Difference between revisions of "3.13 Ghostfacers"
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|motw= [[Ghost]] | |motw= [[Ghost]] | ||
|timeline= February 28-29, 2008 <br />Two months before Dean’s deal is up. | |timeline= February 28-29, 2008 <br />Two months before Dean’s deal is up. | ||
− | |location= }} | + | |location= Appleton, Wisconsin}} |
|Synopsis= Sam and Dean work a case at the same place where the boys from Hell Hound's Lair, [[Ed Zeddmore]] and [[Harry Spangler]], are shooting the pilot for their reality show "Ghostfacers." Every leap year, beginning at midnight, a ghost who used to be a janitor at a local hospital kills people and keeps their corpses at the [[Morton House]] for company. Their spirits remain trapped in the house as well as any living person in the house at midnight. Sam and Dean become trapped in the house with the Ghostfacers crew and must figure out how to kill the ghost as it hunts them one by one. | |Synopsis= Sam and Dean work a case at the same place where the boys from Hell Hound's Lair, [[Ed Zeddmore]] and [[Harry Spangler]], are shooting the pilot for their reality show "Ghostfacers." Every leap year, beginning at midnight, a ghost who used to be a janitor at a local hospital kills people and keeps their corpses at the [[Morton House]] for company. Their spirits remain trapped in the house as well as any living person in the house at midnight. Sam and Dean become trapped in the house with the Ghostfacers crew and must figure out how to kill the ghost as it hunts them one by one. |
Revision as of 21:06, 21 April 2013
Title | Ghostfacers |
Episode # | Season 3, Episode 13 |
First aired | April 24, 2008 |
Directed by | Philip Sgriccia |
Written by | Ben Edlund |
On IMDB | Ghostfacers |
Outline | Sam and Dean find themselves on a reality TV show “Ghostfacers” – and in real danger. |
Monster | Ghost |
Timeline | February 28-29, 2008 Two months before Dean’s deal is up. |
Location(s) | Appleton, Wisconsin |
[[{{{prevep}}}|« Previous Episode]] | [[{{{nextep}}}|Next Episode »]] |
Contents
Synopsis
Sam and Dean work a case at the same place where the boys from Hell Hound's Lair, Ed Zeddmore and Harry Spangler, are shooting the pilot for their reality show "Ghostfacers." Every leap year, beginning at midnight, a ghost who used to be a janitor at a local hospital kills people and keeps their corpses at the Morton House for company. Their spirits remain trapped in the house as well as any living person in the house at midnight. Sam and Dean become trapped in the house with the Ghostfacers crew and must figure out how to kill the ghost as it hunts them one by one.
Harry Spengler and Ed Zeddmore of “Hell House” fame are dressed up, sitting in front of a fireplace in chairs a la “Masterpiece Theatre”, touting their new pilot as the bold new future of “reality TV”. Cue the “Ghostfacers” intro, showing Ed, Harry, Spruce, Maggie, Corbett, Sam and Dean (whose shadowed out middle finger is priceless) through shaky camera work in what looks like a haunted house setting.
Phase I: Homework. Ed and Harry pull up in their vintage AMC Gremlin doing the fake slo-mo. They reveal they can start ghost hunting at six o’clock thanks to the flexibility of their jobs at the Kinkos, and they hold their strategy meeting with the team a la “Ghost Hunters” in Ed’s parents' garage. Corbett is the Intern/Cook and very gay, Maggie is Ed’s adopted sister and Spruce is 15/16 Jew and 1/16 Cherokee, thus making him a “Shamanologist”. They review a legend in which every four years on February 29th, Morton House becomes the most haunted place in America.
Phase II: Infiltration. The Ghostfacers break into the Morton House, hearing the roar of the Impala and Grand Funk’s “We're An American Band” in the background. They see Sam and Dean roll by, scoping out the place. They setup “Command Center One: Eagle’s Nest” in the main room and start rolling the cameras, which never stop the entire episode, no matter what horrors happen, much to the ire of Sam and Dean.
Phase III: Face Time. The Ghostfacers search the house with their instruments, taking readings and run into Sam and Dean, who are impersonating cops. Ed recognizes them from their earlier encounter in Texas. Sam and Dean try to get them out of the house by showing them the missing persons reports, but Team 2 records a ghost reliving his horrible death. Sam and Dean figure out they’re dealing with a death echo, which isn’t the real threat. Corbett then disappears and they don’t make it out before midnight, trapping them in the house for the evening.
They search the house for Corbett and try to figure out why the death echoes are there, considering they didn’t die there. They find the office of the home’s owner, Freeman Daggett, who was a janitor at the hospital before he died in 1964. He was a survivalist, and took corpses from the morgue to “play” with. They go into another room where Maggie wandered off and after another EMF surge, Sam disappears.
After some fake reality show drama involving Maggie and Harry in a compromising position, we see Corbett and Sam tied to chairs at a table with a birthday cake and “It’s My Party” playing in the background. A big creepy guy kills Corbett with a spike through the neck, and then slaps a party hat on Sam.
Dean figures out that a survivalist usually keeps a bomb shelter and heads for the basement, but the basement door locks behind him, separating him and Spruce from the others. The others meanwhile put themselves in a salt circle and see the ghost of Corbett reliving his death. Dean finds the bomb shelter just before Sam gets his own spike through the neck. Sam reveals Daggett was the “Norman Bates”-type of lonely and killed himself after stealing the bodies, and each February 29th, he takes people for his “party”. Ed talks to Corbett to get him out of his death echo and manages to get through just in time for Corbett to take on Daggett, who is tossing around Sam, Dean and Spruce in the basement.
Everyone (minus Corbett) leaves alive the next morning, taking Ed and Harry back to the fireplace to lament over the loss of their friend in a completely exploitative way, even showing the typical reality confessional moment. They show their pilot to Sam and Dean, who warn them that revealing such ghostly secrets usually land them in straight jackets or gets them a punch in the face or both. Sam and Dean go, but leave a bag behind; Ed pulls out the large electromagnet, which proceeds to erase all the hard drives, including the Ghostfacers pilot. Sam and Dean peel off in the Impala, confessing they didn’t think the show was half bad.
Characters
- Sam Winchester
- Dean Winchester
- Ed Zeddmore
- Harry Spangler
- Maggie Zeddmore
- Corbett
- Spruce
- Freeman Daggett
Definitions
Music
- (the amazing piece that opens the episode of Ghostfacers)
- "We're an American Band" by Grand Funk Railroad
- (plays in the Impala as Sam and Dean drive by when the Ghostfacers are breaking into Morton house)
- "Hocus Pocus" by Focus
- (plays when the Ghostfacers team are setting up their equipment)
- "It's My Party" by Leslie Gore
- (the birthday party song)
Quotes
Dean: Sam, I don't wanna hear it.
Ed:...Inside your duffel bag?
Trivia & References
- A reference not only to when Ed and Harry first met the Winchesters, but to the fact that Jared and Jensen are both from Texas.
- In 1.17 Hell House Dean also says "I hate rats".
Sam: Loneliness.
Dean: What, he's never heard of a RealDoll?
- A RealDoll is a lifesize silicone sex toy.
- Norman Bates was the main character in Psycho, who kept the preserved corpse of his mother.
Harry: We'll call this the eagle's nest.
- There are several places around the world with called the Eagle's Nest, but the most famous two are both associated with Adolf Hitler: a command center in Bad Nauheim, Germany called the Adlerhorst (Eagle's Nest in German), and a Bavarian chalet called the Kehlsteinhaus (dubbed the Eagle's Nest by a French diplomat), which Hitler used as a retreat and a place to entertain visiting dignitaries.
Minutiae
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
Promotion
- The CW site featured a Ghostfacers website (no longer available).
- Promo stills
- Episode Promo: 3.13 Ghostfacers
- Interview with Jared Padalecki about the episode (contains mild spoiler for 3.15)
- Interview with Brittany Ishibashi about her role as Maggie Zeddmore
- "Ghostfacers" nominated for a Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) media award in the category of "Outstanding Individual Episode (in a series without a regular LGBT character)."