9.20 Bloodlines

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SN920-0018.jpg
Title Bloodlines
Episode # Season 9, Episode 20
First aired April 29, 2014
Directed by Robert Singer
Written by Andrew Dabb
On IMDB Bloodlines
Outline Sam and Dean cross paths with Ennis Ross, who witnessed his girlfriend being murdered by an apparent monster. Together they learn about the five monster families that are secretly running Chicago's underbelly.
Monster Human
Timeline
Location(s) Chicago, Illinois
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Synopsis

Ennis Ross is taking his girlfriend Tamara to upmarket restaurant "Il Secundo," with the intent of proposing to her. As he speaks with Maurice the maitre d' about hiding the engagement ring in a glass of champagne, they are interrupted by Sal Lassiter. The matire d' ignores Ennis to accompany Sal to the private club in the back and, as they leave, Ennis catches a glimpse of the bodyguard Marv's face in the mirror where his reflection is grotesque.

The private club is full of monsters of different types socializing. At the bar, Sal—a shapeshifter—is approached by werewolf Julian Duval, who isn't pleased to see him. They get into a fight, but their bodyguards pull them apart, and Julian leaves. Soon after, a masked figure with what looks like silver claws arrives and starts killing.

Sal is injured and staggers outside to the pier where Ennis is about to propose to Tamara. The creature follows and, as it attacks Sal, it pushes Tamara out of the way. She falls, hitting her head and dies. The creature rips out Sal's heart and flees. As Sal lays dying, he says to Ennis, "David, I had no choice."

Later at the police station, Ennis tries to explain to Detective Freddie Costa what he saw, but the detective, despite being a friend of Ennis' late father who was also on the force, doesn't believe him. Sam and Dean arrive, pretending to be FBI agents. They listen to Ennis' story and then leave, warning him that monsters aren't real.

At the Lassiter home, eldest daughter Margo is consulting with Detective Costa, who is on the Lassiter payroll. He tells her that the ghoul family may not support the Lassiters if she moves against the Duvals. He points out that the other four monster families are looking to take more power now that Margo's father is dying.

David Lassiter, youngest son of the Lassiter family, returns home for the first time in three years after Margo calls to tell him that Sal has been killed. David finds Margo's henchmen preparing a cache of weapons. She blames Julian Duval for Sal's death and wants war. David is shocked about how his father's health has deteriorated since he has been away, and he advises Margo against war with the Duvals. Margo mocks him, accusing him of supporting the Duvals because he used to date Violet Duval. She takes delight in telling him that Violet is being married off to a New York werewolf family to forge an alliance.

Julian Duval is meeting with one of the djinn family, and they discuss how the Lassiters may respond to Sal's death. Violet interrupts, demanding to know if it was Julian who killed Sal. He denies it, and says he doesn't care as long as it brings on a war with the shifters. He reminds her she has no power in the family.

At home, Ennis pulls out a trunk of his father's. He takes out a revolver and finds, hidden in the box, a collection of engraved silver bullets. He returns to the club behind the restaurant and is confronted by the maitre d'—who is a vampire. Ennis shoots him to no avail. Dean comes up behind the vampire and decapitates it with a machete. Sam gives Ennis a quick run down on the fact that monsters exists, while Dean discovers stores of blood and flesh behind the bar. The Winchesters theorize that maybe Sal Lassiter was a monster of some sort and plan to head to the morgue to check it out. Ennis insists on accompanying them, but they warn him off getting involved.

Returning home, Ennis starts researching Sal Lassiter online, when Freddie Costa knocks at the front door. He comes in and starts asking the same questions he had the night before. Suspicious he manages to sneak a picture of Freddie, and he notices his eyes flare in the photo, which Sam and Dean told him was a sign of a shapeshifter. He asks if Freddie wants to wait until Ennis' dad Nate gets home, and he agrees. This confirms Ennis' suspicions as the real Costa knows that his father is dead.

Ennis throws his jacket at Costa, and manages to pull his gun, with the silver bullets on the shifter, who changes revealing himself to be David Lassiter. He explains that he is trying to find out who killed Sal and avert war with the Duvals. He looks at Ennis' jacket and finds flecks of silver in the tears, ruling out a werewolf being the clawed killer. That night, Ennis scopes out the Duval mansion. Sam and Dean are also there, and Ennis overhears them discussing that Julian Duval paid the coroner to look at Sal's body. They speculate that he wouldn't have done that if he himself was the killer. Violet Duval leaves the house, and David appears, telling her he wants to arrange a meeting between Julian and Margo to broker a peace agreement. Violet argues that Julian doesn't want peace. David brings up an old issue—years ago they were going to run away together, but Violet didn't turn up to the rendezvous.

Just then, the clawed killer appears and knocks David down before abducting Violet. His screams bring Ennis and Sam and Dean running, but the killer and Violet have gone. The Winchesters, Ennis, and David leave as the Duval bodyguards swarm the grounds.

David explains to the Winchesters and Ennis that five monster families rule Chicago. He suggests they track Violet using the GPS in her phone, but he will only give them her number if he can come along. Sam and Dean agree to Ennis' shock, but Dean explains that sometimes you need to make alliances with the bad guys to catch the guys who are worse.

In an abandoned building, Violet is bound, her captor—a human named Irv Sokolowski—explains that Sal and a group of monsters killed his young son. He is trying to make the different families go to war against each other in revenge. Meanwhile, the Winchesters, Ennis, and David have tracked Violet's GPS signal to the building. As they reach it, Ennis tells David what Sal said as he died.

Irv manages to capture David. He starts to torture him with his silver claws, and Violet becomes enraged, transforming into a werewolf and attacking Irv. David manages to pull her off just as the Winchesters and Ennis arrive. Irv makes a half-hearted apology for killing Tamara, but Ennis kills him.

The next day, David visits Violet and muses over his brother's final words. Violet remembers—without telling David—that the night they were meant to leave together, Sal intervened and told her not to go because the families must keep the bloodlines pure. In the present day, as she is about to leave, she turns and kisses David.

At the Lassiter home, his ailing father warns David not to let Margo start a war. David goes and tells Margo he has found out that Sal's killer was not Julian Duval, and that he is now returning home to the family business. Sam and Dean reluctantly leave Ennis after getting a call from Castiel that he has found Metatron. They warn Ennis to stay away from the monsters, and advise that they will send some hunters to clean things up. However, Ennis returns to Irv's lair and is examining all the information Irv collected on the monster families. His phone rings and a voice tells him not to get involved. It is the voice of the father he thought was dead.

Characters

Definitions

Music

  • "Somehow" by Caught a Ghost
(plays when Ennis and Tamara enter the restaurant)
  • "Looking Glass / Pettibon" by ERAAS
(playing as Sal & Marv enter the monster club)
  • "Little Black Submarines" by The Black Keys
(plays while Ennis takes the train home)

Quotes

Sal Lassiter: You werewolves. You think you're so special, when really you're all just sons of bitches.
Dean: Listen detective, your perp fits a certain profile. Now I could go into detail, but I'm not going to.
Dean: All right, Sammy, give him the talk.

Sam: All right, look, my name is Sam Winchester. That's my brother Dean. We kill vampires. And werewolves, and demons and... Basically, we chase down evil and we cut its head off.
Ennis: So you're, what, monster cops?

Dean: Hunters.
Dean: Hey Sammy. This is full of blood and meat... a lot of meat, actually this one, this one's labeled Susan.
Ennis: Who are you?

David: My name is David Lassiter. I'm a shapeshifter.
Ennis: You're a what?

David: We shift... our shape. It's kind of all there in the name.
Sam: So this girl, she's a shifter too?

David: Werewolf.

Dean and Ennis: Awesome.
Dean: And sometimes you got to work with the bad guys to get to the worse guys.

David: Dude, I'm right here.

Dean: Yeah, I see ya.
Violet: Why are you doing this?

Sal: Cause he's my little brother, Violet, it's my job to protect him, it's my job to keep our blood pure.
Violet: You believe that bloodline crap?

Sal: We all do. Bloodlines, everyone knowing our place, it's the one thing we all agree on. If your people find out you ran off with a shifter, they'll be looking for payback, and they'll come after my family. Then it's nothing but bad times and dead bodies on both sides. David wants to go straight that's his call, but he does it alone. So you have a choice Violet: you can either walk out of here alive, or I'll take you out and dump what's left of you in the lake.
Ennis: You're going.

Sam: Look we'll, uh, we'll call in some other hunters, some pros and download them on the monster mob situation, all of it.
Ennis: Look guys I could...

Sam: Ennis seriously don't. You get in this too deep there's no getting out.
Ennis: But I couldn't walk away, this is my fight now. Hell, it's a damn war, and I gotta start somewhere.

Trivia & References

This episode was planned to be a backdoor pilot for Supernatural: Bloodlines, a series set in Chicago and based on the characters introduced in this episode, however it was never picked up by the CW.
Sal: Hello, Julian. I'm not looking for trouble. I just want a drink.

Julian: And I want to eat Taylor Swift's heart, but we can't always get what we want.

Taylor Swift is an American country pop singer.
We can't always get what we want could be seen as a reference to the Rolling Stones song "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
Sal: Hey, where you going, Old Yeller?
A reference to the story of the same name about a yellow Labrador mix who becomes rabid and is put down by its boy owner.
Dean introduces himself and Sam as "Agents Bonham and Peart" referring to John Bonham of Led Zeppelin and Neil Peart of Rush who were/are both drummers.
Dean: From what you told us this thing sounds new... or Freddy Kruger.
Freddy Kruger is the antagonist of the Nightmare on Elm Street film series, and famous for his use of a clawed glove to kill his victims.
Dean: So, you're telling me there are five monster families that run Chicago? What is this, Godfather with fangs?
The Godfather is a crime film based on a book of the same name by Mario Puzo. It is about a New York mafia family trying to gain hegemony in the city in a war against other mafia families while their leadership is replaced by the returning youngest son.
It is worth noting that the werewolf family is called 'Duval'. Robert Duvall is famous for playing Tom Hagen, the adopted son and consigliere of the Corleone Mafia family in The Godfather.
Ennis: Dude, he's a frickin' Transformer.
Transformers are a line of toys/TV series/films that revolve around robots that can transform into automobiles, among other things.
Dean: All right, you're with me, Romeo.

David: Sounds good, Buffy.

Romeo is a reference to the ill-fated lover in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Buffy is a reference to the vampire slayer from the TV series named after her. Coincidentally, Sarah Michelle Gellar tweeted a picture of herself with a Supernatural poster on the day this episode aired.

Minutiae

Filming Locations: This episode was filmed partially in Vancouver and partially in Chicago, making this the only episode where some of the locations used were the actual recognizable locations in the city where the episode is set, such as the Chicago Riverwalk and Union Station. Map of known filming locations in Vancouver and Chicago.
Chicago, Illinois was previously the setting for 1.16 Shadow.
Noel Johansen, who played the vampire maître d' Maurice, previously played Hal in 4.08 Wishful Thinking.
Gardiner Miller, who played the wraith bodyguard Marv, previously played Wrath in 3.01 The Magnificent Seven.
The Impala used in this episode was owned by a fan called Stefany from Texas and outfitted by other fans. Read about it here at the bottom of the article.
The monster families running Chicago shown in the episode were shapeshifters, werewolves, and djinn, with ghouls being mentioned as the fourth. Had the backdoor pilot gone to series, the fifth family was to be revealed as sirens.
Tweets from the cast and crew during the episode broadcast.
Deleted scene: The deleted scene from this episode included on the Season 9 DVD and Blu-ray is a short scene of Violet Duval returning home late at night to her brother Julian's displeasure. She tells him the "wedding's off with that New York wolf" and that she can do better. Read the transcript here.
On May 8, 2014 it was announced that the CW had chosen to pass on Supernatural: Bloodlines going to series.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

Promotion

Interviews with Andrew Dabb, writer of "Bloodlines":