Difference between revisions of "2.14 Born Under a Bad Sign"

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|Music=  
 
|Music=  
* "Crystal Ship" by The Doors  
+
* "The Crystal Ship" by The Doors  
 
:''(played when Evil Sam is questioning Jo in the bar about their fathers)''
 
:''(played when Evil Sam is questioning Jo in the bar about their fathers)''
 
* "Back on the Road Again" by REO Speedwagon  
 
* "Back on the Road Again" by REO Speedwagon  

Revision as of 09:07, 21 January 2013


Promotional image from Born Under a Bad Sign
Title Born Under a Bad Sign
Episode # Season 2, Episode 14
First aired February 8, 2007
Directed by J. Miller Tobin
Written by Cathryn Humphris
On IMDB Born Under a Bad Sign
Outline After receiving a frantic call from Sam, who has been missing for over a week, Dean races to his brother's side.
Monster Meg!Demon
Timeline
Location(s) Twin Lakes, Wisconsin
Otter Creek, Iowa
Duluth, Minnesota
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
[[{{{prevep}}}|« Previous Episode]] | [[{{{nextep}}}|Next Episode »]]

Synopsis

The teaser starts with Dean, speaking on the phone with Ellen. Sam has been gone for a week now. Suddenly, he gets a call from Sam. Dean hurries off and finds Sam dazed, and covered in blood. Sam tells Dean the blood isn't his, and that he doesn't remember a thing.

Together, Sam and Dean follow a string of clues to try and discover what happened to Sam during the missing days. They happen upon a storage unit for which Sam has the key. When they open it, they find a stolen car, and inside the car, a bloody knife on the floor. Clues lead them onwards to a gas station where a startled worker demands that Sam leave. Apparently, on Sam's visit during the missing week, he began chain smoking and downing beer, even throwing the bottles at the worker's head, a revelation that confuses Dean.

The brothers find themselves at a house and inside they find the corpse of a hunter, Steve Wandell. They watch the security videos in silent horror, seeing Sam grapple with Wandell before slitting his throat.

Dean is thrown off by what has happened, and they worry that Sam might be turning evil. Back at the motel, Sam asks Dean to make good his promise to kill Sam should he turn evil. Dean cannot bring himself to kill his brother, saying, "I'd rather die." To which Sam says, "You'll live to regret it," before knocking his brother unconscious.

Dean rouses in the morning when the hotel staff kicks him out. He traces Sam's phone to Duluth, Minnesota. Sam has found Jo, in her own equivalent of a road-house. He starts to come onto her and she resists. He knocks her out.

When she awakes, she is bound to a pillar. Sam tells her that, "My daddy shot your daddy in the head," in a sing-song voice, revealing that John killed Bill to put him out of his misery.

Just before Sam can do anymore, Dean bursts in, and Sam pleads again for Dean to kill him, or else Sam will kill Jo. Dean is unable to go through with it, turning away from an angry Sam who shouts that Dean would rather let innocents die than face life without his brother. Dean suddenly turns around, splashing the contents of his flask on Sam.

It is holy water and it sears Sam, who is revealed to have been possessed by a demon. Demon-Sam escapes through the window and Dean gives chase. The demon taunts Dean that its plan all along was to push Dean far enough that he'd kill Sam and that it'll use Sam's body to find and kill every hunter it can. The chase finally ends on a dock, where demon-Sam shoots Dean, who falls into the water. Thinking him dead, demon-Sam leaves.

Jo frantically tries Dean's cell, before finding him wounded but alive. She fixes him up, taking the bullet out of his shoulder. Jo quietly asks if demons ever tell the truth, to which Dean replies that they can occasionally if they know it will get to a person, but Jo refuses to reveal anything more than that. She offers to help, but Dean forbids her to follow.

Demon-Sam turns up at another hunter's home, Bobby Singer. Bobby lets Sam in and offers him a beer, toasting to John Winchester. As Demon-Sam drinks up, he suddenly collapses, smoke coming out of his mouth. Bobby reveals that he mixed the beer with holy water and tells him, "Don't try to con a con man" before knocking him unconscious.

Demon-Sam wakes later to find himself in the center of the devil's trap. Dean is already there, and Bobby starts the exorcism. The demon inside Sam snarls viciously at the chant and Dean tells it that no matter what kind of plans that the Yellow Eyed Demon has in store, Dean will not let anything happen to Sam. The demon laughs at him and says that it being there has nothing to do with the "Master Plan". Bobby's incantation fails to expel the demon, which gleefully begins its own incantations. Bobby finds a binding link on Sam's arm, which effectively locks the demon inside of Sam and neither he nor Dean know what to do now. Meanwhile, Demon-Sam's incantations affect the devil's tap on the roof, cracking it to pieces and finally allowing the demon access to its powers again.

Sam turns back to Dean, eyes now black, and flings both him and Bobby using telekinesis. He pulls himself free from the chair and starts to give Dean a beating, punching him terribly and squeezing his injured shoulder. The demon reveals itself to be the same one that possessed Meg, who has crawled out of hell, bent on getting her revenge. Meg tells Dean that no matter how much she tortures him, it's nothing compared to the way Dean tortures himself; over losing their father and over potentially losing Sam. Before she can strike Dean again, Bobby grabs Demon-Sam's arm and burns the mark on Sam's forearm with a hot iron rod, destroying the link. Sam screams as the demon exits him and escapes by the fireplace.

Later, the two are sitting at Bobby's place nursing their wounds when Bobby informs them that Steve Wandell has been murdered and that his hunter comrades are out looking for blood. He tells the boys to keep their mouths shut about it. Bobby also gives the brothers charm amulets to prevent future possessions before Sam and Dean hit the road again.

Along the road, Sam reveals to Dean he was awake for some of the things that Meg did in his body, he was even awake to watch Steve Wandell being murdered by his own two hands. He also rebukes Dean for not taking action and killing him when asked, as this could have been the moment their father warned Dean about before his death. Dean tells him that John told him he'd either have to save Sam or kill him and he will definitely find a way to save Sam in the end.

Characters

Definitions

Music

  • "The Crystal Ship" by The Doors
(played when Evil Sam is questioning Jo in the bar about their fathers)
  • "Back on the Road Again" by REO Speedwagon
(played during the final scene as Sam and Dean are in the car)

Quotes

Sam: (to Jo) My Daddy shot your Daddy in the head.
Dean: Sam, when Dad told me I might have to kill you, it was only if I couldn't save you. Now if it's the last thing I do, I'm gonna save you.
Dean: Dude, you like full-on had a girl inside you for like a whole week. That's pretty naughty.

Trivia & References

Screencaps from 1.04 (top) & 2.14
One of the driving shots during this episode seems to be the same footage used in 1.04 Phantom Traveler with digital alterations.
Throughout the dock scene of this episode the call of a loon can be heard. The loon is the Minnesota official State Bird.
Demon-Sam checked into his motel room as Richard Sambora - a reference to Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora. Dean's comment on being disturbed that this suggests Sam is a Bon Jovi fan is arguably a reference to the fact that Jared Padalecki starred in a film with Jon Bon Jovi, "Cry_Wolf".
Dean's account with the A-line Mobile Phone Service is under the name Dean J. Mahogoff. "Jack Mahogoff" is a wordplay related to wanking used in pranks (sound it out real slow!), according to Urban Dictionary. This is the same alias as Dean's credit card in 2.11 Playthings.
Dean: Hi, um, so sorry to bother you, but uh, my son snuck out of the house last night and, uh, went to a Justin Timberlake concert.

(pause) What? Yeah. No, Justin is quite the triple threat. Uh, anyway, he's not back yet, and, and I'm just, I'm starting to worry.

Justin Timberlake: Renaissance man who is 'quite the triple threat' e.g.sings, dances, acts. The phrase originated in football where it refers to a player who excels at running, passing, and kicking.
The episode title is also the name of an Albert King album. See The Meaning of Episode Titles.
Dean carries a lockpick with him at all times.
As far as Jo is aware, John and Bill were in California. Bill was bait for the demon and when John got too eager, the demon killed Bill. Sam tells her that Bill was injured, but not dead, and John killed him to put him out of his misery. Whether this is true or not is unclear.
Bobby lives in South Dakota.
Like Meg, Sam was aware of some of the things the demon did while possessing him.
Dean: The scariest thing about this whole thing is the fact that you're a Bon Jovi fan.
Bon Jovi are a rock band from New Jersey, led by Jon Bon Jovi. Though he mocks the idea of Sam listening to Bon Jovi in this episode, Dean later admits in 3.16 No Rest for the Wicked that "Bon Jovi rocks - on occasion."
Dean: Either this guy's a Unabomber...
The Unabomber (real name Ted Kaczynski) was infamous for his mail bombings that he sent to several universities and airlines from the 1970's to the 1990's.

Minutiae

Sam's cellphone number is 1-785-555-2804.
Sam was in room number 109 of the motel.
Steve had a daughter who, presumably, didn't live with him.
Jo is working at "The Sandpiper" bar in Duluth.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

Promotion