Season 3, Episode 4
The Greatest Adventure in the History of Basic Cable
"Where did you hide that clue, you old syphilitic sea-dog?..."
Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar
Written by Josh Bycel
Shawn's secretive, adventurous uncle Jack has come back to Santa Barbara, much to Henry's consternation. Jack has come across a treasure map during his time in Argentina, one that has led him back to Santa Barbara in search of the French pirate Bouchard's buried treasure. However, Jack is not the only one interested in the treasure, and a small group of thugs and criminals are hot on his heels. Jack is notoriously unreliable, and Henry worries he'll sell Shawn and Gus out to save his own skin… but in the end, only one of them can walk away with the treasure.Tropes:
- Broken Pedestal: By the end of the episode, Shawn and Gus are both thoroughly disillusioned with Uncle Jack.
- The Cavalry: Uncle Jack's former partners have cornered Shawn and Gus, guns drawn, just outside the parking lot to a nature trail... cue several cars of the SBPD speeding in and cornering them in turn.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Jack just can't seem to play straight with anyone.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Henry turns around to look at some pretty girls while walking down the street, ends up walking into an open door.
- Distressed Dude: Shawn, Gus, and Jack get tied up and interrogated by Jack's former partners at one point.
- Evil Former Friend: Turns out the thugs chasing after Jack are his former partners. He ditched them in Argentina.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Henry has always been this, but next to Uncle Jack, his tendency towards it is thrown into sharper relief than ever.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Henry is a retired policeman who was one of the department's finest officers, raised a son who became a brilliant detective (even if he was pretty brutal about it at times), and is currently enjoying his retirement. Jack is a fast-talking glad-handling ne'er-do-well who never settled down, and alternates between chasing after wild stories and mooching off others.
- Graceful Loser: After Uncle Jack discovers Shawn left him with rocks and no treasure, all Jack could say is a simple "well played, Shawn" with a smile.
- How We Got Here: The majority of the episode has Shawn, Gus, and Henry in the police station, explaining what they were doing being chased by armed thugs when a police helicopter picked them up.
- Improvised Weapon User: Shawn and Henry get back from the movies, and discover someone has broken into Henry's house. Henry grabs a stun gun from inside his birdhouse, and Shawn gets… an oar. Then he criticizes Gus for grabbing the garden hose.
- It Belongs in a Museum: The ultimate fate of Bouchard's treasure. Shawn donates it to a museum... well, most of it, at least.
- Lighthouse Point: The map leads Shawn, Jack, and Gus to an old lighthouse, where they're attacked by Jack's former friends.
- Meaningful Background Event: During a Flash Back, we see young Shawn has invited Uncle Jack to pose as his father for Career Day at school. As Uncle Jack dramatically tells the story of the pirate Bouchard, a squad car – visible in the classroom window behind him - pulls up to the parking lot, and Henry gets out and walks towards the building. Cue Shawn's Oh, Crap! face.
- Mexican Standoff At the climax, two groups of Uncle Jack's former partners confront one another, guns drawn, demanding to know where the gold is.
- Only in It for the Money: Uncle Jack sure is. As are his former associates.
- Out-Gambitted: Uncle Jack takes the bag of pirate gold from Shawn during a chase, promising to meet up with him later on. Jack has no such intentions, and is miles down the road before he opens the bag... revealing several pounds of rocks. Shawn hid the actual gold in the woods.
- Pirate Booty: Hidden by the pirate Bouchard. He apparently plundered it from the Spanish fleet, then buried it and vanished for years before turning up in Argentina.
- Properly Paranoid: Henry is well aware of what sort of man his brother is and distrusts him from the moment he arrives.
- Really Gets Around: Uncle Jack had a falling out with a former friend after having a "dalliance" with his wife. And his sister. And his housekeeper. At least, that's what he claims.
- Running Gag: Poor Gus keeps losing his shoes while sprinting through the woods.
- Series Continuity Error: Shawn apparently spent enough time in Argentina that he's able to pick out an Argentine accent vs a Spanish one, and knows some slang; however, Spanish is the primary language in Argentina, and he's portrayed as having to read lines in Spanish off of a cue card less than a season previously in Lights, Camera... Homicidio.
- Treasure Hunt Episode: A rare example where the protagonists keep at least some of the treasure.
- Treasure Map: Uncle Jack found it in Argentina, and it apparently leads to the pirate Bouchard's hidden treasure. However, part of it has already been torn away, and much of its design is intended to be a puzzle in itself.
- Wild Card: Uncle Jack is charming and friendly to Shawn, but his loyalties lie only to himself. The moment he thinks a group of people have served their purpose, he'll ditch them without a second thought.
