Previously: The boys took a trip to Hollywood, and Dean fitted in way better than anyone would expect.
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Folsom Prison Blues
Kirsti: Green River County Jail. A bunch of orange-clad inmates are doing normal prison-y things, like lifting weights and playing cards. Inside, workers reopen an old cell block. When they get the door open, the back wall has dried blood on it. They collectively shudder, and their breath is visible in the air. They turn as if something’s just flown between them, then papers in the hall fly everywhere.
In another cell block, Rack is lying on a bed reading. The lights flicker and he crosses to his cell door, staring into the hallway as the flickering continues. The zoomy cameraman zooms in on a clock in the hall as the second hand stops. Something dark flashes past Rack, and he stumbles back, then waves at the security camera. Cut to the guard office. He’s reading from a clipboard while eating a sandwich. Finally, he spots Rack on the camera and tells his walkie-talkie that he’s going to investigate.
Back in the cells, other prisoners are yelling at Rack to STFU. The guard slams his baton into the bars and tells Rack to Go The Fuck To Sleep.
He reluctantly heads to bed. The guard radios for lights out, then walks to the end of the hall. As he walks, something appears behind him. He’s halfway through the door when he hears something and turns around. The door shuts on his arm and he yells in pain. Then he stares into the camera and starts screaming in terror. The camera zooms in on Rack’s panicky face, pressed up against the bars.
FLAME ON!
After the Not Credits, we’re at the Arkansas Museum of Anthropology. The Winchesters break in. Sam emphasises how much he hates their current plan. They turn the corner, and the camera zooms in on them walking through the beam of a motion sensor. They grab artefacts from a showcase. There’s a noise off screen, and they head towards the exit. They’re greeted by two cops with their guns drawn. They turn and rush down a corridor, only to be greeted by another two cops. Another corridor, another two cops. The boys kneel, hands on their heads. Dean looks at Sam with a smirk, but Sam looks worried.
Cut to the boys having their mug shots taken. Sam’s nervous while Dean’s his usual self:
Cut to Dean in an interrogation room. Two men walk in, one of whom is Agent Henriksen. He says it’s nice to meet Dean in person. Dean’s face goes from sassy to “OH FUCK” in 0.6 seconds. Henriksen sasses in response, and tells his partner to read Dean the charges against him. It includes grave desecration, fraud, kidnapping, and several counts of murder. Henriksen adds that Sam’s a murder suspect now too and they’re both screwed. Also, it was a total rookie move to get tripped up by a motion sensor. The door opens and a blonde woman walks in. She introduces herself as Mara Daniels, their public defender, and she says the interview is over. Dean smirks.
Later, Mara informs the boys that their arraignment won’t be for several days and they’ll be kept in the county jail until then because no sane judge would give them bail. The boys are oddly okay with this. Mara tells them there are extradition papers in place from five different states. She’ll stall as much as possible.
Cut to the boys arriving at Green River in shackles. Sam gets cat called as they walk past the yard. Dean jokingly promises not to trade his brother for cigarettes. Inside, they’re assigned to cells. Dean tries to call top bunk, and his cellmate gets “BITCH, PLEASE” face. Sam’s cellmate is HUGE and he looks at Dean in terror as the cell door closes. In the hall sometimes later, Sam and Dean have a whispered conversation about how this is their stupidest plan ever, but Dean insists it’ll be fine.
Sam stresses about their escape plan, but Dean says it’s solid. They just have to find the ghost and kill it, then they’ll be golden. Sam wants to know why they’re doing all this for a guy they barely know. Dean says that Deacon saved Papa Winchester’s life one time and they were in the Marine Corps together, so they owe him. And Winchesters always pay their debts. (Unless, you know, those debts involve actual money or credit card bills…)
In the cafeteria, Sam makes disgusted faces at his food.
Dean, on the other hand, thinks it’s pretty great. They discuss their suspects. #1 is Mark Moody, a ritual murderer and Satanist who died 30 years ago in the just-reopened cell block. He died of a heart attack, which is what’s killing the victims now. Dean thinks reopening the cell block freed Moody’s spirit, so something’s keeping him there. As they leave, Sam bumps into a dude with crazy eyes. But not in the oddly endearing Suzanne Warren way. In a this-dude-will-fuck-you-up way. Sam apologises, but Crazy Eyes gets all up in his face.
Dean tells Crazy Eyes to let it go, so Crazy Eyes goes off and gets a guy who looks like a bald version of Fat Bastard before taking a swing at Dean, who puts him in a headlock, insisting that they can still stop. But Crazy Eyes breaks Dean’s hold and they fight. It’s broken up by a guard and the warden, who glares at Dean and informs him he’s not off to a good start. He orders the guard to throw Dean and Crazy Eyes into solitary. Fat Bastard makes throat slicing motions at Sam.
In solitary, Dean calls out that he wishes he had a baseball. Crazy Eyes calls back that he wishes he had a bat to beat Dean’s head in. Just then, the lights flicker and Dean can see his breath in the air. He swears. In the corridor, the clock stops. He calls out to Crazy Eyes to stay still, because apparently ghosts are like T. rexes and they can’t see you if you don’t move?! Whatever. Crazy Eyes ignores him and peers out the slit in his cell door. A terrifying pair of bloodshot eyes appears there and he staggers back in panic. A hand grabs him from behind and veins pop out all over his face. He screams, and Dean’s all “Well, shit” as we fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, Mara goes to see Henriksen. She says the case is weird and a bunch of people have told her the Winchesters saved their lives. He has no fucks to give because wherever the boys go, people die. She insists there’s more to it, but he tells her to GTFO. She glares as she goes. Back at the prison, Sam’s mopping floors with Rack. They introduce themselves, and Sam asks about the guard’s death. Rack asks him why he’s in prison, and Sam replies “‘Cause I got an idiot for a brother.” They talk about the old cell block, and Rack lets slip that Moody didn’t die of a heart attack; the guards beat him to death and there was blood everywhere. Sam looks thoughtful.
Outside, Dean’s playing cards for cigarettes and fitting in with frightening ease. The boys exchange information on Moody’s death and Crazy Eyes dying. Sam says he has a plan for getting to the blood. Cut to the cafeteria. Dean intentionally picks a fight with Fat Bastard.
Sam lowers himself into the old cell block and locates Moody’s cell. He finds a massive bloodstain. He sprinkles salt on it, smashes a cigarette lighter over the top, then sets it all on fire with a match. Up in the infirmary, Dean and Fat Bastard are in adjacent cells. Dean apologises for name calling, and Fat Bastard reveals that he has low self esteem because his father treated him like shit right up until the point where he was killed by Fat Bastard’s brother. Which I find interesting – he’s kind of representative of how Sam and Dean could have turned out if Papa Winchester hadn’t had hunting to occupy his time…
Anyway, Dean spots a woman standing on the other side of the room, and realises that the clock’s stopped. He swears and grabs the salt shaker from his lunch tray. The ghost throws him across his cell, and he hits the floor. She shoves a hand into his chest and Dean groans. He manages to flip the top off the salt and hurls it at her. She vanishes. But in the next cell, Fat Bastard cries out. We see him slide down the wall. Dean screams for a guard. Fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, the boys are back in the yard. Dean tells Sam the ghost’s a woman, probably a nurse. Sam says they have a problem – he thought it was over so he contacted Deacon and they’re getting out tonight. Dean says they need to find a way to do some research. They talk to Rack. After bribing him with Dean’s hard-won cigarettes, Rack spills the dirt on their Nurse Ratched. She worked at the prison in the 70s and hated prisoners, who often went to the infirmary with minor problems and came out dead. No one could prove anything, and Rack has no idea what happened to her.
As they walk away, Dean suggests that Nurse Ratched was a vigilante in life so now she’s punishing people who break the rules. Sam says they’ve got five hours to get more information. Dean has a plan on how they can do that. Cut to him talking to Mara. He asks her to do some research into Nurse Ratched, and she’s all “WTF” and mentions that Henriksen thinks he’s a monster. Dean insists they’re not the bad guys.
Later, in the yard, Sam asks how it went. Dean suggests they give it another day, but Sam says they can’t. He went along with Dean’s stupid get-sent-to-jail plan and now it’s time to get out. Dean walks away, and Sam grabs him. They start to fight, though it’s quickly broken up by the guards. The warden grabs Dean and announces that regular methods clearly aren’t working on the boys.
He has the guards drag them to a big empty room and then leave. Sam looks nervous.
The warden steps towards Dean, then grins and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Deacon, you are beating the holy hell out of me, man…” Dean says. Deacon takes off their handcuffs and asks if it’s over. They awkwardly say that it’s not. Dean suggests they should stick around, but Deacon pulls a letter from his jacket and says their lawyer left it for them. Dean opens it with a grin, and informs us that Nurse Ratched got caught in the middle of a prisoner riot in the old cell block, and was found with her head bashed in. The note includes where Nurse Ratched is buried, so they’ll take care of it when they leave. Deacon thanks the boys for their help and hugs them. Dean knocks him out to “make it look real” and they leave through a vent. Fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, the boys locate the Bromobile outside the prison. Dean gushes over his car, but Sam suggests they finish escaping first. An alarm sounds, and they leave. Later, Henriksen is interrogating Deacon, who claims to know nothing. Henriksen demands to know if the boys had visitors. “Just their lawyer,” Deacon snaps. At the police station, Henriksen questions Mara. She says it was a private talk with her client, but Henriksen gives zero fucks.
The boys walk through a cemetery with shovels. Sam suggests they hurry because lawyer-client privilege doesn’t apply. Back at the station, Henriksen threatens to charge Mara with aiding and abetting, and she tells him about Nurse Ratched and that the boys wanted to know where she was buried. Cut to four cop cars driving into Mountainside Cemetery. Cut to Dean holding a torch while Sam digs up Nurse Ratched’s grave. Back to the cop cars. Henriksen and a bunch of armed cops pour out. Sam opens the coffin. Back at the prison, Deacon’s in the bathroom. The clock stops ticking and the lights flicker. He realises he can see his breath in the air. When he turns, Nurse Ratched is right in front of him. Fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, we’re still flicking back and forth between the three groups. Nurse Ratched throws Deacon across the room. Henriksen and the cops run through the cemetery, guns drawn. Sam and Dean pour salt and lighter fluid over Nurse Ratched’s bones. Deacon’s on the floor, Nurse Ratched pressing her hand into his chest. “You let those two go!” she hisses. Sam lights a match and drops it into the grave. Dark veins spread across Deacon’s face and he groans loudly. Nurse Ratched stands then gasps as she goes up in flames. Deacon coughs. The boys watch the corpse burn.
Meanwhile, Henriksen and the cops can’t find any sign of anyone. The boys head back to the Bromobile, and we see that they’re at GREEN VALLEY cemetery. Mara leaves the police station with a smug smile on her face. Henriksen grimaces at Mountainside Cemetery. The boys get in the Bromobile, and agree that they need to “go deep this time“. But, you know, they’ll keep their highly identifiable car… Fade to black.
This episode works best the first time you see it because you’re all “OMG THEY GOT ARRESTED????” and you’re on the edge of your seat when Henriksen’s in the cemetery. It’s still a good episode on subsequent views, but it loses a lot of the tension.
Next time on Supernatural: Dean finds himself in Bizarro World in S02 E20 – What Is And What Should Never Be.
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.
