Shawn Spencer is a fictional character and main
protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
on the American television comedy-drama ''
Psych
''Psych'' is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks for USA Network. The series stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observ ...
'' played by American actor
James Roday Rodriguez
James Roday Rodriguez (born James David Rodriguez, April 4, 1976) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. He is best known for starring on the USA Network series ''Psych'' as hyper-observant consultant detective and fake psychic Shawn S ...
. Taking advantage of his
eidetic memory
Eidetic memory ( ; more commonly called photographic memory or total recall) is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision—at least for a brief period of time—after seeing it only onceThe terms ''eidetic memory'' and ''pho ...
and keen observational skills, he poses as a
psychic
A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...
and works as a
private detective
A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...
who often consults with the
Santa Barbara Police Department
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and ...
.
Fictional biography
Shawn Spencer works as a freelance consultant to the Santa Barbara Police Department, along with his business partner and lifelong best friend
Burton Guster
Burton "Gus" Guster is a fictional character on the USA Network television comedy ''Psych'' played by American actor Dulé Hill. He functions as the "straight man" for Shawn Spencer's antics, and provides sobering advice, helpful knowledge, stea ...
. Shawn is hyper-observant, has an
eidetic memory
Eidetic memory ( ; more commonly called photographic memory or total recall) is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision—at least for a brief period of time—after seeing it only onceThe terms ''eidetic memory'' and ''pho ...
, and always ends up being in the right place at the right time. This makes him an excellent detective; however, his impulsiveness, fear of commitment, and lack of follow-through prevented him from achieving a traditional career with the police. Therefore, he fakes having psychic powers that the police believe aid him in solving crimes; he is in fact simply using his natural detection skills.
Shawn was a
breech birth
A breech birth is when a baby is born bottom first instead of head first, as is normal. Around 3–5% of pregnant women at term (37–40 weeks pregnant) have a breech baby. Due to their higher than average rate of possible complications for the ...
, born on March 24 1977, and comes from a family of
police officer
A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...
s. His father,
Henry
Henry may refer to:
People
*Henry (given name)
* Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
, is a decorated sergeant who trained Shawn from childhood to be hyper-observant. His parents separated in 1992, and later divorced; his mother,
Madeleine (a
psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...
), eventually returned and explained that she left to pursue a job opportunity.
At the age of 15, he achieved a perfect score of 100 on the detective's exam. This is drawn loosely from the childhood of series creator
Steve Franks, who was also born into a family of police officers and whose father "was training
ranksin his own way to follow his footsteps." Franks' father would ask him how many people were wearing hats in a restaurant, a tactic Henry employs in the series pilot.
Shawn's relationship with his father is complicated; Henry is disappointed that Shawn did not follow in his footsteps as a police officer, and is skeptical of Shawn's detective business. Though often it may seem that Henry is intentionally aggravating or imposing his will on his grown son, however, it is frequently implied that he genuinely loves Shawn and wants him to be happy and successful. For example, Henry tips off a meter maid to ticket Shawn's motorcycle, which is parked too close to a hydrant outside his apartment. Shawn's motorcycle is impounded as a result, which was Henry's ultimate goal, as it is later revealed that Shawn had gotten into a serious accident some time ago. When push comes to shove, Henry is always there to back Shawn up, whether it be providing advice on a case Shawn is stuck on or tracking down Shawn's kidnappers (both of which occur in multiple episodes), Henry is there. For years, Shawn blamed his father for leaving his mother and ending their marriage but in the third season opener, his mother reveals that she was the one who left Henry. Shawn thus realizes his father lied to him because he didn't want to ruin the image Shawn had of his mother and sees Henry in a new light.
Despite his obvious talent, Shawn has no interest in entering the police force, and after graduating from Leland Bosseigh High School in
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...
, in 1995, takes up a string of random, low-responsibility jobs. He is shown to be a crack shot, hitting all of Detective Barry's bullet holes in a target with little experience and, at a later episode, disabling a suspect's truck during a chase while he was hanging from the hood of Lassiter's car. In his spare time, he entertains himself by calling in tips to the police hotline based on observations he has made on
crime scene
A crime scene is any location that may be associated with a committed crime. Crime scenes contain physical evidence that is pertinent to a criminal investigation. This evidence is collected by crime scene investigators (CSI) and law enforcement ...
s shown in television news footage. After one such tip, the Santa Barbara police become suspicious of Shawn, whose information is so good that they believe it could only have come from an inside source. Desperate to avoid jail time, Shawn lies, explaining that he obtained the information in a psychic vision. Although initially skeptical, the department is impressed when he uses his "psychic" abilities to deduce that McNab was engaged to be married, that the secretary was "haunted" by her dead grandmother, that Lassiter was in a relationship with his partner (who only appears in the pilot episode and is immediately replaced in the next episode by his current partner, Juliet), and to solve a vandalism case. They hire Shawn as a consultant. Gus reluctantly allows Shawn to recruit him, and they open their own psychic detective agency, "Psych".
Characterization
Although Shawn and Gus often have disagreements, they have been friends since early childhood and actor James Roday Rodriguez describes the pair's bond as "unbreakable". "It's one of those friendships that make people who don't have one ask, 'Why does Gus put up with Shawn?' It's not about putting up with one another. It's about knowing each other so well that things that might annoy someone from the outside don't annoy you anymore."
[Donnelly, G.J. (February 9, 2007)]
Meet the Faker: James Roday Takes Our Psych Exam
''TV Guide''. Retrieved on December 23, 2007. Shawn knows exactly how to manipulate Gus, and often frustrates his friend with his antics, but has come to rely on him more in their casework as the series has progressed. Roday Rodriguez believes that Shawn has "evolved a lot" as a partner, moving away from "dragging Gus around by the collar against his will from case to case to case" toward a more equal partnership. He states that under Gus's influence, Shawn has "wisened up a little bit" and is learning to display a little more discretion.
Shawn's growing maturity is especially notable in Season 3, Episode 16 "An Evening with Mr. Yang" the first of what would become a running plot concerning a
serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
who individually targets Shawn. To convince Shawn to play his game, Mr. Yang (who actually turns out to be female) kidnaps Shawn's mother. Shawn has trouble coping with the pressure of finding his mother and is unable to make any progress on the case. He opens up to Gus and viewers can witness a more mature version of Shawn rising to the situation. Shawn tells Gus that he needs his help, showing humility and maturity, and for the rest of the episode Gus, the normally calm one, becomes the crazy one so that Shawn can focus on the task at hand. At the end of the episode, after Shawn's mother has been found and Yang arrested, Juliet approaches Shawn informing him of how impressed she was by his maturity and says that she would like to go on a date with him. Shawn has been constantly hitting on Juliet for the past 3 seasons and every time she has refused to return his attentions. Shawn had at this point rather given up on Juliet and has moved on to Abigail, his high school sweetheart whom he is currently on a date with. Juliet says she understands, gives him a loving kiss on the cheek, and walks away. But after Abigail breaks up with him, saying she does not want to live a life of danger, he starts hitting on Juliet again, eventually falling in love with her.
Shawn's seemingly random
stream of consciousness
In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver (physician), Daniel Ol ...
often belies the far-reaching logical connections that his observational skills allow him to make. He explains the
multiple-personality-afflicted Robert Dunn's condition to Gus by referencing ''
The Flying Nun
''The Flying Nun'' is an American sitcom about a community of nuns which included one who could fly when the wind caught her cornette. It was produced by Screen Gems for ABC based on the 1965 book ''The Fifteenth Pelican,'' written by Tere Rio ...
'', which starred
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field (born November 6, 1946) is an American actress. She has received many awards and nominations, including two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film F ...
, who played the similarly-affected title character in ''
Sybil
Sibyls were oracular women believed to possess prophetic powers in ancient Greece.
Sybil or Sibyl may also refer to:
Films
* ''Sybil'' (1921 film)
* ''Sybil'' (1976 film), a film starring Sally Field
* ''Sybil'' (2007 film), a remake of the 19 ...
''. He also hybridizes movie quotes voiced by
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances in film, television, and theater, and "one of the greatest actors in America ...
in two separate films (''
The Lion King
''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance, it ...
'' and ''
The Empire Strikes Back
''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic film, epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based o ...
'') when addressing a mountain lion: "
Simba
Simba is a fictional character and the protagonist of Disney's ''The Lion King (franchise), The Lion King'' franchise. Introduced in the 1994 film ''The Lion King'', Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation's List of Walt Disney Anim ...
, I am your father." Running jokes on the show center around Shawn's love of Jerk Chicken and pineapples (even though he has a "distaste" for pointy objects), which he will often bring as a gift to people he is meeting for the first time; his frequent desire for
Kit Kat
Kit Kat (stylised as KitKat in various countries) is a chocolate-covered wafer bar confection created by Rowntree's of York, United Kingdom, and is now produced globally by Nestlé (which acquired Rowntree's in 1988), except in the United Stat ...
bars,
his inability to set his cell phone to
vibrate
Vibration is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. The word comes from Latin ''vibrationem'' ("shaking, brandishing"). The oscillations may be periodic function, periodic, such as the motion of a pendulum ...
, even when spying or infiltrating the homes of suspects; his fondness for
Val Kilmer
Val Edward Kilmer (born December 31, 1959) is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer found fame after appearances in comedy films, starting with ''Top Secret!'' (1984) and ''Real Genius'' (1985), as well as the military action film ...
; his love of
Curt Smith
Curt Smith (born 24 June 1961) is a British singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and co-founding member of the pop rock band Tears for Fears along with childhood friend Roland Orzabal. Smith plays bass guitar, has co-written several ...
and
Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears are an English pop rock band formed in Bath, England, in 1981 by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, Tears for Fears were associated with the new wav ...
; his comments on other people's hair; his difficulty in pronouncing certain words (such as "chassis"); mispronouncing or misquoting phrases (e.g. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Marzipan", "Abercrombie and Fletch") and after being corrected, claiming "I've heard it both ways"; his use of other people's property in his psychic "visions" (i.e. using O'Hara's scarf to cover his eyes, ripping out the paper tray of the printer belonging to Chief Vick, Gus's head); and, of course, the pseudonyms he makes up for Gus each time he questions a person of interest, often a reference to an obscure
'80s movie, a combination of two or more celebrities' names, or something he created on the spot.
Shawn was introduced in the serial killer Mr. Yang's book on page 11. He is described as "a thick-tufted boy genius who ice skates through life on polished blades of snarky eloquence." Shawn is friends with the Santa Barbara Coroner, given they share a similar sense of humor. Shawn bribes the coroner with gifts in exchange for information on cases Shawn has not been officially hired to take.
Shawn very obviously cares for the victims and wants to see justice. This is clear in every season finale, where he has a personal connection to the victims.
Because Shawn isn't an official detective, he often has to resort to stealing, withholding evidence, obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence and witnesses, breaking and entering, and numerous other crimes to solve a crime. Despite his high intelligence, Shawn does appear to have a poor grasp of history and other fields (assigned to write about a U.S. President, he wrote a paper on the fictional character from the movie "
Dave Dave may refer to:
Film, television, and theater
* ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver
* ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film
* Dave (TV channel), a digital television channel in the ...
" who he thought was real). He is also chided by Henry for not knowing all the details of a case beforehand (in one episode, Shawn is about to accuse an innocent man of murder before Henry stops him and reveals a detail Shawn would know from the case file he didn't read). Often, Shawn will accept a case without fully checking out the client or the details themselves yet brush it off.
In "Let's Doo-Wop It Again", he said, "It's more fun to keep things from Lassie"
assiter which eventually resulted in Gus's friends getting kidnapped, and in "True Grits", he asked Officer McNab to withhold evidence from Juliet (McNab refused). He also told Juliet that 'Santa Barbara would be Detroit' if it weren't for him.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Shawn
Fictional detectives
Fictional characters from Santa Barbara, California
Fictional characters with eidetic memory
Fictional con artists
Fictional consultants
Psych characters
Television characters introduced in 2006
Fictional characters with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder