10.18 Book of the Damned

Title	Book of the Damned
Episode #	Season 10, Episode 18
First aired	April 15, 2015
Directed by	P.J. Pesce
Written by	Robbie Thompson
On IMDB	Book of the Damned
Outline	After Charlie acquires the Book of the Damned, Sam and Dean must help protect her and the book from its original owners--the Styne family--who seek to reclaim it, all the while attempting to decipher the book to find a cure for the Mark of Cain. Castiel and Metatron continue on their road trip to find Castiel's remaining grace.
Monster	Jacob Styne Metatron
Timeline
Location(s)	Lebanon, Kansas
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Characters

• Sam Winchester
• Dean Winchester
• Castiel
• Charlie Bradbury
• Metatron
• Rowena
• Jacob Styne

Definitions

• Angel Sword
• Book of the Damned
• Castiel's Pimpmobile
• Cherubs
• Curse Box
• Demon Tablet
• Grace
• Holy Oil
• Hugs
• Hunters
• Impala
• Mark of Cain
• Men of Letters Bunker
• Sammy
• Spells

Music

• "The Boys Are Back in Town" by Thin Lizzy

(playing while Sam and Dean go to meet up with Charlie)

• "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who

(playing over the recap of the fight with Jacob and his men/when Sam meets with Rowena)

Quotes

Dean: Look man it has been one crap sandwich after another for the past few weeks, okay. You heard Charlie, we got a shot at fixing this thing, so if that don't put gas in your tank.

Sam: If by shot, you mean a spell in a book we can't read, that's currently being tracked.
Dean: We're due for a win, okay 0 for 2. I'll tell you another thing, if this actually does work, we can take some time off.
Sam: What like a vacation?
Dean: Mmmhmm. And I'm not talking just a weekend in Vegas or sitting in some crap motel watching pay-per-porn. No I'm talking about a beach, drinking cervezas, mingle with the local wildlife. When's the last time either one of us was on a beach?
Sam: Never.

Dean: Never. Sand between our toes, Sammy. Sand between our toes.

Metatron: Oh em me. Food, glorious food. All the countless descriptions in some many books, but those were just words. The taste, I mean the actual taste -- I had no idea. And the process, comes in here, and comes out here. Sorcery. I mean you used to be human, don't you miss all this?

Castiel: No. I don't miss digestion, I don't miss indigestion.

Metatron: No-no not that. I mean don't you miss the feeling of all this; the taste of these waffles, the sound of a child's laughter. Look at us, we're a couple of angels who have touched not only the divine, but the mundane. You and I have a lot in common.

Charlie: Okay here's what I learned so far. About 700 hundred years ago, a nun locked herself away after having visions of darkness. After a few decades squirreled away by herself, she emerged with this. Each page is made out of slices of her own skin, and written in her blood. I told you it's ickish. According to the notes I found, it's been owned and used by cults and covens, even the Vatican had it for a while.

Metatron: Sorry about the mess, I guess I'm lactose intolerant.
Castiel: Let's never speak of it again.

Dean: Sam read the file. The way the book works, when you use it there is a negative reaction, I'm talking Biblical negative. Dark magic always comes with a price, we know that, we've been down that road before.

Charlie: Well, let's at least translate it, see what it says.

Dean: You guys don't understand, the book's been calling out to me ever since I laid eyes on it, okay. Calling out to the Mark. I can hear it like it's alive, it wants me to use it, but not for good. Look I wanted it to be the answer too, okay. I really did. But we have to get rid of it; burn it, bury it -- I don't give a damn, we'll just have to find another way to fix the Mark.

Sam: Until what? Tell me. Until what, Dean? Until I watch you become a demon again, until then? I can't do that, I won't do that.

Dean: Well then you'll just have to lock me up, bind me to the Bunker like you did last time.
Charlie: That doesn't solve anything.
Sam: Look jut let us translate the book, okay. if there is a cure we'll do it and deal with the consequences later. I can't lose you.
Dean: Really?
Sam: Yeah really.
Dean: You change your mind on that 'cause that's not what you said last time.
Sam: Come on man, you know I didn't mean-

Dean: This is my cross to bear Sam, mine. And that book is not the answer, now we gotta destroy it before it falls into the wrong hands, and that includes me.

Charlie: What did Dean mean? When he said you changed your mind?

Sam: So, a while back, we had a chance to, um... Close the Gates of Hell. And in order to do that, I would've had to die, and I was okay with that and I am okay with that, but Dean was not. And so he, uh...
Charlie: He saved you.
Sam: Yeah, he saved me. And let me guess, in doing so, he did something you didn't want and that pissed you off. And you said something that hurt him

Charlie: Yeah, that sounds about right. Brothers.

Sam: You know, when Dean came to get me at school, I-I told myself... One last job, you know? One more job. And then when -- when I, um... When I lost Jess, I, again, told myself, one more job. There's always one more job, you know? And one more job and one more job, and then I was gonna go back to law and -- and to my life.

Sam: I guess I really understand now that... This is my life. I love it. But I can't do it without my brother. I don't want to do it without my brother. And if he's gone, then I don't... I-I got it. I do.

Sam: Charlie, Cas. Cas, Charlie.

Charlie: I thought you'd be shorter.
Sam: I'm gonna get these to the fridge.
Charlie: Heard you got your mojo back.
Castiel: Yes, my -- my grace, it's -- it's been restored.
Charlie: So, can't you just, you know... cure Dean?
Castiel: Unfortunately, it's not that simple.
Charlie: Oh. Never is, is it? Do you think you could do anything about my carpal tunnel? Is that it?
Castiel: Your carpal tunnel and your bullet wound are now healed. You may want to continue wearing your wrist brace at night, though.

Charlie: Did we just become best friends?

Trivia & References

The Book of the Damned is a work of nonfiction by Charles Fort and was published in 1919. The book deals with various types of paranormal phenomenon ranging from UFOs to the existence of giants and fairies. This version appears to have more in common with the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis from the Evil Dead film series, which was bound in human flesh and inked blood, and written in ancient Sumerian.

Charlie: Yeah, well sorry Gambit. Finders keepers.

Gambit is a character in the Marvel X-Men Universe. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana., and Charlie is relating Jacob Styne to gambit due to his accent.

Jacob: Now you look here; you can cut me down, but my people will never stop. And you can tip-toe through the tulips like you did in Russian, or stowaway on the back of a train like you did in Alaska, but sooner enough my kin will find ya, this ends with you being dead.

Metatron: Inclement weather on the day of your nuptials and the wrong cutlery at inopportune times is hardly ironic.

Metatron is referring to lines from the lyrics of Ironic by Alanis Morisette, which was about to play on the radio. The lines are "It's like rain on your wedding day" and "It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife", neither of which are particularly ironic situations. Later Metatron as he casts a spell on Castiel he says “Poor Castiel. Swam so far just to drown in shallow waters. Isn’t it ironic? Dontcha think?”

Metratron: I mean, I can feel music. Like that last song, "Sussudio,"

Sussudio is a catchy 1985 pop song by Phil Collins

Dean: Yeah well, after he and mommie dearest got into a fight-

Sam: Mommie dearest?

Mommie Dearest is the name of the autobiography of Christina Crawford which documented her abuse at the hands of her mother, actor Joan Crawford. It was later made into a movie of the same name starring Faye Dunaway.

Charlie: I'm exhausted, and I'm-I'm bleeding, and I'm in a phone booth--a phone booth. I didn't know these things existed outside of Bill & Teds-

Charlie is referring to the various adventures of Bill and Ted] who are two slackers who travel through time in a phone booth.

Dean: Charlie, what does it say about the Mark?

Charlie: I have no fraking idea.

Frak is a swear word which was invnted and used in the TV series Battlestar Galactica.

Dean: And you call yourselves nerds, come on you got this.

Charlie: He's right. Let's get our Alan Turing on, and encrypt this bitch.

Alan Turing was an English mathematician and computer pioneer who did vital code-breaking work for the Allies in World War 2. he committed suicide after being perecuted for being gay, which was a criminal offence at the time.

Metatron: I told the angel to hide clues in some of my favorite books. Mother may I?

Mother May I? is a children's playground game.

Metatron: 'What is the maddest thing a man can do?'

The clue is for the location of Castiel's grace and is located in a copy of Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye Blue Monday by Kurt Vonnegut. The first clue is “Take my advice and live for a long, long time. Because the maddest thing a man can do in this life is to let himself die.” is by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra from Don Quixote. It is in this book that Castiel finds his Grace.

Metatron: ""What two things do you need to succeed in life? Ignorance and confidence."

"To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence"is a quote from writer Mark Twain. This second riddle is found a copy of Simulacra and Simulation, a philosophical treatise by Jean Baudrillard which looks at the relationships among reality, symbols, and society.

Charlie: Okay, even the Bletchley Circle couldn't crack this thing. I've tried every cryptographic algorithm there is. Goose egg.

Bletchley Park was the central site of the English Government Code and Cypher School which worked during the Second World War to break codes to provide intelligance about the Axis war efforts. Alan Turing worked here. The Bletchley Circle was a UK TV series which followed a group of women who had worked at Blethcley Park, as their used their code breaking skills to solve crimes after the war.

Charlie: So they're like the supernatural DuPonts?

The Du Pont Family is an American dynasty who have been ne of the richest families in America since the 1800s.

Metatron: You know we really do make a good team, kinda like a buddy comedy -- without the comedy.

Castiel: Or the buddies.
Metatron: Now come on, back at the diner, that was some pretty awesome dynamic duo action.

Metatron: No, if I'm gonna die, I want answers. Like, who are you now? You're obviously not an angel of the Lord, and what about all of this walking the Earth like Kane from Kung Fu crap?

Kung Fu was a 1970s TV series which followed the travels of Kane, a Shaolin monk who travelled through the Old West in search of his brother.

Charlie: You know, I haven't been a hunter for very long, but it feels like this is the life. Mostly ends in Sophie's choices, death, or tears. Usually all of the above, huh?

"Sophie's choice" is a term used to refer to a choice in which each alternative is equally terrible. Sophie's Choice refers to a novel and later movie in which the lead character is a woman who during her internment in a NAZI concentration camp is forced to make an impossible choice - which of her children should be killed in the gas chamber.

Charlie: You were the Dread Pirate Roberts of hunting.

The Dread Pirate Roberts is a character from the book and movie The Princess Bride.

Castiel: Your carpal tunnel and bullet wound are now healed.

Charlie: Did we just become best friends?

"Did we just become best friends?" is a quote from the 2008 movie Step Brothers.

Jacob: Well, there's coincidence, and then there's just Providence.

Minutiae

Executive Producer Robert Singer provides the voice of the DJ on the radio introducing "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette.

In the opening scene in the bunker, Dean is wearing a grey hoodie. According to writer Robbie Thompson this was because there was a scene where Dean was working out, however this was cut. In fandom, Dean wearing a hoodie is associated with the episode 1.12 Faith, when Dean wore Sam's brown hoodie when he was dying. It has become associated with hurt Dean and there's a comm for Dean hurt/comfort fic called Hoodie Time.

Charlie wears two graphic t-shirts in this epsiode. The first is from the comic The Rat Queens and the second is from the series The Lumberjanes.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

• 10.18 Book of the Damned (transcript)

Promotion

• Live tweets from the cast and crew during the broadcast of Supernatural - Book of the Damned on 15/04/2015
• Synopsis
• Promo Pics by BuddyTV
• Extended Promo
• Sneak Peek #1
• Sneak Peek #2
• Producer's Preview
• Felicia Day Interview with IGN
• Felicia Day Interview with Collider