4.07 It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester

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SPN407.jpg
Title It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester
Episode # Season 4, Episode 7
First aired October 30, 2008
Directed by Charles Beeson
Written by Julie Siege
On IMDB It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester
Outline Sam and Dean investigate a witch case and find out that they have to confront the powerful demon of Halloween, who only rises every 600 years.
Monster Samhain
Witches
Ghosts
Zombies
Timeline October 29th - November 1st, 2008
Location(s) Unknown
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Synopsis

The day before Halloween, Sam and Dean are investigating the death of Luke Wallace, who was found having swallowed four razor blades after eating some store-bought candy. Dean discovers a hex bag behind the fridge, but no one can find a reason for a witch to want him dead. In the hex bag, Sam finds goldthread, an herb supposedly extinct for 200 years; a centuries-old Celtic coin; and the charred finger bone of an infant -- all indications of an extremely powerful witch at work.

That evening, a high schooler drowns in a tub of boiling water at a Halloween party. Her friend, Tracy Davis, tells Sam and Dean that she doesn't know how it happened, and she doesn't know Luke Wallace. Another hex bag turns up in the couch; with some research, Sam concludes that this isn't a grudge at work but a spell, calling for "three blood sacrifices over three days, the last before midnight on the final day of the final harvest." The witch is summoning the demon Samhain on Halloween, the day on the Celtic calendar when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest. Once Samhain returns, he can raise other things from Hell, which promises a bloodbath if he can't be stopped.

On Halloween day, Dean discovers that Tracy is in fact the Wallace family's babysitter. Sam learns of a violent altercation with one of her teachers, and that she was suspended from school. He and Dean visit Don Harding, the art teacher, whose masks seem to remind Dean of Hell. Don claims Tracy "nearly clawed his eyes out" after he told her her work was "inappropriate and disturbing," describing pages of cryptic symbols and violent drawings in which she participated in horrific killings. No one can locate Tracy to follow up.

The Winchesters return to their hotel room to find Castiel and Uriel waiting for them. A hex bag was stashed in the wall of the room; the witch is on to the investigation, and they are short on time. Castiel reveals that the raising of Samhain is one of the 66 Seals. He advises Sam and Dean to leave town, because he and Uriel are going to destroy it. Dean objects to the slaughter of so many innocent bystanders, and refuses to leave short of being killed himself; Castiel agrees to hold off so the witch can be stopped before she summons the demon. Sam is disappointed by the angels' behavior, but Dean asks him not to lose faith in the cause behind them. "Babe Ruth was a dick," he says, "but baseball's still a beautiful game."

Sam realizes that the infant's bone from the hex bag is too charred to have come from a normal fire, and they stop back at the high school art department. The hex bag showed up after confronting the teacher, and they find more children's bones in Don's desk. Meanwhile, Castiel tells Uriel to be patient with the humans: there's a reason they saved Dean from Hell -- he has "potential" and might succeed at this task. Uriel is not convinced, and urges removing Dean by force and proceeding with the town's destruction. Castiel rebukes him, saying, "You know our true orders."

As trick-or-treaters go about their business, Sam and Dean interrupt Don sacrificing Tracy in his basement. Sam shoots him before he can hurt Tracy -- who reveals herself as a witch, and Don's sister. She incapacitates the boys and completes the spell. Sam smears Don's blood on his and Dean's faces; they play dead while Samhain rises, possessing Don's corpse and killing Tracy. They follow the demon to a cemetery, and Dean begs Sam to use Ruby's knife rather than his powers to fight him off. Samhain discovers high schoolers partying in a mausoleum and locks them inside, where zombies and ghosts attack them. Sam goes after Samhain, while Dean takes on the crypt. Samhain flashes a white light similar to Lilith's at Sam, who is unaffected. The demon disarms Sam of Ruby's knife, so Sam falls back on his powers, exorcising Samhain at a great physical toll, and in front of his brother.

The next day, as Sam is packing, Uriel appears and warns him not to use his powers again. He threatens Sam with obliteration the moment he stops being useful to the angels. He also suggests that Dean should "get off his high horse," and tells Sam to ask Dean what he remembers from Hell.

Elsewhere, Dean is sitting on a park bench, watching all the children they've saved play. Castiel appears, and reveals the angels' true orders: to do whatever Dean told them to do, as a test under battlefield conditions. Dean, thinking he's failed, asserts that he'd make the same decisions all over again if he had to, because of what he and Sam have saved. Castiel confides that he was praying Dean would choose as he did, and also that he has questions and doubts about the plan from Heaven. He warns that in the coming months, there will be more hard decisions for Dean -- and the angel does not envy him that.

Characters

Definitions

Music

  • "Just as Through with You" by Nine Days
(the first song that plays at the Halloween party; plays through to the apple-bobbing scene)
  • "Bomb Diggy" by Triple Seven
(plays at the mausoleum Halloween party when Samhain arrives)

Quotes

Dean: It’s Halloween, man.

Sam: Yeah, for us every day is Halloween.

Dean: Don’t be a downer. Anything interesting?
Dean: I’m telling you, both these vics are squeaky clean. There is no reason for a wicked bitch payback.

Sam: Maybe cause it’s not about that.
Dean: Wow, insightful.

Sam: Maybe this witch isn’t working the grudge, maybe they’re working a spell. Check this out.
Sam: Dean, Samhain is the damn origin of Halloween. The Celts believe that October 31st was the one night of the year when the veil was the thinnest between the living and the dead, and it was Samhain’s night. I mean, masks were put on to hide from him, sweets left on doorsteps to appease him, faces carved into pumpkins to worship him. He was exorcised centuries ago.
Dean: Son of a bitch.

Sam: Quit whining.

Dean: No, Sam, I mean, son of a bitch.
Dean: Yeah, well, if you were a six-hundred-year-old hag and you could pick any costume to come back in, wouldn't you go for a hot cheerleader? I would, hmm…
Dean: Okay, who are you and why should I care?

Castiel: This is Uriel, he’s what you might call a... specialist.
Dean: What kind of specialist? What are you gonna do?
Castiel: You – uh, both of you – you need to leave this town immediately.
Dean: Why?

Castiel: Because we’re about to destroy it.
Castiel: We have no choice.
Dean: Of course you have a choice. I mean, come on, what? You’ve never questioned a crap order, huh? What are you both, just a couple of hammers?
Dean: Look man, I know you’re into the whole God thing, you know, Jesus on a tortilla and stuff like that. But just because there’s a couple of bad apples doesn’t mean the whole barrel’s rotten. I mean, for all we know, God hates these jerks. Don’t give up on this stuff, is all I’m saying. Babe Ruth was a dick but baseball’s still a beautiful game.
Castiel: The decision’s been made.

Uriel: By a mud monkey.
Castiel: You shouldn’t call them that.
Uriel: Ah, it’s what they are, savages, just plumbing on two legs.

Castiel: You're close to blasphemy.
Castiel: I’m not a... hammer as you say. I have questions, I have doubts. I don’t know what is right and what is wrong anymore, whether you passed or failed here. But in the coming months you will have more decisions to make. I don’t envy the weight that’s on your shoulders, Dean. I truly don’t.

Trivia & References

GreatPumpkin.jpg
The title of the episode references the 1966 movie It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. In the movie and the comic strip Peanuts, the character Linus believed that on Halloween night, the Great Pumpkin rose out of the pumpkin patch he deemed the most "sincere". The Great Pumpkin then flew around and delivered toys to all the good little children in the world. Each year, Linus would wait in a suitably sincere pumpkin patch hoping to see the Great pumpkin, who reputedly only appeared to those who believed in it.






Halloween traditions and legends referenced in the episode and their origin:
Dean first introduces himself as "Agent Seger," a reference to singer Bob Seger who primarily wrote songs about blue-collar themes and was highly successful as a solo artist, as well as with The Bob Seger System. He later uses the aliases "Agents Geddy and Lee," referencing Geddy Lee, the lead vocalist and bass guitarist of progressive rock band Rush.
The research book that Sam hands to Dean when he's explaining Samhain is open to a page discussing Canto VII of Dante's 14th-century epic poem Inferno which is all about the fourth circle of Hell where those guilty of the sin of greed were condemned to. The illustration on the opposite page is also from Inferno, drawn in 1857 by artist Gustav Doré.
Dean: Ok, so some witch wants to raise Samhain and take back the night?
Take Back the Night is an international organisation which organises marches, rallies, and vigils to protest against rape and other forms of sexual, relationship and domestic violence against women.
Sam: That’s because he likes company. Once he's raised, Samhain can do some raising of his own.

Dean: Raising what, exactly?
Sam: Dark, evil crap and lots of it, I mean, they follow him around like the friggin' Pied Piper.

Reference to the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
In Tracy Davis' school record, she has registered her (non-existent) mother as Mary Jane Kanoli Davis. "Mary Jane" is a slang term for cannabis and Cannoli is a strain of cannabis.
Uriel: We're wasting time with these mud monkeys.
Uriel's attitude and name-calling is extremely similar to the archangel Gabriel in the 1995 movie The Prophecy. In that movie, Gabriel refers to humans as "monkeys" and "talking monkeys."
Dean: Look, man, I know you're into the whole God thing... Jesus on a tortilla and stuff like that.
Dean is referring to the 1977 story of a woman called Maria Rubio from New Mexico who became famous for claiming to see a likeness of Jesus Christ on a tortilla she'd made.
Dean: Babe Ruth was a dick, but baseball's still a beautiful game.
Babe Ruth was a professional baseball player for the New York Yankees.
Dean: Okay, Betty Crocker, what does that mean?
Betty Crocker is the cultural icon and brand name of the General Mills company. She is typically depicted as a red head.
Castiel: It was a test... to see how you would perform under... battlefield conditions, you might say.

Dean: It was a witch, not the Tet Offensive.

The 1968 Tet Offensive was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War.

Minutiae

The Winchesters are staying at the Moonlight Motel in room 126.
The ingredients found in the unusual hex bag are:
  • Goldthread (supposedly a herb that's been extinct for 200 years)
  • A Samhain talisman
  • The charred metacarpal bone of a newborn baby
Dean: Oh, right, like that makes it better? Witches, man, they’re so friggin’ skeevy.
This is the second episode in which Dean reveals his utter distaste for witches, the first being 3.09 Malleus Maleficarum.
Sam and Dean have coffee cups from a place called The Brewed Bean.
Samhain is actually the name of a Celtic harvest festival and is properly pronounced "sa-win" as opposed to how the demon's name is pronounced in the show ("sam-hane").
The Wilhelm scream can be heard during the screaming that comes on when Dean is viewing the second hanging mask at the school.
The town's population is 1,214.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

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