High Top Fade-Out
Directed by Stephen Surjik
Written by Saladin K. Patterson and James Roday Rodriguez
"Swing low... sweet chariot... coming for to carry me home..."
Leonard “Diddle” Callahan, a member of Gus’ old singing quartet in college, dies under mysterious circumstances. Seconds before his death, he sent an E-Mail containing a large encrypted file labeled “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye”. The others believe it was murder, and ask Shawn if he can help solve it. It seems Diddle worked for a major cybersecurity firm, and he may have uncovered something he wasn’t supposed to see. Unfortunately, there’s been a rift between Gus, and the other two surviving members, Tony and Joon, for years. Between the usual squabbling now extended to two more people, and someone else apparently gunning for the remaining members of the quartet, the group has their work cut out for them…This episode introduces Dr. Woodrow "Woody" Strode, the quirky coroner for the SBPD.
Tropes:
- A Cappella: Gus was a member of a quartet in college named “Blackappella”, along with Tony, Joon, and Diddle.
- Actor Allusion: Henry's dismissive comment about L.A. Law being a passing fad. L.A. Law, of course, starred Corbin Bernsen and made him famous.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Chelsea Patterson, Diddle’s boss’s assistant. He basically foists anything he doesn’t want to deal with onto her… and he’s always busy with other things.
- Dead Man Writing: Diddle sent an E-mail to Tony, Joon, and Gus in the seconds before his death, he’s already dead by the time any of them see it.
- External Combustion: Someone rigs Joon’s car to explode, but it goes off when he tries to unlock it from a distance, sparing his life.
- Fat and Skinny: Tony and Joon.
- The Heart: Diddle was this for Blackapella; he remained the only one on good terms with the other three members even after they’d split up. After his death, Gus agrees to work with Tony and Joon for the sake of his memory.
- It Will Never Catch On: In the Cold Open, young Shawn asks Henry for a home computer. Henry dismisses them as a passing fad “Like rap music, Madonna, and L.A. Law.”
- My God, What Have I Done?: Diddle told Ms. Patterson about the workaround in some software he was looking through, and she exploited it to get a list of seemingly-abandoned warehouses where confiscated drugs were kept, then sold it to a drug kingpin. Diddle recorded the entire exchange, and was about to turn it in when he was killed. At the end, Ms. Patterson bursts into tears when she’s confronted about it, admitting to everything but insisting she didn’t intend for anyone to get hurt.
- Not-So-Abandoned Building: The security software Diddle was working on was designed for the SBPD; it protected a list of seemingly-abandoned warehouses where confiscated drugs were kept.
- Police Are Useless: Lassiter and Juliet are oddly unhelpful this episode (Lassiter in particular is a complete jerk to Shawn and Gus, even more than usual), generally telling Shawn and Gus to drop the case and leave everything to them. Justified near the end; it turns out they found that Shawn and Gus were getting very close to an undercover sting operation being conducted by the narcotics department, and didn’t want them interfering with their usual shenanigans. Ironically, when Shawn and Gus are finally allowed to participate in the case, Shawn solves it almost immediately.
- Putting the Band Back Together: Deliberately invoked by Diddle, who sent the E-Mail to Tony, Joon, and Gus to try and get them to at least reconcile long enough to get the problem solved.
- Scary Black Man: One of these keeps turning up wherever Shawn and Gus are, and is a serious suspect in the case. At the end, it turns out he was Good All Along; Detective Moses Johnson, a narcotics officer working an undercover sting operation.
- Songs in the Key of Lock: It turns out that the only way to unencrypt the file is for Gus, Tony, Joon, and someone else (Shawn volunteers) to sing “It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday” in unison into a computer mic.
- Stalker with a Crush: Downplayed. Diddle was apparently sweet on Chelsea Patterson, one of his coworkers, and deliberately made a small gap in a pile of books to watch her. Except he also suspected her of foul play, and was keeping an eye on her.
- Technobabble: Diddle’s boss explains what Diddle was working on using this; he admits it was so advanced even he doesn’t know everything about it.
- Variations on a Theme Song: “I Know You Know” is performed by Boyz II Men, another Acappella group.
