Horrified, Julie can’t delete the conversation. “PrincessElsa8: 810” pops back up.
She shuts it off but it turns back on. She unplugs her laptop and power cord. (?) Her breath’s visible.
The screen fills with 810. She closes the laptop and runs to the door. The door slams.
The laptop displays more 810’s.
A cord animates and wraps around her neck. She strangles.
ICU
Dean swivels around so far to watch a couple of coeds that he ends up following them.
“I’m not gonna make it.” Sam tells him to “Focus.”
A Detective (Jacqueline Samuda) ducks under the crime scene tape followed by Sam.
Dean smashes through the tape.
(Some things don’t change)
The Detective reveals that roommate Delilah, after all night studying, found Julie strangled with the doors locked.
Fortunately, Delilah supplied her with passwords. “And nowadays, the only way to find out anything about teenagers
is through social media. Trust me, I got two of them.“
Sam and Dean discuss the possibility of Joey’s ghost being active and the Ghost in the Machine.
Sam steals the laptop.
Outside the Dorm, Delilah answers some questions. She remembers Billy and Julie knew each other.
Billy was president of Sigma Theta Delta. Dean recognizes the acronym STD and finds it amusing.
(FYI, Dean, it’s STI, now.) Delilah identifies it as the “biggest frat on campus.”
(Which is true. Somethings don’t change.)
Delilah knows nothing else but she’s lying.
Dean leans into her, “You know we’re federal agents, right? Lying to us is a big-time offense.”
Delilah maintains that’s all she knows. (Tell: too much head shaking)
Balancing a tray full of food, Dean gives Sam his coffee with a sexist comment,
“a café au lait for the lady. For me…”
“A heart attack?” Sam asks.
Dean’s in gluttony heaven, “I got Italian. I got Chinese. Serve yourself froyo. College is better than Vegas.”
Dean, a grotesque caricature of himself, dribbles noodles out of his mouth as Sam tries to recap what he’s discovered on Julie’s laptop.
“Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Instachat, Snapchat, A.I.M., nothing but posts on “Rush“ and “Fifty Shades of Grey“,
the movie, not the book.” Dean confesses he didn’t get half that.
(I don’t get 50 Shades either.)
Sam explains to a disbelieving Dean that he’s going through deleted files.
“I mean, nothing ever really gets deleted from the Internet. You knew that, right?”
Dean looks haunted as he reflects on this information.
MUST RE-WATCH CLIP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PAjh8Mlde0
Sam uncovers the Instachat with PrincessElsa8. (*QueenElsa)
Dean reads, “‘Liar. I know. You’ll pay.’ Well, this Princess Elsa’s a bitch.”
(OMG poor Elsa!)
They speculate on the meaning of 810 discovering 3 addresses in “Spencer” with 810.
Dean arranges his food to go.
While the Impala pulls up at 810 Downs Drive, Sam, on his phone, discovers that PrincessElsa8
is “a third-grader from Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin, who’s obsessed with “Frozen.”
And she was fast asleep when the Instachat occurred.”
They watch a woman, dressed like Cas, leave 810 and walk to the corner. They fall in behind her.
She gathers memorial flowers by a pole and stuffs them into a garbage bag.
In Sync, they pull out badges. She says she’s throwing away dead flowers but Dean notes they’re not dead.
Corey (Barbara Kottmeier) explains why the flowers seem to taunt her,
“My husband was killed in a car accident here nine months ago. … We were newlyweds. …And to have to be
reminded of that every time I look out my window or leave the house.” They commiserate with her.
Sam asks if she noticed anything unusual but doesn’t press her when she lies.
(Tell: too much head shaking)
She does recall a long red haired girl in Greek letters leaving flowers.
At an outside silver café, Dean leaves a message for Delilah. “This is Agent Grohl again. …Call ASAP.”
While Dean prepares another feast Sam relates what he’s found.
“Andrew Silver, 29-year old Spencer High School teacher killed in fatal accident. Car burst into flames.
Silver’s body was burned beyond recognition.
And he’s believed to have been killed upon impact.”
He was cremated so how and why is he going after these coeds?
Like any mystified adult, Sam asks, “
Are you gonna eat all that?”
“I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER”
Kyle (Jack Evans) scrolls through SEXTR as Delilah frantically pleads for them to come clean.
The feds and the deaths got to Delilah but Kyles feels no such remorse or fear.
“It totally sucks that Billy and Julie died. But it’s just a crappy coincidence, not a curse.”
Delilah continues to worry.
Kyle warns her, “Delilah, stop. I’m serious. You better keep your mouth shut or you’re gonna have a lot
more than a curse to worry about.“
Delilah leaves.
Kyle returns to SEXTR to see messages from QTPIE with CHERRY PIE.
(Don’t show Dean!)
(Clearly, Ghost Andrew is a Generation Xer)
A knock on the door interrupts him.
Kyle looks down the hall to see a Frat Bro (Aaron Paul Stewart) with a phone heading from the shower.
Kyle asks, “Was that you?” The Frat Bro says, “No.” Oddly, Kyle thinks QTPie’s a “tease.”
The phone rings. A voice yells, “What time is it?” The clock reads 8:10.
The music increases to a deafening level.
Music mega reverberates, “Work, Breed, Consume.”
(* “DISRUPT?”)
Frat Bro returns, phone in hand, to bang on the door, “Lower the tunes, Brah! Trying to study.”
Kyle’s unable to respond. The music fills him to bursting. Glass breaks.
Blood streams from every visible orifice and probably the invisible. “Death by Decibels.”
THAT’S A NEW ONE!
Against Empire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh5FwU80_1E
PSA
Dean describes Kyle’s jellied brains and the “clock on his stereo stopped at 8:10.”
They turn to Delilah wanting answers. Delilah reflects back on Andrew Silver’s “
accident.”
FLASHBACK
Billy and Kyle are texting while Delilah and Julie take selfies.
Distracted, Billy almost hits another car head-on. He barely swerves out of the way causing Andrew’s car to hit a pole.
Trapped and covered in blood, Andrew watches while they argue about calling 911.
A sparking wire descends. Andrew’s car catches fire.
Billy drives away as Andrew screams. Despite Delilah’s pleas Billy keeps going.
He already has a D.U.I. and if they “find out I’m driving on a suspended license, I’m going to jail.”
He grabs Delilah’s phone. Julie explains ‘Andrew’s dying’ is not their problem.
“
Someone else will call the cops.”
“Ghostbusters”
Back in the dorm, Delilah admits, “I shouldn’t have let them talk me out of it. It was wrong. And now we’re being punished.”
Sam and Dean get out the salt and get to work explaining it’s the vengeful ghost of Andrew Silver.
Delilah asks if they are “Ghostbusters.”
“Sure.” Dean answers. “First things first, though. You need to stay inside the SALT CIRCLE.”
They admit they don’t know how Andrew’s moving or what he’s tied to.
Dean wonders if it’s the power lines but what about Billy’s truck? Sam leaves for the accident site.
Dean gets an IRON CROWBAR and hands Delilah a Kleenex.
He asks if she’s tired, but she’s used to all night studying.
“
Mostly to avoid the nightmares. My mom’s thrilled with my GPA, but I’m just miserable.
I think about Andrew all the time. And I’ve never even met the guy.”
Dean confesses, “I’ve made more mistakes than I can count. Ones that haunt me day and night.”
Delilah asks how he deals. He jokes, “Whiskey. Denial.” Then he tells the truth:
“I do my best to make things right, whatever that may be. For you, maybe it’s coming clean. You know, finding a way to ask for
forgiveness. But not breaking the bank at your local florist. I mean, real forgiveness. You can’t just bury stuff like this. You got to deal with it.”
Sam shines his flashlight up to the wires on the pole and over to a tower.
Sam calls: Andrew’s using Wi-Fi to move. Ghosts online. They connect the kills.
Sam advises, “You got to get Delilah somewhere safe. Turn off all the routers.”
Dean’s skeptical they can kill the internet. “Alright, so then how the hell are we gonna deal with the Lawnmower Man?”
Sam will call back. Delilah has no clue where the routers are. (?) The lights start flashing.
Their breath is visible. Andrew appears on screens.
Dean gives his CROWBAR a workout.
Dean tells Delilah to move away from Wi-Fi signals. The basement has poor reception.
(Not the basement!)
They run slowly down the stairs, past other dorm rooms with computer screens showing Andrew’s face.
When they reach the basement, Dean shuts the door and begins salting the accesses hoping
the lack of Wi Fi and devices will prevent Andrew bypassing the lines.
TUMBLING
“I’LL TELL YOU MY SINS”
“YOU CAN SHARPEN YOUR KNIFE”
Corey opens the door to Sam. “I’m so sorry to bother you Mrs. Silver, but I have an emergency and I really need your help.
Now this is gonna sound strange...”
“It’s my husband, isn’t it? Come in.”
Corey confides that Andrew contacted her online. “At first I thought it was a joke, that someone was playing a cruel joke on a
grieving widow.(?) But Andrew knew things…: inside jokes, the code to our alarm, my obsession with Lifetime movies.
It was then that I knew I had my husband back, even if it was just online.“
Then Andrew started acting strange and focused on revenge.
“When the kids at the college started dying, I thought it might be Andrew. But what was I supposed to do?
Call the cops and tell them the ghost of my dead husband was picking off co-eds? But mostly, I
just didn’t want to face the truth. Because I knew it was revenge that brought him back, and if I tried
to stop him, that he might go away. And I didn’t want to lose my husband again.“
(A message Sam?)
Dean finds a phone vibrating under a sofa cushion. Andrew appears and flings Dean across the room.
Delilah begs for her life. “Please don’t kill me. We didn’t mean to hurt you. It was an accident. I swear.
If I could do it over again, I would have done the right thing.”
Dean hits Andrew with the crowbar. Andrew vanishes.
They try to leave but the door’s locked.
Dean tries to rationalize with Andrew while texting Sam for help. “Listen to me. You have every right to be pissed.
But take it from me, the more you kill, the crazier you’ll get. The blood fuels the rage. So it looks like to
me you’ve got two choices. You can keep killing and become something that you won’t recognize, or you can move on.
‘Cause that’s the only thing that’s gonna give you peace…PAIN OR PEACE.”
Andrew shoves Dean and starts choking him.
Delilah holds up the phone displaying Corey’s face.
“You have to stop this. Revenge. It’s hollow. And it’s pointless. It won’t bring you back. I should have said
this earlier. But, I couldn’t let go. But it’s time for me to let go and for you to do the same. Please. I’m begging you.
Do this for me. Do it for us. Goodbye.” Andrew lets go of Dean and vanishes.
“LET ME GIVE YOU MY LIFE”
In the Impala, Dean and Sam watch Delilah enter Corey’s house.
Watching them, Sam comments, Andrew wasn’t the only one to choose peace.
Dean agrees. He, too, has accepted peace. “
My peace is helping people. Working cases. That’s all I want to do.”
Dean’s done trying to find a cure but he’s not “
giving up.” He’ll fight the Mark all the way.
“I’m gonna fight it till I can’t fight it anymore. And when all is said and done, I’ll go down swinging.”
(But, he is going down.)
SPOOFED
Some disgruntled fans viewed this episode as a bad “I Know What You Did Last Summer”
and a terrible PSA to not drink or text and drive. NO. It was a spoof of horror films.
(Think “Scream”)
College life with spacious dorms and Vegas buffets?
In horror films teenagers are often presented through the distorted lens of adults
who view teenagers as immoral, self-absorbed, bimbos indulging in substance abuse.
That’s exactly what’s portrayed here.
The teens are constantly on their phones, disregarding the rules, and being sexual deviants.
“Darned kids with their INSTAFACE chat and TWITTERSNAP. Sleeping with TA’s to get a good grade.
Texting and Driving with a DUI? What’s wrong with kids today?”
“The Ghost in the Machine” trope has a theme. People fear the new and constantly changing world.
The song “Head Full Of Doubt / Road Full Of Promise” used in the teaser underlined
the theme: accepting the transience of the world around you.
On some level these “spoiled kids” deserve their fate, as in all horror films. It’s just another horror trope.
This satirical portrayal of the horror genre ties into two more prevalent themes:
the fear of change and new directions for Supernatural, and the choices we must make to move forward.
DIDN’T MISS THE MARK
This show didn’t abandon the Season’s Arc. There were pivotal decisions made.
The Mark’s influence on Dean was forcing him even deeper into the fight against the Mark’s bloodlust
and influencing Dean to give into his desires. To allay this thirst, Dean was trying to sate the lust by feeding it.
His desires and lust for women were manifesting and growing in disturbing lewd ways.
The gradual morphing of his brother into “something else” does not go unnoticed by Sam.
Sam’s conversation with Corey about watching her husband change into a monster
parallels exactly what Sam’s forced to witness in Dean. Sam, like the other characters
must choose PAIN OR PEACE. Sam makes a decision here.
You can almost hear him SHARPENING THE KNIFE.
Andrew’s & Delilah’s soul searching parallels Dean’s. Dean knows he’s losing against the Mark’s control.
He recognizes his powerlessness. Dean chooses PEACE. He’s made peace with his inevitable death.
He’ll fight the Mark’s control every step of the way, but he knows who the victor will be.
He resigns himself to fight to his death.
What he wants to do with his remaining time is “Decide what to be and go be it.” Or, as in, “Take Me to Church,”
he asserts himself and reclaims his humanity through an act of love.
[Please note: all lines from songs appear in yellow throughout this review.]
SUPERNATURAL’S FUTURE
More important than scary advances in technology and the Season’s Arc, are the changes to Supernatural
and the audience’s reactions. There was a little sumpin‘/ sumpin’ for ALL the fans in this episode. Laughs
for the new and more seasoned, et alii. However, when trying to please everyone sometimes you….
No doubt the cast and crew had hella fun putting this one together.
Ironically, some fans accused this episode of pandering to a new teen audience.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
There’s a ton of allusions to Old School SPN and past episodes for hard-core watchers to enjoy.
This episode gives us a glimpse of what it would be like to return to the basics of Supernatural depicted in earlier seasons.
(Frequently requested by older fans.)
The resulting debacle demonstrates that it’s ludicrous to go back.
Fans complained that Dean in this episode was not true to character. EXACTLY. This is what Dean
would be like if he hadn’t matured into a 36 year old man. Dean’s not ignorant of technological advancements.
He evolved and learned. He no longer has the appetites and uncontrollable urges of a young man.
If he DIDN’T AGE he would come across as rather repulsive old deviant, as he does in this episode.
Even his running around bashing things with a crowbar seems a little silly, if not tired.
The EMF gadget underlines how far the show’s progressed. (It’s noise seriously cracks me up.)
Can we continue to SALT and BURN things to solve problems? No.
However, we can SALT and BURN the elements of the past that need to go. Sexual objectification is one of them.
Dean’s ogling of young women, once found amusing, now seems obscene. His middle age leering is creepy
and inappropriate. Likewise, the old camera tilts down a young woman’s body, or the focus on a single attribute of her body,
objectify her, and are wrong. (Right, AE?) The 2015 fans noticed it. We’re not the oblivious audience of 2005.
We’re taught in schools and workplaces that sexual objectification is harmful.
(It’s not a hypocritical stance. Sexual objectification of males is wrong, too. Two wrongs do not make it right.)
Some things must change.
In the Pilot, the “boys” are run off a bridge and the audience leapt with them into the unknown.
Supernatural is asking the audience to leap off that bridge again into the unknown.
Scary? Yes. Sad? A little bit.
Some things will stay the same.
We have Dean’s resentment of authority, the brothers, their bond, and of course Baby.
We can revisit, and reflect on the past but we can’t move forward driving in reverse.
The question posed here is: ‘Are you ready to let go of the past and take another
leap into the electrifying blue future of Supernatural?’
I’m ready. I hope you’ll join us.
DIRECTION AND CINEMATOGRAPHY
Director John F. Showalter /Cinematographer Serge Ladouceur
The above smash cut of the truck going off the bridge into the SPN title was a work of art.
The dark figures of the Winchesters invade Corey’s barren world of lies.
The tower & post mean Andrew’s there. Their breath is visible.
Wi-Fi gadgets everywhere!
(How many did you see?)
HIGH ANGLE
DARN DOORS
SFX
POSTER CREEPIN
SOUND
“Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise” The Avett Brothers
“Work, Breed, Consume” Against Empire
“Take Me to Church” Hozier
Fun with Horror Music
BEST PERFORMANCE
Bravo Bro. Come Back.
READER COMMENTS
Lots of allusions to previous episodes.(Power cord strangle of Sam 1.09) Many
allusions to other horror films & TV Shows (X Files, 10:13 Productions,
Halt and Catch Fire, ETC.) If you recognized an allusion, please comment below.
Barbara Kottmeier (Corey Silver) played Candace Armstrong in 4.08 “Wishful Thinking”
THANKS TO
Supernatural Wiki
Twitter: photos spnfansbrazil -deanwinchester AaronStew117
Tumblr: we love you
Supernaturaldaily GIFS
Google: “song about dead guy’s truck”
tunefind.com
Home of the Nutty ScreenCaps (goodbye)
KissThemGoodbye (hello)
Opening photo:
indulgy.com. j-between-the-scenes-of-x-halt-and-catch-fire
I might have to watch this one again. I thought it was easily the worst episode of the season. It wasn’t funny. I was embarrassed for Jensen ogling barely out of their teens coeds. Jared once again had little to do. A ghost in the Wi-Fi? Really? Just so ridiculous on every level.
I didn’t care about any of the characters or the story. There wasn’t any movement on the MOC other than a brief conversation to remind us it was still a problem. The middle section of the season was very frustrating to say the least.
Hey, cheryl42
The movie title I was trying to think of while typing this article was “Scary Movie.” I referred to it as ‘Scream’ because I remember it being spoofed.
So this is a “Scary Movie” spoof of Supernatural. It was actually done very well. It was an intended parody and mocking of Supernatural, so things like
Dean’s ogling and eating were definitely exaggerated. But what was cool was, it actually fit in with the Mark story line. So, I hope you enjoyed the re-watch.
Thank you for commenting.
I haven’t gotten that done yet but I am going to watch it with a different perspective. I didn’t watch it the first time as a spoof. Maybe that will make a difference.
I’ll let you know…:)
I was tipped off in the scene when the two coeds were talking in their spacious dorm room. Julie throws something like a pen at Delilah and calls her “#slut” I was, “pfft. Ya like right.” Then her make up in that scene was so bad. Then I got it. They were being deliberately over the top bad. Yes, please let me know what you think.