2.07 The Usual Suspects
Title | The Usual Suspects |
Episode # | Season 2, Episode 7 |
First aired | November 9, 2006 |
Directed by | Mike Rohl |
Written by | Cathryn Humphris |
On IMDB | The Usual Suspects |
Outline | Sam and Dean investigate the murders of a lawyer and his wife who, right before they died, claimed to have seen a ghost. |
Monster | Death Omen Vengeful Spirit |
Timeline | |
Location(s) | Baltimore, Maryland |
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Synopsis
In Baltimore, Sam and Dean investigate the murder of a lawyer, Tony Giles, who was killed in his office, although the security cameras show no one either entering or leaving the room.
They interview his wife Karen, who reports that he had a nightmare or vision of a woman the night before he died. Breaking into his office, Sam and Dean find a printout with “danashulps” printed repeatedly on it, which they assume to be a name -- Dana Shulps. Sam stays to hack into the computer while Dean decides to return and ask Karen whether the name means anything. At her home, Karen sees a ghostly figure and rushes to call 911. When Dean arrives, he finds her dead in a pool of blood with a pile of paper near her which also has “danashulps” printed on it. As he bends over to examine bruises on her wrists, the police burst in and arrest him.
Sam is arrested at their motel room, and back at the police station the boys are interrogated separately. A lengthy police record has been uncovered for Dean, including suspicion of involvement in the murders in St. Louis, where he was reported as dead. Detective Diana Ballard interviews Sam, and he spins her a tale about Tony being an old friend of their father. Detective Ballard reveals she knows a lot about Sam’s history as well, and tries to get him to admit Dean’s involvement in the murders.
Detective Ballard leaves to confer with her colleague Detective Pete Sheridan, with whom she is having a relationship. Sheridan is convinced of Dean’s guilt; he appears particularly invested in the case because Tony Giles was a friend of his. Dean’s lawyer, Jeff Krause, arrives, but rather than speak to him Dean borrows a pen and tries to work out if “danashulps” is an anagram. His lawyer helps by pointing out that one word it forms, “Ashland”, is a nearby street. Dean gets Jeff to take a coded note to Sam, passing on the information and telling him to escape.
Dean announces that he wants to confess, thus diverting all the police attention onto him. He doesn’t confess to the murders, but says that he thinks a ghost is responsible and that the word “danashulps” is a message from her. Predictably, the police believe he is wasting their time, which he has been in order to allow Sam time to escape. Dean is cuffed and put in a cell.
Meanwhile, the word “danashulps” appears on Ballard’s computer screen and she sees the ghostly figure of a woman with her throat slit. When she returns to speak to Dean, he see that bruises have appeared on her wrists similar to those he saw on Karen. He suspects she has seen something supernatural and tells her to go to Sam for help.
Together, she and Sam identify the woman she saw as Claire Becker, a heroin dealer who had worked as a police informant. She disappeared eight or nine months ago, but was last seen at 2911 Ashland Street. Sam explains to Diana that they need to find her body and salt and burn it in order to stop the killings.
While Sam and Diana are searching a building on Ashland, Claire appears again and points them to where they find her body hidden in a wall. Sam is bemused as to why the ghost would lead them to her body. Diana sees that Claire is wearing a distinctive necklace which is identical to one Pete has given her. Sam deduces that Claire is not a vengeful spirit, but a death omen who is trying to warn people who are about to be murdered.
Diana tells Sam that a couple of years ago some heroin went missing from the police lockup. She suspects that Pete stole it and used Claire to fence it. They suspect Pete is the murderer. Pete has taken Dean from the police station and driven out to the woods, intending to kill him. Sam and Diana track the car via its lo-jack and arrive just as Pete has a gun to Dean's head. He admits that he killed Claire because she was going to turn him in, and then killed Tony who had been involved in laundering the money and was getting nervous, and Karen because he suspected she knew too much. Pete tries to convince Diana that he can pin the crimes on Dean, but as he is about to shoot Dean, Diana shoots and wounds him. Pete disarms her, but the ghost of Claire appears and distracts him long enough for Diana to draw her backup gun and kill him. Diana agrees to let the boys go, telling them she will feel safer knowing they are out there fighting the supernatural.
Characters
Definitions
Music
None
Quotes
Detective Ballard: How's that going for you?
Kraus: Do you understand how serious these charges are?
Dean: Oh, yeah. That wasn't me either. That was a shapeshifter creature that only looked like me.
Dean: Mmm.
Detective Ballard: What would one of these things be doing here?
Dean: A vengeful spirit? Well, they're created by violent deaths. And then they come back for a reason, usually a nasty one. Like revenge on the people that hurt 'em.
Detective Ballard: Well, you are digging up a corpse.
Sam: No, not that. That's, uh, that's pretty par for the course, actually.
Detective Ballard: Then what?
Detective Ballard: I'm sorry?
Sam: Yeah. You see, Claire is not a vengeful spirit, she's a death omen.
Detective Ballard: Excuse me?
Detective Ballard: Pete did confess to me. He screwed up both your cases royally. I'd say that there's a good chance that we could get your cases dismissed.
Sam: You'd take care of that for us?
Trivia & References
- This is a reference to the popular quote "Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated," widely but erroneously attributed to Mark Twain. What Twain actually said was, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
Sam: I'm not Scully, you're Scully.
Dean: No, I'm Mulder. You're a red-headed woman.
- Dean and Sam fight over who is "Mulder" and who is "Scully" - Mulder and Scully being the leading duo of The X-Files.
- When he and Sam were looking at a printout page of danashulps written over and over, a reference to the famous phrase Jack Nicholson's character typed for hundreds of pages in The Shining.
- and
Kraus: I hope that's meaningful. But I'd like to discuss your case now.
Sam: Sure thing, Matlock.
- Both Sam and Dean jokingly call their lawyer "Matlock." Matlock was a TV legal drama that ran in the late 1980s-early '90s, "Matlock" being the name of the defense attorney the series focused on.
- A play on Casper the Friendly Ghost.
- Another reference to The Shining.
- Dean refers to Detective Sheridan as "Ponch," a reference to his resemblance to Eric Estrada in CHiPs.
Dean: Time Life. Mysteries of the Unknown. Look it up.
- Time Life is a direct marketer known for selling books, music and movies. Mysteries of the Unknown is a series of books about the paranormal.
Dean: Yeah, for a cop. Did she look familiar to you?
Sam: No, why?
Dean: I don't know. Anyway, are you hungry?
Sam: No.
Dean: For some reason I could really go for some pea soup.
- Dean's comment on "looking familiar" and mention of "pea soup" are references in homage to guest star Linda Blair and The Exorcist, the film that she is best known for, in which her character, a possessed teenager, at one point vomits pea soup.
Minutiae
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
Promotion
Episode Meta
- SPN Heavy Meta Season Two Meta Index
- 2.07 The Usual Suspects: Arresting Supernatural Television by bardicvoice (November 2006); archive link
- Bond, Silvia. 2008. Oh, My GOD, It's Linda Blair: "The Usual Suspects" Season 2, Episode 7. Pink Raygun, July 1; archive link