2.19 Folsom Prison Blues
Title | Folsom Prison Blues |
Episode # | Season 2, Episode 19 |
First aired | April 26, 2007 |
Directed by | Mike Rohl |
Written by | John Shiban |
On IMDB | Folsom Prison Blues |
Outline | Sam and Dean engineer their own arrest in order to hunt in a haunted prison. |
Monster | Vengeful Spirit |
Timeline | |
Location(s) | Little Rock, Arkansas (Green River County Detention Center) |
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Contents
Synopsis
Deacon, an old marine buddy of John Winchester, asks Sam and Dean for help. Not long after a disused cell block was re-opened, something supernatural started killing people in the Green River County Detention Center, where Deacon is the warden.
The boys get themselves arrested so as to get inside the jail. Their arrest is complicated, however, by the arrival of FBI Special Agent Victor Henriksen, who has continued tracking the boys since the bank heist they were involved with in Milwaukee. Mara Daniels, the public defender appointed to the brothers, reviews their case and is immediately suspicious that they have been wrongly accused of many crimes.
Inside the prison, Dean fits right in, drawing on his extensive knowledge of prison life from movies such as The Great Escape. When a fight lands Dean in solitary, he gets to witness the supernatural killer firsthand when it attacks another prisoner. Sam discovers that a notorious killer, Mark Moody, was killed in the old cell block and traces of his blood may be tying the spirit to the prison. After winning cigarettes playing cards, Dean trades them for lighter fluid. Combined with the salt supplied with their meals they have the means to banish the spirit. Dean picks a fight with a con called Tiny, allowing Sam to slip away to the old cell block and torch a blood-soaked mattress.
Recovering from their wounds in the prison infirmary, Dean is attacked by the apparition of a nurse. He manages to ward it off with some salt, but the ghost kills Tiny. Sam and Dean finds out that the ghost belongs to Nurse Glockner, who used to kill prisoners in the infirmary and who was later killed herself during a riot. Dean tries to get Mara Daniels to find out where Nurse Glockner is buried, assuring her of his innocence and insisting that this would be the best use of her time, but she refuses. Dean argues with Sam that they must stay in the prison until they get the information and finish the job, but Sam insists they follow through with their pre-planned escape. They start fighting and one of the guards hauls them away.
The guard turns out to be Deacon. Mara did the research as Dean requested after all, and Deacon hands over the information on where she is buried. As arranged, Deacon helps the boys escape to the Impala which is waiting outside the jail. After the escape, Henricksen interrogates Deacon and finds out that Daniels passed information to the boys, which she reluctantly reveals. Meanwhile the boys are in a cemetery salting and burning Nurse Glockner’s remains. The FBI arrive, only to find they have been sent to the wrong cemetery.
Characters
- Sam Winchester
- Dean Winchester
- Victor Henriksen
- Calvin Reidy
- Deacon Kaylor
- Mara Daniels
- Dolores Glockner
- Tiny
- Randall
Definitions
- Acting in Unison
- Costumes & Disguises
- Dean's Police Record
- Fights
- Hugs
- Impala
- Salt
- Sam & Dean's Arrests
- Sam's Police Record
- Serial Killers
- Table of Death
- Vengeful Spirit
Music
- "Green Onions" by Booker T. & the M.G.'s
- (plays at the beginning when Dean and Sam get into prison)
- "Rooster" by Alice in Chains
- (plays at the end of the episode)
Quotes
Dean: Yeah, I got that the first ten times I heard it.
Henriksen: You think you’re funny.
Reidy: He near went nuts.
Dean: Don’t worry, Sam. I promise I won’t trade you for smokes.
Dean: Calm down. It's all part of the plan.
Sam: 'Cause I got an idiot for a brother.
Tiny: It's okay. Truth is, I have low self-esteem issues. My old man treated me and my brother like crap, right up till the day he died.
Dean: How'd he die?
Tiny: My brother shot him.
Mara: Are you nuts? Do you have any idea the kind of trouble you're in here?
Dean: Heh heh. Would you look at that. Man, I am freaking velvety smooth.
Sam: Really? 'Cause I'd be happy if I never saw him again. I mean, we're not really out of the woods yet, Dean, you know?
Trivia & References
- Blue Steel was the name of a modeling pose belonging to the really really ridiculously handsome Derek Zoolander in the movie Zoolander.
- When Nick Nolte was arrested for drunk driving in 2002, his mug shot showed him with wild hair and wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
- In prison, teardrop tattoos signify that an individual has murdered someone, or has had someone close to them murdered. It originated with gangs in California. In this episode it could be taken as a reference to an old movie of Johnny Depp's, called Crybaby, where his character received a teardrop tattoo when he was in prison, as a representation of his attitude towards crying - he would only cry one tear when something bothered him and that was it.
Sam: Yeah, innocent.
Dean: You from Texas all of a sudden? Just because these people are in jail, doesn't mean they deserve to die. If we don't stop this thing, people are going to continue to die. We do this job wherever it takes us.
- A reference to the fact that Texas has the highest rate of executions in the United States. Possibly also an allusion to the fact that both Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles are from Texas.
Dean: Great, another guy who's seen Taxi Driver too many times. Yeah, I'm talking to you. Trust me. Let it go.
- "You talking to me?" is a much quoted line from Robert De Niro’s character Travis Bickel in Taxi Driver.
Lucas: What? What'd you say?
Dean: I said, I wish I had a baseball.
Dean: You know, like... Steve McQueen.
- In The Great Escape, when sent to solitary Steve McQueen's character Hilts bounces a baseball against the wall.
- Escape from Alcatraz features Clint Eastwood as Frank Morris who escapes from Alcatraz prison.
Dean: It’s a good thing I’m like James Garner from The Great Escape.
- In The Great Escape, James Garner’s character Hendley is the scrounger who ingeniously gets all the items needed for the escape.
- Al dente means to have pasta cooked firm to the bite.
- A reference to the vigilante role of Charles Bronson in the movie Death Wish.
Dean: I thought she couldn't say anything – you know, that whole lawyer-client privilege thing.
Sam: The privilege doesn't apply, Dean.
Dean: So she'll talk?
Sam: She has to.
Dean: Oh, that's freaking super.
- Ethical guidelines for attorneys would prevent Mara Daniels from revealing what Dean told her. Attorneys may reveal confidential attorney-client communications if the attorney reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm; note that the attorney may, but is not required to do so, even under those circumstances. The only crime likely to be committed in this episode was grave desecration, which does not qualify.
Dean: Hell yeah, I know. We gotta go deep this time.
Sam: Deep, Dean? We should go to Yemen.
Dean: Not sure I’m ready to go that deep.
- In episode 4x15 of Friends "The One With All The Rugby," Chandler pretends his company is transferring him to Yemen in order to avoid a scary ex-girlfriend.
Minutiae
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
- 2.19 Folsom Prison Blues (transcript)
- Folsom Prison Blues script (Pink Revisions only)
- Casting sides for Deacon Kaylor
- Casting sides for Mara Daniels
- Casting sides for Randall
Promotion
Episode Meta
- SPN Heavy Meta Season Two Meta Index
- 2.19 Folsom Prison Blues: We Pay Our Debts by bardicvoice (April 2007); archive link
- Bond, Silvia. 2008. "Folsom Prison Blues" Season 2, Episode 19. Pink Raygun, December 23; archive link, spn-heavymeta