1.04 Phantom Traveler
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Title | Phantom Traveler |
Episode # | Season 1, Episode 4 |
First aired | October 4, 2005 |
Directed by | Robert Singer |
Written by | Richard Hatem |
On IMDB | Phantom Traveler |
Outline | Sam and Dean board a flight doomed to crash to exorcise a disaster-causing demon. |
Monster | Demon |
Timeline | December 2nd - 5th, 2005 (according to 1.06 Skin and 2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be) |
Location(s) | Catasauqua, Pennsylvania Nazareth, Pennsylvania Allentown, Pennsylvania |
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Contents
Synopsis
Sam and Dean are called in to investigate when a plane crashes under mysterious circumstances. Their investigation leads them to the conclusion that a demon is possessing people and causing the plane they are on to crash. Things become more urgent when they discover that the demon is going after the 7 survivors of the first crash, including the pilot and a stewardess.
Dean is contacted by Jerry Panowski, who he and John helped a couple of years ago. Jerry is an air traffic controller and a plane, piloted by his friend Chuck Lambert, has crashed for no obvious reason. Jerry has found what sounds like EVP on the cockpit voice recorder saying “no survivors”, although seven people survived the crash.
Sam and Dean speak to one of the survivors, Max Jaffey, who has checked himself into a psychiatric institution. He reports seeing a passenger whose eyes turned black, rip open the plane's emergency exit just before the crash, even though the pressure on that door was over 2 tons. They visit the wife of George Phelps, the passenger Max saw, but she reports nothing out of the ordinary before the flight.
Inspection of the plane wreckage reveals traces of sulfur, and the boys start to suspect some sort of demonic possession is involved.
Jerry then calls to them that Chuck Lambert has been killed in another plane crash. The boys find there is also sulfur on the wreckage and that both planes crashed forty minutes into the flight.
The boys realize that the demon is going to kill all the survivors of the crash, and check to find the only one going to fly in the near future is flight attendant Amanda Walker. They are unable to dissuade her from flying, and so decide they must catch the same flight and exorcise the demon, although Dean is not enthusiastic due to his fear of flying.
On the plane the boys are checking out the passengers, when they see the co-pilot's eyes turn black. They enlist Amanda Walker’s help, and lure him to the back gallery, where they start to exorcise the demon. Just before the ritual is over, the demon speaks, revealing it knows of Jess’ death. Finally it is exorcised and the plane lands safely.
The boys farewell Jerry, who mentions that he got Dean’s cell number from John’s voice mail. The boys are stunned; their father's cell has been out of service since he went missing. They call his number and confirm that the voice mail directs callers to Dean. This is the first sign they have that their father is still alive.
Characters
- Sam Winchester
- Dean Winchester
- John Winchester
- Amanda Walker
- Jerry Panowski
- Max Jaffey
- Chuck Lambert
- George Phelps
- Airplane Demon
Definitions
- Aliases
- Christo
- Costumes & Disguises
- Dean's Amulet
- Demon Smoke
- Demonology
- Dean's Cell Phone
- EMF
- Exorcism
- Flight 401
- Holy Water
- Impala
- Japanese Belief in Disaster-Causing Demons
- John's Cell Phone
- John's Journal
- Phantom Travelers
- Poltergeist
- Possession
- Rituale Romanum
- Sulfur
Music
- "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath
- (plays on the way to the warehouse)
- "Riot Time" by Powerman 5000
- (plays on the way to the warehouse; Netflix version)
- "Working Man" by Rush
- (plays in the Impala when they try to get Amanda Walker on the phone)
- "Some Kind of Monster" by Metallica
- (hummed by Dean on the plane)
- "Load Rage" by Blues Sarenco
- (playing on a girl's headphones, as Dean is checking for EMF on the plane)
Quotes
Sam: I don't know, a little while, I guess. It's not a big deal.
Dean: Yeah, it is.
Sam: Look, I appreciate your concern—
Dean: Oh, right, yeah. Up in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, the poltergeist thing. It's not back, is it?
Jerry: No. No. Thank god, no. But it's something else, and... uh, I think it could be a lot worse.
Dean: What is it?
Sam: There's a long history of spirits and death omens on planes and ships, like phantom travelers.
Dean: Mm-hmm.
Sam: Or remember flight 401?
Dean: What?
Dean: It's an EMF meter. Reads electromagnetic frequencies.
Sam: Yeah, I know what an EMF meter is, but why does that one look like a busted-up Walkman?
Dean: Yeah, but none of them describe anything like this.
Sam: Well, that's not exactly true. You see according to Japanese beliefs, certain demons are behind certain disasters, both natural and man-made. One causes earthquakes, another causes disease.
Sam: Hey, hey, it's just a little turbulence.
Dean: Sam, this plane is going to crash, Okay? So quit treating me like I'm friggin' four.
Sam: You need to calm down.
Dean: Well, I'm sorry, I can't.
Sam: Yes, you can.
Jerry: Your dad gave it to me.
Sam: What?
Dean: When did you talk to him?
Jerry: I mean, I didn't exactly talk to him, but I called his number. His voice message said to give you a call. Thanks again, guys.
Sam: This doesn't make any sense, man. I've called Dad's number like fifty times. It's been out of service.
[Dean dials John's number]
Trivia & References
Sam: Yeah, I grabbed a couple of hours.
Dean: Liar. 'Cause I was up at three, and you were watching the George Foreman infomercial.
Sam: Hey, what can I say? It's riveting TV.
- George Foreman: Famous heavyweight boxer who is now best known for late night ads where he flogs his electric grill
Man: Poltergeist? Man, I loved that movie!
- Poltergeist is a 1982 horror film directed by Tobe Hooper, about a family that moves into a house built on an Indian burial ground. According to DVD commentary by Jared and Jensen, the man's line was added in post-production and was not recorded on-set.
- PCP, also known as angel dust, is a hallucinogen known for being to give the user feeling/illusion of superhuman strength, as the drug causes pain receptors to the brain to be blocked.
Dean: Man, I look like one of the Blues Brothers.
Sam: No, you don't. You look more like a... seventh-grader at his first dance.
- The Blues Brothers were a comedic R&B duo comprised of John Belushi and Dan Akroyd that originated on the late night sketch show Saturday Night Live and later made two movies. The pair's usual attire were black and white suits, ties, hats and sunglasses.
- References to the films The Exorcist, in which a little girl is possessed by a demon. Among her afflictions are bed-floating and projectile vomiting. Could also be a reference to Ghost Busters in which a woman is possessed and floats above her bed.
- James Hetfield is the lead singer/rhythm guitarist of Metallica.
Dean: Oh. Nice.
Sam: Hey.
Dean: What?
Sam: Say it in Latin.
Dean: I know.
Sam: Okay. Hey!
Dean: What?!
Sam: Uh, in Latin, it's 'Christo.'
Dean: Dude, I know! I'm not an idiot!
Minutiae
![](/images/thumb/2/22/Pt_buabs.jpg/400px-Pt_buabs.jpg)
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
- 1.04 Phantom Traveler (transcript)
- Transcript of DVD commentary with Jensen and Jared by stir_of_echoes