I think I am in business now. It seems the renderer does not work with a deferred for me.
This is the solution:
show : function(locID){
this.element.html('birds/controls/hotspots/show.ejs', Hotspot.findOne({id: locID, fmt: 'json'}))
},
This did not seem to work:
show : function(locID){
this.element.html(showEJS(Hotspot.findOne({id: locID, fmt: 'json'})))
},
Thanks!