Season 4, Episode 15
The Head, the Tail, the Whole Damn Episode
"Oh, no, I'm OK! Thank you so much for getting the big dead shark off me!"
Directed by Matt Shakman
Written by Steve Franks and Tim Meltreger
A shark attack victim washes ashore on the Santa Barbara coast. While it looks like a fairly open-and-shut case when Juliet and Lassiter turn up to investigate, Lassiter notices Shawn and Gus in the crowd being held back by police, and decides to get ahead of Shawn. He notices a wound in the man’s body among the shark toothmarks that’s a little different – a knife wound. He announces that the man was murdered before the shark ate him, and is branded “Detective Dipstick” by the press for his trouble. Shawn, however, thinks Lassiter is on to something. Identifying the body is rather difficult, since it’s been chewed to pieces, and the man’s fingers are missing (so no fingerprints). A reward is put out for whoever can find the shark, and to everyone’s surprise, Henry tries to claim it when he catches a large tiger shark. Unfortunately, the shark is stolen before Henry can claim anything, and when Gus finds it hidden on the docks, its stomach has been slashed open. It looks like Lassiter’s theory was right after all… and the real shark and the killer are both still out there.Tropes:
- Blatant Lies: Henry initially claims that he was going marlin fishing, and just happened to catch a very large shark out of pure coincidence. His story might hold water if it weren’t for his stunned reaction to learning that the bounty has increased, and he stops pretending afterwards.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The episode does not shy away from showing us quite a bit of the gore-stained remains of the shark’s victim. Poor Gus chose a bad episode to try to learn to suppress his gag reflex.
- Bourgeois Bohemian: Dante Pavan, the shark’s victim. He was an activist who led a number of protests against most things involving damage to the oceans. He finally ran into someone who was willing to kill him to shut him up.
- Father Neptune: William Tanner, a local fisherman. He takes Shawn and Gus out on his boat near the end to help them find the shark. He also turns out to be the killer. Pavan went after him for violating a heap of fishing laws, and Tanner stabbed him, then tried to feed him to a shark.
- Genre Savvy: Lassiter attempts to be this at the very beginning when he sees Shawn and Gus in the crowd on the beach around the victim. Realizing what Shawn’s about to do, he notes something odd about the body and uses it to pre-emptively claim the man was murdered. Shawn is surprisingly supportive of him, and is disappointed when Lassiter backtracks into his usual role later on.
- Kent Brockman News: Lassiter announces that he believes that someone murdered the victim before the shark got to them. For his trouble, the newspapers run the headline “DETECTIVE DIPSTICK AT IT AGAIN.”
- Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: In the show’s Cold Open, a young Shawn is visibly scared about going in the ocean after seeing Jaws: The Revenge. Henry is baffled as to how Shawn was scared by one of the worst sequels ever made.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Lassiter finds Henry’s (very dead) shark – which was stolen from the refrigerated warehouse where he was keeping it on ice – hidden beneath a tarp on the docks nearby. When he whips the tarp off, the shark overbalances and falls headfirst onto him, its teeth inches from his face. Aside from the body covering him in shark blood and goo, Lassiter is unharmed.
- Running Gag: Lassiter’s newspaper-given nickname of “Detective Dipstick” keeps popping up everywhere. Even Henry admits that it’s catchy.
- Shark Fin of Doom: One of these is shown in the opening as the shark approaches a fishing boat.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Averted. It turns out the shark was baited into eating the already-dead victim by chumming the ocean. The actual killer was bitten and dragged under, but let go after a few seconds. When it’s caught at the end, and cut loose, it quietly leaves without attacking anyone.
- Take That!: In the Cold Open, Henry is baffled that Shawn is scared of the ocean after watching Jaws: The Revenge, calling it "the worst sequel ever made".
- The Nose Knows: Gus uses his super-sniffer to track down Henry’s shark from where it was stolen in a refrigerated warehouse. It’s been out on the docks for some time, and is ripe enough that even Shawn visibly recoils after getting close enough.
- Temporary Love Interest: Dr. Phoenix and Henry seem to have some mutual attraction going on, but Henry admits it probably won’t last at the end of the episode. Sure enough, she’s never seen again.
- Threatening Shark: The plot is centered around one of these. At first it just seems like a single random shark attack, but the police soon discover a bit of someone else’s tissue in the victim’s remains, meaning the shark bit someone else shortly before eating most of another person.
- What Does She See in Him?: Henry and Dr. Phoenix engage in a bit of mutual flirting, much to everyone else’s utter shock. Henry is quite handsome for an older man, but Dr. Phoenix is played by Jeri Ryan.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To Jaws. Lots of tropes from that movie abound.
