2.11 Playthings
Title | Playthings |
Episode # | Season 2, Episode 11 |
First aired | January 18, 2007 |
Directed by | Charles Beeson |
Written by | Matt Witten |
On IMDB | Playthings |
Outline | Sam and Dean investigate two strange deaths at a small Connecticut inn run by a single mom whose young daughter plays with an imaginary friend. |
Monster | Ghost |
Timeline | One month after 2.10 Hunted |
Location(s) | Peoria, Illinois Cornwall, Connecticut (Pierpont Inn) |
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Contents
Synopsis
Sam and Dean investigate a series of mysterious deaths at the Pierpont Inn in Cornwall, Connecticut. The inn is run by single mother Susan who is planning to sell it. They also meet the manager's young daughters Tyler and Maggie, Susan's mother Rose, and the elderly bellboy Sherwin.
The initial investigation uncovers Tyler's dollhouse, a scale model of the inn with a doll left inside that resembles the corpse of the latest victim. When a property appraiser comes to the inn, he's mysteriously found hanged to death. Upset at his inability to prevent the death, Sam gets drunk and makes Dean promise to fulfill John's final order - to kill Sam should he turn evil.
While investigating, Sam and Dean at first suspect Rose of engineering the murders using hoodoo after discovering hoodoo symbols on the property and evidence that she had come in contact with such folklore. However, when they sneak into the upper levels of the inn to speak with Rose, they discover she has suffered from a stroke and doesn't possess the faculties for such actions. Discovering Sam and Dean in her mother's room, Susan demands they leave the inn.
Sam and Dean return to the inn in secret, however, saving Susan's life from her possessed car. They discover that the previously unseen Maggie is Tyler's imaginary friend, and is in fact a ghost of Susan's Aunt Margaret who drowned in the inn's pool when she was a girl. The mysterious deaths started occurring when Rose had a stroke and thus was no longer able to keep Maggie's ghost from the inn using hoodoo protection.
Maggie is motivated by a desire to prevent the inn from closing, as she would lose her playmate Tyler, and all previous murders were people related to the sale of the inn. To finally get Tyler to play with her forever, she throws Tyler into the pool and attempts to drown her. Before she can complete the murder, Maggie is called away from the pool by Rose, who trades her life for Tyler's, offering instead to stay and be a ghost and playmate for her sister instead. Sam rescues Tyler from the pool, and shortly thereafter they discover Rose dead. After the Winchesters leave the inn, Maggie and Rose (now in the ghostly body of a young girl) play jump-rope together.
Characters
Definitions
- Alcohol
- Aliases
- Dean's Amulet
- Dean's Leather Jacket
- Deer's Head
- Hoodoo
- Impala
- Poppets
- Quincunx
- Sammy
- The Shining
- Table of Death
- They're Brothers
- Toys
Music
- "Voodoo Spell" by Michael Burks
- (plays when Sam is looking for Ava)
Quotes
Dean: Well. Sounds vaguely ominous.
Sam: Well, you are kinda butch. Probably think you're overcompensating.
Sam: Big time.
Dean: Big time. You think he could come — or we could come in and take a look?
Susan: I don't know...
Dean: Please? I mean, he loves them. He's not gonna tell you this, but he's, he's always dressing 'em up in these little tiny outfits and, um, you'd make his day. You — she would, huh? Huh?
Dean: What?
Sam: You're bossy. And short.
Dean: Are you drunk?
Dean: Sam.
Sam: Dean! Dad told you to do it, you have to.
Sam: Yeah, what are you gonna do, poke her with a stick? Dude! You're not gonna poke her with a stick!
Sam: Yeah, that's all she needs.
Dean: We talked about a lot of things last night.
Sam: You know what I mean.
Dean: You were wasted.
Trivia & References
- Scooby-Doo - A long-running cartoon series about four friends and a dog named Scooby-Doo who hunt down ghosts and the supernatural. Daphne was a sexy redhead.
- There are other references to the cartoon throughout the series and of course in 13.16 Scoobynatural, Dean gets to meet Daphne Blake.
- “Boomin' Granny” is a song on the Beastie Boys album Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science.
- The line “How 'bout a nice greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray?” is one of the most famous lines from the '80s movie Weird Science.
- Reminiscent of the twins' famously creepy line in The Shining, "Come and play with us, Danny. Forever and ever and ever."
Minutiae
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
- 2.11 Playthings (transcript)
- Playthings Script (Production Draft)
- Casting Sides for Susan Thompson
Promotion
Episode Meta
- SPN Heavy Meta Season Two Meta Index
- 2.11 Playthings: I’m All Through With Promises, Promises Now by bardicvoice (January 2007); archive link
- Bond, Silvia. 2008. How He Move: "Playthings" Season 2, Episode 11. Pink Raygun, July 29; archive link