13.15 A Most Holy Man
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| Title | A Most Holy Man |
| Episode # | Season 13, Episode 15 |
| First aired | March 8, 2018 |
| Directed by | Amanda Tapping |
| Written by | Robert Singer Andrew Dabb |
| On IMDB | A Most Holy Man |
| Outline | Needing the blood of a most holy man, Sam and Dean get embroiled in a black market that deals with religious relics. |
| Monster | Humans |
| Timeline | February 27 - March 3-4, 2018 |
| Location(s) | Malta (Holy Sisters of Malta Monastery) Lebanon, Kansas San Francisco, California Seattle, Washington |
| « Previous Episode | Next Episode » | |
Synopsis
In Malta, a thief enters the Holy Sisters of Malta Monastery, breaks a case, and steals the skull of St. Peter. As he turns to leave, a nun confronts him, but he knocks her out, apologizes, and leaves.
In the Bunker, Sam and Dean ponder over the ingredients that are required for the spell to open the rift to the Apocalypse World. With Castiel searching for the fruit from the Tree of Life in Syria, they focus on how to source "the blood of a most holy man." An online search leads them to a dealer of religious relics, Margaret Astor, who may be able to sell them the blood of a saint. They meet with her in San Francisco, where she openly flirts with Sam while ignoring Dean, much to his discomfort. She asks what it is the boys require. When Sam tells her it's the blood of a saint, she sends them to meet Richard Greenstreet in Seattle with a word of advice to be cautious.
In Seattle, Greenstreet enjoys a doughnut as he greets the Winchesters. They introduce themselves with the aliases Sam and Dean Vaughn of Rhode Island. Greenstreet catches them on their fake identity due to their cheap quality clothing and their lack of knowledge about the rich inhabitants of Rhode Island. Once they confess that they are the Winchesters and need the blood of a saint, Greenstreet admits to having some in his possession. He also suggests that as the boys can't possibly afford to buy it, they perform a job for him as payment. He asks that they get the skull that Santino Scarpatti, a mob boss, had stolen from Malta. The boys grudgingly agree to steal the skull from Scarpatti in return for the blood of St. Ignatius.
Through tracking the airline records of people who have recently traveled from Malta to Seattle, the boys track down thief Antonio Miele, who is staying at the Patricia Hotel. When they reach his room they find Miele dead. A cop busts in the room and throws handcuffs at the boys while pointing a gun at them, forcing Sam and Dean to cuff themselves to the heater as the man frantically searches the room and leaves frustrated and empty handed. After Sam frees them from the handcuffs with a lock pick, they leave the hotel, but when they reach the Impala, they are surprised to find three mobsters waiting for them. They insist the boys get in the back seat of the car while one of them drives them to meet with Scarpatti, forcing at gunpoint Dean to reluctantly hand over the keys.
At the Scarpatti mansion, the mob boss gloats about being a devout Catholic, which is why he had the skull stolen, believing he can give a holy relic like that a proper home. He then reveals that the skull has now been stolen from him, and he tasks the Winchesters with retrieving it for him.
Back at the hotel, the boys try to access Miele's room in search of a lead. They find it cordoned off and a cop standing guard. Dean sets off the fire alarm to create a diversion, allowing Sam to sneak into the room. As Sam searches for clues, he finds a piece of paper with numbers written on it. As he stands up, he is immediately attacked from behind and knocked unconscious with a whack on the head. His assailant takes off with the piece of paper, but he too is assaulted upon leaving the hotel. Dean finds Sam passed out and wakes him up; leaving the hotel, they find Sam’s attacker passed out in an alley. Upon waking up, he confesses that he is after the skull too. This stranger with an European accent is in fact a priest named Father Lucca Camilleri from Malta, who has been given the task of bringing the sacred skull back to the monastery. Along with him, he has brought all the money that the church has to buy the skull back from the thieves. After some arguing, Sam and Dean agree to help Father Lucca get the skull back. Driving in the Impala, Father Lucca remembers what was written on the scrap of paper that Sam had found, which turns out to be the tracking number of a package sent from Malta to Seattle. At the courier service center, the fake cop, Mr. Cromarty, retrieves the package and exits the store, allowing Sam, Dean, and Father Lucca to tail him.
They reach a warehouse and within minutes, another car arrives from which Margaret Astor emerges. Inside, Scarpatti, Ms. Astor, and Greenstreet trade jibes at each other over the skull. Sam is soon captured, and reveals that he is there to purchase the skull. Sam bids the church amount of $634,000 and 2 cents. Scarpatti bids there million and Greenstreet bids 0 dollars. Greenstreet instead offers Mr. Cromarty a million dollars for killing Astor - which he immediately does. A gunfight breaks out and Dean barges in and joins the fight. During the skirmish, Father Lucca is hit with a bullet while saving Dean from being shot by Mr. Cromarty, who is then shot and killed by Sam. Checking on Father Lucca, Sam and Dean are relieved to see that the bullet only grazed him, which Father Lucca calls a miracle. Greenstreet, the only survivor of the shootout, confesses that he has no blood of a saint and he lied just to get the skull. Angry at being used, Dean punches Greenstreet out; he is later taken away in handcuffs by the police, pleading his innocence.
The next day, at the airport, Father Lucca is thankful to the boys for helping him get the skull. He tells the boys that while the world will never be perfect, good men doing good things can make it better. Sam inquires about a Latin title that was attached to the priest’s name. Father Lucca explains that it was an honorary title bestowed upon him by the Pope himself, telling them the Pope also called him un uomo santissimo -- "a most holy man." Sam and Dean are amazed by this turn of events and ask for him for last thing before he departs for Malta -- a small vial of his blood.
At home in the Bunker, a distressed Sam confesses to Dean that he wishes, rather than lurching from one apocalyptic event to another, that they could find a permanent solution to all the evil and monsters, but Dean is only able to tell him that that would be nice. When Sam switches the subject to Father Lucca's blood, asking if Dean thinks it will work, Dean responds that he has "faith."
Characters
Definitions
Music
- "Leich Pax vita salus" by Schola Gregoriana Pragensis & Petra Noskaiova
- (playing as the Miele breaks into the Holy Sisters of Malta Monastery)
- "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" by Johnny Mercer and the Pied Pipers with Paul Weston and his Orchestra
- (playing in the coffee shop as Dean hits on a woman)
- I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Se Romeo t'uccise un figlio - La tremenda ultrice spada by Compagnia d'Opera Italiana Orchestra
- (playing when Sam and Dean meet with Scarpatti)
- "Vita Nostra" by David Kelly (De Wolfe Music)
- (playing over the shootout)
Quotes
Sam: Blood of a most holy man.
Dean: A most holy man. What -- what - what does that mean?
Dean: Hey, you want the blood, right? Well... Besides, the thing's already stolen.
Sam: Really? That's your rationale?
Sam: So you hit me?
Father Lucca: The skull was gone. When I saw you found something, I-I-I lost my head, okay? Look, that relic means everything to my congregation. And I understand that sounds strange to you, but... imagine you woke up one morning, and this thing you loved, this thing you and your parents and your children saw every week, this thing you prayed to since you were old enough to form words, was just gone. What -- what would you do?
Sam: And I get why. I mean, if -- if somebody, uh... If somebody stole the Impala, what would you do?
Dean: Murder. I'd murder 'em all.
Sam: Right. My point being I... I don't want a dick like Greenstreet or Scarpatti to win. Not this time.
Dean: Oh, I believe. Hell, I know. God? He doesn't give a damn about you or me or anyone else. So if you're expecting some sort of a-a miracle to happen, well... good luck.
Father Lucca: I'm sorry. I didn't mean God would reach down and protect us. Of course that's not going to happen. But I believe all good things are God's things. And what your brother's doing, it's a good thing.
Dean: Yeah, or a stupid thing.
Father Lucca: I do, but everyone, we all have faith in something, even if it is just 'a hunk of bone.'
Father Lucca: Yeah. He called me un uomo santissimo.
Sam: What does that mean?
Sam: I don't know. Nothing. I mean -- I mean, you know... You ever feel like we're -- we're doing nothing but playing defense? You know, bouncing from one apocalypse to the next?
Dean: Well, it's not exactly our call.
Sam: I know that, and I'm not saying we don't do good. But -- but no matter how many people we save, there will always be more people that need saving. No matter how many monsters we kill--
Dean: There's always gonna be another one around the corner.
Sam: Exactly.
Dean: Mm-hmm.
Sam: You think we could ever change things? I mean, really change things? You know, stop all the monsters, all the bad?
Dean: That would be nice.
Sam: Yeah. So what are you thinkin'? Think that'll work?
Trivia & References
- Montgomery Ward was a department store retailer from 1872 to 2001 and currently is an online retailer known as Wards.
Greenstreet: The skull of St. Peter.
- Saint Peter was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus in the Christian tradition and is considered by Roman Catholics to have been the first Pope.
Greenstreet: St. Ignatius. Hmmm. That's correct.
- Ignatius of Loyola was a Basque priest who started the Jesuit order. He was canonized by Pope Gregory XV on 12 March 1622.
Sam: Yeah. You're like a...
Dean: Yeah?
Sam: I don't know what you're like.
- "Be prepared" is the Scout Motto.
- "Failure is not an option" is a quote attributed to NASA Flight Director Gene Krantz, in reality the line was made up for the film Apollo 13, taken from a similar quote from FDO Flight Controller Jerry Bostick.
Sam: I'm fine.
Dean: Okay, I'm just saying, you're taking a lot of shots to the head lately. I mean, I know that Disney Princess hair gives you some padding, but, uh...
- Sam has been knocked out five times this season. Dean referencing all the hits to the head Sam has taken can be seen as a meta reference to the fandom pointing out the frequency of Sam being rendered unconscious.
- Disney Princess refers to media franchise which focuses on the various princesses that have appeared in Disney films and TV.
Sam: What?
Dean: The hell are you doin'?
Sam: We have to find it anyways.
Dean: Yeah, and give it to Greenstreet and then get our fill up on Jesus juice.
- Jesus juice is typically used as slang for communal wine. Dean Winchester has used the term in the past to refer to holy water.
Dean: Great. So do I. But Friar Tuck over there, we don't owe him anything.
- Friar Tuck is a jolly friar who appears in the stories of Robin Hood as one of his Merry Men.
- Lurch is a reference to the Addams Family's loyal butler, known for his immense size.
Dean: A what now?
Father Lucca: Oh. It-it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a title the Pope gives for good works.
- Apostolic protonotaries supernumerary is a purely honorary title bestowed upon priests by the Pope, and is considered the highest grade of monsignor. The title was discontinued in 2014 by the Pope, but all existing supernumerary protonotaries are allowed to keep their titles.
Minutiae
- This is a reference to Supernatural VFX post coordinator Mary Manchin.
- This is a reference to the events of 7.06 Slash Fiction.
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
- 13.15 A Most Holy Man (transcript)
- A Most Holy Man script (Production Draft)
