1.13 Route 666

Title	Route 666
Episode #	Season 1, Episode 13
First aired	January 31, 2006
Directed by	Paul Shapiro
Written by	Eugenie Ross-Leming Brad Buckner
On IMDB	Route 666
Outline	Dean's old flame, Cassie, calls the Winchesters to help her with a haunted truck killing off family and friends in her town.
Monster	Vengeful Spirit
Timeline
Location(s)	Cape Girardeau, Missouri
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Synopsis

Promotional poster for "Route 666."

An "old friend" of Dean's calls the brothers about some suspicious car accidents in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It turns out the old friend is Dean's ex-girlfriend Cassie, who ended things with him when he told her the truth about hunting. Her father and his best friend Clayton, (both African American men) have been killed - seemingly run off the road. In the days before his death, her father reported being followed by a black truck.

Soon after Sam and Dean arrive, the editor of the local paper, Jimmy Anderson, is also killed. While researching the deaths, Dean and Cassie end up in bed together.

After the mayor, Harold Todd, is killed, the boys and Cassie find that all men were linked to the Dorian family, who had been a wealthy white family in the town. After Cassie herself is attacked, they find out that when her mother was young, she used to date a man called Cyrus Dorian. She left him for Martin Robinson, and an enraged Cyrus burnt down the church in which they were to be married, killing the children's choir inside. Cyrus then attacked Martin, beating him badly before Martin was able to overpower Cyrus and kill him. Along with two of his friends, Clayton Solmes and Jimmy Anderson, Martin disposed of Cyrus' body and truck in a swamp. Harold Todd, a young deputy, discovered what had happened but covered it up because he knew of Cyrus's crimes.

Eventually, Dean and Sam dispatch the phantom truck by dragging it and its owner out of the lake, burning the body, and leading the ghost truck to the hallowed ground of an old church - incidentally, the one Cyrus had burned to the ground during his racist reign of terror.

Before the boys leave, Dean raises the possibility of renewing a relationship with Cassie, but she turns him down.

Characters

• Sam Winchester
• Dean Winchester
• Cassie Robinson
• Audrey Robinson
• Harold Todd
• Jimmy Anderson
• Cyrus Dorian

Definitions

• Aliases
• Costumes & Disguises
• Dean's Amulet
• Flying Dutchman
• Impala
• Racist Truck
• Route 666
• Salt
• Sexual Encounters
• Table of Death
• Tongues
• Vengeful Spirits

Music

• "Walk Away" by James Gang

(plays at the service station, when Cassie first calls Dean)

• "She Brings Me Love" by Bad Company

(plays during the love scene between Dean and Cassie)

• "Can't Find My Way Home" by Blind Faith

(plays at the end of the episode, when Dean puts on his shades)

Netflix

•  ???? - ????

(plays at the service station, when Cassie first calls Dean)

• "Paradise" by Sharif

(plays during the love scene between Dean and Cassie)

• "Line of Love" by The Minors

(plays at the end of the episode, when Dean puts on his shades)

Quotes

Sam: You told her. You told her, the secret! Our big family rule number one. We do what we do and we shut up about it. For a year and a half I do nothing but lie to Jessica, and you go out with this chick in Ohio a coupla times and you tell her everything?

Sam: What's interesting is you guys never really look at each other at the same time. You look at her when she's not looking, she checks you out when you look away. It's just a... just an interesting observation in a... you know... observationally interesting way.

Dean: You think we might have more pressing issues here?
Sam: Hey, if I'm hitting a nerve.

Dean: Let's go.

Dean: You know, I was thinking. You heard of the Flying Dutchman?

Sam: Yeah, a ghost ship, infused with the captain's evil spirit. It was basically part of him.
Dean: So what if we're dealing with the same thing? You know, a phantom truck, an extension of some bastard's ghost, re-enacting past crimes.
Sam: The victims have all been black men.

Dean: I think it's more than that. They all seem connected to Cassie and her family.

Cassie: We should fight more often.

Dean: Absolutely.

Cassie: Actually we were always pretty good at fighting. This we were good at. It's all the other stuff... not so much.

Sam: I'm guessing you guys worked things out?

Dean: We'll be working things out when we're ninety. So what happened?

Sam: Every bone crushed. Internal organ's turned to pudding. The cops are all stumped, it's like something ran him over.

Dean: This Cyrus Dorian. He vanished in April of '63. The case was investigated but never solved. It was right around the time the string of murders was going on back then.

Dean: So this killer truck.

Sam: I miss conversations that didn't start with 'this killer truck.'

Dean: Well this Cyrus guy. Evil on a level that infected even his truck. When he died, the swamp became his tomb, and his spirit was dormant for 40 years.

Sam: So burning the body had no effect on that thing?
Dean: Sure it did. Now it's really pissed.

Sam: Where are you?
Dean: In the middle of nowhere with a killer truck on my ass! It's like it knows I put the torch to Cyrus.

Sam: Evil spirits cross over hallowed ground, sometimes they're destroyed so I figured, maybe, that would get rid of it.

Dean: Maybe? Maybe?! What if you were wrong?
Sam: Huh. Honestly that thought hadn't occurred to me.

Dean: Honestly that thought hadn't occurred to me... I'm gonna kill him.

Cassie: You know what? I'm a realist. I don't see much hope for us Dean.

Dean: Well I've seen stranger things happen. A hell of a lot stranger.
Cassie: Goodbye Dean.

Dean: I'll see ya Cassie.... I will.

Trivia & References

Route 666 is the sixth extension of Route 66, the famous Mother Road east-west highway, that runs through New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. It was long saddled with the Biblical number of the beast but was renamed Route 491 in 2003, ending decades of devilish innuendo and road sign thievery.

The showdown between the Impala and the Racist Truck is reminiscent of an episode of Knight Rider "K.I.T.T. V.S. K.A.R.R."

Minutiae

Ron Robinson, who played Young Martin Robinson, also played Possessed Man in 3.12 Jus in Bello.

The original pitch for the episode was based on the idea of it being a 42 minute car chase. However, budget and the logistics of filming the episode forced the premise to be rethought.

Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming were brought in to write the episode at the request of Eric Kripke after "losing a script" during production and needing an emergency script finished in a week to replace it.

Eric Kripke has cited this episode as another one of his least favorites. Among other reasons he claims the phantom truck wasn't scary enough and looked too much like a "monster truck."

The demand of the network to have more romance on the show produced a strange kind of moral to be adhered to. Anthony Pinker, one of the editors, explains: "The violence we don't get a lot of notes on." For the episode "Route 666" though, "... The note I got from the network was 'The girl can't be on top.'"^{(cit.S1Com, p. 77)}

The starburst clock shows up on the wall of Sam and Dean's motel room.

When Sam is telling Dean how to lure the truck to a precise spot, one instruction is to drive exactly 0.7 miles. When Dean first looks at the odometer, it reads 70098.2. When he stops, it reads 70100.6, which is 2.4 miles.

In the faux trailer for Hell Hazers II: The Reckoning in 2.18 Hollywood Babylon, writer Martin Flagg is also credited as the writer of Cornfield Massacre and Monster Truck, which are illustrated with images from 1.11 Scarecrow and this episode. There's also a shot of the hook from 1.07 Hook Man, of Claire's desiccated hands from 2.07 The Usual Suspects, Gordon and his bloody knife from 2.03 Bloodlust and the inside of Angela's coffin from 2.04 Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things.

In 4.18 The Monster at the End of This Book, "Route 666" is the title of one of Chuck's Supernatural books. On reading it Dean says: "Everything is in here. I mean everything. From the racist truck to -- to me having sex. I'm full-frontal in here, dude."

In the alternative 2014 Apocalyptic future portrayed in 5.04 The End, the movie of Route 666 -- presumably based on Carver Edlund's book -- is on the board of an abandoned cinema.

"Route 666" has the distinction of being the highest rated episode of Supernatural, with a 5.82 rating.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

• 1.13 Route 666 (transcript)

Promotion

• Promo