Season 2, Episode 16
Shawn (and Gus) Of the Dead
"I can't spend the night in the museum! I don't have my toothbrush, I don't have any of my multivitamins, and oh, yeah, I don't want my soul suffering eternal damnation for disrupting the sleep of an Egyptian canal digger!"
Directed by Steve Franks
Written by Steve Franks
When an alarm goes off at the Santa Barbara History Museum, the police arrive to find that a mummy from an Egypt exhibit that opened yesterday is missing, along with the night guard. Lassiter initially sees it as an Open-and-Shut Case. He’s much more interested in his own case, involving the mysterious death of a wealthy philanthropist named William Wyles III. Assistant Curator Sophie Bridgewell isn’t so sure, though, and she hires Shawn and Gus to figure out what happened. Gus is creeped out by the missing mummy, but Shawn isn’t so quick to worry about ancient curses and walking corpses. He’s far more interested in finding concrete evidence, and a culprit who’s very much alive. There’s just one problem – the concrete evidence he finds, that the police missed, all points to someone coming out of the ancient sarcophagus and walking out of the museum…Tropes:
- 10-Minute Retirement: Chief Vick is resigning as the department’s interim chief of police, since the mayor won’t get back to her about making her permanent. Shawn, fortunately, has some dirt on the mayor's choice for the job, and she’s back by the end of the episode.
- Accidental Misnaming: Even though Gus didn’t get credit for finding the dinosaur, he got credit for taking the picture………except they ended up misspelling his name as Bruton Gaster. Gus is not pleased when he finds out.
- Agent Mulder: Gus is one here. He won’t even go into the mummy’s room at the museum, as he’s afraid of getting cursed.
- Alliterative Name: William Wyles IV.
- Bludgeoned to Death: How Wyles III really died.
- Call-Back: Turns out the Tyrannosaur fossil from “65 Million Years Off” ended up at the museum, and Shawn got credit for finding it. They even named it "Zippy", after Shawn's suggestion.
- Chekhov's Gun: Shawn’s pictures of someone cheating on his wife at a sleazy motel in an unrelated case at the beginning. They come in very handy when he uses them as leverage to get the mayor to reinstate Vick as permanent chief of police.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The man cheating on his wife that Shawn tails in the beginning of the episode. It turns out he is the mayor's choice to replace Chief Vick, and releasing those pictures ruins his chances and makes the mayor hire Vick back.
- Evil Cripple: A downplayed example with the wheelchair bound museum worker Wyles got onboard to smuggle him into the museum to get the busted pistol back, seeing as it led to Douglas Hasting's death.
- Insane Troll Logic: Gus puts the fact that the archeologists involved with digging the mummy up are all dead as proof of the mummy's curse. Shawn rightfully points out that the excavation was decades ago, so of course they're dead.
- Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: In the Cold Open, little Shawn sneaks downstairs late one night to watch a scary movie that his parents are seeing without telling them. Henry catches him, and Shawn admits he’s too scared to go back upstairs. Henry has to reassure him that the undead are completely fictional.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Wyles III appears to have been killed by falling down his stairs. Exhuming the body reveals he was actually struck on the head with a blunt object.
- Montage: Shawn tries to beat the museum’s cameras to find holes in the security system, while Gus watches the monitors.
- Mummy: Vanished from the museum on the day his ancient Egypt exhibit opened, and apparently killed the night guard. The real, very dead mummy was actually just used as a cover for the real villain.
- Oh, Crap!: While spending a night at the museum, Gus and Shawn realize the only car aside from theirs in the parking lot belongs to the missing night guard, who’s got a criminal record. Shawn drops his phone in shock.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Shawn and Gus find the body of Douglas Hastings, the missing night guard, stuffed into a 1950s fridge.
- Pistol-Whipping: Wyles IV killed his father like this with an antique civil war pistol, then put the pistol back in its display case… right before it was due to be donated to the museum.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Sort of. The “Mummy” was actually the killer from Lassiter’s case, dressed in bandages to sneak into the museum inside the real mummy’s sarcophagus. The lid was closed, but had a small crack in it, so the bandages were needed. He intended to steal a Civil War pistol that he’d used to kill his father, but it didn’t work out, and he was forced to flee when the night guard interrupted him.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: A few times. Most notably, after spending a spooky night locked in the museum and finding a corpse, Gus tears out of the museum at top speed the instant the door is unlocked in the morning.
- Later, Shawn and Gus find the actual mummy in the driver’s seat of a car that just went off the road. A terrified Gus turns to see Shawn sprinting back towards the Blueberry.
- Snub by Omission: The dinosaur fossil from “65 Million Years Off” ended up at the museum, and Shawn somehow got sole credit for the discovery. Gus is not pleased to find out, and demands to get co-credit.
- Useless Security Camera: A minor example; while the cameras cover most of the museum, one was knocked slightly askew before the mummy vanished. Consequently, there’s a narrow route that someone could use to slip out of the building from the ancient Egypt exhibit without being seen. The museum’s cameras and security systems are apparently overdue for an overhaul.
- Wham Line: At the very end.Shawn: “Mom?...”
