1.04 Phantom Traveler
Title | Phantom Traveler |
Episode # | Season 1, Episode 4 |
First aired | October 4, 2005 |
Directed by | Robert Singer |
Written by | Richard Hatem |
On IMDB | Phantom Traveler |
Outline | Sam and Dean board a flight doomed to crash to exorcise a disaster-causing demon. |
Monster | Demon |
Timeline | November 19-25, 2005 (speculation) December 5, 2005 (according to episode 2.20) |
Location(s) | Catasauqua, Pennsylvania Nazareth, Pennsylvania Lehigh Valley Airport |
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Contents
Synopsis
Sam and Dean are called in to investigate when a plane crashes under mysterious circumstances. Their investigation leads them to the conclusion that a demon is possessing people and causing the plane they are on to crash. Things become more urgent when they discover that the demon is going after the 7 survivors of the first crash, including the pilot and a stewardess.
Dean is contacted by Jerry Panowski, who he and John helped a couple of years ago. Jerry is an air traffic controller and a plane, piloted by his friend Chuck Lambert, has crashed for no obvious reason. Jerry has found what sounds like EVP on the cockpit voice recorder saying “no survivors”, although seven people survived the crash.
Sam and Dean speak to one of the survivors, Max Jaffey, who has checked himself into a psychiatric institution. He reports seeing a passenger whose eyes turned black, rip open the plane's emergency exit just before the crash, even though the pressure on that door was over 2 tons. They visit the wife of George Phelps, the passenger Max saw, but she reports nothing out of the ordinary before the flight.
Inspection of the plane wreckage reveals traces of sulfur, and the boys start to suspect some sort of demonic possession is involved.
Jerry then calls to them that Chuck Lambert has been killed in another plane crash. The boys find there is also sulfur on the wreckage and that both planes crashed forty minutes into the flight.
The boys realize that the demon is going to kill all the survivors of the crash, and check to find the only one going to fly in the near future is flight attendant Amanda Walker. They are unable to dissuade her from flying, and so decide they must catch the same flight and exorcise the demon, although Dean is not enthusiastic due to his fear of flying.
On the plane the boys are checking out the passengers, when they see the co-pilots eyes turn black. They enlist Amanda Walker’s help, and lure him to the back gallery, where they start to exorcise the demon. Just before the ritual is over, the demon speaks, revealing it knows of Jess’ death. Finally it is exorcised and the plane lands safely.
The boys farewell Jerry, who mentions that he got Dean’s cell number from John’s voice mail. The boys are stunned; their father's cell has been out of service since he went missing. They call his number and confirm that the voice mail directs callers to Dean. This is the first sign they have that their father is still alive.
Characters
Definitions
- Phantom Travelers PoD
- Flight 401 PoD
- EMF Meter PoD
- Rituale Romanum PoD
- Holy Water PoD
- Poltergeist PoD
- Sulfur PoD
- Demons PoD
- Demonic Possession PoD
- Japanese Belief in Disaster-Causing Demons PoD
- Exorcism PoD
- Demonology
- John's Cell Phone
Music
- "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath
- "Working Man" by Rush
- "Load Rage" S1Com, p. 34 by Nichion Sounds Library
- Mentioned, but not played (well, hummed by Dean): "Some Kind of Monster" by Metallica
Quotes
Sam: Yeah, I grabbed a couple of hours.
Dean: Liar. 'Cause I was up at three, and you were watching the George Foreman infomercial.
Sam: Hey, hey, it's just a little turbulence.
Dean: Sam, this plane is going to crash, OK? So quit treating me like I'm friggin' four.
Sam: You need to calm down.
Dean: Well, I'm sorry, I can't.
Sam: Yes, you can.
Trivia & References
Sam: Hey, what can I say? It's riveting TV.
- George Foreman: Famous heavyweight boxer who is now best known for late night ads where he flogs his electric grill
- The Blues Brothers were a comedic R&B duo comprised of John Belushi and Dan Akroyd that originated on the late night sketch show Saturday Night Live and later made two movies. The pair's usual attire were black and white suits, ties, hats and sunglasses.
Man: Poltergeist? Man, I loved that movie!
- According to DVD commentary by Jared and Jensen, the man's line was added in post-production and was not recorded on-set.
- References to the films The Exorcist, in which a little girl is possessed by a demon. Among her afflictions are bed-floating and projectile vomiting. Could also be a reference to Ghostbusters in which a woman is possessed and floats above her bed.
- Another classic/mullet rock star alias: James Hetfield is the lead singer of Metallica.
- Walkman is a brand name for the Sony portable personal stereo player.
Minutiae
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
- 1.04 Phantom Traveler (transcript)
- Transcript of DVD commentary with Jensen and Jared by stir_of_echoes