3.14 Long-Distance Call

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LongDistanceCall.jpg
Title Long-Distance Call
Episode # Season 3, Episode 14
First aired May 1, 2008
Directed by Robert Singer
Written by Jeremy Carver
On IMDB Long-Distance Call
Outline A series of people receive phone calls from dead loved ones, who urge them to commit suicide. Sam and Dean take time out from deal-breaking to investigate.
Monster Crocotta
Timeline
Location(s) Milan, Ohio
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Synopsis

A nervous man is drinking in his living room and the phone rings. It has a caller ID of "SHA33." He answers and tells the person on the other end she can’t keep calling him. She begs him to "come to her". He hangs up and she calls again, and he tells her to leave him alone before hanging up. She calls again, so he rips the phone out of the wall, but the phone rings again anyway. Finally, in despair, he pulls out a gun, puts it under his chin and shoots.

Dean is on the phone on a bench outside a university. Sam comes over and says the professor doesn’t know crap. Dean says Bobby told him about a possible case in Ohio -- phones going haywire, computers flipping on and off. Sam says they're already on a case: his. Dean says they're chasing their tails and he would like to do his job. He hates Sam's idea of summoning Ruby, admitting that she told him that she can't save him. Sam is upset over Dean keeping this secret, and Dean calls him out on "who's been keeping secrets from who."

Sam and Dean drive to Milan, Ohio, and talk to the wife of the man who shot himself. She tells them the phone was ripped from the wall, and Sam takes a look at the phone, getting the number off the readout. She admits she heard her husband talking to a "Linda," but she listened in and there was no one on another end.

In the motel room of the week, with the décor of starbursts on the room divider and wallpaper and gold circles on the bedspread and curtains, they figure out that Linda died in a car accident with the man who shot himself. Sam finds out the phone number is over a hundred years old, so they visit the phone company. They are taken to the basement by Clark Adams, the manager, and meet Stewie Myers, a seedy tech downloading porn on the Internet. Dean tells the tech that the platinum membership at bustyasianbeauties.com is worth every penny. Sam asks him to trace the "SHA33" number, and the tech does so after Dean gets tough with him. He finds out that it's been used recently in ten different houses in the past two weeks.

Sam in a rental car pulls up to a house and asks the occupants if they've received any strange phone calls. The dad denies the calls, but the daughter acts suspicious. She goes outside to talk to Sam, and Sam turns on the sympathetic charm to get her to admit that she's been getting calls from her mother who's been dead for three years. Dean calls and tells Sam that he met a woman who's been getting calls from her husband who died in Korea. After he hangs up, Dean gets a call and is shocked to find it's John Winchester.

Dean tells Sam about the call, and asks what he should say if he calls back. Sam suggests "hello," and Dean gets mad and leaves. He comes back later to find Sam hasn't had any luck on research. Dean shows him a pamphlet about Thomas Edison. They go to the museum and endure an annoying tour guide using "quoting fingers" in order to see Edison's Spirit Phone, which he supposedly used to communicate with the dead. Sam gets nothing on the EMF and they wonder why it would start working now. While Sam is sleeping, Dean gets another phone call from his dad. He asks Dean why he made the demon deal and has a way for him to get out of it. John tells Dean the demon that holds his contract is there.

Lanie, the girl Sam spoke to earlier, is on the computer and starts getting IMs from her mother. She says she wants to see her. The screen goes black and the ghostly image of her mother appears in the monitor. Lanie turns the computer off, but "Come to me" starts repeating over and over again on the monitor.

Dean is on the computer, and Sam comes in telling Dean about Lanie. Dean shows Sam weather reports, saying that electrical storms have been everywhere that they have been over the last two weeks and the demon is following them. Sam doesn't believe that, and questions an exorcism Dean has that can kill a demon. He tells Dean he and Bobby already checked it out and there's no proof it works. Dean says he's waiting on the next call from Dad to learn where to find the demon. Sam goes to leave, and Dean berates him for not wanting to help. Sam tells him they have no proof and he's going on blind faith, and begs him not to go anywhere until he gets back.

Sam talks to Lanie at her house. At the same time, her brother receives a phone call from their mother on his toy phone. Dean gets a call from John. Lanie tells Sam her mother wanted her to take all her dad's sleeping pills and told her to come to her. Sam is stunned and tells Lanie that's not her mother. Dean pulls up in front of a house and gets out his duffel bag. Sam tells Lanie not to use the phone or computer, but they discover Lanie's brother is missing. Dean goes into a house, pours holy water and paints a devil's trap. Lanie's brother walks into traffic and steps in front of a moving truck, but Sam yanks him away before he is hit.

Sam calls Dean and tells him it's a crocotta. Dean mentions the flies at the phone company. Sam goes there and confronts the tech in the basement, threatening to kill him. The boss (Clark) comes from behind and knocks Sam out with a baseball bat. He then knocks out the tech.

Sam and the tech are tied up in the basement, and Clark has a dagger. He kills the tech and shows his spiky teeth, then sucks the essence out of him, devouring his soul. Sam figures out the crocotta was on the phone with him impersonating Dean. Clark uses his power to call another guy, mimicking his dead daughter who tells him the guy that killed her is at his house and is going to kill him. He then tells Sam how he found out all the information about them through old phone calls and emails while Sam works on freeing himself. He says that people are fools, thinking that they can delete information. The other man comes into his house and shoots at Dean with a shotgun, and then they fight. Clark monologues some more, and then Sam breaks free just before Clark goes to stab him. They fight. Dean and the other man crash through French doors and the man lands on top of the devil's trap. Dean tries to read the exorcism, but the man walks through the trap revealing he's not a demon. Sam and Clark fight over the knife, and Sam slams the back of Clark's head through a metal spike on the wall, killing him. Dean and the man finish the fight, and Dean tells him he didn't kill his daughter. The man asks him why he is there, and Dean says he doesn't know.

Sam and Dean meet up at the motel, both looking beat up. Sam tells Dean he was sorry it wasn't Dad, and Dean tells him he was right. He admits he wanted to believe it so badly, and that he's scared. He says it was the last act of a desperate man, he can't expect anyone to show up with miracles, and that the only person that can get him out of this is him. Sam replies, "And me," and Dean teases him for such a lame answer. Sam asks if he wants a poem, and Dean gets them both a beer and turns on the TV. Moment over.

Characters

Definitions

Music

None

Quotes

Dean: That was Bobby. Some banker guy blew his head off in Ohio and he thinks there's a spirit involved.

Sam: So you two were talking a case?

Dean: No, we were actually talking about our feelings. And then our favorite boy bands. Yeah, we were talking a case!
Sam: What the hell else have we been doing lately other than trying to break your deal?
Dean: Chasing our tails, that's what. Sam, we've talked to every professor, witch, soothsayer and two bit carny act in the lower 48. Nobody knows squat! And we can't find Bela, we can't find the Colt. So until we actually find something, I'd like to do my job.
Dean: Is that, ahhh, BustyAsianBeauties.com?

Stewie: No.
Computer: Oh, me so horny.
Stewie: Maybe.

Dean: A word to the wise? Platinum membership? Worth every penny. Ha?
Dean: I just talked to an 84-year-old grandmother who's having phone sex with her husband, who died in Korea!

Sam: Eww.

Dean: It redefined my understanding of the word necrophilia.
Dean: Okay, so what if... what if it really is Dad? What happens if he calls back?

Sam: What do you mean?
Dean: What do I say?
Sam: Hello.

Dean: Hello? That's what you come back with. Hello?
Crocotta John: I never wanted this. Never. You're my boy, I love you. I can't watch you to go to Hell, Dean.

Dean: I'm sorry. I don't know how to stop it.
Crocotta John: ’Cause if you break the deal Sam dies, right?
Dean: What?
Crocotta John: Well I know a way out. For both of you.
Dean: How?

Crocotta John: The demon who holds your contract. He's here. Now.
Dean: You're unbelievable, you know that? I mean for months we've been trying to break this demon deal. Now Dad's about to give us the freaking address and you can't accept it? The man is dead and you're still butting heads with the guy!
Sam: Dean, it's not Dad.

Crocotta Dean: Then what is it?
Sam: A crocotta.
Crocotta Dean: Is that a sandwich?

Sam: Some kind of scavenger. Mimics loved ones, whispers 'Come to me', then lures you into the dark and swallows your soul.
Sam:You know, mimicking Dean's one thing. But my Dad. That's a hell of a trick.
Clark: Well once I made you two as hunters, it was easy. I found Dean's number, then your number, then your father's numbers. Then emails, voicemails, everything. You see, people think that stuff just gets erased, but it doesn't. You'd be surprised how much of yourself is just floating out there, waiting to be plucked.
Dean: Hope doesn't get you jack squat. I can't expect Dad to show up with some miracle at the last minute. I can't expect anybody to, you know. I mean the only person that can get me out of this thing is me.

Sam: And me.
Dean: And me?
Sam: What?
Dean: Deep revelation, having a real moment here, that's what you come back with? And me?
Sam: Uh... do you want a poem?

Dean: The moment's gone.

Trivia & References

A Long-Distance Call refers to a call made outside an area defined by zip-code, state or distance, for which a provider imposes higher charges. This practice became less common in the 21st century, and the term itself is rarely used.
The theme of the dead calling their living relatives is similar to the 1986 movie Making Contact, in which a kid, Joey, develops telekinetic abilities, making his toys float. His red toy telephone suddenly starts ringing - he's receiving calls from his dead father. Tribute is paid to the movie in the scene where Lanie's little brother talks to his "mother" (actually the crocotta) on his toy telephone.
Dean: So why use that number to reach out and touch someone?
"Reach out and touch someone" was the slogan of an ad campaign by AT&T in the '80s.
Sam and Dean use the aliases "Raimi and Campbell," a reference to writer director Sam Raimi and actor Bruce Campbell, who both worked on the classic Evil Dead film series. Bruce Campbell was also one of Kripke's original choices to play John Winchester.
Dean: Then believe it! if we get this sucker, it's Miller Time.
"It's Miller Time" is the tagline for the Miller Brewing Company.
Dean: Oh, good, yeah. No, you go hang out with jail bait. Just, uh, watch out for Chris Hansen. Meanwhile I'll be here getting ready to, you know, save my life.
Chris Hansen is an NBC reporter on Dateline who tracks down sexual predators who find their victims on the Internet.
Dean's Voicemail: This is Herman Munster. Leave a message.
Herman Munster was a Frankenstein's monster-like character on the '60s sitcom television series The Munsters.

Minutiae

Filming Locations: The University of British Columbia. Map of known filming locations.
The phone number the crocotta calls from is SHA33.
Anjul Nigam who appeared in this episode as Stewie Myers is the producer of the movie Rust which Jensen was originally supposed to star in.
Sam's rental car has the registration EM701A. It is from OK Auto Rentals, phone number 1-800-555-0199.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is heard as the voice of John Winchester - as imitated by the crocotta and is credited as a Special Guest Star.
The motel Sam and Dean stay in is called the "Starburst Motel", a possible nod to the Starburst clock, a regularly-used set decoration.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

Promotion



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