Season 3, Episode 5
Disco Didn’t Die. It Was Murdered!
"Don't worry. I think Pookie remembers the '70s just fine."
Directed by Mel Damski
Written by Saladin K. Patterson
After a handful of old convictions from across California are overturned and called into question, Chief Vick calls Shawn and Gus down to the police station. The biggest one involved the SBPD, and Henry’s biggest case: an anti-government radical who Henry caught red-handed planning to bomb police headquarters in 1978. The case has been reopened, and the bomber – Eugene Franks – has been released. Vick stresses that Henry cannot be allowed to help with the case… but Henry isn’t dissuaded so easily, and Shawn eventually settles with getting him to keep a very low profile. Now, Henry, Shawn, and Gus need to find critical evidence that Henry was right all along, and that Eugene was guilty… with evidence that was already vanishing back in the '70s.Tropes:
- The '70s: The entire episode is a big tribute to the '70s, and quite a number of tropes from that decade abound.
- The Alcoholic: After Eugene was arrested, Dr. Colbert sank into booze and misery, though he was at least functional enough to keep his job for the next 30 years.
- The Alleged Car: For much of the episode, the trio are forced to drive Eugene’s old car around. It was sitting in someone’s backyard for over 30 years, it’s filthy, and the tires are bare, but amazingly, it DOES run… right up until the very end of the episode. Just as Gus is starting to warm up to it, it breaks down and strands him on the side of the road.
- Batman Gambit: At the end, Shawn activates the bomb next to Derek and Melanie’s house, then explains that the only person who would know how to defuse it would be the one who built it. Derek eventually caves, and defuses it.
- Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: Eugene Franks was one – and he wasn’t working alone. He even got arrested while he was working on a bomb meant to destroy the police station.
- Cold Open: This one is the furthest-back in the series. It takes place before Shawn was even born, with Henry cornering Eugene and arresting him in 1978.
- Disco Dan: Pookie, Henry’s old informant. He spends a lot of time at the 70s-themed Top Flight dance club, and his speech patterns seem based on 70s cop shows.
- Former Teen Rebel: Derek and Melanie were once two members of an anti-government extremist group with Eugene during their time in college. After Eugene got arrested, they got spooked and bailed out, eventually becoming part of the system they were rallying against (and got rich in the process).
- Fun with Acronyms: Eugene’s anti-extremist group was called S.A.G. – Soldiers Against Government.
- Jive Turkey: Pookie has these speech mannerisms. Later deliberately invoked by Shawn and Gus as part of Shawn’s “visions”.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Juliet and Lassiter keep screwing over McNab and getting screwed by karma in return. They hand him what looks like a bum case and take a diamond smuggler case, only to get a case with animal smugglers and get attacked by marmosets. When Buzz tells them his case ended up with real life sea pirates and he's coordinating with the coast guard, they take it back from him. Of course, the Coast Guard gets full jurisdiction once they're three miles out and they get confined to a small room on the lower deck and get seasick.
- Not Me This Time: When Dr. Colbert is found murdered, Shawn initially assumes Eugene killed him, then went after his old co-conspirators Derek and Melanie. Eugene is indeed found with a bomb at their house, but swears he didn’t kill Dr. Colbert.
- Silly Walk: Gus’s ride in Eugene’s old car – which has the seat jammed all the way to the front – makes his entire left side fall asleep, giving him a ridiculously ‘70s “pimp walk”.
- Think Nothing of It: Henry’s reaction to being called a hero during a meeting with the press in 1978.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Henry’s old informant was named “Pookie”. Shawn and Gus spend more time giggling at his name than actually asking questions.
