12.07 Rock Never Dies
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| Title | Rock Never Dies |
| Episode # | Season 12, Episode 7 |
| First aired | December 1, 2016 |
| Directed by | Eduardo Sanchez |
| Written by | Robert Berens |
| On IMDB | Rock Never Dies |
| Outline | Realizing the influence he has as Vince Vincente, Lucifer arranges to test out his power on unsuspecting fans. Sam, Dean, Castiel, and Crowley bring the fight to Lucifer in Los Angeles. |
| Monster | One month since 12.01 Keep Calm and Carry On |
| Timeline | |
| Location(s) | Lebanon, Kansas Los Angeles, California |
| [[{{{prevep}}}|« Previous Episode]] | [[{{{nextep}}}|Next Episode »]] | |
Contents
Synopsis
Characters
- Sam Winchester
- Dean Winchester
- Castiel
- Crowley
- Lucifer
- Vince Vincente
- Tommy
- Russell Lemmons
- Roseleen Greenfield
Definitions
- Angel Blade
- Archangels
- Ass-butt
- Binding Link
- Costumes & Disguises
- Impala
- Kuma Blu
- Ladyheart
- Lucifer's Feather
- Satanic Looking Symbols
- Table of Death
- Vessel
Music
- "Bad Dog Blues" by The Rob Donnelly Band (Cavendish Music Library / Imagem Production Music)
- (playing in the bar Crowley and Cas are calling Sam and Dean from)
- "Bloody Messiah" by Ladyheart
- (playing on Sam's cell phone; song co-written by Jay Gruska and Robert Berens)
Quotes
Dean: You still living an '80s buddy comedy with Crowley?
Castiel: Unfortunately yes.
Castiel: Unfortunately yes.
Crowley: Hello boys, long time. We team up to save the world, and then bupkis. You don't call, you don't write.
Dean: Yeah. We don't care.
Dean: Yeah. We don't care.
Dean: Oh, Sam. Hair rock? Really? Come on?
Sam: It's not hair-it's not hair rock. It's hard rock. It's legitimate hard rock. Don't judge a book by its cover.
Dean: Hey. Consider switching up the duds there. It's a bit stiff for this town.
Sam: He could be an agent, or something.
Dean: Yeah, maybe a third tier agent.
Crowley: You little people wouldn't understand. But I've been a king. Having people look at you like you're everything, knowing that once they buy in, you can make them do anything. It's intoxicating.
Dean: Well, that's super creepy.
Dean: Well, that's super creepy.
Sam: Cas. You'll last three minutes. Tops.
Castiel: Then I'll buy you three minutes.
Castiel: You think this is fun?
Lucifer: Oh. I wouldn't expect you to understand. I've been inside you. I know what a weak, duty-bound, pleasureless dullard you are. And you, bad doggy. Sit!
Lucifer: Oh. I wouldn't expect you to understand. I've been inside you. I know what a weak, duty-bound, pleasureless dullard you are. And you, bad doggy. Sit!
Lucifer: Guys. You know I can end you all with a snap of my finger. Why would I do that when you can't do anything to me?
Dean: Why're you doing this?
Lucifer: Why?
Sam: You and God made up. You forgave Him. What would He think?
Dean: Well, we didn't catch Lucifer but we did save the crowd so I'd call that a win.
Sam: I wouldn't. Vince Vincente is dead.
Dean: We never even hoped to save him. And yes, I know the third album-
Sam: No, he was still a person. And he meant something to a lot of people. And Lucifer just took all that and twisted all that up and snuffed it out. Lucifer was bad enough when he had a plan, a motive. Now he's just having fun. I mean, how many people died tonight? Them-this. It's all on us. We let him out. We're not winning, we're just losing slow. And you heard what he said-
Crowley: Onward and upwards. He's going big.
Castiel: And he'll go bigger.
Trivia & References
While Gordy and Adam are attempting to summon Lucifer, a record is being played in reverse. Backmasking has been alleged to contain Satanist messages, most famously Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" which alleges to have the message "Here's to my sweet Satan" backmasked.
Gordy: Yeah, like you found that artifact. Face it, Adam your Satan feather is faker than my Mother's China Town Fendi.
Sam: So I've been trying to dig up info on the British Men of Letters, keeping an eye for cases. And you've been goofing off with a game that went out of style five years ago.
Dean: I don't think Mom's quite ready for Snapchat.
Russell: You have been pleased with our arrangement thus far?
Crowley: Oh, as punch. A soul's a soul. But there is a certain prestige to owning a Swift or Drake.
Russell: Yeah, okay. I doubted it too. But, Vince came to me with a killer pitch. The original Ladyheart line-up reunited. Back in the day, those cats sold like 10 mil.
Crowley: So did Hootie & the Blowfish.
- Hootie & the Blowfish is an American rock band which enjoyed some mainstream success in the '90s. Their debut album Cracked Rear View sold 16 million copies and was the best-selling album of 1995.
Lucifer: You know rock's not the reason. It's just an excuse. To worship. To adore. See humans have always been desperate to put someone or something above them and lets face it, God ain't cutting it these days. It takes a Kim Kardashian, whatever Justin Bieber is, and me. They're enjoying a ride. So should you.
Sam: You find something?
Crowley: Yes. Vince Vincente is riding with the Devil.
Sam: Look at this: rock star biographies. Like all of them, from Aerosmith to ZZ Top. It looks like he's studying how to be famous.
Dean: Well, so what? Lucifer's a dork. That's good to know.
- The books in Lucifer's hotel room are: Scar Tissue, by Anthony Kiedis and Larry Sloman, My Cross to Bear, by Gregg Allman, When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin, by Mick Wall, Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses, by Stephen Davis, Sex, Drugs, Ratt & Roll: My Life in Rock, by Stephen Pearcy and Sam Benjamin, No One Here Gets Out Alive: The Biography of Jim Morrison, by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugarman, Johnny Cash: The Life, by Robert Hilburn, and Born to Drum, by Tony Barrell.
- The two in particular that are most relevant to this episode are the Led Zeppelin biography, because of the rumors of Satan-worship surrounding the band, and the Guns n' Roses biography, because the band reunited with three of the original members in 2016 and did a highly lucrative reunion tour. Like Ladyheart in this episode, the Guns n' Roses 2016 reunion began with a much-hyped secret show at a club in Hollywood.
Castiel: Look at this: "The seeds of a ripe dragonfruit, drizzled with exactly one ounce of acacia honey, prepared in a ceramic bowl (no plastic)..." What is this spell?
Crowley: It's breakfast. It's Vince's rider. I've seen worse.
- A rider is a set of requests or demands that a performer sets as criteria for performance. Along with normal stipulations about gear setup and basic backstage amenities, some rock bands have become famous over the years for including ridiculous or extravagant demands in their riders.
The name of Russell Lemmons might be a play on Russell Simmons, the famous record label executive.
Roseleen: You're Vince. Vince Vincente. And I knew I was in love with you the moment I saw you. I was sixteen. Just a normal kid growing up in Arcadia.
Lucifer: Arcadia. Sounds beautiful.
Roseleen: I was watching Headbangers Ball and the "Bloody Messiah" video came on. And I- it was your voice, and your hair, and your eyes. It was everything. You were everything. And even when people made fun me, younger girls at work, shredding on my Ladyheart tattoos and saying you were a joke. I never stopped loving you and never will.
- Headbangers Ball was a program on MTV that showed heavy metal music videos. It ran from 1987-1995.
Roseleen carves Vince Vincente's name on her chest with a knife. One Slayer fan famously carved the band's name into his skin, on the inside of his forearm. Slayer's music and albums often reference Satanic imagery, and Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman once said, "We read a lot from the Satanic bible."
Vincente Manager: Okay, we're building a aura of mystery and exclusivity with tonight's show. Undisclosed location, small select audience. It's as much about who doesn't get a ticket as who does. This could push your social media profile to Kimye levels.
Dean: We're the brothers that rock together. We're like the American Oasis.
- Oasis was an English rock band which was formed around two brothers, Liam and Noel Gallagher.
Ladyheart Member: Have you seen that crowd? Man, I have not seen an audience this hype since we headlined Monsters of Rock in '91. And the girls. Perfect age.
- Monsters of Rock was an annual hard rock music festival held in Castle Donington, England. On the bill in 1991: AC/DC, Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Queensrÿche, and The Black Crowes. Songs by AC/DC and Queensrÿche have been played in previous episodes of Supernatural.
Lucifer: Castiel. Took you long enough. You bring the rest of the Little Rascals?
Crowley: Just me.
Lucifer: Spanky.
- The Little Rascals, also known as "Our Gang," was a series of American short comedy films produced between 1922 and 1944 (and occasionally revived since on TV or in movies) about a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. George "Spanky" McFarland was one of the best-known members of the extensive and ever-changing cast.
Lucifer: Clever girls.
- A reference to a famous scene from Jurassic Park.
Lucifer attacks Castiel and Crowley with a guitar. There is a long record of rock stars using guitars as weapons. Noel Gallagher, for example, alleged in a lawsuit that his brother Liam attacked him with a guitar. (In this episode, Sam and Dean pretend to be brothers in a rock band that they describe as "the American Oasis") One of the most famous instances was Keith Richards attacking a fan who rushed the stage at a Rolling Stones show. Keith Richards was referenced in a previous episode.
Dean: Rock is dead.
- "Rock Is Dead" is the name of a song by Marilyn Manson, who is a fan of Anton LeVey, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Aleister Crowley. He is a member of the Church of Satan, his breakthrough album was titled Antichrist Superstar, and his upcoming album is titled SAY10. (Say the title out loud if you haven't figured it out.)
Minutiae
Dean: Alright, 450 miles to LA. The land of gridlock, botox, overtaxing, underachieving, the smell of sweaty desperation. I mean you can't breathe, pizzas are toxic. You got dudes in skinny jeans wearing sunglasses inside. And the obsessed narcissists. I do like the yoga pants though. When's the last time we were in LA? Was it ten years ago, doing a vengeful spirit? Man, seems like forever ago. Doesn't it?
- Sam and Dean traveled to Los Angeles to fight a vengeful spirit ten years ago in 2.18_Hollywood_Babylon.
When Dean is playing Words with Friends with Mary, the letters at the bottom of his screen can be rearranged to spell Lucifer. Dean's username in the game is 67Impala327 which is a reference to the 1967 Impala and her 327 cubic inch four-block V8 engine. Mary's name is mothermary1983. 1983 is the year Sam was born, and the year Mary died.
When Castiel calls Dean, his name appears on Dean's phone spelled as "Cass," thus re-igniting the age-old argument: is it Cas or Cass?.
This episode shows that Dean is somewhat proficient at the guitar. Legendary bluesman Robert Johnson was rumored to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his guitar-playing ability, a myth which is portrayed and the subject of Supernatural episode [Crossroad Blues]. Lucifer was not able to get a crash course in guitar playing for this episode to write songs and perform with Ladyheart, but he wasn't the Crossroads Demon that made the deal with Johnson.
The Ladyheart bass drum and the shirts at the merchandise stand refer to a possible album title "Theatre of Mercy." This may be a play off of Mötley Crüe's third album Theatre of Pain, which includes one of their signature songs "Home Sweet Home." In the episode, Sam makes repeated references to Ladyheart's third album, though he never says the album title. Mötley Crüe's second album is titled "Shout at the Devil."
