Previously: WITCHES. And what’s surely a record number of misogyny shots.
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Dream a Little Dream of Me
Kirsti: Bobby walks through his house with a flashlight in hand. He hears a noise and turns, but there’s nothing there. He heads into the kitchen and looks around, but it’s empty. Suddenly, a woman screams and attacks him. He falls to the floor, and she shakes him back and forth. The screen flashes white a few times and we cut to Bobby asleep in a motel bed. It’s daylight. A maid enters, and apologises when she sees him. She pulls the keys from the door, and they jangle. But Bobby doesn’t budge. She looks concerned and walks over to him. She shakes his shoulder a little, and he still doesn’t move. We cut back to the screaming woman in the kitchen and Bobby trying to fend off her blows. Back to the motel room where the maid is now violently shaking Bobby, trying to wake him. That’s right, friends. It’s time to break out our “dreams, visions and premonitions” tag, because everything is a dream!
Marines: Maybe it’ll be as good as that one time Buffy did it.
K: Are we talking about Restless or Nightmares? Because Nightmares was…not great.
Mari: I was actually thinking of Normal Again, which isn’t dreaming exactly, but this episode reminded me of that. Also, NIGHTMARES WAS GREAT AND YOU SHUT UP.
K: SATAN’S SCREENSAVER!
After the Not Credits, we’re in a bar. Sam’s drinking whiskey in the middle of the day because it’s better than having feels. Dean walks into the bar and demands to know why the responsible sibling is getting sloshed at 2pm. Sam sulks that Dean does it all the time, so why can’t he. Dean pulls up a chair and orders a whiskey. Sam, who’s apparently a crying drunk, tearfully says that he’s day drinking because he has All The Feels about the fact that Dean’s going to end up as a demon. He’s accepted that he can’t stop it. But it’s because Dean doesn’t want to be saved. “I mean, how can you care so little about yourself?” he says. Dean smiles sadly.
Mari: I was really thrown off by the manpain this early in the episode. They don’t even know what the case is yet, and we’ve already had the scene we’ve had at the end of every episode I’ve ever seen.
K: TRUE. At least we didn’t get the One Manly Tear this early. I don’t think I could cope with that.
Before they can say anything else, Dean’s phone rings. He answers it, and is all “Sure, I’m Mr. Snyderson”. The person on the other end presumably fills him in about Bobby, and Dean looks surprised. I’m always curious to know if they arrange these fake next-of-kin names in advance or if they just say “Sure, that’s me” no matter who they ask for…
The Bromobile bros down the highway.
Cut to the hospital. The doctors inform the boys that they’ve tested for All The Things and there’s nothing wrong with Bobby. Except for the part where he won’t wake up. The boys exchange a meaningful look. They head to Bobby’s motel room and wonder why he was in Pittsburgh because there’s no sign that he was hunting something. Sam opens the closet and pushes the clothes away to find that Bobby’s got the typical hunter murder wall thing happening on the back wall. There’s something in there about a plant called Silene capensis. There’s also an obituary for a university neurologist named Walter Gregg who ALSO went to sleep and didn’t wake up. Dean tells Sam to stay put and make sense of the murder wall while he investigates Dr Gregg.
Dr Gregg’s office, which is in the process of being packed up. Dean walks in with Dr Gregg’s assistant. The assistant says she’s already spoken to a detective, a nice older dude with a beard, and Dean asks to hear the information again. She tries to plead off, but Dean makes up some bullshit story about taking her down to the station and putting it on her permanent record (I don’t even think you tried, Dean), and she relents. (M: No effort required, apparently.) Dr Gregg was conducting sleep experiments. No one knew about them. She found the records when she was packing up his stuff.
Cut to Dean knocking on an apartment door. It’s answered by a dude with a bad beard and a bum chin. I recognise him, but apparently it’s from either an episode of Fringe with Eyeball Trauma or from his stint as “Nightclub Boyfriend” in the 2005 Fantastic Four movie. Sometimes I wish my brain recognised random actors less, because this is getting ridiculous.
Bum Chin gets twitchy because he’s totally not growing pot, and Dean says he’s just there to talk about the sleep study. Bum Chin invites him in and offers him a beer. Dean accepts, despite posing as an on-duty cop.
Mari: They pause for so long on Dean taking a drink, I pretty much expected it to be poison. I probably may have shouted, “DON’T DRINK IT, IT’S POISON.”
K: Seriously.
He sips his beer before proceeding with the interview. Bum Chin reveals that he was in the sleep study because he got in a bike accident as a kid that caused a head injury and he hadn’t had a dream in like 20 years. The study changed that. Dr Gregg gave him this gross yellow tea to drink and suddenly he was having crazy acid trip dreams. Dean nods his understanding of crazy acid trips before awkwardly remembering that he’s posing as a cop. Bum Chin says he didn’t like the crazy acid trip dreams and dropped out of the study. Dean looks thoughtful.
Cut to the hospital. Dean’s sitting by Bobby’s bed when Sam walks in. They exchange notes, and Sam reveals that the plant on Bobby’s murder wall is otherwise known as African Dream Root, and it’s used by shamans and medicine men to walk in other people’s dreams. Uh, no thank you. Mine are fucked up enough. And apparently, if you take enough African Dream Root, “you can become a regular Freddy Krueger” and manipulate other people’s dreams, giving them nightmares and killing them in their sleep. That explains Dr Gregg, but the boys are confused about why Bobby’s still alive.
That throws us into Bobby’s dreams again. He’s hiding in a closet, holding the door shut and yelling for help as the woman from before screams and rattles the closet door. The zoomy cameraman does a dramatic zoom OUT, which is something new and different for him, to reveal that the closet has become a very long hallway. Bobby continues to yell for help as we fade to black.
Mari: So Bobby isn’t dead because he’s at the end of a long hall? That’s what I got from that.
K: Basically.
After the Not Commercial Break, the boys walk through the hospital wondering how they’re going to find their Freddy Krueger. Sam suggests it’s one of the trial subjects, and sighs because usually they’d call Bobby for help, but that’s not exactly an option right now. Dean stops walking and says that Sam’s totally right – they need Bobby’s help. And to get that, they need some African Dream Root. Sam scoffs that they don’t have any and that they probably shouldn’t go hang out in Bobby’s head anyway, and Dean reluctantly realises that Bela can probably find them some Dream Root. They exchange “UGH, BELA” glances and sigh. I spend the entire scene distracted because Jensen Ackles has a huge and poorly covered zit on his forehead.
Cut to the Motel of the Week. Sam’s doing research when there’s a knock on the door. He opens it cautiously, and it’s a trench coat clad Bela. She and Sam snark at each other a little, then she slowly removes her trench coat to reveal a lacy negligee. She says that she’s there because of Sam, not because she wanted to help. Sam’s confused. Bela leans in and kisses him, and things rapidly head to Makeout Central with a sidetrip to Bedroom Land. Bela moans Sam’s name.
Then Bela’s voice morphs into Dean’s, which is less squicky than it seems. We cut to Sam waking suddenly from where he’s been asleep on the desk.
He wipes the drool from his mouth and then awkward turtles when Dean wants to know what he was dreaming about because he was making “serious happy noises“. Dean mentions that he’s called Bela, and Sam smiles a little before awkwarding some more. But apparently real life Bela refused to help, so they’re back to square one. Dean asks for help reading Dr Gregg’s handwriting, and Sam looks shifty because his Awkward Sam Boner prevents him from moving.
There’s a knock on the door and Dean answers it. It’s Bela (for real this time), wearing a trench coat just like in Sam’s dream. Sam shifts awkwardly in his seat and tries to be nonchalant. It fails. Dean gives him a weird look. Bela hands Dean a jar and says it’s the Dream Root they wanted. Dean looks sceptical, and she acts innocent, saying that she can do favours sometimes. She takes off her trench coat and Sam sits up expectantly. But she’s, you know, wearing actual clothes, so he slumps down in his chair again. (M: Please tell me he’s still half asleep. Never mind, I’ll head canon it.)
Dean asks why Bela’s helping them, and she says it’s for Bobby. He saved her life in Flagstaff one time, and she owes him. She asks Dean when they’ll go on their little dream walk, and he’s all “Hahahahahaha, NO”. He doesn’t trust her. He takes the jar of Dream Root and puts it in the motel safe, next to the Colt. Bela and Sam watch. Bela wants to know where she’s supposed to go because it’s the middle of the night. Dean tells her to get a room of her own and basically shoves her out the door. Bela glares, and Sam awkwards that it was nice to see her. Dean slams the door and gives Sam “Dude, WTF??” face.
Sometime later, the boys have their gross tea all ready. Dean jokes about syncing up Dark Side of the Moon to the Wizard of Oz, and Sam has no idea what he’s talking about.
They exchange a look and Dean asks if Sam’s feeling any different yet. Nope. Dean wonders if they got a bad batch of Dream Root, but thunder cracks outside. He crosses to the window, and realises that it’s raining from the ground to the sky. The camera pans around to show us that they’re now at Bobby’s house. They look around in surprise, unsure of where they are at first. Then Sam joins the dots – they just didn’t recognise the house without all the books and clutter.
They walk around the house, calling out to Bobby. We get some weird shots from outside, as though someone’s watching Sam through the windows. Sam turns back to Dean and says that he’s going to check outside. Dean’s not too thrilled with this plan, but Sam steps outside anyway. The camera follows him out, and the garden (not the junk yard we know and love) is bright and sunny with lots of flowers everywhere. Sam stares in confusion. Just then, the door slams shut behind him. He tries to open it without success. He yells out to Dean, who’s walking around inside, but Dean doesn’t react.
Back inside, Dean walks cautiously into the kitchen, calling out to Bobby. He walks down a hallway and hears Bobby say “Who’s out there?” in a scared voice. Dean locates the closet door, which now has long scratches in it. He persuades Bobby to open the door, and Bobby reluctantly walks out of the closet. He’s got scratch marks on his face, and he looks around the room as though expecting a trap. He asks how Dean found him, and Dean mentions the Dream Root and Dr Gregg. Bobby has no idea what the fuck he’s talking about. Dean tries to explain, but the lights start flickering. Bobby runs for the closet, but Dean grabs him and tells him that everything’s a dream, it’s all made up.
Bobby points over Dean’s shoulder and asks “Does that look made up?“. Dean turns to see a woman in a pretty white virginal dress walking towards them. There are bloody bullet wounds all over her neck and torso. (M: That’s scary, but probably be more scared of the pretty white virginal dress.) The closet door slams shut, and Bobby rattles the handle in desperation. Dean asks who the woman is, and Bobby tearfully says “She’s…she’s my wife.” Dean looks between Bobby and the woman in shock. Fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, we get a brief shot of the boys asleep in their motel room before we’re thrown back to Bobby’s house. Sam walks around the outside of the house, which has a beautiful garden, looking for a way in. Inside, Bobby’s wife asks why he did this to her. He spins around and says he’d rather die than hurt her. She snaps that he did hurt her, he stabbed her repeatedly and watched her die. Dean grabs Bobby and tells him it’s all a dream. Bobby tearfully tells his dead wife that she was possessed and he didn’t know what he knows now, so he had no choice. She screams that he wanted her dead, and that if he really loved her, he would have found a way to save her. Bobby sobs an apology, and Dean drags him into the next room, struggling to close the door behind them as Murdered Wife runs at them.
Outside, Sam round a clothesline and finds himself face to face with Bum Chin. Bum Chin swings a baseball bat, and hits Sam in the chest. Back in the real world, we see sleeping Sam jolt from the hit. Dream!Sam falls to the ground. He demands to know who Bum Chin is, and Bum Chin insists that it’s self-defence because Bobby came after him. Also, he’s a god in dream land and Sam’s the bug under his shoe.
Back in the house, Murdered Wife screams and hammers on the doors. Bobby cries about how he killed her. Dean tells him to take control of his dream, but Bobby sobs that Dean should leave him and let Murdered Wife kill him. Dean grabs Bobby and shakes him a little, telling him to snap out of it because “I’m not gonna let you die. You’re like a father to me. You gotta believe me, please.” FEELS. (M: Ooookay. Feels.) Bobby stares at Dean for a minute, then asks if it’s really a dream. Dean confirms it, and Bobby squeezes his eyes shut to take control. The screaming stops, and when they carefully open the doors, Murdered Wife is gone. Bobby stares around in surprise and Dean, breathing heavily, is all “Can you wake the fuck up now? Kthxbai”.
Outside, Bum Chin raises the baseball bat above his head, preparing to smash Sam’s head in. Suddenly we cut to Bobby waking up in hospital with a jolt. The boys do the same in their motel room. Cut to the boys talking to Bobby at the hospital sometime later. Dean asks if he really killed his possessed wife, and Bobby replies “Everybody got into hunting somehow“. Ouch. Dean’s apologetic, but Bobby brushes it off because the boys saved his life. He fills them in on Bum Chin, who’s now vanished from his dorm. Apparently he’s a total genius, but he hasn’t had a dream since his abusive father hit him over the head with a baseball bat when he was ten.
Sam asks how Bum Chin was able to get into Bobby’s dreams in the first place, on account of it requires DNA. Bobby’s all “Yeeeeah, I was kind of an idiot and took his free beer”. Dean chuckles nervously and says that it’s not THAT dumb. Sam realises what this means and gives him bitchface.
K: Totally fair.
Dean says they just have to find Bum Chin and they can fix everything. Bobby says they’d better do it fast and with lots of coffee, because falling asleep isn’t an option. Fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, it’s two days later. The Bromobile is broing around and Dean’s super pissed about their inability to find Bun Chin. Bobby rings to say that he and Bela have exhausted their last lead. Dean hangs up angrily. We cut to Bobby and Bela at the Motel of the Week and Bobby asks why the hell she’s helping them. She mentions Flagstaff, and Bobby’s all “Oh. Right…” but looks hella confused.
Back at the Bromobile, Dean decides he’s had enough and that it’s time for a nap. Sam’s all “the fuck???” because that means Bum Chin can find them. But apparently that’s Dean’s plan. Sam bitchfaces before ripping out some of Dean’s hair. He insists he’s going with Dean, despite Dean’s protests that he doesn’t want Sam in his head. Sam bitchfaces some more and goes to grab the stuff for Not Polyjuice Potion.
Sometime later, they wake up in the Bromobile. They’re confused, then hear someone moving around outside. They get out of the car and look around. Suddenly, Dream a Little Dream of Me starts playing, and a section of the clearing lights up to reveal Lisa (remember her? Mother of Totally Dean’s Kid?) sitting on a picnic blanket. She looks at Dean expectantly, talking about their life together, and Dean awkwards to Sam that he’s never had this dream before, but it’s really obvious he has. Lisa says she loves him, and the whole scene shakes briefly before vanishing. The boys look around in confusion and spot Bum Chin. They give chase but get separated. For Dean, the trees turn to wallpaper and he finds himself in the Motel of the Week.
In a clearing in the woods, Sam suddenly realises that Dean’s not behind him and panics. Meanwhile, Dean walks down the corridor and a door opens in front of him. He walks inside and finds someone in there. He thinks it’s Bum Chin, but when the figure turns around, it’s Dean. Dream!Dean says that they need to talk. Dean scoffs about the whole self-as-own-worst-enemy construct, but Dream!Dean circles him, saying that he knows how dead Dean feels inside, how worthless.
Dean smirks and says that it’s a nice attempt, but he’s in control of the dream so all he has to do is snap his fingers and Dream!Dean will be gone. Except it doesn’t work. Dream!Dean nods, and the door slams shut behind Dean. Dream!Dean lifts a shotgun and says again that they need to talk.
Cut to the Bromobile. There’s a bang, and Sam wakes suddenly. He turns to Dean and tries to wake him, but it’s not Dean. It’s Bum Chin, who hits Sam in the gut with his baseball bat again. Sam staggers from the car, and Bum Chin follows, sassing at him. Sam calls him a psycho, and Bum Chin blames it all on Dr Gregg for getting him hooked on dreams and then taking away the Dream Root. He says he just wants to be left alone to dream, and Sam says he can’t do that. Suddenly, he’s yanked flat against the ground, tied to metal stakes. Bum Chin says that he’s getting better at dream manipulation, and he’s not going to let the Winchesters wake up.
Back in the motel room, Dream!Dean continues tearing apart Dean’s self-worth as Dean tries to wake himself up. Dream!Dean says he understands why Dean won’t fight for his life, because he has nothing worth living for outside of Sam. He says that everything Dean loves – his car, his music, his leather jacket – was Papa Winchester’s, and he bets Dean’s never had an original thought in his life. Too busy taking orders from Papa Winchester, who loved Sam and tolerated Dean because he was a good soldier.
They’re nose to nose by this point, and Dean’s getting pissed. Dream!Dean yells that Papa Winchester didn’t care if Dean lived or died, and Dean snaps. He shoves Dream!Dean across the room and screams “My father was an obsessed bastard!“. He attacks Dream!Dean as he continues to scream about how Papa Winchester was the one who couldn’t protect their family, who never noticed him, who wasn’t fair. He grabs the shotgun from Dream!Dean and yells that he doesn’t deserve to go to Hell before shooting his dream alter ego twice in the chest.
Mari: I know there is a bunch of Dean facing himself stuff here, but let’s rewind and pause on the part when he calls Papa Winchester an obsessed bastard! WOOHOO!
K: YES. SO MUCH YES. I love it when Dean acknowledges that his father wasn’t the hero he wanted him to be.
Bromobile. Bum Chin beats Sam repeatedly with his bat. Sam just grunts, unable to move. Motel. Dean walks towards his dead self cautiously. Suddenly, Dream!Dean’s eyes open, and they’re demon black. Dean pales as Demon!Dean yells “You can’t escape me, Dean. You’re gonna die. And this? This is what you’re gonna become!“.
Bum Chin freaks out, and Sam’s suddenly free. Look, I know the dude’s a psychopath but attacking him with his abuser is not cool. Bum Chin backs away from his father, hands raised. Sam appears behind him and smacks him across the face with the bat. In an unknown location, Bum Chin’s eyes snap open. In the motel room, Demon!Dean walks towards Dean. At the Bromobile, Sam hits Bum Chin some more. We see Bum Chin’s sleeping body shake from his beating and then die. The boys wake, shaken, in the Bromobile. Fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, Bobby asks Sam if his ability to conjure up Bum Chin’s dad was connected to his psychic stuff. Sam assures him that it’s not, but looks a little concerned. Dean asks where Bela is because he can’t get hold of her. Bobby says she probably took off, and wonders again why she helped them. The boys mention Flagstaff, and Bobby says he just got her a good deal on an amulet. They twig that something’s wrong and Dean checks the motel safe. The Colt is gone. Dean freaks and tells Sam to pack his stuff because they’re “going to hunt the bitch down“. MISOGYNY SHOTS!
Out by the Bromobile, Dean asks Sam what he saw in the dream. Sam gives a vague answer and asks Dean the same question. Dean says he was just looking for Sam the whole time. Dean softens suddenly, and tells Sam that he doesn’t want to die and go to Hell. Sam looks a little teary and says that they’ll find a way to save him. Dean’s a little shaky but relieved. We cut back to Demon!Dean yelling that this is what Dean will become and fade to black.
For something that’s taken me nearly 4,000 words to recap, this episode is totally forgettable. Its sole purpose is to turn Bela into a villain again while also having Dean realise that dying might suck a little bit. And frankly, having him figure that out in a dream? Was pretty effing stupid.
Mari: All of the dream set-up and villain of the week stuff was shaky. The episode itself isn’t terrible. It’s a bit tropey, if you consider other sci-fi dream episodes, but whether you consider this homage or rip-off is up to you. I think this whole episode hinges on your emotional connection to the boys. What they are going through is pretty crazy and intense. They are clearly having a hard time, separately and together, dealing with Dean’s impending doom. For me personally, and this could totally be the fact that I jumped in 3.5 seasons late, it rings a little hollow. I don’t have a strong emotional connection here and I didn’t feel like anything Dean discovered in his dreams was particularly shocking, interesting or poignant. It’s all just okay.
Next time on Supernatural: Dean dies. Like, a lot. More than you’d think is possible. Find out more in S03 E11 – Mystery Spot.
I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
