1.08 Hang On to Your Life

Title	Hang On to Your Life
Episode #	Season 1, Episode 8
First aired	January 24, 2023
Directed by	Amyn Kaderali
Written by	Nic Chatree Sridej
On IMDB	Hang On to Your Life
Outline
Monster	Loki
Timeline	Immediately following 1.07 Reflections
Location(s)	Kansas City, Missouri Lawrence, Kansas
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Synopsis

Dean: Being a hunter, it means living a life of sacrifice-- not a lot of room for dreams. But you open your heart and get a little lucky, you'll find you gain more than you lose.

Characters

• John Winchester
• Mary Campbell
• Latika Dar
• Carlos Cervantez
• Millie Winchester
• Samuel Campbell
• Dean Winchester
• Loki
• Jericho

Definitions

• Cameras
• Curse
• Deals and Pacts
• Deities
• Demigods
• EMF meter
• Men of Letters Clubhouse
• Impala
• Loki's Hand Mirror
• Ostium
• Shapeshifting
• Warding Sigils

Music

• "Hard Times Come Again No More" by Louden Swain with Jake Etheridge and with Jojo Fleites

(the song Jericho performs at the bar; Carlos also performs it at the end)

• "Rebel" by John Moran

(plays as Carlos and Lata head out to Kansas City)

• "Thousand Watt Work-Out" by John Moran (KPM)

(playing while Lata finds sigils in Brock's dressing room; also played in 12.05 The One You've Been Waiting For)

• "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" by Elton John

(plays as the group fights with Loki)

Quotes

Lata: What is that smell?

Carlos: Mmm, the smell of stars being born.
Lata: You sure it's not stale beer and B.O.?

Carlos: Pay your respects, okay? This is a cathedral.

Samuel: You mean to tell me, my daughter's teaching family secrets to a son of a MOL man?

Millie: A mole man?
Samuel: Men of Letters, M-O-L. They're buried underground with all their books, while hunters are out there getting their hands dirty. Or worse.

Millie: And for the record, if it wasn't for my MOL man of a husband, you, your daughter and my son would all be dead by now.

Jericho: How is none of this fazing you?
Carlos: You asked me why I walked away. Helping people with weirdness like this is why.

John: I know I've only been hunting for five minutes, but she hasn't slept a good night since you've been gone. Least you could do is treat her more like a daughter and less like a soldier.

Loki: Oh, my sweet, little summer child, you will if you wanna save Jericho. You know, you have a very impressive résumé. "Love of modern dance." Useless. "Gifted typist." Now that's a skill. "Musician, hunter, hair model." Samesies. But what I don't see here is somebody who will just walk away.

Samuel: I'm thinking that a lot more changed than I realized. When I first met Carlos, he was a feral kid with a knack for hunting and getting into trouble, and Lata, she was terrified. She was content to read about what we do in the safety of the library. It's only been a few months since I've seen them, but now look at them.
John: Well, it's all because of Mary. She brought us together. She didn't get that from me.

John: That's impossible.

Mary: What?
John: I know this guy. This is the guy that gave me my dad's letter when I got back from Vietnam. Do you know him?
Mary: No.
John: Then how is he in the background of one of your dad's photos?

Mary: I don't know. Who the hell is this guy?

Trivia & References

"Hang On to Your Life" is a reference to the song of the same name by Canadian rock band, The Guess Who.

The club Carlos and Lata investigate is called the "Knave of Hearts", named after the character from Alice's Adventure in Wonderland.

Jericho's name may be a shout-out to the dystopian tv series Jericho on which EP Robbie Thompson was a writer and Richard Speight played Bill.

John: What happened got me thinking about the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Cuban Missile Crisis is the name given to events in 1962 when confrontation US deployments of missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet installing missiles in Cuba. The US placed a naval blockade around Cuba. The to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies. For 13 days, a nuclear war between the superpowers seemed a real possibility. Eventually the US and Soviet leaders came to a peace agreement with the Soviet removing the missiles and the US agreeing not to invade Cuba.

Samuel: I heard tall tales of an Oppenheimer-- someone who found a way to nuke all these damn monsters, so that you could be free of all of this--forever. But you found the Akrida instead. I can't give you back all those years. But I'm your dad. I have to try.

Robert Oppenheimer was an American scientist who lead the Manhattan project during the Second World War which developed the nuclear weapons used on Nagasaki and Hiroshima which killed a quarter of a million civilians and lead to ongoing issues with birth defects, cancer and miscarriages in the area.

Minutiae

You can stream both versions of Louden Swain's cover of "Hard Times Come Again No More" on Spotify.

Rob Benedict who played Chuck in Supernatural is part of the backing group during the performances with his band Louden Swain.

Carlos' stage name was Rivers Gemini.

Jericho: I was playing this dive bar at Nashville. There was a suit. He bought me a couple drinks after the show, and then he asked me what I would give to have the kind of music that shook people's souls.

Richard Speight (Loki) was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee.

The scene where Carlos smashes Loki's guitar is reminiscent of a scene from the Supernatural episode 14.20 Moriah where Dean smashes Chuck's guitar.

When Mary and John develop some photos Samuel has taken, one includes a man that John recognizes as the one who had given him the letter from Henry. In Samuel's picture, Dean can be seen climbing into the Impala. The image used is a screencap from the episode 6.09 Clap Your Hands If You Believe....