Greetings to all fellow Psych fans, I'm a recent and huge fan of the show and this is my first attempt at joining the conversation on the forum. I was hoping that all you more knowledgable (read: more obsessed ) fans could help me in my confusion, and I'm sorry if this is an old topic. I've seen all episodes except the first half of season three, and I'm trying to figure out how exactly Shawn's life went. My confusion is compounded when I read fanfics that take their own interpretations which I'm not sure are based on info from the episodes or not. I know he's supposed to of left his dad either in high school or shortly after, and the international pilot makes it sound like he didn't graduate. He also says in the pilot he left to help his mom. When did his mom leave, and how could Shawn have thought that it was Henry that left when he stayed and his mom left (re:Ghosts). How long was he gone from Santa Barbara? Did he leave and come back several times? When did Henry move to Florida? Where does the arrest fit in? Where does the divorce fit in? Then there's other comments throughout the episodes that confuse me, like Henry saying he lived with him for seventeen years (to Lassiter in the tennis episode). And, if he left around high school, how did he know that Gus had a sweater vest phase in college (re:Mira)? I'm just trying to piece together his life from teenage years to season 1. Help! I don't mind spoilers for episodes I haven't seen if there is pertenint info in them. Thanks to whoever replies and can sort this out for me. There's probably no big mystery to it all; I'm sure I'm just dense and you will all read and then ignore this post because I'm not understanding something so obvious, but I thought I'd try.

Thanks from the newbie, JediYam

P.S. I would like to add my name to the petition for a Psych/Monk crossover. (Can you picture Monk's reaction to Shawn?)

P.P.S. I would like either begin or add my name to a petition to have Dulé Hill dance (serious, talent-showing-off dancing) on Psych, preferably in a dance solo during Psych: The Musical.

P.P.P.S. Speaking of, I would like to add my name to the petition to have Psych: The Musical.

P.P.P.P.S. I just wanted to have a really long P.S.

P.P.P.P.P.S. For those who notice what time I post this, I'm not pining away sleepless because of this problem, I work third shift.

P.P.P.P.P.P.S. I would like to either begin or add my name to a petition to have a commentary for every single episode of the next dvd set.

P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. I'm done now.

I forgot one! I would like to thank the writers of Psych for three, count'em three references to Cincinnati in the first two seasons. (Four, if you count Dr. Johnny Fever guest starring). I'm from Cincinnati, and it doesn't get the love it deserves!

I don't read fan fiction exactly because I'm afraid that I would get confused! And I prefer to just enjoy the Steve Franks vision of the show.

Wow, that's a lot of questions. I think that the writers are intentionally ambiguous about the exact details of Shawn's life. For instance, the holiday episodes deal with Gus life. In the first holiday episode, Gus' mother refers to his brother. In the second, he has a sister who comes home for the holidays from her job overseas. A new sister was necessary for a plot development in this episode. Did the brother become a sister? No. But she wasn't mentioned in the first one either. Ambiguous. You see?

The 17 years comment. He and his dad were not getting along so he may have hit the road prior to turning 18? Henry strikes me as one who doesn't count a birthday until the exact moment of birth. Although, actually, with Shawn, he counts it as 3 months later, right? because that is when he smiled at Henry. That one is a toughie.

I have asserted before that when Henry and Madeline decided to split up, Henry left for a time to let Madeline clear out. I don't believe it was ever spelled out to Shawn at that time that Madeline wanted the divorce. I think this is why Shawn thought Henry left Madeline and Shawn. This point was never made clear.

Shawn had a series of jobs turning the ten years between high school graduation and the beginning of Psych. I believe he came back lots of times.

I hope this answered some of your questions. Welcome to the boards! I've no doubt that I have answered incorrectly on some of these. Hopefully someone will fix that!

It is all very ambiguous, for sure. All we really know is that Shawn's parents split up when he was a teenager. He was also extremely hurt and affected by it, and doesn't seem to have a good handle on what actually happened between his parents. For someone who is so incredibly observant and able to figure things out, I admit it's kind of strange that this is something that is so important to him, but he has so many of the details of it wrong. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that he's a whole lot closer to his mom emotionally than he is with his dad. He even got his "powers" from his mom. It was just his dad who trained him how to use them- if you want to use such a kind term. Shawn is very likely the kind of person who needs to "shut down and escape" when something really affects him emotionally-could be why he travelled so much and also how he seems to always want to run away at the thought of his dad dating again.

We're also led to believe at some point that Shawn was in a serious motorcycle accident. How serious was it? What were the circumstances of it? More questions...

Shawn did travel a lot after high school, he even lived internationally- take a look at his resume on the Psych site. It'll give you a general description of his life as far as jobs. Unfortunately it won't say much about what was going on in his personal life at the time. But there is also a stack of "letters to Gus", probably how the two of them kept in contact while Shawn was travelling and Gus was in college.

I guess this is why I love the show so much. For having so much frivolity and simple comedy, the characters are really so deep. There's definitely a method to the Psych madness.

First, welcome to the boards!

Second, I'm not going to be too much help... but some of those things you listed (such as Shawn not graduating high school) are more fanon than canon.

Definitions, just in case you (or someone else) are not familiar with these terms:

Canon -- Something that has been established in the show OR established outside of the show by someone with the show (like something Steve adds about a character in a commentary) that is accepted by all as true.

Fanon -- Something that fans established, often in fanfic, that other fans accept as true and also add to their fanfics

Canon example: Lassiter is allergic to mint.
Fanon example: Lassiter is allergic to pineapple. (Though, I'll admit, this may come from my slash side of fanon, I know others like to believe this).

So, it is canon that Shawn gets arrested for stealing a car during high school... accepted fact.
However, it if fanon (to the best of my knowledge) that he did not graduate high school. I always assumed that he left to do all his jobs and everything (canon, because the USA Psych site has jobs for him all over the place) right after or shortly after finishing high school.

Additional reason I think Shawn did graduate high school: Drop outs generally aren't included in reunions... though since Gus was in charge of it, that can be a reason Shawn was if he dropped out.

I think the bike accident that Shawn has that is referred to in Cloudy chance of murder is the one in spellingg bee as this was also attempted murder. Henry is worried about Shawn also I do think Shawn graduate the thing that I love about the Shawn character is that he is so intelligent but just can't focus so he always comes over as an idiot even James Roday comments about Shawn being an idiot in the 65 million years commentary. I'd say he not only passed all exams he would have nailed it like he does on all tests.