13.09 The Bad Place
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| Title | The Bad Place |
| Episode # | Season 13, Episode 9 |
| First aired | December 7, 2017 |
| Directed by | Phil Sgriccia |
| Written by | Robert Berens |
| On IMDB | The Bad Place |
| Outline | The death of a dreamwalker leads Sam and Dean to Jack, who is trying to get another dreamwalker named Kaia Nieves to help him open a door to Apocalypse World. |
| Monster | Angels |
| Timeline | |
| Location(s) | Bismarck, North Dakota Minnesota Lebanon, Kansas Buckhead, Georgia Sioux Falls, South Dakota Apocalypse World The Bad Place |
| [[{{{prevep}}}|« Previous Episode]] | [[{{{nextep}}}|Next Episode »]] | |
Contents
Synopsis
An artist, Derek Swan, tells his wife about a potential buyer, who turns out to be Jack. Once alone with Derek, Jack states his true mission: He’s sought Derek out because he’s a dreamwalker and is convinced that Derek can help him find the Apocalypse World, which Jack identifies in one of Derek’s paintings. Derek initially resists, but the offer of money from Jack causes Derek to relent. Once set up for the ritual, Derek is able to visit the world in his mind, but when he begins losing his hold, Jack uses his powers to force Derek to remain in the Apocalypse World so Jack can see what he sees. Derek’s face and eyes begin to flow with Jack's power, glowing golden, causing him to shout in pain. Later when Derek’s wife returns, she finds Derek dead, his eyes burned out.
At the Bunker, Dean leaves a voicemail for Patience Turner, telling her he knows he told her to stay out of hunting, but needs her help finding Jack. Finishing his call, Dean asks Sam if he’s heard from Castiel, and Sam replies that Cas is working on a lead on Jack in Tucson. Jody calls, and tells them about Derek’s death in Bismarck, North Dakota. Derek’s wife gave the police a description of Jack as the last person who saw Derek alive.
Patience, studying in her room, sees that she has six missed calls from Dean. When her father checks in on her, she tells him that Dean called to ask for her help, prompting James to question her about her visions that he assumed had stopped. She agrees and tells him she hasn’t spoken to Dean yet, but seems conflicted.
In Bismarck, Sam and Dean interview Derek’s wife. She tells them Derek considered his art “reportage” of the worlds he visited as a dreamwalker. Dean finds the painting of the Apocalypse World that proves it. In the Impala, Dean is worried Jack may be looking for Lucifer. He admits he likes the kid, but says they have to be prepared for the worst. Sam hacks into Derek’s email and finds another dreamwalker he was coaching – Kaia Nieves.
In a group addiction therapy meeting, Kaia is refusing to talk beyond monosyllables. She’d overdosed on amphetamines and the court ordered her into recovery. She refuses to be pressured into talking, but says she doesn’t belong there, that she’s not an addict. She hates the drugs, but they keep her from “the Bad Place.”
After the meeting, Jack introduces himself to Kaia. He mentions dreamwalking, says he’s a friend of Derek’s, and that he needs her help. He offers to help her escape. As Sam and Dean arrive outside, Jack leads Kaia on a break out. Reaching the outside, Kaia refuses to go with him. Jack becomes upset and tries to force her, but Kaia fights him off when Sam and Dean arrive and distract him. They let Kaia get away while Sam and Dean demand answers from Jack. Jack tells them he’s doing this for them, and Dean asks if he killed Derek for them. Jack tells the brothers he didn’t know Derek was dead and that he wanted to prove he could do one good thing, revealing that he’d been practicing using his powers to open doors to other worlds. He can’t quite do it, which is why he needed Derek, and now Kaia. Jack tells them that he saw Mary in the Apocalypse World. He shows them a vision of her shouting for help from a cage. On a nearby road, Kaia begins hitchhiking, a car stops and offers her a ride, as Kaia gets in the car she is knocked unconscious by an angel blade and is abducted.
Patience has a disturbing vision of Jody, Sam, and Dean in a murky forest, where Jody is stabbed. She awakens behind the wheel of her car, halfway into a parking spot and blocking traffic. She immediately reverses and drives away.
The angels have tied Kaia to a chair in a warehouse, where they tell her Jack is the son of Lucifer, that they killed Derek, and that they’re using her as bait. In the car, Dean laments the fact that Sam was right about Mary. Now that he knows she’s alive, he says they’ll find her, no matter what. Jack is upset they believed he could’ve killed Derek. Sam tells him they didn’t know if it had been an accident, but were worried he could’ve been looking for Lucifer. Jack tells them Lucifer is no one to him, but that Cas, Dean, and Sam are his family. Dean agrees and reassures Jack he did a good thing as Jack is hit with a painful blast from angel radio telling him that the angels have Kaia.
Patience packs a bag while her father tries to talk her out of leaving. Patience knows people are in danger and she could help, but her father worries about her. She tells him her visions never stopped, but she can’t ignore them now that people’s lives are on the line. She leaves home as her father tells her not to return.
At the warehouse, Kaia tells the angel that she chose the wrong bait. The angel agrees Kaia doesn’t matter, but the Winchesters will come for her anyway. Sam, Dean, and Jack soon arrive holding the other angel hostage, and demand they release Kaia. The female angel tells Jack he should “come home” with them. He tells her he is home and uses his power to throw her through a wall. Meanwhile, the other angel is about to stab Dean, and Jack uses his power to force the angel to stab himself instead. They leave quickly once they have Kaia safe. Jack offers her protection, and Sam pleads for her help in saving their mother. Jack wants to take Kaia to the Wind Caves, a sacred place where it’s easier to cross between worlds, so she could dreamwalk for them. Kaia describes dreamwalking as a curse. Derek could go anywhere, visit paradises, but she can only visit one world she calls the Bad Place. She suffers physical attacks there and wakes up bloody. She’s terrified, and tells them she can’t help them. Sam tells Kaia they’ll find another way, but Dean pulls a gun, reminding Sam that they’re going to save Mary, whatever it takes, and forces Kaia to go with them.
In Impala, Jack apologizes and tells Kaia he was afraid of his power, too, but it didn’t have to be terrifying. He shows her a vision of the worlds Derek visited, and tells her they can do good with their powers. The Impala is nearly run off the road by the female angel, which forces them to abandon the car and escape into an abandoned shipyard where they run aboard a ship to hide. Dean stays outside to confront the angel, who tells Dean that Heaven needs Jack to save the angels from extinction, but Dean is unsympathetic. Two more cars full of angels arrive, and Dean flees to the ship where Sam is painting warding sigils. Heavily outnumbered now, the group moves continues moving upwards, while six angels kneel outside and focus their power to break the warding.
Dean prepares for a last stand, and apologizes to Kaia for dragging her into their mess. Kaia offers to use her powers to open a door to another world to escape to. As the boat shakes under another blast of celestial energy, Kaia and Jack join powers to open a portal. Jack sees Kaia’s Bad Place, with giant monstrous bones and a hooded creature stalking the forest, and tells her to let go so he can guide her to the Apocalypse World. Jack guides Kaia through a vast multiverse, zooming in to Mary trapped in the iron maiden. Kaia struggles to stay in the Apocalypse World and not return to the Bad Place, flickering between the two worlds. When a hooded creature in the Bad Place confronts her, she screams. Amplified by Jack’s power, her screams send out a shockwave that blasts the angels outside into oblivion, fills the ship with a blinding light, and tears open a portal. When the light clears, all four of them have disappeared and only the portal remains.
In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Jody is leaving a worried voicemail for Sam when there’s a knock at her door. It’s Patience, warning Jody that something bad is coming. At the shipyard, angel blades are melted to the ground and wing prints are scorched on a wall. Some distance away, Kaia lays unconscious by the roadside. In the Apocalypse world, Jack wakes up beneath Mary’s iron maiden. Sam and Dean wake in a strange forest, regaining their composure they begin exploring where they are, and unbeknownst to them find themselves standing in a giant three-toed footprint, and hear a loud roar and thudding footfalls, having found themselves in the Bad Place.
Characters
- Sam Winchester
- Dean Winchester
- Mary Winchester
- Jack Kline
- Sheriff Jody Mills
- Patience Turner
- James Turner
- Kaia Nieves
- Derek Swan
Definitions
- Alternate Universe
- Apocalypse World
- Angel Blade
- Angel Lore
- Angel Radio
- Angel Wings
- The Bad Place
- Costumes & Disguises
- Dreamwalking
- Impala
- John's Journal
- Men of Letters Bunker
- Nephilim
- Palm Readers/Psychics
- Portal
- Smiting
- Table of Death
- The Bad Place
- Warding Sigils
Music
None
Quotes
Sam: A dreamwalker.
Jack: Yeah. So I researched like you taught me. That's how I found Derek. I didn't know if it would work, but it did. He dreamwalked, and I joined him in Apocaylpse World. I could see what he saw. And I saw... I saw her.
Sam: Her?
Sam: Dean, I was just hoping. I didn't know. Anyways, it doesn't matter. Now that we do know --
Dean: Yes, we are. Finding Mom. You did a good thing kid. You did a real good thing.
James: No. If you get involved in that. Look I was wrong to lie about Grandma. But you know what happened to her.
Patience: You raised me to do what's right, and this is what's right. If I don't go, people will die.
Dean: As far as I'm concerned, you dicks can fry.
Jack: Don't worry. We'll be fine.
Jack: If they get up here, they'll kill you all and take me.
Kaia: No, they won't. You said I could help you find the door to another world, right? Yes. Let's do it. Let's get out of here.
Dean: Hey, can you take us to our mom? Can you do it?!
Trivia & References
Derek: I don't know. He e-mailed yesterday. Must've seen the Examiner piece. Probably just some gawking Waší'čhu.
- Waší'čhu is a term for people of European descent, used by the Lakota/Dakota Native Americans. The word roughly translates to "takes the fat" or "greedy person", and was used to describe the white man's abuse of the land.
Derek: I get it. You read the article.
Jack: Your father was a medicine man, and his father before him. Your lineage traces all the way back to the shaman Black Elk. You can see other worlds.
- Oglala Sioux are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people that make up the Great Sioux Nation. The majority of the Oglala people live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, located in the southwest corner of South Dakota on the Nebraska border.
- Black Elk (Heȟáka Sápa) was a famous Oglala Lakota medicine man that lived from December 1, 1863 – August 19, 1950, and was the second cousin of famed war chief Crazy Horse.
Jack: I like... cocaine.
Kaia: Okay, Suite Life. Well, I don't know why you're really here, but you're gonna have to find a new day one buddy, 'cause it's not really my thing.
- The Suite Life of Zack & Cody was a 2005 Disney Channel series, which incidentally co-starred Kim Rhodes as the mother of the titular twins Zack and Cody. Dean made a reference to the show in 4.22 Lucifer Rising.
- In the 1980's and 90's photos of missing children were printed on milk cartons in an attempt to draw attention to their cases and aid in their recovery.
Dean: We get Mom back, no matter what. Remember?
- Wind Cave National Park, located in Custer County, South Dakota, is considered a sacred site by the Lakota (Sioux) and other tribes of the Black Hills region of South Dakota. They believe the site of the caves is where the first men entered the world after its creation.
Minutiae
- Kaia's line about "Trump's America" is a possible continuity error, as 12.08 LOTUS established that the current president in the Supernatural universe is Jefferson Rooney. Kaia's line may suggest Trump was voted in at the 2016 election, however "LOTUS" takes place in December of 2016 and dialogue makes mention of Jefferson Rooney being the "most popular sitting President in modern history," as well as being on a fund raising tour of the Midwest, either suggesting he was recently elected or re-elected in the 2016 presidential election.
