10.17 Inside Man

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SPN1017.jpg
Title Inside Man
Episode # Season 10, Episode 17
First aired April 1, 2015
Directed by Rashaad Ernesto Green
Written by Andrew Dabb
On IMDB Inside Man
Outline While Dean has a confrontation with Rowena, Sam and Castiel team up with Bobby to break Metatron out of Heaven's prison.
Monster Rowena
Angels
Timeline
Location(s) Lebanon, Kansas
Heaven
Fall River, Massachusetts
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Synopsis

Sam, worried about Dean, contacts Castiel with a plan to break Metatron out of Heaven’s jail to interrogate him further about the Mark of Cain. Sam and Castiel go to the playground with the portal to Heaven, where Hannah takes a temporary male vessel to talk to them. She refuses to hand over Metatron as he’s too dangerous to let out of his cell prompting Sam and Cas seek out psychic Oliver Pryce, where Sam and Castiel ask him to put them in contact with Bobby Singer in Heaven. They perform a seance, Sam placing Bobby’s old hat on the table. In his Heaven Bobby is sitting in the living room in his old house, drinking whiskey, reading a Tori Spelling autobiography and listening to the Kenny Rogers’ "The Gambler" on the radio, when Sam’s voice comes through over the radio asking for his help.

Sam tells Bobby about the Mark of Cain, and Castiel tells him how to find the escape hatch from his personal Heaven and then find and open the portal to Earth. Bobby looks around his house until he he finds a loose thread sticking out of a rug, pulling on it leads him out the escape hatch, setting off an alarm. To throw the angels off he lets out a bunch of other souls that are in the same corridor, all with the name Robert Singer (and one Roberta Singer). In the chaos, Bobby slips away. He opens door 42, which is the portal to Earth. Down on Earth, Sam distracts the guard angels while Castiel runs to the portal in the playground and jumps into it. He arrives in Heaven and tells Bobby that Dean doesn’t know they’re doing this.

They break Metatron out of his cell and take him to Earth, where Sam takes his grace, storing it in a glass jar, and shoots him in the leg. Metatron reveals that he really doesn’t know if the Mark can be removed or how, telling Sam he was just buying time with Dean after he lost control. Castiel wants to kill him on the spot, but Metatron buys himself some time by offering to take Castiel to the remainder of his grace.

At Crowley's Lair, Rowena gets a demon underling to reveal the location of the place where Crowley was held captive the previous year –- the Men of Letters Bunker. However due to interference, the demon is only able to get it down to a 10 mile radius.

While at a local bar, trying to enjoy some nachos and a beer, Dean decides to teach some obnoxious college boys a lesson by hustling pool. Having taken their money and a watch from one of them, he leaves for the bathroom. As he is washing his face, he briefly sees his eyes flash black, causing him to panic at what he just saw. When Dean comes back out, he is attacked by the college boys and Donny, the bar owner, who are under Rowena’s attack dog spell. He defeats them but holds himself back from killing them. Rowena attacks Dean with a direct spell, but it just flies past him, to her disbelief. Dean holds a knife to her neck and asks why she’s come to attack him. She tells him it’s because he’s a bad influence on Crowley, who could be a god if he didn’t act like a lapdog whenever Dean snaps his fingers. Dean threatens to kill her, but she tells him she’s the only one who can lift the spell on the college boys – if she dies, so do they.

Rowena returns to Crowley's furious but unharmed. She cuts and beats herself, telling Crowley that Dean did this to her, that she was trying to kill him but her spell didn’t work. According to Crowley, it’s because the Mark of Cain protects him, but Rowena is not impressed -– she claims the Mark is just a curse and it can be removed. Rowena urges him to do something about the Winchesters before his underlings decide he’s too weak to be king.

Crowley goes to meet Dean in the bar. Dean tells him he didn’t hurt Rowena. They discuss how maybe they’ve both gone soft or gotten older – way back when, they would have been fighting it out instead of drinking and philosophizing together. Dean tells Crowley that ”a wise man once told me, ’family don’t end in blood,’ but it doesn’t start there, either. Family cares about you, not what you can do for them.” After hearing that from Dean, Crowley goes back and promptly throws Rowena out, wanting nothing more to do with her.

Sam and Dean reunite in the Bunker library, neither one telling the other what they’ve been up to. In his room, Sam pulls out a letter from Bobby that Castiel handed to him earlier. In his letter, Bobby advises Sam not to go behind Dean’s back, because there might be one hell of a price. But he also says he knows that Sam will make the right choice, because he’s a good man and Bobby’s proud of him. Sam is moved to tears.

In Bobby’s Heaven, the door opens. Hannah (in her male vessel) and a few other angels come into his room and stand there looking at him. He doesn’t acknowledge them, as he’s looking at a picture of Sam and Dean and smiling.

Characters

Definitions

Music

  • "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers
(playing on the radio in Bobby's Heaven; also played in 6.04 Weekend at Bobby's)
  • "Lydia" by Peter Nathanson & Rodolphe Perroquin (Kosinus)
(playing when Dean orders his food and drink)
  • "Ain't Going Back" by Simon Stewart (De Wolfe Music)
(playing when Dean loses and bets on the second game of pool)
  • "Oigame Diosito 1" by Raul Navaira (APM Music)
(playing from Roberto Singer's Heaven)
  • "Shakin' the Blues" by Paul Lenart (Sonoton)
(playing when Rowena appears in the bar)

Quotes

Sam: Actually, I was thinking about seeing a movie.

Dean: That'd be cool.
Sam: It's a French movie.

Dean: You mean like nudie French?
[Crowley walks in on a naked Rowena]

Crowley: Oh God.
Rowena: Please it's nothing you haven't seen before.

Crowley: You're my mother, I don't want to see anything. I've been to Hell, thanks.
Sam: Mr. Pryce, this is Sam-

Oliver: Winchester. You're Sam Winchester - Man of Letters.
Sam: Yeah, how-how did you-
Oliver: Mind reader, remember. And you're... what are you?
Castiel: I'm an angel.
Oliver: That-no, you can't be.
Castiel: Why not?
Oliver: Because I'm an atheist.

Sam: Not anymore.
Bobby: Hey Sam, remember when this job was just chopping up some fang, and throwing back a cold one?
Rowena: Dean.

Dean: Rowena, what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? I'm sorry did I say nice girl? I meant evil skank.

Rowena: You say that like it's an insult. Nice girls, they're pathetic. Here's to 'evil skanks.'
Angel: The Bobbys are fighting back. All hands, we need all hands. They're surly, I repeat the Bobbys are surly.
Dean: A wise man once told me, 'family don't end in blood.' But it doesn't start there either. Family cares about you, not what you can do for them family's there; for the good, bad, all of it. They got your back, even when it hurts. That's family. That sound like your mother?
Crowley: You may have brought me into this world, but you were never my mother.

Rowena: So you're choosing the Winchesters.
Crowley: I'm choosing me. I put up with your lies, your sad little schemes because-because maybe you were right, maybe I did lose my edge. But that ends now. Tell me Rowena, if I were not the King of Hell, would you have ever bothered to pretend to care about me?
Rowena: You-you can't.

Crowley: I can, I'm bloody Crowley! I'm the King of Hell. I do what I want, when I want, and I don't take orders from you.
Castiel: We have your grace, Metatron. You're mortal now. So you will answer our questions, or Sam will, um... What's the phrase? Blow your fricking brains out. It's called leverage, Metatron.
Sam: Learn it, live it, love it. How do we get rid of the Mark?
Bobby: Sam. So, this is weird huh? Look I just wanted to say that Cas told me what you're doing for Dean and I'm not asking you to stop but maybe going behind his back ain't the best idea. Your brother, he can be stubborn but I think he'd understand and I know it's the life: doing a little bad so you can do a lot of good but sometimes the bad is real bad and the good , it can come at one hell of a price. I ain't there on the ground and whatever you do, I know you'll make the right choice. You're a good man, Sam Winchester, one of the best and I'm damn proud of you son. I was content up here but getting a call from you, it's the happiest I've been in forever, no matter what it costs. So stay safe, keep fighting and kick it in the ass. --Bobby.

Trivia & References

An inside man is someone who helps with the execution of a crime by working inside the target. The episode title "Inside Man" probably refers to the 2006 movie Inside Man about a bank heist directed by Spike Lee.
Dean: I'll do the, uh, Hervé Villechaize.
Hervé Villechaize was a dwarf actor famous for his roles as the henchman Nick Nack The Man with the Golden Gun and Tattoo on Fantasy Island. Hervé Villechaize killed himself on September 4, 1993 -- citing his longtime health problems as to why he took his life.
Dean: What's up with the Abercrombie rejects?
Abercrombie & Fitch is a clothing brand which epitomizes the northeastern U.S. upper-class college style known as "preppy."
Oliver: All I'm getting from you is... colors. But the hippie over here, I'm seeing some creep-ass hobbit fella, in a prison cell.
A hobbit is a race of people who live in Middle Earth who are small of stature and hairy of feet in the books of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Bobby: So, when I'm playing Steve McQueen, anyone gonna be looking for me?
Steve McQueen was a famous action movie actor who was best known for his role in the movie The Great Escape which follows the break-out of Allied POWs from a German prison camp in Word War II.
Bobby: Listen I appreciate the warm fuzzy. I ain't exactly playing on the big leagues these days, mostly drinking and reading the classics.
The book Bobby holds up is sTORI TELLING by Tori Spelling and Hilary Liftin.
Bobby: Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.
This is a quote from the character Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part III.
Crowley: Squirrel

Dean: Boris. Where's Natasha?

The animated series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show starred a moose called Bullwinkle and a squirrel called Rocky - the source of Crowley's nicknames for the Winchester's. Their nemesis were secret agents of the nation of Pottsylvania: Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale.
Bobby: If I find a way out, then what?

Castiel: The gate is behind door number...
Bobby: ...Forty-two.

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series of books by Douglas Adams, the number 42 holds great significance as "the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" although the specific question it is the answer to was never specified.
Dean: Maybe I've changed too. Here I am playing Dr. Phil to the King of Hell, never saw that coming.
Dr. Phil is a reference to Dr Phil McGraw, a celebrity psychologist with an eponymous TV Show in which he dispenses advice to people.
Dean: What is it, huh? Why'd you let mommie dearest tie you into knots.
Mommie Dearest is the name of the autobiography of Christina Crawford which documented her abuse at the hands of her mother, actor Joan Crawford. It was later made into a movie of the same name starring Faye Dunaway.
Bobby: This is the Scribe of God? He looks like a Fraggle.

Metatron: I'm gonna take that as a complement, that was an excellent program.

Fraggle Rock was a 1980s puppet show created by Jim Henson about the society of a group of Muppet creatures called Fraggles.
Rowena: Those tumshies have you on a leash.
Tumshie is a Scottish word for a turnip. It is mostly used as in a derogatory manner, referring to people that are gullible or foolish.

Minutiae

Fraser Corbett, who played an Angelic Guard, previously played Sparky -- a skinwalker in 6.08 All Dogs Go to Heaven.
Chris McNally, who played Ty, previously appeared in 4.15 Death Takes a Holiday.
Rhys Williams, who played one of Ty's friends, previously played a Local in 1.02 Wendigo.
When Sam hears Dean screaming his name, the audio is actually taken from the end scene from 3.16 No Rest for the Wicked when Dean is screaming for Sam in Hell.
The program that the Nebbish Demon uses to try and triangulate the location of the Bunker is called Vox Sanguinum Locant Enterprise Edition (Cracked). Some of the symbols that can be seen on the tablet include a Sigil of Sulfur, inverted pentagram and goat skull.
As Bobby is walking down the corridor after escaping his personal Heaven, he sees all the name plates on the doors are for all the other people named Robert Singer that have died.
In Heaven, the gate to Earth is behind door #42. Anna Milton was kept in Ward #42 at the Conner Beverly Behavioral Medicine Center in 4.09 I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Executive Producer Robert Singer provides the voice of the angel calling for more back-up when the other Bobby Singers get surly.
Dean quotes Bobby's line "family don't end in blood" from 3.16 No Rest for the Wicked to Crowley.
In Bobby's letter he urges Sam to "Kick it in the ass!" -- a shout out to the signature line of beloved late Director and Executive Producer Kim Manners.
This is the third episode of Supernatural that did not involve a death of any kind. The first was 4.18 The Monster at the End of This Book, followed by 4.21 When the Levee Breaks.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

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