The Winchester Family Business

Sam sits up in bed, awakened to "Heat of the Moment" on the radio. "Rise and shine, Sammy!" says Dean enthusiastically, tying his boots on his bed. "Dude, Asia?" asks Sam. "C'mon, you love this song and you know it!" says Dean cheerily. "And if I ever hear it again, I'm going to kill myself," says Sam grumpily. "What did you say, I can't hear you!" says Dean, deliberately turning up the music. Sam smiles indulgently as Dean points a finger at him and begins bopping his head and lip-syncing to the song, In the bathroom, the brothers brush their teeth; Sam, spreading odd-tasting toothpaste on a pink brush while Dean noisily gargles, grinning at him. Ready to go, Sam stands impatiently in the doorway, wondering when Dean will finish. Dean picks up a black bra. "This yours?" he asks, before finding the gun he was looking for. "Bingo," he says, "now, who's ready for breakfast?"
 
They enter a diner as a man behind the counter is giving an old man change and saying, "Drive safely now, Mr. Pickett." "Yeah, yeah," replies the old man, annoyed. Doris, a waitress, says, "Can't stay unless you order something," Cal. "Coffee," he says. Dean and Sam sit in a booth. Dean spies the Tuesday special hanging on the wall--Pig in a Poke--and decides to order it. "Do you even know what that is?" asks Sam. Doris comes over and Dean orders the special plus a side of bacon and coffee. Sam orders coffee and a short stack. Dean insists the job here is small fry; he wants to hunt down Bela, but Sam reminds him they have no idea where she is. So, says Dean, looking over a pamphlet for the Mystery Spot, we will look for Professor Dexter, who his daughter says was on his way to the Broward County Mystery Spot when he disappeared. Doris brings over Dean's coffee and hot sauce on a tray, but drops the latter on the floor. She apologizes to the brothers, and loudly calls for cleanup.
 
On their way down the street, a friendly dog barks at them; Dean takes the pamphlet and tells Sam places like the Mystery Spot are just tourist scams. There are spots around the world that swallow people, Sam reminds him--the Bermuda Triangle, Organ Vortex--sometimes these places are legit. A woman bumps into Dean, says "Excuse me" and goes on her way. Dean looks over his shoulder to check out the pretty blond. "What's the lore?" asks Dean. "Some of these places the magnetic fields can bend space/time," explains Sam, "and send these people God knows where." "Sounds a little X-FILES to me," remarks Dean. They pass two men trying to wrestle a large desk into a too-small door. "Told you it wouldn't fit," one says to the other. "What do you want, a Pulitzer? asks the other. The Winchesters agree to go to the Mystery Spot that night, get a good long look.
 
We see a green hallway with a circular pattern starting in the center and moving out, around and around. Creepy, cheesy organ music plays. Sam and Dean have broken into the Mystery Spot, where a table is nailed to the ceiling. Sam waves around his EMF device. Dean sarcastically asks, "Do you have any idea what you're looking for?" Sam does not. Dean gazes skeptically at a shark head mounted like a moose head on the wall. A nervous man with a gun suddenly appears, accusing them of trying to rob him. As Dean is putting his gun down, the man accidentally pulls the trigger on his, mortally wounding Dean. Sam gathers his brother in his arms and orders the man to call 911. "No. . .no, not like this," mourns Sam, but Dean dies in his arms, his eyes wide open.
 
Sam awakens to the exact same scenario as the previous Tuesday--Dean, alive, turns up Asia's "Heat of the Moment" and dances his way to both of them spitting into the sink. "I had a WEIRD dream!" says Sam. "Clowns or midgets?" asks Dean. 
 
Diner - Mr. Picket, Cal, Pig in a Poke--and Dean orders the Tuesday special. Finding out it's AGAIN Tuesday, Sam orders nothing. When Dean brings up hunting down Bela, Sam asks, "You don't remember any of this?" "Like deja vu?" asks Dean. "No," says Sam, "like it's REALLY happened before?" "Like deja vu?" repeats Dean. "Like we're living yesterday all over again," says Sam. Dean starts to repeat "deja vu," but exasperated, Sam stops him. Sam catches the hot sauce before it hits the floor. "Nice reflexes, remarks Dean. Sam gives him a frustrated look.
 
Sam stares after the barking dog as Dean apologizes for not understanding what he's talking about. Dean again bumps into the pretty blond: "Excuse me," she says. This is crazy even for us, says Dean, "crazier even than dingo ate my baby crazy." "We were at the Mystery Spot," explains Sam, "then I woke up." They pass the two guys with the desk, repeat. Sam insists they check out the Mystery Spot again, but when Dean wants to go after closing, Sam refuses with a shudder; they'll go now, during business hours. "Freak," says Dean. They start to cross the street, Dean in front, but he's immediately struck by Mr. Pickett, who stops, glances out the window irritably, and continues on his way. Sam scoops his bloody-faced, motionless brother into his arms, shakes him. "Dean. . .Dean!" he calls, but his brother is dead.
 
HOTEL! SAM AWAKENS! TUESDAY! ASIA! DEAN! GARGLING! PIG IN A POKE! At the diner, Sam begs Dean to listen to him, "I'm freaking out!" He quickly orders the special with a side of bacon and coffee for Dean, nothing for himself. Dean teasingly says, "I get all tingly when you take control like that." "Quit screwing around," says Sam desperately. Dean gets more serious as Sam explains that, like in GROUNDHOG DAY, Sam is in a time loop. "It's crazy even for us," says Dean. "Dingo ate my baby crazy?" quotes Sam. "How did you know I was going to say that?" asks Dean. "You said it before, Dean, that's my whole point," says Sam. The waitress puts down Dean's coffee and Sam catches the hot sauce--again--because, as he explains to Dean, he knew it was going to happen. Sam finally confesses: "Twice now, I've watched you die, and I can't, won't do it again. You're just going to have to believe me--please." "OK," agrees Dean gently, realizing how upset his brother is. "Even though I think you're nuts." Sam takes a deep breath and finally looks calmer.  Poor Sam! He was so desperate to convince Dean that this was REALLY happening. He had to tell him the truth, that Dean had already died twice, and he couldn't go through this again. One thing we know about Dean. he won't see his baby brother suffer, so that was enough for him to take this seemingly silly situation seriously. Both Jensen and Jared, the latter especially, turned in amazing performances in this episode!
 
DOG! BLOND! DESK GUYS! Dean and Sam discuss that the cheesy Mystery Spot might be the center of all this trouble. Although Dean thinks it's too X-FILES, he agrees to go after it's closed and get another look. Explaining to Dean that he has already been "blown away" there, Sam wants to go now--but first Sam must stop Dean from being struck by Mr. Pickett, who yells from the window, "Stay out of the way!" Seeing Sam's face, Dean figures out that he was killed this way yesterday. "Did it look cool, like in the movies?" asks Dean with a smile. "You peed yourself!" says Sam, watching the grin fade from his brother's face. "Of course I peed myself," says Dean, "man gets hit by a car, you think he has full control over his bladder? Come on!" He looks both ways and carefully crosses the street.
 
Mystery Spot - Posing as reporters, the brothers talk to Mr. Carpiak, the owner of the Mystery Spot--who shot Dean on an earlier Tuesday. Mr. Carpiak, thinking he's getting some good, free publicity, tries to spout the company line--"Where the laws of physics have no meaning"--but when they ask about the man who went missing, he wants to know what kind of article they're writing--the cops scoured every inch of his place and couldn't find that man, this is a family establishment. Sam, upset, gets right in Mr. Carpiak's face and says, "Listen! There's something weird going on here--do you know anything about it or not?" "I bought the place at a foreclosure sale last month," protests Mr. C. Glancing at Sam's half-crazed face, Dean says, "OK, Kojak, let's get some air." Mr. Carpiak watches them leave, nonplused.
 
Out on the street, Dean gives Sam a big I told you so about what a scam the Mystery Spot is. So what's happening to us, then? demands Sam. Dean recounts, "Every day I die, that's when you wake up again. So let's make sure I don't die--if I make it to tomorrow, the loop stops." "Ya think?" wonders Sam. Dean suggests they get some Chinese, go back to the motel and lay low until midnight. Sam agrees. Dean turns. "Who wants Chinese?" he asks. At that very moment, a desk falls on him from above, leaving only his lower legs sticking out. One desk carrier gazes down ruefully from a window, the other from the door, at the broken rope. Sam gazes down, horrified, in disbelief--Dean is dead--again!  Sam sits up slowly in his bed. Asia. Dean alive. Tuesday.
 
Diner - Dean promises a stunned-looking Sam they will figure out how to get him unstuck from GROUNDHOG DAY. "Thanks," says Sam, without much hope. "At first I thought it was the Mystery Spot, now I'm not so sure. We keep you breathing, try to make it to tomorrow, that's the only thing I can think of." "Shouldn't be too hard," says Dean. "I've watched you die a few times now," says Sam, "I haven't ever been able to stop it." "Nothing's set in stone," says Dean, who orders sausage instead of bacon with his Pig in a Poke. "Different day already," says Dean confidently, "if you and I decide I'm not gonna die, I'm not gonna die." Sam smiles hopefully--until Dean chokes to death on his first bite of sausage.
 
Dean, taking a shower, asks Sam if they can't even go out for breakfast. "You'll thank me when it's Wednesday!" yells Sam over the running water. "Whatever that means," says Dean. Sam, glancing out the window, hears a loud sound as Dean falls--and dies--in the bathtub.
 
SAM AWAKES! ASIA! TUESDAY! Dean, mouth full, munching a taco at the table in their hotel room, asks, "These tacos taste funny to you?"
SAM AWAKES! ASIA! TUESDAY! Dean plugs in a razor and electrocutes himself in the bathroom.
 
SAM! ASIA! TUESDAY! Sam destroys the Mystery Spot with an ax while Dean assures the Duct-taped gagged and bound Mr. Carpiak that no one will get hurt and everybody's fine." He gently suggests Sam give it a rest, but Sam refuses, yelling, "Something is going on here, I intend to find out what! I'm going to take it down to the studs!" When Dean tries to take the ax away from Sam, one brother's blood ends up all over Mr. Carpiak's face. Guess which one? "DEAN?" cries Sam.
 
Sam and Dean enter the diner where Mr. Pickett is being told to drive safely again and Cal orders coffee. Dean notes it's Pig in a Poke Tuesday and that Sam has stolen Mr. Pickett's car keys. "Trust me, you don't want him behind the wheel," says Sam. Waitress Doris comes over. Dean orders his usual and Sam tells her to log in more hours at the archery range--"You're a terrible shot." Puzzled, she asks, "How do you know that?" "Lucky guess," he says. Dean grins. Sam doesn't. Once again, Sam is apparently explaining, in a dead voice, about the time loop--this is his HUNDREDTH Tuesday in a row!  I could just cry imagining all the ways he's seen his brother die. It must be killing him by now!  "Hot sauce," says Sam. "What?" asks Dean.  The hot sauce falls from Doris' tray and into his outstretched hand. I know EVERYTHING that's going to happen, insists Sam. Dean and Sam, together, in sync: "Right, you're a mind reader. Cut it out Sam, Sam! You think you're being funny but you're being really, really childish. Sam Winchester wears makeup. Sam Winchester cries his way through sex. Sam Winchester keeps a ruler by the bed and every morning when he wakes up he--okay, enough!" Sam also knows a good deal about the townspeople: "Randy, the cashier? He's skimming from the register. Judge Meyers? At night he puts on a furry bunny outfit. Over there, that's Cal. He's gonna rob Tony the Mechanic on the way home." Sam has burnt down the Mystery Spot, but no matter what he does, "You die--and then I wake up, and it's Tuesday again." "There's gotta be some way out of this," insists Dean. They pass Mr. Pickett, searching his pockets. "My dang keys," says Sam. seconds before the old man repeats it. Dean bangs into the blond. "Excuse me," she says. "She's kinda cute," remarks Dean, then turns and asks, "Hey, all the times we were walkin' down the street, I ever do this?" He turns and runs after her. "Excuse me, Miss!" "No," realizes Sam. Dean takes one of her flyers and checks out her bod before turning back to ask Sam, "A hundred Tuesdays and you never bothered to check what she was holding in her hands--the guy we're missing?--that's his dauighter back there." Sam runs after the woman. The friendly dog that always barked at the boys barks at Dean. "Hey, Buddy," says Dean, "somebody need a friend?" He strolls to the dog, who apparently kills him.
 

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