2.04 Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things

Title	Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things
Episode #	Season 2, Episode 4
First aired	19 October, 2006
Directed by	Kim Manners
Written by	Raelle Tucker
On IMDB	http://imdb.com/title/tt0837741/
Outline	Dean and Sam investigate the murder of a college student who has come back from the dead seeking revenge on those who mistreated her while she was alive.
Monster	Zombie
Timeline	end of Aug, 2006
Location(s)	Greenville, Illinois
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Synopsis

At Sam’s insistence, the brother’s travel to Greenville Cemetary to visit their mother’s grave, where Sam buries his father’s dog tags. Dean notices a circle of dead vegetation around a nearby grave belonging to a girl named Angela Mason, killed recently in a car accident. Dean suspects there may be something supernatural at work, but Sam charges that is simply part of Dean’s on-going refusal to deal with his grief over their father’s death.

Sam agrees to investigate Angela’s death, but a visit to Angela’s father doesn’t provide any clues as to what may be going on. After an argument with Sam, Dean goes on his own to Angela’s apartment. Her roommate Lindsay is distraught - not only over Angela’s death, but also over the death of Angela’s boyfriend Matt, who apparently slit his own throat the previous night.

Dean manages to pilfer through Angela’s diary, which reveals she had a confidante called Neil. He and Sam visit Neil who reveals that Matt was having an affair, which Angela discovered on the night of her death. Returning to her grave, the boys disinter her coffin not only to find it empty, but with Greek symbols engraved inside it.

Suspecting that her father, a classics professor, may have constructed a ritual to raise her from the dead, the boys visit him again. Dean becomes aggressive and upset with Dr Mason, although he continues to deny Sam’s accusations that he is losing control.

Dean decides Neil may have had a crush on Angela and raised her as a zombie. On returning to Neil’s house, they found no one home, but there are signs of a recent supernatural presence. They return to Angela’s apartment just in time to save Lindsay, who had been having the affair with Matt, from being killed by Angela, who escapes.

Sam and Dean find Neil, and explain they have a plan to return Angela to the dead. Angela overhears, and after the boys leave, she kills Neil and pursues the boys to the cemetery.

At the graveyard, Sam lures her to the grave, where Dean stakes her inside her coffin.

The boys leave town, but on a lonely mountain road, Dean stops the car. He apologizes to Sam for the way he has been acting. Dean is upset because he is convinced that John exchanged his life, and the Colt, for Dean’s life, and he is struggling to cope with feeling responsible for John’s death.

Characters

• Dean Winchester
• Sam Winchester
• Angela Mason (undead woman)
• Dr Mason (Angela's father, professor of Ancient Greek)
• Neil (Angela's friend)
• Matt (Angela's boyfriend)
• Lindsey (Angela's roommate)

Definitions

• Necromancy ^PoD
• Undead ^PoD
• Zombie ^PoD
• Casa Erotica

Music

Supergrass - Sad Girl

Quotes

Sam: Burn the bones? Are you high? Angela died last week!

Dean: So?

Sam: So, there's not gonna be bones. There's gonna be a ripe, rotting body in the coffin.

Sam: You're lucky this turned out to be a real case, because if it wasn't, you just would have found something else to kill. You're on edge, you're erratic - except for when you're hunting, because then you're downright scary. You're tailspinning, man. And you refuse to talk about it and you won't let me help you.

Sam: We've already lost dad. We've lost mom. I've lost Jessica. And now I'm gonna lose you, too?

Dean: We better get out of here before the cops come. ... I hear you, okay? Yeah, I'm being an ass. And I'm sorry, but right now we've got a freaking zombie running around - we need to figure out how to kill it. Right?
Sam: Our lives are weird, man.

Dean: You're telling me.

Dean: We can't just waste her with a head shot?

Sam: Dude, you've been watching way too many Romero flicks.
Dean: You're telling me there's no lore on how to smoke 'em?
Sam: No, Dean. I'm telling you there's too much. I mean there's a hundred different legends on the walking dead, but they all have different methods for killing them. Some say setting them on fire, one said...where it it... right here, feeding their hearts to wild dogs. That's my personal favorite. But who knows what's real and what's myth?
Dean: Is there anything they all have in common?

Sam: No, but a few said silver might work.

Sam: Neil?

Dean: Yep.
Sam: How'd you come up with that?

Dean: You got your journal, I got mine. [reads from Angela's diary] Neil's a real shoulder to cry on, he so understands what I'm going through with Matt. ... There's more here where that came from. It's got unrequited Duckie love written all over it.

Dean: Neil? It's your grief counselors. We’ve come to hug.

Dean: I've heard of some people doing some pretty desperate things to get laid, but you, you take the cake.

Dean: Your girlfriend's past her expiration date, and we're crazy? When someone's gone, they should stay gone.

Dean: Sam. You and Dad... you're the most important people in my life. And now... I never should have come back, Sam. It wasn't natural. And now look what's come of it. I was dead. And I should have stayed dead. You wanted to know how I was feeling. Well, that's it.
So tell me. What could you possibly say to make that all right?

Trivia & References

The title of this episode is a reference to the 1972 zombie movie Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. See also The Meaning of Episode Titles.

At the end of the episode, Sam complains "I think she broke my hand" after his fight with Angela. This was included in the script after Jared Padalecki actually broke his wrist filming the previous episode. Because of this Sam is seen wearing a cast on his right arm in the episodes from 2.05 Simon Said until 2.11 Playthings.

When Dean is examining the perfect circle by Angela's grave, a silver chain necklace can be seen around his neck along with his usual amulet. When the camera cuts to him examining the grave marker, it's gone and is not present at any other time during the episode.

Dean presents himself to Lindsey as "Alan Stanwyk". - Alan Stanwyk is the name of a character in the 80’s comedy movie Fletch.

Dean: Haven't you seen Pet Sematary?
A reference to the Stephen King novel and film, Pet Sematary, in which a grieving father buries his young son's body in an ancient Indian burial ground and it comes back as a zombie.

Sam: You've been watching way too many Romero flicks.
This is a reference to George Romero, director of many zombie films including the "Night of the Living Dead" series.

Dean: There's more in here where that came from, it's got unrequited Duckie love written all over it.
A reference to the movie Pretty in Pinkwhere the character Duckie pines for his best friend Andie.

Sam: Yeah. An empty one. You think Angela's going after somebody?

Dean: Nah, I think she went out to rent Beaches.

Beaches is a chick-flick movie from 1988. Chuck Shurley says Beaches is his favorite movie in 5.09 The Real Ghostbusters.

Angela: Hi, Lindsey, I'm home!
Likely a reference to [Desi Arnaz]'s famous line "Lucy! I'm home!" from the 1950s sitcom [I Love Lucy].

Minutiae

• The announcer on the TV Sam is watching in the motel room says "Next on the Skin Channel, Casa Erotica Four. A tale of two Latin beauties..."
• The close-up of Angela's phone after the crash shows the date to be "TUE 22 AUG 06". When Dean and Sam arrive, Angela has been buried for 3 days as Dean says, "Angela Mason. She was a student at the local college; funeral was three days ago." The next day, Sam points out that she died a week ago, "Burn the bones? Are you high? Angela died last week!" The temporary grave marker for Angela further confuses things, as it reads "DATE COMPLETED: 12/08/07. MONUMENT COMPLETED: 19/09/07."
• On the imdb page for this episode, Angela was originally credited as Summer Glau. It has since been corrected to Tamara Feldman.

Promotion

|Sides_Scripts_Transcripts=

• 2.04 Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (transcript)

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• Episode Stills
• Episode Promo: 2.04 Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things
• The tagline for the promo for this episode was "true love never dies".

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