Bunker

File:Bunkerbytara.jpg

View from the upper balcony. Pic by Tara Larsen.

The Bunker is located in Lebanon, Kansas and was set up by the Men of Letters. Here they stored their collected knowledge "every object, scroll, spell ever collected for thousands of years under one roof...the safest place on earth, warded against any evil ever created.". The key to this place is in The Box.

The door to the bunker opens onto a balcony surrounding a large circular room containing a ham radio, telegraph and switchboard. There is also a chess board. Leading of this room is a large library, full of books and weapons, and an extensive card file. At one end the far end is a large telescope.

Somewhere off these main spaces is a bathroom, and presumably sleeping quarters.

Sam and Dean find the facility has power and running water. Dean reports that the shower has good water pressure. They also install a small fridge.

When they first arrive, Dean refers to the bunker as the Batcave referring to the secret lair where Batman did his research and kept his weapons.

History

8.12 As Time Goes By

The library. Scene from the end of 8.13 Everybody Hates Hitler.

In 1958 Abaddon, one of the Knights of Hell, was sent by party or parties unknown to kill the members of the group who were gathered in Normal, Illinois. They were gathered for the initiation of Henry Winchester and Josie Sands. Abaddon killed David Ackers and Ted Bowen, and blinded Larry Ganem. After Henry bursts through to find out what was happening, Larry, crawls up to Henry and entrusts him with The Box, which contains the key to the Bunker. She than went on to burn down their quarters before following Henry through the portal created by his Blood Spell. Sam visits Larry Ganem, the other survivor of the incident, who tells Sam about the Bunker, and gives him coordinates to it. He tells Sam to lock it forever to keep it out of the hands of the demons.

Abaddon, possessing Larry's wife kills Larry and captures Sam. Abaddon then calls Dean for a trade between Sam and Henry & The Box. During the trade, Henry shoots Abaddon in the head with a bullet that had a Devil's Trap carved onto it. This immobilized Abbadon which allows Dean cuts her up into pieces. After Henry's death, Sam and Dean decide to find out if the bunker is still intact.

8.13 Everybody Hates Hitler

Sam and Dean follow the coordinates provided by Larry, and find the underground Bunker, which they are able to enter using the key inside the box. The boys are stunned at what they find, with everything perfectly preserved. Sam is thrilled at the rich store of information contained in the bunker, although Dean is initially dismissive of its worth. While Dean is visiting Kevin, Sam researches the Men of Letters and their networks. During this he discovers the Judah Initiative, and finds out that a member, Rabbi Bass, recently died in what is reported as a case of spontaneous combustion. The boys leave to investigate.

After the care the boys return to the bunker, and Sam immediately starts entering information from the Thule Society's red ledger on the index cards. As Dean pours them each a scotch, he asks whether Sam is Becoming a Man of Letters. Sam considers but doesn't reply. "Good" says Dean. And silently they toast each other.

8.14 Trial and Error

Sam and Dean have completly moved into the bunker as their new home and Dean sets up his own room, excited as he hasn't had a room of his own for most of his life. As Sam researches in the library, Kevin Tran calls saying he has something important and Sam and Dean leave to meet with Kevin.

Behind the Scenes

View from the main room into the library. Pic by Tara Larsen.

Bob Singer said of the bunker:

“The reveal of that [bunker], which I believe is in the next episode…it’s a really stunning set. It’s full of mysteries [and] it’ll become kind of a home base for the boys. We’re really excited about it. After eight years of never really having a home base, this will be home base for quite some time and I think you guys will really dig the set. It’s really cool. They’ll go to great pains to keep that hidden. It’s also kind of impenetrable. We’ve had places like this before [ie. Rufus’ cabin]. They need a place, not just for us to have a set to shoot on, but I think that the boys need a place where they can decompress, have their bromance. When you see this set you realize they have lots of room to move around and there’s lots of really cool things in there. Adam [Glass, the episode’s writer] came up with this idea and we really latched on to it immediately. It’s a very expensive set and we’re going to be using it [a lot].” source

Ben Edlund (who wrote 8.13 Everybody Hates Hitler said:

"When Adam Glass brought the Men of Letters into his episode it was the opportunity to give [the Winchester brothers] a really, really cool atmosphere-rich kind of space for them to be in and Jerry Wanek has done a beautiful job making it real.” But it was originally a big challenge, because when Edlund first sat down to write the language to make the set become real he said that he “kind of got really prosey in the scripts because I was just so excited to do it I had to limit myself. It started out unproduceable and then we scaled it back. At one point it was constructed as ‘an echo of the Axis Mundi’ and it actually was a mini-universe underground that had all of these spiral staircases. But this is just gorgeous. I made something that was unshootable and Jerry made it something incredible. source

Trivia

• Lebanon Kansas is the geographic centre of the contiguous lower 48 states of the United States.