2.18 Hollywood Babylon

Promotional image for Hollwood Babylon.
Title	Hollywood Babylon
Episode #	Season 2, Episode 18
First aired	April 19, 2007
Directed by	Philip Sgriccia
Written by	Ben Edlund
On IMDB	http://imdb.com/title/tt0964436/
Outline	Sam and Dean investigate the haunting of the set of a horror movie.
Monster
Timeline	Set immediately after Heart
Location(s)	Los Angeles, California
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Synopsis

On the set of Hell Hazers II: The reckoning, being directed by McG, a stage hand is killed and the star of the movie, Tara Benchley, reports seeing an apparition near the body.

Dean has convinced Sam to come to Los Angeles for a break after the death of Madison, but Sam wants to throw himself into work. Dean, a movie buff, becomes enthusiastic as he discovers the movie is a horror movie starring one of his favourite actresses, Tara.

It doesn’t take the boys long on the set to discover that the stage hand’s death was faked by the studio executives to promote interest in the movie. But then studio executive, Brad Redding, dies in the middle of the set after encountering a ghost. Dean goes undercover, joining the crew as a P.A., a job he embraces. The boys discover that a young actress killed herself in the 1920s after being wooed and then dumped and fired by a studio executive. They find her buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where they burn and salt her bones.

After another producer is killed, Sam notices that the Latin in the movie script is a real summoning ritual. They confront the writer, Martin Flagg, who admits that any authentic rituals in the script are all that remained from the original script by writer Walter Dixon.

Dixon lures Flagg onto he set to kill him, but Sam and Dean arrive in time to save him. Walter admits that he was conjuring real ghosts and forcing them to kill those he saw as responsible for ruining his script. Before they can stop him, Walter destroys the talisman he was using. This frees the spirits who, enraged at being used, turn on Walter and kill him.

The production of the movie continues, with Martin incorporating his experiences with the ghosts into the script. Sam finds Dean emerging disheveled and with a post-coital glow from Tara’s trailer. Sam and Dean walk off into the sunset together - until it is wheeled away and revealed as just another Hollywood prop.

Timeline and Location

Episode occurs immediately following 2.17 Heart (episode)

See the Timeline page also.

Location is the Warner Bothers Studios in Burbank, Los Angeles. The cemetery is Hollywood Forever on Santa Monica Boulevard

Characters

• Dean Winchester
• Sam Winchester
• Tara Benchley
• Brad Redding
• McG

Music

• Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - Green Peppers
  

See the Music page also.

Quotes

Sam: Does this feel like swimming weather to you? It's practically Canadian.

Brad: See, but if the ghosts are in hell, how do they hear the chanting?

Tara: Salt. Doesn't that sound silly? I mean why would a ghost be afraid of salt?

Dean: Hey, we gotta go check out Johnny Ramone's grave when we're done here.
Sam: You want to dig him up too?
Dean: Bite your tongue heathen!

Walter: You know, the history, the lore in my draft was completely accurate. We could've got it right for the first time in this whorehouse of a town. But you tore it to shreds. You replaced it with cleavage and fart jokes. It was real.

Sam: You find out there is an afterlife and this is what you do with it?
Martin: I needed a little jazz on the page.

Pad of Definitions

• Poltergeist
• EMF (Electromagnetic Field)
• EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena)
• Enochian

Trivia

• McG is the producer of Supernatural, PussyCat Dolls: The search for the next doll, The OC and Charlies Angels and Charlies Angels: Full Throttle. The real McG can be seen standing behind Sam and Dean in the scene where the crew is listening to faux McG.

• The set of Hell Hazers II: The reckoning may look familiar. The water tower is from 2.08 Crossroad Blues and the cabin is from 2.16 Roadkill. The deer's head on the wall has appeared in the boys' motel room in 1.14 Nightmare, John's room in 1.21 Salvation, and Steve Wandell's home in 2.14 Born Under a Bad Sign.

• Before they start the shot with the actors in the cabin, the sound clapperboard says Roll 6, Scene 6, Take 6. The number 666 is a reference to the devil and considered to be a "bad" number. Has been used in countless horror (TV)movies.

References

• In the faux trailer for Hell Hazers II: The reckoning, writer Martin Flagg is also credited as the writer of Cornfield Massacre and Monster Truck, which are illustrated with images from Supernatural episodes 1.11 Scarecrow and 1.13 Route 666. There's also a shot of the hook from 1.07 Hookman, of Claire's desiccated hands from 2.07 The Usual Suspects, Gordon and his bloody knife from 2.03 Bloodlust and the inside of Angela's coffin from 2.04 Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things.
  

• In Martin’s office there is also a poster for Carnivore Carnival which has an image from 2.02 Everybody Loves a Clown.

• Swimming pools and movie stars is a line from the theme song of the TV show Beverely Hillbillies

• Come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs... a line by John McClane (Bruce Willis) in Die Hard

Movies and TV shows referred to in this episode:

1. Ghost Rider: Sketches shown to Tara are from Ghost Rider.
2. Creepshow
3. Gilmore Girls: the movie tour passes through the Star Hollows set. Jared Padalecki starred as Dean Forester in 65 episodes.
4. Lois and Clark: forerunner to Smallville, Also a previous credit of SPN producer & director Robert Singer.
5. Poltergeist
6. Feardotcom
7. Ghost Ship
8. Boogeyman: written by a Eric Kripke
9. Metal Storm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn
10. Critters 3
11. Three Men and a baby
12. Lord of the Dead - a real movie! Its tag line: Who knew the Lord of the Dead had a son who wanted no part of the family business?
13. The Evil Dead trilogy

Scripts, Sides & Transcripts

• 2.18 Hollywood Babylon (transcript)