15.06 Golden Time

Title	Golden Time
Episode #	Season 15, Episode 6
First aired	November 21, 2019
Directed by	John F. Showalter
Written by	Meredith Glynn
On IMDB	Golden Time
Outline	Sam tries to help the ghost of Eileen Leahy find peace, while Dean has an existential crisis. Castiel gets drawn into investigating a series of unnatural deaths in Wyoming.
Monster	Witches Ghost Djinn
Timeline
Location(s)	Lebanon, Kansas Jenny Lake County, Wyoming
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Synopsis

A woman enters Rowena’s apartment and begins to ransack the place. After several minutes of this, she collapses and falls, dead, to the floor.

Sam is getting frustrated with Dean’s apathy. He goes out for a run and Eileen appears to him. They go back to the bunker and learn that she was taken to hell by the hellhound that killed her. She escaped hell when Chuck opened the doors and is now a ghost. Knowing that ghosts will eventually go insane and hurt people, she asks Sam and Dean if they can put a word in the angels and allow her into heaven. However, a soul from hell can’t go to heaven, so they determine that maybe they can create a ‘soul catcher’ for her.

Sam and Eileen go to Rowena’s apartment to find a crystal to create the soul catcher. Sam recognizes the body on the floor as a witch, assumes she got into something she shouldn’t have. While looking for the crystal, they come across a spell Rowena was creating when Mary died, to make a spirit flesh and decide to try it with Eileen. As they are getting to the car outside the apartment, Sam collapses and starts to spit up blood. He finds a hex bag in the wheel well of the car and tells Eileen to go and find Dean. Two witches, the mother and sister of the dead girl in Rowena’s apartment, approach Sam. They want the spell and things from Rowena’s apartment but can’t enter because the spell will kill anyone who enters except, apparently, Sam. Dean arrives, a fight ensues, the witches die, and Sam, Dean and Eileen return to the bunker.

While this is all happening, Castiel stumbles into a case at a lake where one kid disappeared and was subsequently pulled from the lake, drained of his blood, and another is now missing. The local Sheriff is not being helpful so Castiel accompanies the missing kid’s mom to the area where he was camping. The kid explains that he saw a monster dragging a body into the lake. He ran away, fell and twisted his ankle. At this point Sheriff Roy shows up, calling Castiel and the kid ‘a big pain in his ass’. Castiel pulls out his Angel Blade and Sheriff Roy reveals that he is a Djinn. Sheriff Roy shoots Castiel in the chest (which heals immediately) and Castiel stabs him with the Angel Blade.

Back at the bunker, Sam is preparing the spell to make Eileen flesh again. He runs a bath and pours ingredients into the water. Eileen steps into the water as Sam recites the spell. When he’s finished, Eileen steps out of the water, naked, and wraps herself in a towel. She walks over to Sam, hugs him and says, ‘Thank you’.

At the end of the day Sam and Dean are hanging out in the war room. Sam again addresses how he feels Dean has given up and tells him that he thinks they can beat Chuck, but he can’t do it without his brother.

Characters

• Sam Winchester
• Dean Winchester
• Castiel
• Eileen Leahy
• Witch Mother
• Emily (Witch)
• Jacinda
• Melly Krakowski
• Caleb Krakowski
• Sheriff Alden Roy

Definitions

• Alcohol
• Aliases
• Angel Blade
• Castiel's Cars
• Curse
• Dead Guy Robe
• Djinn
• Ghosts
• Healing
• Hex Bag
• Hugs
• Hunters
• Impala
• Kick it in the ass!
• Law Enforcement Officers
• Lebanon, Kansas
• Men of Letters Bunker
• Mirrors
• Nicknames
• Resurrection
• Rowena's Apartment
• Rowena's Spellbooks
• Sam's Hair
• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
• Scrying
• Season 15 Callbacks
• Soul Catcher
• Specialty Bullets
• Spells
• Table of Death
• Tarot Cards
• Witches
• Witch-Killing Bullets

Music

• "So Quiet" by Cobra Ramone

(playing as Jacinda ransacks Rowena's flat)

Quotes

Sam: No. I haven't had a vision since Colorado. I think maybe they stopped.
Dean: Oh, I doubt it. Not until Chuck gets His end game, you know? The Winchester Bowl. Cain and Abel 2.0. This is God we're talking about. G-O-D. Wouldn't be too worried about finding Him. He'll find us.

Dean: So, you were in Hell? You didn't make a deal. You were innocent. You've been down there this whole time?
Eileen: The Hellhound that killed me kind of dragged me there.

Eileen: Been trying to get you guys to see me for a while now. This whole ghost thing doesn't really come with a handbook. Look, I don't know how this all works, but I know how it ends. We go crazy. We hurt people. I can't stay here, and I won't go back down there. So I thought... You guys know angels. Maybe if you put in a good word, you know, up there...

Sam: I've been there, too -- uh, Hell. A long time ago. You try and forget, but it gets inside you. Talking helps.

Eileen: You miss her.
Sam: I killed her. Her idea. She, uh, sacrificed herself to save us. To -- to save the world. You ever feel you're the punchline to some cosmic joke?

Sam: Listen, I get it. All right? I mean, I -- I have an older brother. When I was 10, he -- he put superglue in my toothpaste.

Castiel: My colleagues and I, we, uh -- I guess you could say we had a falling out with management. Well, and each other.

Castiel: It's always you -- you selfish little men in positions of authority. You take what you want, you take who you want. And you believe that your power will protect you. Well, it won't protect you from me.

Castiel: If I stay, nothing changes. It's time for me to get back in the game.

Sam: You know what, I've been thinking about something you said, about how we don't make the rules, and you're right. We don't. We never have. But that doesn't mean we can just give up.

Sam: We have moves to make here, Dean. We do. I mean, do you think Chuck wanted me to shoot Him? Of course not.

Dean: You sure about that? Maybe that was part of the plan, you know? That's the thing, man. I don't know what's God and what isn't, and it's driving me crazy.

Sam: All I'm saying is we'll find a way to beat Him. We will. I don't know how yet, but we will 'cause we're the guys who break the rules. But I can't do it without you. I can't. Just like I couldn't do it today without you. I need my brother.

Trivia & References

"Golden Time" is a reference to the time period following a traumatic injury, also known as the golden hour, where treatment has the highest chance of preventing death.

Dean: You know they still put, um, jokes on the backs of these things. Listen to this one -- What's round and bad-tempered? "A vicious circle."

A "vicious circle" is sequence of events that build on each other, making a situation worse. The opposite of this is known as a "virtuous circle" which leads to more favorable results.

Sam: Wait a second. So I've been looking for signs of -- of God or -- or Lilith and you've been in your room, eating cereal.

Dean: And marathoning "Scooby-Doo."

Sam and Dean have a long history of watching Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, with Dean professing a serious crush on Daphne Blake. They ended up inside the cartoon in 13.16 Scoobynatural.

Castiel uses the alias Clarence again while he was on vacation, a reference to the angel Clarence from It's a Wonderful Life. Castiel previously used this after being turned human in 9.03 I'm No Angel. In addition, it's the nickname Meg used to call him.
As an FBI agent, Castiel goes by the name "Agent Worley." Clarence Worley is the name of Christian Slater's character in True Romance.

Sam: You know what, Dean, ever since God got back, you've been acting like there's nothing we can do, like nothing matters, but we can do this. Man, this matters.

Dean: And that's why you're gonna kick it in the ass.

Kick it in the ass! was the catchphrase of Supernatural producer and director Kim Manners.

There is a moving van imprinted with the slogan "Keep 'er movin'" outside Rowena's place. This is a reference to Charlie Berens and the comedy video series Manitowoc Minute, which uses the tagline "Keep 'er movin'." Production Designer Jerry Wanek is a fan of the show, and is also from Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

Rowena lived in the "Aradia Apartments". The Goddess Aradia is a moon goddess worshiped by witches in Tuscany.

Sam: I recognize that. It's from the "Ordo Maleficarum."

"Ordo Maleficarum" is Latin for Order of Witches, specially those practicing harmful magic.

Jacinda's tattoo is of a raven and a skull. The raven is seen as a mediator between the earth and the sky and the skull represents the shortness of life. Indian tribes use the symbol of the skull as a defense against death. The meaning of the raven and the skull originated in Medieval Europe in descriptions associated with the Black Death in the middle of the 14th century.

Sam holds up the Death tarot card to Eileen. The upright Death card typically means endings or profound change are on the horizon, possibly foreshadowing Eileen's fate at the end of the episode.

Dean: This is Assistant Director Kaiser.

Kaiser may refer to Glenn Kaiser who with his wife Wendy led the Christian rock band Resurrection Band. Mike Kaiser was also the alias Bobby Singer used as Assistant Director in 4.14 Sex and Violence.

The page with the resurrection spell contains a drawing of the Vitruvian Man made by Leonardo da Vinci.

Melly: Please, Agent Worley, you have to let me help. I told Caleb to get off "Fortnite" to get some fresh air.

Fortnite is a hugely popular online multiplayer game by Epic Games which was released in 2017.

Emily: Steve was a good bunny. But Jesse needed his bones, so.

The bunny's name is a shout-out to writer Steve Yockey who helped writer Meredith Glynn come up with the "fucked up things" Emily's sister did to her.

Minutiae

Filming Locations: Map of known filming locations

Keegan Conner Tracy, who played Witch Mother, previously played Karen Giles in 2.07 The Usual Suspects and Sera Siege in 4.18 The Monster at the End of This Book.

Jennifer Spence, who played Melly Krakowski, previously played Jean Holliday in 7.14 Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie.

Jodelle Ferland, who played Emily, previously played Melanie Merchant in 1.19 Provenance.

Art Kitching, who played Sheriff Alden Roy, previously played Serge Ladouceur in 6.15 The French Mistake.

Jared and Shoshannah conversing in Amslan on Twitter prior to the episode's premiere.

In the script it was made clear that Eileen couldn't manifest in the Bunker initially due to the warding. After Sam saw her while out running, he and Dean powered down the warding to let her in.

Eileen Leahy is revealed to have been dragged to Hell by the hellhound that killed her in 12.21 There's Something About Mary.

Dean tells Eileen that she can't go to Heaven because she has been in Hell, mentioning how Kevin Tran recently found this out. Belphegor told Dean and Sam in 15.02 Raising Hell that souls that had been to Hell could not get into Heaven. When Sam and Dean pointed out that John Winchester and Bobby Singer had been in Hell and then went to Heaven, Belphegor concluded that it was because God had intervened due to liking the Winchesters back then.

Sam reveals that the Hell ghosts captured by the soul catcher in Harlan are still imprisoned inside the crystal.

The Bunker is shown to have a phone setup similar to Bobby Singer's and Garth's for maintaining the covers of hunters with authorities.

The Witch Mother makes it clear that the resurrection spell can only be used once, telling Sam that once Death sees a loophole, "she closes it." How the Witch Mother was aware that Death was female is not known, as Rowena was surprised to learn this fact in 13.19 Funeralia.

Sam states that Rowena was maybe the most powerful witch to ever live. In return, Sam is called "Rowena's protégé" by Dean and it is implied that Rowena specifically left her magical stash for Sam to inherit and use. Indeed, Sam displays a growing magical ability, being able to resurrect Eileen and kill the Witch Mother using a spell he learned from Rowena. He was also able to finish the creation of the resurrection spell that Rowena had never completed.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

• 15.06 Golden Time (transcript)
• Golden Time script (Pink Draft)
• Golden Time script (Yellow Pages only)

Promotion

• Synopsis
• Promo
• Behind the scenes on set with Jensen and with Jared