"The Shreds Fell Like Snowflakes" is the fifteenth episode of Fillmore! It originally aired on September 27, 2003.
Summart[]
Vallejo's nearing his second term test for Junior Commissioner, and in the meantime, a crime crops up involving 'The Shredder'- an anonymous criminal who shreds people's pet projects. Here's the catch - not a single one of the victims saw the Shredder's face. This seems like a job for Vallejo's old profiler partner, Frank Bishop, who was driven from the Safety Patrol in disgrace (due to a threatening lawsuit against the school by parents who son was caught doing a game scam by being stopped by Frank with gazpacho, which the boy was allergic to). He deduces that the Shredder is hitting students from the Drama Club in alphabetical order - and his own sister, Francine, is next on the list. However, maybe these shredding incidents aren't all they appear to be...
Parodied crimes: Serial killer and conspiracy
Plot[]
Act One: Slivers of Truth[]
The Safety Patrol is called in to investigate when someone shreds a petition of signatures collected by student Lorenzo Amador to keep his mother's flower shop from being demolished. Lorenzo is left horrified by the act, but he claims the perpetrator wore a hood that concealed his face. This crime is the second in a string of attacks on students' pet projects by a "serial shredder," but the Safety Patrol has no motives or suspects to go on. Vallejo tells Folsom they need a criminal profiler to catch "The Shredder," and suggests Frank Bishop, something Folsom is vehemently against for a previous scandal. Folsom warns Vallejo that if he brings in Frank and fails, it will cost him his second term as Junior Commissioner which is going to be renewed by a review meeting with the school board Friday. Vallejo sends Fillmore and Ingrid to get Frank and explains the reason he was kicked off the force, despite being the school's best profiler. While pursuing a perp behind a weighted bingo ball scam, Frank stopped him from escaping by dumping a vat of gazpacho on him, which the perp was highly allergic too. The perp's parents threatened to sue the school unless Frank was taken off the force. Fillmore and Ingrid go to Frank's house and meet with his sister Francine, who runs a small business of giving tours of her ice sculpture garden. Francine warns that Frank has been in depression ever since he was kicked off the force and he refuses to cooperate with the Safety Patrol out of bitterness, but when Fillmore reveals Vallejo wanted to give him another chance at the Safety Patrol, Frank tells them that The Shredder is going to escalate his crimes to paper mache projects. Frank's help leads them to the school science fair where the spot a hooded figure carrying a shredder who runs when spotted. The figure traps Fillmore on a large chocolate making machine which threatens to crush him
Act Two: Old Friends, New Foes[]
The Safety Patrol is blocked from helping Fillmore when a model volcano makes a massive eruption, but Frank, who decided he couldn't stand by and let people get hurt, saves him by disabling the machines. During the commotion, The Shredder succeeds in destroying Bernice Beachmont's Hailey's Comet diorama, which she claims she needed to pass science class. Vallejo defends Frank when Folsom blames him for The Shredder getting away, but Frank is still bitter at Vallejo. Frank deduces that The Shredder is female, possibly has help, ambidextrous, and the destroyed projects are crimes of passion. Ingrid investigates the victims and learns that they are all members of the drama club while the volcano is discovered to have been sabotaged ahead of time, meaning The Shredder knew they were coming. Ingrid and Fillmore realize Frank was the only one who know they would be at the science far and after a little digging into his records, learn his life fell apart after being kicked off the Safety Patrol. They suspect may be The Shredder and committing the crimes so he can solve them and have purpose again, but Vallejo refuses to believe it without solid evidence. Vallejo admits that when Frank was kicked off the force after the gazpacho incident, Vallejo abandoned him to avoid being implicated in the scandal and risk his promotion to Junior Commissioner, and he refuses to betray Frank again. Frank quickly figures out he's been investigated and leaves the case, unwilling to become the Safety Patrol's scapegoat again.
Act Three: Race To Salvation[]
Vallejo talks to Frank at his house and tells the latter that the real reason he left the case was because he afraid of failing. He reminds Frank that if he gives up now, that that will be the real failure, and the conversation makes Frank realize the victims have been attacked in alphabetical order by their last name. Frank leaves to warn the drama club while Ingrid finds the next target on the list, France and her ice garden. Vallejo goes to Frank's house to protect Francine, ignoring Fillmore's concern that it could be a distraction to keep him away from his commissioner hearing. When Frank goes the empty drama club room and sees a poster signed by all the members, he cracks the case. Meanwhile, the Safety Patrol discovers phone records of calls made from Frank's house to all of the victims made one day before they were shredded. They also discover that Lorenzo's mom's flower shop wasn't torn down even though his petition was destroyed and Bernice is an A+ science student, and her project was only for extra credit; the drama club kids were only acting traumatized when their projects were destroyed. Ingrid and Fillmore suspect Frank set up fake incidents and paid off the drama club to help him. However, on the way to Frank's house to warn Vallejo, they realize Frank didn't have the money to pay off the actors and there was only other person who knew they were at the science far. At Frank's house, Vallejo is helping Francine secure her ice sculpture garden when Frank suddenly arrives with the shredding machined used to destroy the projects and reveals Francine is The Shredder. She hired the acting club to destroy their own projects, which explains how the Shredder was ambidextrous, she matched the profile, and the shredder he found in her room is the final piece of evidence. Francine admits fabricated the Shredder because her brother was rotting away after losing his job on the Safety Patrol and she wanted to give him purpose. She also hated Vallejo for abandoning him in his time of need and locks the two up so Vallejo will miss his hearing and lose his position. However, Fillmore and Ingrid arrive and free Vallejo, who catches arrests Francine and makes his way to his hearing. Vallejo keeps his job as Junior Commissioner and plans to hire Frank back to his old job as a profiler.