2.19 Folsom Prison Blues
Title | Folsom Prison Blues |
Episode # | Season 2, Episode 19 |
First aired | April 26, 2007 |
Directed by | Mike Rohl |
Written by | John Shiban |
On IMDB | Folsom Prison Blues |
Outline | Sam and Dean engineer their own arrest in order to hunt in a haunted prison. |
Monster | Vengeful Spirit |
Timeline | |
Location(s) | Little Rock, Arkansas Green River County Detention Center |
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Contents
Synopsis
An old marine buddy of John Winchester and current prison warden, Deacon, asks Sam and Dean for help. Not long after a disused cell block was re-opened, something supernatural started killing people in the Green River County Detention Center.
The boys get themselves arrested so as to get inside the jail, however their arrest is complicated by the arrival of FBI Agent Henriksen, who has continued tracking the boys since the bank heist they were involved in with in Milwaukee. The Public Defender, Mara Daniels, appointed to defend the brothers reviews their case and is immediately suspicious that they have been wrongly accused of many crimes.
Inside the prison, Dean fits right in, drawing on his extensive knowledge of prison life from movies such as The Great Escape. When a fight lands Dean in solitary, he gets to witness the supernatural killer first hand when it attacks another prisoner. Sam discovers that a notorious killer, Mark Moody, was killed in the old cell block and traces of his blood may be tying the spirit to the prison.
After winning cigarettes playing cards, Dean trades them for lighter fluid. Combined with the salt supplied with their meals they have the means to banish the spirit. Dean picks a fit with a con called Tiny, allowing Sam to slip away to the old cell block and torch a blood-soaked mattress.
Recovering from their wounds in the prison infirmary, Dean is attacked by the apparition of a nurse. He manages to ward it off with some salt, but the ghost kills Tiny. Sam and Dean finds out that the ghost belongs to Nurse Glockner, who used to kill prisoners in the infirmary, and who was later killed herself during a riot.
Dean tries to get Mara Daniels to find out where Nurse Glockner is buried, and of his innocence, but she refuses. Dean argues with Sam that they must stay in the prison until they get the information and finish the job, but Sam insists they follow through with their pre-planned escape. They start fighting and one of the guards hauls them away.
The guard turns out to be Deacon. It turns out Mara did the research as Dean requested, and Deacon hands over the information on where she is buried. As arranged, Deacon helps the boys escape to the Impala which is waiting outside the jail.
After the escape, Henricksen interrogates Deacon and finds out that Daniels passed information to the boys, which she reluctantly reveals. Meanwhile the boys are in a cemetery salting and burning Nurse Glockner’s remains. The FBI arrive, only to find they have been sent to the wrong cemetery.
Characters
- Dean Winchester
- Sam Winchester
- Deacon
- Special Agent Victor Henriksen
- Calvin Reidy
- Mara Daniels
- Delores Glockner
- Tiny
Definitions
Music
- "Green Onions" by Booker T and the M.G.'s
- (played at the beginning when Dean and Sam get into prison)
- "Rooster" by Alice in Chains
- (played at the end of the episode)
Quotes
Dean: I think I’m *adorable*.
Sam: You don't even smoke.
Dean: Pretty sure.
Sam: Considering our circumstances, I'm gonna need a little bit better than "Pretty sure".
Dean: Yeah.
Sam: Dean, does it bother you at all, how easily you seem to fit in here?
Trivia & References
- In prison, teardrop tattoos signify that an individual has murdered someone, or has had someone close to them murdered. It originated with gangs in California. In this episode it could be taken as a reference to an old movie of Johnny Depp's, called Crybaby, where his character received a teardrop tattoo when he was in prison, as a representation of his attitude towards crying - he would only cry one tear when something bothered him and that was it. See also Single Perfect Tear.
- Blue Steel was the name of a modeling pose belonging to the really really ridiculously handsome Derek Zoolander in the movie Zoolander.
- When in 2002 Nick Nolte was arrested in for drunk driving, his mug shot showed him with wild hair and wearing an Hawaiian shirt.
Dean: Okay another guy who’s seen Taxi Driver one too many times.
- "You talking to me?" is a much quoted line from Robert De Niro’s character Travis Bickel in Taxi Driver.
- In The Great Escape, when sent to solitary Steve McQueen’s character Hilts bounces a baseball against the wall.
- Escape from Alcatraz features Clint Eastwood as Frank Morris who escapes from Alcatraz prison.
- In The Great Escape, James Garner’s character Hendley is the scrounger who ingeniously gets all the items needed for the escape.
- A reference to the vigilante role of Charles Bronson in the movie Death Wish.
Dean: Hell yeah, I know. We gotta go deep this time.
Sam: Deep, Dean? We should go to Yemen.
Dean: Not sure I’m ready to go that deep.
- In the episode 4.15 of Friends "The One With All The Rugby", Chandler pretends his company is transferring him to Yemen in order to avoid a scary ex-girlfriend.