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The story opens with Dean, wearing a suit, and running for his life. We hear, but don't see, a dog chasing him. When the camera finally pans to Dean's hunter, we see she's pretty much Benji's sister, complete with a pink bow atop her cute little head. Screaming, Dean flees in terror. I don't know what's going on, but I don't care. I watch the scene five times.
43 Hours Earlier In Rock Ridge, Colorado: The boys investigate the death of a 44 year old marathoner, Frank O'Brien, who dropped dead of an apparent heart attack. O'Brien was married, but twenty years ago his wife Jessie, a manic-depressive, went off her meds and took off. They found her a couple of weeks later in a motel room, dead of an apparent suicide.
There have been two recent, unlikely coronary-related deaths in Maumee, too, that the boys suspect are related. Disguised as Federal Agents Tyler and Perry, they demand an autopsy, which they attend, and which disproves the heart attack theory. They interview the local sheriff -- O'Brien's best friend, who seems to suffer from Mysophobia. They also interview O'Brien's neighbor who tells them that although O'Brien was a bully and a bit of a dick in back in high school, he got better as he got older, but recently, he'd been exhibiting extreme anxiety.
Dean is doing the same. When the boys' EMF reader goes crazy in his presence, he fears he's haunted. He also fears fourth floor rooms, turning left across traffic, and driving over 20 MPH. When Sam brings him food, he eyes it suspiciously, and then… casts it aside. This is serious, y'all!
Via telephone, Bobby informs Sam that it sounds like the victims had (and Dean has) ghost sickness -- symptoms are increasing anxiety to the point where the victim's heart gives out. Frank recently played the two Maumee victims in a softball tournament, so he's likely Patient Zero. The boys have to gank the ghost before this disease spreads like wildfire. Dean wants to know why he's sick and Sam is not. Sam explains that all three victims were bullies and dicks. Ahem.
Dean has hallucinations. After he coughs up a woodchip, Sam drags him out to investigate the local lumber mill. It seems abandoned. They find Frank's wedding ring on the floor (it's engraved) and when they release a cat which was trapped it a locker, it nearly scares Dean to death. I watch the scene ten times. In the mill office, Sam finds the ID card of one Luther Garland, and Dean finds a beautiful sketch of Jessie on the desk. When the mill starts up, seemingly on its own, they also find Luther Garland's ghost standing in the corner. Do ghosts get sent to time out? Dean runs out and hits the bottle hard, leaving Sam to shoot the spook with rock salt all by himself.
It all boils down to this: Luther Garland was the local Boo Radley, who loved kitties, and had a big old (but entirely harmless) crush on Jessie O'Brien. When Jessie went missing, but before her suicide was discovered, Frank set an Olympic record -- pole vaulting to the conclusion that Luther was behind her disappearance. He tied a chain around Luther's neck, hooked the chain to the bumper of his truck and road-hauled Luther to his death. Being Frank's BFF, the sheriff looked the other way, because Scout and Jem weren't around to demand justice for Boo.
Dean's fears eventually incapacitate him. In addition to walking off the job and having his aforementioned encounter with Benjette, he also hallucinates that Sam is the Yellow-Eyed Demon. Eventually Sam just leaves him in the motel to watch cartoons and gets Bobby on the case. The men determine they can't just burn Luther's bones, because bits and pieces of him were scattered when O'Brien murdered him, and they have to rely on Bobby's knowledge of Japanese (!?!) to find out another way to deal with this ghost.
Dean receives a visit from the infected sheriff who dies right there in his hotel room. He then hallucinates that Lilith has come to reclaim him. Meanwhile, Sam and Bobby figure out the only way to get rid of Luther's ghost is to scare it to death. Again. Even though it's dead. Yes. Really. They capture him with a spell-engraved iron chain and drag Luther's ghost to its second death, because that's what it was most afraid of. Yes. Really. Once the ugly deed is done, Dean is immediately better. Because they have their priorities, Bobby and Sam mock Dean mercilessly, and then update him on the resolution of the case. After Bobby leaves, Sam asks Dean what his worst fear-based visions were during his infection. And then? Sam's eyes turn freaking YELLOW. Dean dissembles – saying something about howler monkeys, and that it was nothing he couldn't handle. It looks like we're all out of show. Except…
…We're not, because we're treated to approximately 90 seconds of Jensen Ackles lip-synching and vamping to Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger," which ought to be a DVD extra. It's so funny; it just totally screwed with my grading for this episode. Darn you, Ackles.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!THEN! We see the forest from Dean's point of view as he hallucinates about running from the hellhounds. Brunette Lilith the First's eyes turn white before she takes out Special Agent Victor Henriksen; Brave Little Virginal And Doomed Nancy; and the entire Monument Sheriff's Department. Blonde Lilith the Second doesn't like her Grampy anymore. Dean runs from the Hellhounds again. Sam tells us he has demon blood in him. We all say, "No duh." Sam uses his new exorcism mojo on the waitress demon. Sam kills Hunter Gordon in The Most Stupendously Fantabulous Televisual Moment Of The Scintillating Season The Last! Lilith the Third (Princess Sparkle Special Edition) sends her puppies to play with Dean. Castiel (oh Cas -- Hi! Hi!) tells Dean, "You should show me some respect. I dragged you out of Hell. I can throw you back in."
NOW! Dean, wearing a suit, is running for his life. Although we don't see it, we hear a dog chasing him. Run, Dean! Run! And run he does. He rounds an alley dumpster, startles the homeless man sorting through it, and trips and falls over a pile of trash, and not the kind he usually tries to pick up in bars. Still on the ground, Dean yells to the homeless man. "Run! It will kill you." The man looks at Dean, and then to the evil beastie who's been hot on his tail. Is it another shape shifter wearing the skin of a movie-style werewolf? Hellhounds? Cerberus himself? The camera pans to Dean's hunter, we see she's pretty much Benji's sister, complete with a pink bow atop her cute little head. I think Dean screams as he flees in terror, but it's hard to make it out over the sound of my own laughter. I watch the scene five times before I allow the title card to sweep in on angel wings.
43 Hours earlier in Rock Ridge, Colorado: Posing as Agents Tyler and Perry, the boys view their latest corpse -- Frank O'Brien (he should have been named Frank Johnson), who is three days dead. Sam lets the coroner (we'll call him Dr. Johnson) know they find it curious that a 44-year-old marathoner dropped dead of an apparent heart attack, but Dr. Johnson's rather laconic response is that people die all the time, which is why he has job security. TV episodes are, like this one, often a mixed bag, which is why I have job security. Dean notes that yesterday, two perfectly healthy males dropped dead in Maumee, which seems strange. Dr. Johnson says that seems like Maumee's problem, and wants to know why the FBI cares, anyhow. I guess his gig really is solid. Dean says they just want to see Frank's autopsy results. Dr. Johnson says, "What autopsy?" Okay, he's just flaunting the job security now. Dean replies, "The one you're going to do," because nobody fires a fake G-Man. As Dr. Johnson slices into Frank's chest, we're treated to evocative sound effects, and my phone rings. What the Hell, I'll answer it.
Hello? "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!" Yes, hi Raoul. I don't think this scene is up to your standards. For one thing, there's no violence. It's just an autopsy. "For what manner of blood-thirsty ghoul do you take me, madam?" Was that rhetorical? "I beg your pardon if I'm repeating myself, but I must know -- you used to be a little girl, didn't you? Anyhow, as I was going to say, I do enjoy a bit of clinical gore from time to time, I'm sure. This scene will serve as a wash to rid myself of the opal-eyed evil, evil thing in the 'THEN!' segment." You mean Lilith? "EEEEEEEEEEIIIII!" Raoul? Raoul? "Hello?" Demian, is that you? "Yeah, um..." How are you feeling? "I'm getting there. Listen, I just took the phone to tell you I have to hang up. I...er...I have to get Raoul down from the ceiling and get out the Spackle. Again." Oh. Okay, sorry. "No, I understand. All too well. I'll keep him off the phone tonight, if it kills us both, and I hope to be back to recapping in time for November Sweeps." That's great, just don't hurt your shoulder again, dragon wrangling. Dial tone. I'm so glad he's getting better. Note to self: Substitute gigs are not secure gigs, Stupid.
As Dr. Johnson goes about opening up Frank -- noisily -- Sam and Dean struggle to hold down their lunches. Dr. Johnson asks if it's their first dead body. Dean says, "Far from it," but he's more familiar with the fresh kill, whereas Frank's been dead three days, and is a wee bit ripe. As Dr. Johnson cuts through Frank's ribs -- noisily -- Dean notices a ring mark on Frank's left hand, and comments that he didn't think Frank was married. Disappointed, Dean? I thought it was just Sam who did the deed with the dead, or at least the possessed. Dr. Johnson just says, "Not my department." Coroners get tenure? The hand, by the way, is all dinged up. There are black scuff marks on the knuckles and some red abrasions, too. The underside of the forearm is a complete mess, but things are about to get messier. Dr. Johnson can't find any blockages, so he rips out Frank's heart -- noisily -- pronounces it pretty damned healthy (you know, except for the dead part) and hands the heart to Dean. Sammy smirks a smidge too soon. What better to wipe off that smirk than Dean's fist? Well, the fist is busy -- Frank's heart is a two-hander -- so the good doctor gives Sam's face a spleen juice spritz. -- noisily. Dean smiles the cocky smile of the cocky, which will mean more later. Don't get prickly with me, just yet. Dr. Johnson doesn't make much of the injuries to Frank's arms and hands, and says sometimes when people drop dead, they really do drop, but this guy's appendages are pretty well shredded, so I think that's just the tenure talking.
At the local Sheriff's Department, Dean and Sam talk to Deputy Linus NoLastName, whom we'll call Deputy Linus Johnson. He's as cute as a button. Nay, he's as cute as a button's button. Sheriff Al Britton emerges from his office, and is embarrassed that Deputy Johnson took his "Do not disturb" orders so seriously that he kept Feds waiting. Closed Caption readers are treated to some lyrics from Waylon Jennings' "Slow Rollin' Low," which is not audible in the episode. The Sheriff calls the boys back to his office, but makes them take off their shoes before they enter. He's shoeless as well. Inside, he introduces himself and then makes liberal use of his hand sanitizing lotion, and is it just me, or does it seem like the sound crew is planning to submit this episode for Emmy consideration? Gurgle slick rip squick blurghhhhh. Sam and Dean find the shoelessness and the hand-sanitizing amusing, but they cover well enough. They inquire about Frank. After he didn't answer his phone for a few days, the Sheriff's men found him dead in his home (which doesn't seem a likely place to incur such hand injuries -- although this summer, I did break my nose in my own bathroom -- talk about your Bloody Mary). It seems Sheriff Al had been BFFs with dearly departed Frank since high school, and he's clearly affected as he laments his loss. "Hell, we were Game Cocks." Dean hears this as joking or bragging, and laughs -- all alone. Awkward. The Sheriff is not amused. "That was our Soft Ball team's name." Dean's still composing himself, so the Sheriff says, "They're majestic animals." The Sheriff goes on to say that Frank was a good man, and Dean says, "Mmm. Big heart." Ha. Sam glares at him and turns his attention to the Sheriff. "Before he died, did you notice Frank acting strange? Maybe scared of something?" The Sheriff says, "Hell yeah. Real jumpy," but he doesn't know what scared him. The Sheriff coughs and re-sanitizes his hands as he asks why the Feds give a crap. The boys, being LYING LIARS WHO LIE, lie and say that it was probably just a heart attack.
As Sam and Dean walk to Metallicar, they discuss how convinced they are that Frank didn't have a heart attack. Why their pants aren't afire, I do not know. Sam recaps for us, because he's helpful, except when he's not (and we'll get to that soon enough). "Three victims, all with those same red scratches -- all went from jittery to terrified to dead within 48 hours." Dean says, "Something scared them to death?" Sam asks what can do that, and Dean says, "What can't? Ghosts. Vampires. Chupacabra. It could be a hundred things." Fan girls. Fan boys. Fan girls and fan boys. Irate fan girls. Irate fan boys. Irate fan girls and fan boys. Johnsons. Even though it would be seemingly endless, I guess they'll have to make a list and start crossing things off. Sam informs us the last person to see Frank alive was his neighbor Mark Hutchins, and Dean stops him. "Hang on." Sam asks why, and Dean looks down the street out of the corner of his eye. "I don't like the looks of those teenagers down there." We pan to Metallicar. Two boys on bikes and two boys on foot are meeting up and... talking cordially. Damn kids. Offa my lawn. They look all of 14-years-old. Dean says, "Let's walk this way," and leads Sammy the long way around to his car.
Mark Hutchins likes spiders, snakes, lizards, alligators (or possibly crocodiles) and Raoul's other friends and relations. He's seated in his living room opposite Sam and Dean. He has a -- look, I don't know snakes; it's a leopard spotted boa constrictor or an anaconda, or something huge and squeezy -- wrapped around his shoulders and neck. Mark notes the boys' fake names. "Tyler and Perry -- just like Aerosmith." Bless you, Mark. They need to get called on their crap every once in a while. Sam says it's a small world and asks about Frank. We learn Frank was a bit of a "dick" and a "bully" in high school -- the kind of guy who taped half the town's butt cheeks together, which makes Dean laugh -- definitely inappropriately -- possibly nostalgically. Mark explains that he was a citizen of the unfortunate half of town. Uncomfortable. Dean tries to recover, as Mark goes on to say that Frank got better over time. He lost his wife about 20 years ago, and was really broken up about it. Sure, that's two fewer cheeks at the ready. They ask if anyone would have wanted to get revenge on Frank, but Mark doesn't think so. When they ask if Frank was acting strange lately -- perhaps scared -- Mark tells them he'd been totally freaking about everything: Al-Qaeda; ferrets; artificial sweetener; those Pez dispensers with the dead little eyes. Oddly enough, there's no mention of the upcoming Presidential election, but The Wizard of Oz almost sent Frank over the edge the other night. Frank swore "that green bitch was out to get him." I have to sympathize with him, here. You know that scene in which they close in on her face? Nightmares for years, my friends. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," is canon for a reason. I'm just saying.
Dear Wiccans, I kid, unless you are green, and are in the habit of kidnapping little girls and stealing their snazzy shoes. Then you get the bucket of water. -- Cindy.
Dear Cindy, and Toto too? -- Green Wiccans for Peace and Puppies
The best part of this entire scene is Dean. He's freaking out all the while, hearing and looking at all of Frank's creepy pets. At the end of their discussion, Mark notices Dean eyeing him and his really big boa anaconda constrictor snake, suspiciously. Mark laughs. "Don't be scared of Donny. He's a sweetheart. It's Marie you gotta look out for. She smells fear." I think those dolls do, too. That's the cue for a yellow really big boa anaconda constrictor snake to take a whiff of El Dashing Deano. Marie comes up over the back of the couch and slithers down the entire left-hand side of Dean's body. I'd pegged her for a Dean Girl all along. Dean looks ready to crawl out of his skin and the scene ends not a moment too soon. I have to go shudder for about 10 minutes. BRB.
Hi! It's nighttime now, and Dean's sitting alone in his Baby, reading over something, and scratching furiously at his left arm, and not because he's still skeeved out over Marie. When Sam opens the car door, it startles Dean. They exposit about what little information Dean was able to dig up at the County Clerk's office. Frank's wife Jessie was a manic-depressive who went off her meds in '88, and vanished. "They found her 2 weeks later, 3 towns over, strung up in her motel room. Suicide." Frank's alibi is airtight. He was working the swing shift when Jessie disappeared. Dean drives as Sam catches him up on his investigation of Frank's place. "Clean. No EMF, no hex bags, no sulfur." (Hearing impaired people, the closed captioners lie to you, again. Sam doesn't say "silver".) Dean says, "So probably no ghosts, no witches, no demons. Three down; 97 to go." Sam notices how slowly Dean's driving. "Dude, you're going 20. That's the speed limit." Dean says, "So what -- safety's a crime, now?" They drive past the Bluebird Motel. Wait. It's a hotel. Aren't we coming up in the world? Sam says, "Dude, where are you going? That was our hotel." Dean says, "I'm not going to make a left-hand turn into oncoming traffic. I'm not suicidal!" Sam's EMF reader starts going haywire, and the closer it gets to Dean, the more it reacts. Dean shouts, "Am I haunted? Am I haunted?" Yes you are, Dean -- by the METAL TEETH CHOMP!
It's morning, and Sam passes by a colorful mural on the outer front wall of the Bluebird Hotel. He's carrying a box of something -- let's say donuts because I'm in the mood for one. He's also just ending a call with Bobby, as Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger," starts to play. He crosses the street to Metallicar, but can't see Dean. Well, not at first. When he gets to the car, he peeks in the window and sees Dean stretched out across the front seat, playing air drums. Sam thumps on the roof (in time to the music, I might add, so well done, Sammy). Dean hollers in fright, sits up, exits the car, and shows his brother the three scratch marks on his arm...er...right where he's been scratching. How do you think those got there? Sam hands Dean the box o' breakfast, and is shocked when Dean merely sniffs it and then tosses it aside. Who are you, and what have you done with the real Dean who would have two donuts in his mouth, by now? Damn shifter followed you from last week, I tell you what.
Sam tells Dean about his conversation with Bobby. "You're not going to like [this]. It's Ghost Sickness." Dean repeats what Sam just said and sinks back against the car. "Oh God, no." He lets it sink in, then deadpans, "I don't even know what that is." Some cultures believe the dead can infect the living with a disease. Per Sam, the symptoms of Ghost Sickness are as follows: "You get anxious; then scared; then really scared; then your heart gives out. Sound familiar?" Oh, that'll calm him down, Stretch. Dean thinks this is odd as they haven't seen a ghost in weeks, but Sam doesn't think he caught it from a ghost. "Once the spirit infects that first person, Ghost Sickness can spread like any sickness -- through a cough, a handshake, whatever. It's like the flu. Now Frank O'Brien was the first to die, which means he was probably the first infected: Patient Zero." Dean's less than thrilled. "Our very own outbreak monkey."
Sam also found out that Frank had been in Maumee over the weekend for a Soft Ball Tournament, which is where he must have infected the other victims. Dean asks if they were Game Cocks. Sam says, "Corn Jerkers." I pause the DVR because it seems my husband has regressed to the seventh grade. Are you all right over there, babe? "Rewind that." M'kay. Moving right along, Dean says, "So a ghost infected Frank; he gave it to the others; and I got it from his corpse. So what, now I've got 48 hours before I go insane," oh honey, you're well on your way there, "And my heart stops?" Sam says, "More like... 24." Dean thinks this is super fun, but he wants to know why he got infected when Sam got hit with the spleen juice. Sam looks away and then back at Dean. "Yeah, um, see Bobby and I have a theory about that, too. It turns out all three victims shared a certain personality type. Frank was a bully. The other two victims -- one was a Vice Principal; one was a bouncer." Dean says, "Okay," as in the point -- you can show me it? Sam says, "Basically, they were all dicks." Nice work there, Sammy. Your brother, the one who once sold his soul and went to hell for you, has a day to live and you're calling him a dick. Imitation is the highest form of flattery.
Dean says, "So you're saying I'm a dick?" See, Sam. It's not just me. Sam says, "No, no, no. It's not just that." Oh, it's not just that. So there's a lot more? Hee. Let's give Sam a little more rope. "All three victims used fear as a weapon, and now this disease is just returning the favor." Dean says, "I don't scare people." Sam says, "Dean, all we do is scare people." I don't generally think that's true. All they do is scare monsters. Now, given Sammy's recent dalliances, perhaps he's putting monsters in the people category, but on the face of it, neither Sam nor Dean scare people. They save them. Dean's too distracted to argue, so he just bobs his head all over the place then says, "Okay, well then you're a dick, too." Sam says, "Apparently not," with a sly grin, and there he goes ladies and gents, attempting to swing by the neck, without a net. What a Johnson. I feel sort of bad for Barnes, because the forums are going to go wild, but this is pretty funny. Your brother has one day to live, and you tell him it's because he's a dick. My husband's brothers are like that. (Oh, you know you are, and I know you know you are.) Oh, crap. I have e-mail. That was fast. Let's see. What's this? It's not from one of my brothers-in-law at all. It's from Supernatural's publicist, via the TWoP Brass. This is not a joke. It's hysterically funny that it happened or had to, but it's not a joke.
Subject: A STATEMENT from SUPERNATURAL's ERIC KRIPKE for the Fans
AND New Clips for Downloading!
Importance: High
Hi Everyone!
First up, "Supernatural's" Creator and Executive Producer Eric Kripke asked me to pass on his message below to you to post for the show's fans:
"So I've never before responded directly to the fandom's comments about an episode, and I don't plan to make a habit of it, but I couldn't resist dropping in a thought about the episode "Yellow Fever."
Which is this:
Dean is not a dick.
None of the writers, or anyone on the creative team of Supernatural, think Dean's ever been a dick, past, present, or future. He's a hero. Dean did NOT contract the ghost sickness because he's a dick. Victims contract the illness because they use "fear as a weapon." [To Be Continued]
Huh. I'll insert the rest in the appropriate slot in the recap. It's nice to get that out of the way up front, though. It neither undercuts the hilarity of the text or this new meta-text. Sure the writers and creative types don't think the character Dean is a dick. I never figured they did. But the character Sam doesn't mind calling the character Dean that, even though Dean is his brother, is suffering from anxiety, and has but one day to live. I'm crossing my fingers that this new bit of characterization has to do with Sam exploring his dark side, or still resenting Dean for freaking on him for consorting with Ruby, but since the structure of this episode was built from spaghetti, I'm not sure I shouldn't just chalk this up to selling off Sam's character in service of this one joke.
Understandably, Dean wants to know how to stop this Ghost Sickness. Sam says if they gank the ghost that started it, the disease should clear up. The guys discuss the possibility of Frank's late wife being the ghost who started the whole thing. Sam then asks, "Hey, what are you doing out here, anyhow?" Dean opens his mouth, looks down at the ground and back up at their hotel, across the street. "Our room's on the fourth floor." Sam makes his "And so..." face. Dean says, "It's -- it's high." Sam scoffs at him then says he'll see if he can move them down to the first. Dean thanks him and scurries back inside Metallicar. He picks up the box of donuts, opens it, makes a turned-off face, and lays the box on the passenger seat. Dean can't eat. This is serious, y'all!
Alone in his hotel room, which we can only hope is on the first floor, Dean sits at the desk, doing some research. The ticking clock is in sync with his heartbeat and it's driving him a bit nuts (nuttier). He returns to his book. There are illustrations. One is of a person coughing up blood. The other is a person whose chest has burst open. Dean's eyes focus on the words: "from Ghost Sickness are affected by hallucinations, [can't see word], fever, delirium and eventually a horrible death." Dean starts to cough and his eyes fall back on the illustrations. Beneath the one of the person coughing up blood, we see the same words as before with a slight change: "from Ghost Sickness are affected by hallucinations, [can't see word], fever, delirium You're dying... death." In the paragraph, Again appears big and bold. And in the ? Loser. The book starts to go blurry. Dean rubs his eyes and moves to the where we read You gonna cry? The ticking of the clock grows louder. Dean glares up at it, and although we fade to black, we hear shattering glass.
Sam returns to their room, to find the broken clock on the floor, and Dean sitting on the couch, guzzling a beer. He asks Dean if everything is all right, and Dean says it's "Peachy." He scratches at his arm as he asks what Sam found out. For one thing, Jessie O'Brien was cremated, so it's unlikely she's their ghost. Sam adds, "Hey, quit picking at that," which is really sort of cute. Despite calling Dean a dick, he truly is concerned. Sam sits down and looks Dean over. "How are you feeling?" Dean says, "Awesome. It's nice to have my head on the chopping block, again. I'd almost forgotten what that feels like." Sam closes his eyes and lets out a quiet and resigned laugh. Dean says, "It's frigging delightful." Sam tells him they'll keep looking, when Dean starts to cough again. The cough gets so bad he runs to the sink. Sam is concerned and runs after him, calling his name. I had to watch this through my fingers, so I'm going to rush through the rest of it, because this sort of scene gags me. Dean ends up coughing up a woodchip, covered in blood. After he washes it off and examines it, Sam says, "We've been completely ignoring the biggest clue we have. You!" Dean pouts. "I don't want to be a clue." Sam says that the abrasions, the woodchips -- the disease is trying to tell them something. Dean says, "Tell us what, woodchips," to which Sam replies, "Exactly." Okay, do I rant about the story's structure here or in the paragraph? Let's do it here. Maybe we can keep the one free. Based on that woodchip, and just from that woodchip -- Sam takes Dean out to an old lumber mill. An abandoned one. He knew to do this how, exactly? They're in Colarado. People live there. People have fireplaces, and landscaping that includes mulch, and there are sometimes storms that knock down branches leaving... chips of wood. How the Hell did Sam know where to go. If they're going to have him pull stuff out of his ass like this, then I wish they'd give him his psychic powers back full on. It's late, so rant done.
At the "Cassity & Sons Lumber Mill" (poorly spelled shout out?) Dean takes a swig out of a half full bottle of booze. He's afraid to go inside, but Sam insists, because he needs back up and Dean is all he has. He hands Dean a gun from Baby's trunk, but Dean refuses to take it, because it could go off! He offers to man the flashlight, instead. Sam is miffed, but keeps it to himself, grabs his shotgun, and they head inside. The EMF reader is going crazy, but they can't rely on it, because it reacts to Dean. This seems to piss off Sam. Some people have been complaining that this season is Dean-centric, but Sam sure thinks it's all about him. On the floor, they find a gold wedding band inscribed, "To Frank, Love Jessie." It's Frank O'Brien's wedding ring, but they're as clueless as we are (and the writers) as to why it's there. Exploring the mill, they hear a rattling sound and follow it to a locker room. They identify the locker from which it's coming, and on Sam's count, he opens the door. A cat flies out with a loud meow, and I wish I could embed sound or video in this recap, because I'm never going to do it justice. Here's a link. Eyes wide as saucers and mouth just as round, Dean screams, "AAAAHHHUEAAAAAAAAAAAAA! AAAHHUEAAAAA! OOOOH! Ooooh!" He stops, looks at Sam and Dean is but a 10-year-old trying to smile away his terror. "That was scary!" After I watch it for the tenth time, I realize Sam just looks at him, and walks off. Oh, I get it. He's trying to catch dick disease and die too, so he doesn't have to live without his big brother, ever again. Isn't that just the sweetest?
Dean follows behind asking, "What?" and they stumble upon an office sort of area. There are papers all over the floor, and the place looks like it was trashed and never used again. Sam heads towards what I think are shelves, and picks up something. It's an employee I.D. card. Sam says, "Luther Garland," like that already means something to us, but it doesn't. Dean heads for the old metal desk, straight ahead. He finds a beautiful, old sketch of a woman, and compares it to the newspaper clipping he has on Jessie O'Brien's disappearance, 20 years ago. "Hey, this is Frank's wife." Sam says, "The plot thickens." Dean says, "Yeah, but into what." My word, I'm just glad anyone can still identify the plot. Dean picks up the sketch of Jessie which sort of sticks to the desk. As he tears it free, the mill machinery starts up, which scares both boys, although Dean nearly jumps out of his skin (have I already used that expression; I think I have, but in my defense that's what he keeps doing).
The boys are facing one another, so Dean scans one side of the room (with his trusty flashlight) as Sam scans the other. Okay, not really. He sort of stands there dead until his cue, but that's the director's fault. Dean's flashlight streams across a figure in the corner that is so shadowy, a less nervous person might have missed it, but not Screaming Dean Winchester. Sam stares at nothing, until Jared Padalecki gets his cue, notices the look on Jensen Ackles' face, realizes they're filming, gets into character and turns to see it. And see it he does. I'm glad Dean's not hallucinating this time. Sam's voice is nearly as booming as Deans when he shouts out, "Hey," to the strange figure in the corner. It doesn't turn around. I think it's in a time out, so Sam turns to look at Dean, only to see him running for his life, straight out of the mill. I'd better never hear Dean Winchester say anyone runs "like a girl." I'm just saying. Sam lets out an exasperated sigh and turns back to Boo Radley. Sam and Dean's Boo Radley is huge, bald, bloodied, and Luther Garland's ghost. At first he looks afraid, but his fear soon turns to menace. He charges at Sammy, who dissipates him with a shotgun blast of rock salt. Outside, crouched behind Metallicar, Dean has drained his bottle dry. Self-medicating for the win! Sam runs out holding up Luther Garland's ID card and says, "I guess we've got the right place." Dean is... you know... afraid, because that's how he is throughout the episode.
Back at the Sheriff's Department, Sam gets the Luther Garland file from Deputy Linus Johnson, while Dean stands around in a drunken stupor giving an old lady a look, and the thumbs up to the Deputy. Linus asks Sam if Dean's drunk, so Sam, being a LYING LIAR WHO LIES lies, "No." He tries to dig for more info from Linus, but the case was twenty years ago, way before his time. I think he's blushing. I can't remember a more boyishly adorable guest on this show, other than the late and lamented Poor Little Dead Fey Corbett. Sam asks if they can talk with the Sheriff, so Linus answers in their native tongue, i.e. he turns into a LYING LIAR WHO LIES and lies that the Sheriff is out sick today. Sam says the Sheriff can reach them at the Bluebird and walks out. Drunken El Deano tries to focus his eyes. He smiles at Linus, points his finger at him and says, "Know what? You're awesome!" Linus doesn't know what to do, so he laughs and then thanks him, until Sam comes back to drag Dean out. Once they're gone, the Sheriff, who is so very much not out, gets Linus on the intercom. "Who was that?" Linus says it was the FBI guys. The Sheriff says, "What did they want?" Linus answers, "A file. Luther Garland's." The Sheriff disconnects. Inside his office, we him scrubbing his arms raw with tinfoil, and ooh the sound. We can hear Britton's heartbeat, too. The sound guys are definitely bucking for some award this week. He breathes heavily and loads his service revolver. A voice, which sounds like the Sheriff's own whispers, "They know. They know." The heartbeat intensifies. Sheriff Britton swings to face his trophy case. Upon a bronzed football, we see his reflection saying, "They know. They know what you did, and they're going to make you pay." An evil laugh takes us to the end of the scene.
Sam and Dean arrive at Peaceful Pines Assisted Living Center. Dean's frightened by a sick, little old lady, walking down the hall with her I.V. Sam just puts his arm around him. Dean frets that this isn't going to work because their badges are fake. What if they get busted and sent to jail? Oh, poor Dean. He's afraid of a little fraud and impersonating a law officer? He's already afraid of food. thing you know, he'll be afraid of beer and sex. Then what's left for him? Sam insists he calms down, and orders him not to scratch. They enter the Peaceful Pines rec room or cafeteria, and approach an older man in a wheel chair. Sam says, "Mr. Garland, hi. Um, I'm Agent Tyler; this is Agent Perry -- FBI. We'd like to ask you a few questions about your brother Luther." Mr. Garland wants to see some ID. Dean is terrified they're about to be found out. As they hand over their ID, he blathers on with things like, "Those are real, obviously" and "Who would pretend to be an FBI Agent, huh? That's just nutty!" until Sam finally stomps on his foot. I can't believe Garland buys their act, so he must just be bored enough at the home to play along.
They get Mr. Garland to talk about his brother. Everyone was scared of Luther; they called him a monster. We see shots of Luther working at the mill, and everyone eyeing him suspiciously except the adorable kitten he keeps in a box. And Jessie. He had a crush on Jessie O'Brien, who was a receptionist at the mill (do mills have receptionists?) and she was always nice to him. Frank didn't like it. When Jessie disappeared, but before her body was found, Frank decided Luther killed her and took it upon himself to avenge her death. He went down to the plant one night with a rifle, got Luther outside, chained him around the neck, and road hauled him up and down a stretch outside the plant until he was "past dead." Mr. Garland went to every cop in town trying to get them to investigate Frank, but they wouldn't because he was a pillar of the community. At 24? Really, writers? Oh and while I'm calling the crew on the carpet, I don't know who cast Frank, but since he didn't even have a speaking part, couldn't you have found an actor who looked to be somewhere in the vicinity of 24? Frank had scowl lines for crying out loud. Mr. Garland is a saint, because he's old and that much closer to his own judgment day. He used to hate Frank, but he let it go, because Frank wasn't thinking straight at the time. His wife was missing and he was terrified. "It's a damn shame he had to put Luther through the same, but that's fear. It spreads and spreads." Are we all quite clear this episode is about fear and how it spreads and spreads? I don't want you to miss that. This episode is about fear and how it spreads and spreads -- some might say like a disease. A sickness. A Ghost Sickness. A Ghost Sickness that spreads much like the flu, which is another disease, and when people catch the disease of fear, guess what, moppets? They become afraid. Isn't that the funniest thing? Note to self: Make family appointments for flu shots.
In the parking lot, Dean explains he now knows that his scratch marks are road rash, and he's guessing Luther swallowed some woodchips when he was being dragged down the mill road. Sam says it makes sense; he's experiencing Luther's death. Really, Sam? Can we be sure? Oh my word, they are trying bore me to death with the re-exposition. The Screaming Dean scenes have been hysterically funny, and overall, I found the episode engaging enough while watching it (although it doesn't live up to the first five of the season), but looking at it as closely as recapping entails makes me realize that it smells nearly as bad as three days dead Frank. Dean, bless him, wants to get on with things -- burn Luther's bones and get himself healthy. Sam says it won't be as easy as that, because parts of Luther were scattered up and down that stretch of road. 1. Gross. 2. So? Did he lose any bones? Maybe he did, but his ghost looks like it has all its parts. And besides, I mean, there have been many ghosts whose corpses have long since served as worm food, but you've burned their bones and stopped the ghost. This show needs a better show bible, or maybe just a show bible. Sam says they'll just have to figure something else out. Somebody has to, Sammy.
Dean walks away from Metallicar. "You know what? Screw this. What are we doing?" Sam says they're hunting a ghost. Dean says, "A ghost. Exactly. Who does that? [...] And that, Sam, is exactly why our lives suck. C'mon Sam, we hunt monsters. What the Hell? Normal people -- they see a monster and run, but not us, no, no, no. We search out things that want to kill us, yeah, huh, or eat us. You know who does that? Crazy people! We are insane. You know then there's the bad diner food and the skeevy motel rooms and the truck stop waitress with the bizarre rash." He gestures toward his groin at that last bit. Thanks for the visual, Dean. "I mean who wants this life, Sam? Huh? Seriously? I mean do you actually like being stuck with me in a car, eight hours a day, every single day?" Sam doesn't meet his eyes. Dean gets even more het up. "I don't think so. I mean I drive too fast and I listen to the same five albums over and over and over again, and I sing along. I'm annoying; I know that. And you -- you're gassy. You eat half a burrito and you get toxic. You know what?" He tosses Sam Baby's keys. "You can forget it." As he stalks off, Sam asks where he's going. Dean says, "Stay away from me Sam because I am done with it. I'm done with the monsters and the hellhounds and the Ghost Sickness, and the damned apocalypse. I'm out. I'm done. I quit." Sam sighs in exasperation.
Dean walks down the wet streets of Rock Ridge, loosening his tie and collar. He hears a light tapping sound behind him, and it scares the wits out of him. From behind him, there's a growl. It's Benjette, from the cold open. Hi puppy! Okay, so they've been in town 43 hours. How fast can you run to Vegas, Dean?
Later, Dean's all sweaty and mussed up, when Sam enters their hotel room. "I looked everywhere for you, Dean. How the Hell did you get here?" Dean says, "Ran," and I don't like to nag (that's a lie) but since his heart is a few hours from giving out, I'm thinking a nice rest might be in order. Dean wants to know what they do know, because he's got less then four hours left on the clock. I hope he has another clock. "I'm gonna die, Sammy." Sam says, "Yeah, you are," and lets out a sigh. "You're going back." Dean says, "Back?" Sam says he's going back downstairs -- to Hell. "It's about damn time, too. The truth is, you've been a real pain in my ass." His eyes turn YELLOW! The picture blurs, so the lobotomized among us will realize this is a hallucination. Dean goes to grab Sammy YED, but he mojos him across the room and pins him to the wall. Despite all his fear, all his anxiety, Dean's still the big brother. "You get out of my brother you evil son of a bitch." Sammy YED laughs and laughs. "No one's possessing me, Dean. This is what I'm going to become. This is what I want to become." Sam approaches Dean and his eyes again turn YELLOW! He grabs him around the throat and starts to throttle him with one ginormatronic hand. The hallucination fades. Regular Sam is yelling, "Hey, hey, hey, hey Dean. Hey Dean." His hand is over Dean's heart -- not around his neck. Dean nods at him and tries to catch his breath. Sam pats him on the chest and walks away. No hug? This would be exactly the time for some touchy feely self-help yoga crap, bitch.
The morning, Sam meets Bobby out by the mill. Bobby asks if Dean's hallucinations have started yet. Sam confirms it and figures they only have about 2 hours left to save Dean. Dean is at "home, sick" and is watching cartoons -- but even Gumby and Pokey are scaring him, thanks to a scene that sort of resembles a road haul. Bobby hands Sam an Encyclopedia of Spirits that dates back to the Edo Period. It's in Japanese, which Bobby can read, because apparently he's the redneck's Rupert Giles. He says, "This book lists a kind of ghost that could be our guy. It infects people with fear, it's called a Buru-buru. Sam wants to know how to kill it. Bobby says to burn the remains, the same as usual. Sam asks for a plan B. Bobby says, "Well, the Buru-buru is born of fear. Hell, it is fear. And the lore says you can kill it with fear." Sam says, "So we have to scare a ghost to death?" When Bobby confirms this, Sam wonders how they'll manage that. He calls Dean and tells him they have a plan, and it's a good plan, but rings off before he has to provide Dean with any details. As he walks back to the car, Bobby tells him the plan sucks, but as he doesn't have any better idea, they proceed. Sam enters the mill, looking for Luther, who watches him from behind a window. Neither man displays one drop of urgency at any point in this scene. And although I love both characters dearly, for just a moment, I hate them both. And I miss Gachnar. Actual size.
At the Bluebird Hotel, Screaming Dean hears dogs howling. He hallucinates that they're breaking down the door. Instead, Sheriff Al Britton busts in, but he's all blurry at first too, as if he's part of Dean's hallucination. In a faraway voice, he asks why the boys are looking into Luther Garland's death. Dean sees the Sheriff's blood-stained sleeve and realizes he has Ghost Sickness, too. When he tries to get him to relax, the Sheriff belts Dean across the face. The Sheriff says, "Frank O'Brien was my friend. So he made a mistake. So I didn't bust him? So what? And you're going to bring me down over that? No sir." He aims his gun at Dean, but Dean knocks it to the ground. And then they fight. Okay, they're really more struggling. It's like wrestling, but standing up. Whatever - it's a pretty tight match. Then Dean hallucinates that Al's eyes turn black like a demon's and his mouth is bloody. He summons up the strength to knock Al to the floor, with just a small pitstop as he crashes through the coffee table. This is quite the hotel. It's old and crappy so they'll feel at home, but they seem to have a suite. The Sheriff's heart pounds and we hear insidious whispers of, "They know what you did." Dean tries to get him to calm down, but the Sheriff shouts for him to get away from him. His struggle ends. Fear shot the Sheriff; let's hope it didn't shoot the Deputy.
Sam makes his way to the mill office. Over the two-way, Bobby asks if he's had any luck. Sam says no; it's almost like he's scared, so he decides to make Luther angry. He tears up all the sketches of Jessie. You can see why Frank was freaked. He calls out Luther, asking what he's waiting for. But Luther isn't waiting at all. He's right behind you, Sam!
At the Bluebird, Dean scratches himself silly to the beat of his heart. He also has audio hallucinations of hallucinatory Sam saying, "You're going back. It's about damn time, too." Then there's evil laughter. Dean's eyes scan the room constantly, from the Sheriff's now covered corpse, to the TV, to the walls, to his poor wounded arms. The ticking of his watch is driving him crazy. His heart beats aloud. Dean looks down and finds a Bible on the floor. Thanks, Gideons! He clutches it to him and closes his eyes. A sweet young voice says, "Hi, Dean." WARNING: If you are an imaginary gay dragon, you're going to want to skip this part. It's Blonde Lilith the Second. Dean turns from her, closes his eyes and says, "Oh no, no, no." I laugh hysterically, because I keep seeing Dean as Raoul. Lilith says, "Yes! It's me! Lilith!" She clings to him and tells him how much she missed him, and that it's time to go back, now. Dean denies she's real. She wonders if he doesn't remember all the fun he had down there, and tells us that four months is like 40 years in Hell. Dean is stricken with chest pain and doubles over, but continues to insist she's not real. Lilith's eyes go white as she tells him it doesn't matter. He's still going to die -- still going to burn. Dean asks why he got infected. Lilith says, "Silly goose. You know why, Dean." She then tells him to listen to his heart and once again, and instead of the sound crew going for gold, she gives us the play by play: "Ba boom. Ba boom. Ba boom. Ba boom." I now interrupt this recap for the rest of Kripke's letter:
(Continued from above) Dean asks Lilith at the episode's end, "why did I get infected?" And she cryptically responds, "you know why. Listen to your heart." We, as the writers, probably should have emphasized this mystery more, I take responsibility for that omission. But the point is: the reason he was infected is because of a SECRET he's keeping. A dark secret that will be revealed in Episode 10. And not at all because of any dickishness, implied or otherwise.
Thanks, gang."
Poor Kripke. But you know, Eric, maybe if you didn't have Lilith saying, "Ba boom, ba boom, ba boom," over and over again, it would have been more clear that her "Listen to your heart," was more answer/less taunt El Deano to death. Not to mention that the abandoned mill was really confusing, because it wasn't immediately clear that Frank just went back there, even though we knew he'd worn a ring until recently. The whole plot really felt like goulash. There was a lot of good stuff in here, but it was all just mixed together and refried.At the mill, Luther is kicking the crap out of Sam, to the sound of the Dean Girls' cheers. "Call my Dean a dick, will you? Kick 'im again, Luther." It's quite disturbing. Er... Up here. In my head. While Sam's getting his good, sound thrashing, we flash over to Dean's hotel room, where Lilith is still saying, "Ba boom, ba boom, BA BOOM," because... she can. Back at the mill, Sam grabs an iron chain and wraps it around Luther's neck. Now on this show, iron dissipates ghosts, but not this iron and not this time. We'll get to that near the end tag, but yeah, it's sort of dumb. Bobby must still be listening on the 2-way, because when Sam yells "Bobby, punch it," Bobby floors the accelerator. We see the chain that's connected to Luther's neck on one end, is attached to the Metallicar's bumper on another, and oh my word, Dean would kick your asses if he knew you were using his Baby, instead of one of Bobby's old beater boxes. I'm sure wherever he is, Demian is holding his shoulder and laughing at me, because I'm having a hard time recapping Luther's death scene. It's too upsetting. The guy was a victim in life, not a bully, and yet Sam and Bobby showed little to no concern about scaring his ghost to ghostly death. And the whole road hauling thing just brings up all too real real-world horrors. Okay, here we go. The iron chain had a spell etched onto it, which is what (I guess) kept the iron from making the ghost dissipate. They guys chain and drag Luther's ghost to its second death, because that's what it was most afraid of. Yes. Really. Once the ugly deed is done, Lilith's "Ba boom" chant stops; she disappears; and Dean is immediately better. His scars are all gone and I wonder for a moment if he's been re-rehymenated. I don't see the Sheriff's corpse in his room, either, so I guess that was a hallucination, although the Sheriff should have died before Dean was slated to. I've got to stop. I suspect I'm giving this more thought than the writers did.
Outside in the sunshine, Sam and Dean down some nice cold beers, while Sam and Bobby debrief Dean (stop it!). Sam plays lip service to the brutality necessary to ensure Luther's ghost's demise, but it's not enough to rinse the bile from my mouth. Because they have their priorities, Bobby and Sam mock Dean mercilessly, before Bobby leaves. Once he's gone, Sam wants to know what Dean saw, near the end. Dean says, "Besides a cop beating my ass?" Sam says, "Seriously." Dean inhales and looks at Sam, whose eyes turn freaking YELLOW. If it's a hallucination, there's no blurry effect to clue us in. Dean thinks for a moment and sucks his lip causing an untold number of Dean Girls to faint, then finally says, "Howler monkeys, a whole room full of them. Those things creep the Hell out of me." Sam sighs and rolls his eyes. "Right." Dean raises his beer bottle, preparing to drink. "Nah. Just the usual stuff, Sammy. Nothing I couldn't handle." Close in on Dean, the LYING LIAR WHO LIES, and then fade to black. It looks like we're all out of show. Except...
...We're not, because we're treated to approximately 90 seconds of Jensen Ackles lip-synching and vamping to Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger," which ought to be a DVD extra. It's so funny; it just totally screwed with my grading for this episode. Darn you, Ackles. You don't play fair.
week, we get A Very Special Halloween Episode in which it seems like Dean and Sam will have to face every awful thing they've ever seen. Huh. Do you think they're going to recap the plot of this episode?
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