Season 6, Episode 12
Shawn and the Real Girl
"Melinda, the time has come for you to choose who gets your final heart, and who gets sent packing. And whatever happens tonight, you're not the loser... One of them is."
Directed by Timothy Busfield
Written by Andy Berman
During the filming of a reality TV show called "Paths of Love", one of the contestants, Todd Kramer, is put in a coma after a major car accident. Shawn notices the brake lines on the car were cut, and decides to infiltrate the show with Gus to try and figure out who would have wished this on Todd. Taking the parts of two new surprise contestants, Shawn and Gus try to navigate the world of reality TV… and avoid the strange "accidents" and obnoxious contestants plaguing the set.Tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Shawn is already seeing Juliet, and tries to be as obnoxious and unlikeable as possible to push Melinda away. It backfires when Melinda turns out to be a truly Horrible Judge of Character.
- Confession Cam: "Paths of Love" has these; Todd was visibly unnerved in one of them, showing that he was afraid someone was after him shortly before his "accident".
- Distracted by the Sexy: Melinda is easily swayed by this.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Danny has been pining for Melinda for years, but she's completely oblivious to his affections. Lassiter calls him out for basically being a Stalker with a Crush, but she ends up with him at the end of the show… though when Todd comes back, it's hinted it won't last long.
- Expy: Paths of Love is basically one to The Bachelorette, with the added aspect that all the male contestants are someone the bachelorette might have come across in her daily life.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Juliet starts showing shades of this with Shawn on a dating show.Juliet: You kiss her you die.
- Hot-Blooded: Mario, one of the contestants, a Dumb Muscle type with a Hair-Trigger Temper. He tosses out threats of assault like candy, and when he learns he's been cut from the show, he screams and smashes a glass vase over his head before crumpling to the floor.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Melinda. A particular moment is when Mario physically attacks Shawn and Gus for calling him out on already having a girlfriend. She admits that she's impressed by his passion, and only votes him off because she remembers her mother wouldn't approve of him.
- Hypocritical Humor: There's quite a bit of tension in the beginning of the episode, where Juliet badly hides her frustration at Shawn’s place on the show, both of them justifying it with it just being work, and Shawn proving himself uninterested in Melinda at every turn. At the very end, Todd – who's just gotten out of his coma – gives her a flirty look, and Shawn doesn't look too pleased at Juliet's awkward grin of a response.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: The attempted killer is quietly leaving unfortunate "accidents" to befall several of the contestants. There were a number of close calls before Todd went off the road.
- Misplaced Retribution: Hank, the cameraman. It turns out he was the one who actually thought up the show’s concept, and pitched it to producer Jay. Jay cut Hank out of the profits completely, and Hank decided to ruin the show in revenge – by taking out the contestants.
- Noodle Incident: Shawn's idea for a game show called "The Girl or the Bear". Steve Rollins replies that a near-identical show was aired in Japan, but it was canceled after "Too many people died".
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Brody leaves the show after learning somebody is trying to kill the contestants.
- Skewed Priorities: When Mario attacks Shawn and Gus on the set during an elimination round, the producers and crew are more interested in filming than stopping the obviously-unhinged Mario.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Near the end, Shawn and Gus are driven to an airfield by Juliet and Lassiter, then get out and try to run after a plane on foot to warn Danny and Melinda about Hank's murderous intentions. The plane easily outpaces them, and Danny and Melinda can't hear them over the engine anyway. Fortunately, Lassiter drives his car around to block the plane's path, forcing it to halt.
- Take That!: Quite a few shots at reality TV in general, particularly the dimwitted contestants and ridiculous concepts that Shawn tries pitching the producer.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Brody's entire character is this; he doesn't even pack a shirt for the filming of the show. Melinda wants to say there's more to him than this, but she can't actually think of anything.
