An eccentric police consultant is brought into the SBPD to interview Shawn, Gus, Lassiter, and Juliet about their seemingly poor police work on a tough case.

Shawn and Gus track down playwright madman named Z, who six years earlier was deemed criminally insane after locking a critic in a back room of the theater that he burned to the ground, and who has been locked in a mental institution since. Shawn and Gus are forced to consult with the one person Z confided in while in the institution, a dangerous villain from Shawn's past.