2.18 Hollywood 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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Contents
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 favorite 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 a 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, Jay Wiley, 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 the 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.
Characters
- Dean Winchester
- Sam Winchester
- Tara Benchley
- Brad Redding
- Jay Wiley
- Martin Flagg
- Walter Dixon
- McG
Definitions
- Poltergeist PoD
- EMF (Electromagnetic Field) PoD
- EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) PoD
- Enochian PoD
- Salt
- Meta Episodes
Music
- Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - Green Peppers
- Frank Sinatra - I've Got the World on a String
Quotes
Dean: You want a what from who?
Sam: I think they're like slaves.
McG: Marty, what do you think?
Marty: I'm not married to salt. Are we still sticking with condiments?
McG: Mmm, it just sounds different, not better. What else would a ghost be scared of?
Marty: Maybe shotguns.
Dean: {exicted} It’s going really good, man. Tara has really stepped up her performance. I think it’s probably from all the sense memory stuff she’s drawing on.
Sam: Sense memory?
Dean: Yeah.
Sam: You want to dig him up too?
Martin: I needed a little jazz on the page.
Trivia & References
Sam: No, I can tell. I mean, the way you worked in all those Enochian summoning rituals and all the authentic language.
"Swimming pools and movie stars" is a line from the theme song of the TV show Beverely Hillbillies
This is a line by John McClane (Bruce Willis) in Die Hard
- Ghost Rider - The sketches shown to Tara are from Ghost Rider.
- Creepshow
- Gilmore Girls - the movie tour passes through the Star Hollows set. Jared Padalecki starred as Dean Forester in 65 episodes.
- Lois and Clark - forerunner to Smallville, also a previous credit of SPN producer & director Robert Singer.
- Poltergeist
- Feardotcom
- Ghost Ship
- Boogeyman - written by a Eric Kripke
- Metal Storm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn
- Critters 3
- Three Men and a Baby
- Lord of the Dead - Tag line: Who knew the Lord of the Dead had a son who wanted no part of the family business?
- The Evil Dead trilogy
Sam: You want to dig him up too?
Dean: Bite your tongue heathen!
A reference to the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman and its lead character Willy Loman.