Chief Vick is still serving her six month suspension, and the very offbeat consultant, Harris Trout, is the Interim Chief at the SBPD. Lassiter has been demoted to beat cop, with Juliet replacing him as Interim Head Detective, and Trout still has no interest in hiring Shawn and Gus to help the department solve any cases.

Woody the Coroner is taken hostage by a desperate ex-con who claims he's being set up for murder, and Shawn, Gus, Lassiter, and Juliet try carefully to resolve the situation without bloodshed. However, Interim Chief Trout has a plan of his own... and he's not all that bothered how it goes down.