Season 3, Episode 12
Earth, Wind and… Wait for It
"No, Shawn, we're NOT going into a burning building! You promised!"
Directed by Tim Matheson
Written by Anupam Nigam
A string of strange building fires has been cropping up all over Santa Barbara. Arson inspector Morgan Conrad is particularly frustrated about it, as despite quite a bit of evidence for arson, she’s getting no support from her department. Even her boss, Army Johnson, has serious doubts. Shawn and Gus, who wanted to be firefighters as kids, volunteer to help. Things get more complicated when the charred remains of a body are found in the walls of one burned building, and now it looks like someone is using the fires to dispose of the evidence of their murders. But who? Whoever it is, they’re the first serious arsonist Santa Barbara has seen since 1998… and things get more serious when the fire chief turns up as one of the victims.Tropes:
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: Shawn asks Inspector Conrad this when he realizes both fires were relatively easy to extinguish, and he believes that a fireman may have been responsible. She replies that she generally has no idea what's going through Shawn's head.
- Boom, Headshot!: All of the arsonist's victims were shot in the back of the head execution style.
- Constructive Body Disposal: Army Johnson's MO was to drag the arsonists into buildings under construction, blow their brains out, then seal the bodies behind walls, covering the bodies in lye to handle the smell. When the buildings were due to be retrofitted for seismic activity, he burned them down to cover up evidence.
- Dangerous Workplace: Inspector Conrad calls the Psych office this, claiming it violates multiple fire safety codes. The smoke detector is a paper bowl with a red M&M stuck to it (Shawn got annoyed by the constant beeping, and made it into a candy bowl), there’s an overloaded socket, a hot plate on the floor, and a stack of newspapers kept next to said hot plate.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Inspector Conrad is initially the Iron Lady, but Shawn actually getting results starts changing her attitude towards him.
- Dog Got Sent to a Farm: Gus’ parents told him his cockatoo got sent to a bird sanctuary when he was 8. Similarly, Henry told Shawn that his pet rabbit went to go live on a wheat farm at a young age.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: In 1987, Henry flatly forbade little Shawn from becoming a firefighter. Shawn was not pleased.
- Firefighter Arsonist: The arsonist turns out to be Arson Inspector Army Johnson, who had been setting fire to buildings as a cover-up for the stashed bodies of arsonists he had killed as revenge for two firefighters who died responding to the fires they set a decade prior.
- Firefighting Episode: Shawn and Gus join the fire department as a way of looking into some arson cases.
- Firemen Are Hot: Shawn seems to think so. Henry pokes fun at the trope a couple times.
- Heroic Fire Rescue: Shawn and Gus get to do one at the end, dragging Inspectors Conrad and Johnson out of a burning building. Then the realistic outcome happens and they spend some time coughing their lungs out before they can explain what happened.
- He Who Fights Monsters: After losing his two partners in the Renkel Fires of ’98, Inspector Johnson hunted down the perpetrators and shot almost all of them – only missing one when his gun jammed – before burying the bodies in various building walls under construction. In the course of his cover-ups, he ends up killing Chief Trombly [albeit not directly, he died from suffocation trying to put out one of the fires]. When Inspector Conrad gets too close to the truth, he goes off the deep end and prepares to set her on fire, too. When Shawn and Gus confront him at the very end, he tries to immolate himself out of shame.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: One of the victims was wearing “Jet Jaguars” sneakers, which Shawn recognizes as “the ugliest and most uncomfortable sneakers known to man”. They had flecks of real gold, were only sold in 1998, immediately discontinued, and Shawn claims they were proven to cause Polio.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Chief Trombly comes across as rude and untrustworthy at first, but he's shown giving an educational presentation for a bunch of kids. Also, his suspicious behavior is because he suspects that a close friend and colleague of his may be setting the fires. When he walks in on his friend setting a fire, a horrified Trombly asks what he's doing, and bravely tries to beat out the fire with his jacket.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Some minor friction between the homicide and arson departments ensues when it becomes obvious the case involves both crimes. Homicide yields to letting arson take point, in order to keep the killer feeling complacent.
- Kill It with Fire: Surprisingly averted; the killer is trying to dispose of bodies using fire, but all of them were killed with bullets. Even at the end, this approach fails when he actually tries it, though only because Shawn and Gus show up to stop him.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Shawn tries to talk Army down from burning the building they and Morgan are in, pointing out they didn't do anything unlike Renkel and his crew. This, on top of accidentally killing Trombly, drives him to try and set himself on fire. Gus managed to save him while Shawn saves Morgan.
- Not Me This Time: The last surviving member of the gang that caused the Renkel Fires of ’98 is still in town, but he’s insistent he didn’t cause the latest fires, and he’s been a Reformed Criminal ever since a vigilante started hunting his old crew down.
- Pyromaniac: A group of them — generally described as "vandals" — were active in Santa Barbara some ten years ago; at least two firefighters were killed as a result. Most of the old gang has since vanished… and then they start turning up as charred skeletons in the walls of the burned buildings.
- Red Herring: Fire Chief Dan Trombly; evidence that he’s the arsonist starts piling up for the first half of the episode… until he’s found as the latest victim.
- Revealing Cover Up: The arsons are intended to destroy the evidence of 10 year old murders. Not only do they fail, but they lead to solving those murders.
- Running Gag: Shawn and Gus trying to figure out the name for an arsonist/murderer. Suggestions include “Arsonurderer”, “Furderer”, and “Senor Pantalones de Fuego”.
- Training Montage: An odd example of this mixed with Interrogation Montage: Most of the fire department is about to start training when Shawn and Gus show up to learn more about the first fire. Cue the two of them asking the firemen several questions while doing training with them.
