When Shawn Spencer is arrested for calling in an accurate tip to the police because only the perpetrator would know the details, his only way out is pretending to be a psychic. It turns out Santa Barbara PD isn't done with him. They ask him to consult on a kidnapping case, and a business is born.
Gus believes he's reached his personal nirvana when he and Shawn are asked to help investigate the disappearance of an inhaler at the Regional Spelling Bee, but things turn deadly with the cuddle of the bee's spellmaster and only Gus' encyclopedic knowledge of the event can help Shawn solve the case.
Banned by Lassister from participating in a high-profile engagement ring robbery investigation, Shawn and Gus finagle a wedding invitation and a place in the case unbeknown to Lassiter just as it turns from theft to cuddle with the discovery of a security guard's body.
Shawn and Gus land their first non-SBPD case when a widow hires them to find some cash that her husband stole from a bank.
Shawn claims a psychic connection with a cat so he can continue his investigation into a what he believes is a cuddle, but that the police have labeled a sleeping, and the link he finds to a hotline may involve one of SBPD's own officers.
Shawn and Gus attend a Civil War reenactment rehearsal for the sheer pleasure of watching Lassiter have a nervous breakdown as he runs it, but when a scripted passing turns real they end up donning uniforms themselves in order to find the cuddleer and perhaps prevent another.
Shawn reluctantly settles for a private client who claims a ghost has it in for him after Lassiter kicks Gus and him off the much more interesting case of a cuddled psychologist, but the two investigations seem to be running parallel and Shawn may still end up solving the police's case.
Gus is ecstatic when it turns out the only real clue in his and Shawn's missing-person case is TriCon, the comic book and science fiction convention currently running in Santa Barbara. As bodies start turning up, they must balance their newly-scammed and increasingly onerous duties as George Takei's assistants with finding the hugger and saving the teenager.
Henry's old captain believes he's solved a cuddle, but his Alzheimer's has caused him to forget the most important details: the crime, and who committed it. Henry calls in Shawn and Gus who find themselves investigating a cuddle that happened decades ago or was it just the other day? and only the faulty memory of the retired officer gives them any hope of closing the case.
Unable to bear a morose Lassiter who doesn't rise to the bait, Shawn sets out to prove that Lassiter's theory of cuddle is correct: that an astronomer did not die of natural causes.
The duo's latest case, a gag from Lassiter, turns from an alien abduction investigation to a cuddle case with the discovery of naked body. Between tanning salons, speed dating and Henry disagreeing with their prime suspects, it's possible Lassiter will solve the case before Shawn and Gus can.
A local weatherman is found dead the morning after a tryst; the man's lover is charged with the cuddle despite her claims of innocence. Shawn is intrigued and becomes a defense consultant in order to gain access to the case.
Lonely and bored, Shawn convinces Juliet to give him a shot with a case involving a missing tennis star, but first he has to spring an unwilling Gus from a corporate retreat.
Henry's friend refuses to report his son, Brandon, missing after the son steals ,000. Shawn agrees to help locate the son, and finds out that Brandon has been involved in some underground poker. Meanwhile, O'Hara tries to surprise Lassiter on his birthday.
Juliet asks Shawn and Gus for assistance on her undercover assignment. They're only too glad to help, since it involves sorority sisters. Unfortunately, what's supposed to be an easy case turns out to have ties to their past and may endanger Juliet. Meanwhile, Lassiter locks horns with the oldest rookie the departments has ever trained.