Season 8, Episode 01
Lock, Stock, Some Smoking Barrels, and Burton Guster’s Goblet of Fire
"Now yore probably wondering 'ow this awl 'appened. And likely, yor blaming Gus and 'is obsessive need to go to Po'ercon. That's the 'arry Po'er festival."
Directed by Steve Franks
Written by Steve Franks
Since Trout took over the SBPD, Shawn and Gus haven’t gotten a case from them for weeks. Their dry streak ends when Shawn and Gus are summoned to London by Interpol, in order to help with a sting operation against the elusive master criminal Ronnie Ives. To Shawn and Gus’ shock, the agent supervising them is an old acquaintance, the notorious international art thief Pierre Despereaux. Despereaux explains that he’s actually named Royston Stanley, and has been an Interpol agent since before he knew Shawn and Gus. He took on the role of a master art thief to catch other, deadlier criminals, and he’s been quite successful. His faked death was him “retiring” from the role. Now, he wants Shawn and Gus to infiltrate Ronnie’s team and help Interpol catch and prevent his latest scheme. Shawn will replace the getaway driver, who was arrested by New Scotland Yard recently. Now, Shawn has to infiltrate the group, find out what Ronnie’s up to... and maybe, figure out if this is just another one of Pierre Despereaux’s schemes.Tropes:
- Ambiguous Ending: The ending leaves it ambiguous whether Despereaux masterminded another cunning heist using Shawn and Gus as his pawns, or Agent Stanley simply lost his job.
- Assassination Attempt: This is Ronnie’s real motivation. He's not just robbing a royal residence—it turns out that he's killing Dorchester and pinning it on Shawn and Gus.
- Bait-and-Switch: Shawn asks for Lassiter's help on a case. Lassiter acts annoyed and like he won't do it at first, telling Shawn that he actually has work to do, but gets excited by the chance to be able to do some detective work.
- Caper Crew: Ronnie makes a new one every time he pulls a heist, making it hard to pin down who they are. However, this also makes it easier for them to be infiltrated.
- Catchphrase Interruptus: Gus tries to flirt with Stanley’s secretary using his “You heard about Pluto? That’s messed up.” line, but Shawn bodily drags him away before he can finish.
- Demolitions Expert: Gus’ role in Ronnie’s crew. He doesn’t know anything about demolitions, but Stanley manages to cover for him.
- The Drag-Along: Gus just went with Shawn to attend Pottercon, and isn’t happy to get dragged into the investigation.
- Drives Like Crazy: Ronnie gives Shawn a driving test to avoid some traffic cones and human cutouts. Shawn proceeds to run over everything, then acts like it was intentional, to prove a point. Ronnie is impressed.
- Fan Boy: Gus is a big Harry Potter fan, and spends most of the episode dressed for his visit to Pottercon.
- Fan Convention: Gus goes to London with Shawn to attend “Pottercon”, a Harry Potter convention.
- Getaway Driver: Shawn’s role in Ronnie’s crew.
- How We Got Here: The episode begins with Ronnie holding Shawn and Gus at gunpoint, then rewinds with Shawn and Gus explaining how they got to be in that situation.
- The Infiltration: Shawn is tasked with infiltrating Ronnie’s gang by Interpol, as the getaway driver. Gus gets dragged into it, too.
- Interpol Special Agent: It turns out Despereaux was one all along, and his real name is Royston Stanley – maybe.
- Mistaken Identity: Gus thinks he sees Rupert Grint out on the street, and runs out to try and find him. He’s disappointed to find out it was Prince Harry.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Gus infiltrates Ronnie’s gang by telling him he infiltrated the ministry at 13, fought mobs, and got splinched once. Fortunately, Ronnie doesn’t get the Harry Potter references, and when he asks for clarification about the latter, Gus just replies that You Do Not Want To Know.
- Really Royalty Reveal: Ronnie is actually a member of royalty, but Dorchester secretly cut their entire family off out of greed. Ronnie’s father died in poverty as a result, and when Ronnie found out, he decided he wanted revenge on Dorchester.
- Red Herring Mole: Ronnie kills Parkey and ‘Arry because he suspects them of being The Mole. The audience knows it’s Shawn and Gus the whole time.
