions on the Santa Barbara wetlands is one of the issues to be voted on. Shawn knows that Gavin was an environmentalist and was going to vote "no" on this ban lift, so he decides to pay a visit to the company who has an interest in the land should the development ban be lifted. Upon investigation, they discover that the real people behind the land development plan are from a company called "Argus Equities". Shawn remembers Swagerty wearing a shirt with an "Argus Equities" logo on the sleeve. He now thinks that it was Swagerty who had something to do with the mayor's death.
Shawn knows that the only way to get the real scoop on who killed Gavin is to run for mayor himself - because if Swagerty wins and it was he who killed Gavin after all, then as mayor he would do anything to stop any further investigation of Gavin's death. So Shawn announces his candidacy.
Woody later alerts Shawn that he found two gray hairs on Gavin's body that don't belong to him. Shawn knows that Swagerty has gray hair, so now he is extra certain he was the killer. Straub agrees with Shawn's theory and decides to help Shawn win the election against Swagerty.
Straub tells Shawn that he has everyman appeal and that he actually has a shot at winning. But he also adds that beating Swagerty may not be easy because of Swagerty's sad backstory - his fiancee Abby Sheldon died tragically last year. Straub suggests that Shawn up his game by showing up to the upcoming Founder's Gala with his beautiful girlfriend. Gus tries to tell Straub that Shawn and Juliet are no longer together, but Shawn stops him, determined that he can convince Juliet to play along for just for the night. Shawn also knows that the gala will be his opportunity to collect a hair sample from Swagerty, in order to get a match on the hairs found on Gavin's body.
•The title is seemingly a play on that of the 1962 Frank Sinatra psycho-political drama The Manchurian Candidate.
•Gus' line "I can fix that" could possibly be a reference to Dulé Hill's character Sam from the 2003 movie Holes, whose main line in the movie consisted of "I can fix that."
•Gus talks about how he could have been president and Shawn tells him that maybe he could be the president's aide and then calls him Charlie. This is referencing Dulé Hill's character on the series The West Wing where he played the president's body man, Charlie Young.
•The West Wing is later referenced again, when Shawn suggests that they need a candidate to run for mayor and music very similar to the theme of West Wing is played.
•The song Shawn and Juliet are dancing to at the gala is "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star.
•When Shawn is looking at the bank statement, the deposits are labeled "cheque" rather than the American "check".
Directed by Richard Coleman. Written by Tim Meltreger. Santa Barbara Mayor Gavin Channing has called in a press conference to celebrate Psych and the SBPD keeping the streets safer than ever. Unfortunately, the very next morning, he's found dead in his wetsuit, the victim of a surfing accident.
May 1, 2013 · Episode Guide for Psych 7x10: Santa Barbarian Candidate. Episode summary, trailer and screencaps; guest stars and main cast list; and more.
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S7 E10: Santa Barbarian Candidate. This episode has me dying!! After Shawn gives his ridiculous speech about running for mayor on camera, then Gus tells him he is going to be the only person to vote for him in Santa Barbara. Shawn: "it means I got the black vote" 🤣🤣.
Posted by u/Odd-Sample-1824 - 112 votes and 12 comments
May 2, 2013 · To be fair, Shawn did lie. But hand to head or not, he has helped the city of Santa Barbara become a practically crime-free city save for the one murder a week!
