7.06 Slash Fiction
Title | Slash Fiction |
Episode # | Season 7, Episode 6 |
First aired | October 28, 2011 |
Directed by | John F. Showalter |
Written by | Robbie Thompson |
On IMDB | Slash Fiction |
Outline | Sam and Dean are once again on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list when two Leviathans clone them and go on a killing spree. |
Monster | Leviathans |
Timeline | |
Location(s) | Whitefish, Montana Jericho, California |
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Contents
Synopsis
Dean and Sam return to Rufus's cabin in Whitefish, Montana, with a chained up Chet. The Leviathan is still under the influence of the witch Don Stark's spell and is unable to break free of his bonds. Bobby takes the opportunity to test as many means of killing supernatural creatures on him as he can, but none of the basics (e.g. holy water) seem to work. Despite the fact that Chet doesn't seem bothered by any of Bobby's attempts at torture, he reveals that Edgar is still alive. He also tells them that he found them using an algorithm to track their known aliases. When the Leviathans were inside Castiel's body, they "got the download" and learned everything that Castiel knew about them, including their aliases. When they ask Chet why he's telling them anything, he laughs and says that not only is he not scared of them, but they also have more important things to worry about, which they'd know if they'd watched the news.
Just that morning, two Leviathans in the guise of Sam and Dean Winchester held up the First Bank of Jericho in California. During the robbery, they forced all of their hostages to enter the vault and then opened fire, killing them all. The Winchester brothers, who had been presumed dead for years, are now the subjects of a manhunt throughout the state of California. After watching the news, Sam wonders how the Leviathans were able to clone them, and a helpful Chet reveals that the Leviathans got their DNA from hair they left in a motel shower drain.
Sam and Dean are determined to go directly for the Leviathans that are imitating them. Bobby thinks they're being stupid, but sends them to an old friend, Frank Devereaux, who's an expert in going off the grid. On their way, they stop at a gas station and Sam goes into the convenience store for snacks. When the clerk recognizes Sam from the news, however, they leave in a hurry.
Meanwhile, Leviathan!Dean and Leviathan!Sam have been busy, hitting up a convenience store in Black Water Ridge, Colorado, and another bank in Manitoc, Wisconsin. Because they've initiated a crime spree across state lines, they quickly climb the FBI's Most Wanted list, and two agents, Agent Morris and Agent Valente, are on their trail. While in Manitoc, the agents get a report that Sam and Dean were spotted at a gas station 1,000 miles away. They're not sure how they traveled so far so quickly, but they leave to follow up on the lead.
Dean and Sam arrive at Frank's house, but it appears empty. They go inside, looking for Frank, and find him sitting in a room with a gun held on them. He recognizes them from the news and gives them his condolences regarding the doppelgangers. They tell him that Bobby sent them and that they need his help, and Frank reluctantly agrees after they remind him that he owes Bobby for saving his life in Port Huron. Once Frank starts talking, it becomes clear that he's an unstable government conspiracy theorist, but he is very thorough in making Sam and Dean disappear. He destroys all their credit cards and IDs, then tells them that they have to stop using rock star aliases: they're going to be Tom and John Smith from now on. Included among their new IDs are passports, Pennsylvania driver's licenses, and government IDs. He also tells them to use cash only, change their phones frequently, and stay off of cameras, then smashes Sam's old laptop and gives him a new one. Before they leave, Frank also gives them a map with the locations of their doppelgangers' attacks circled so that they can search for a pattern.
Back in Rufus' cabin, Bobby is still struggling to find something that will hurt Chet, who smugly tells him that he can't die. Frustrated, Bobby cuts off his head with a machete, and is surprised when the Leviathan doesn't immediately heal himself. While he waits to see what happens next, someone knocks on the front door, and he finds Sheriff Jody Mills on the other side of it. She has food and beer and tells him that she wanted to thank him for saving her from the Leviathans at the hospital. She's determined to do what she can to pay him back, so she offers to cook and help clean up the cabin. She gets started on some food while Bobby goes down to the basement, where he's just in time to see Chet's head reattaching itself to his body. Chet mocks him, so Bobby picks up the machete and chops his head off again.
Because their evil doubles are also driving an Impala, Dean and Sam leave Frank's house in a Pontiac Acadian. Sam examines the map that Frank gave them and soon realizes that the Leviathans are visiting all of the places where he and Dean worked cases, in order, starting with when Sam left Stanford. They head to the next place where the Leviathans should appear: St. Louis, Missouri. Dean looks forward to visiting Connor's Diner, which he says has the best burgers in the state. Unfortunately, Leviathan!Dean and Leviathan!Sam are already at the diner, where they force a teenage boy to record them on his phone as they kill everyone inside. Agents Morris and Valente arrive on the scene and are shown the video, in which Leviathan!Dean reveals that they're going to be in Iowa next.
Dean and Sam are still driving when Bobby calls to tell them that decapitating the Leviathans won't kill them, but will slow them down. He also gives them the news about the killings at Connor's Diner, so Sam thinks back over their past cases and figures out that their next stop should be Ankeny, Iowa. When they arrive in Ankeny, they almost immediately spot Leviathan!Dean and Leviathan!Sam in a black Chevy Impala. They call Bobby, who tells them that they need to hang back, but they're determined to confront their doubles. Before they can, however, Sheriff Osborne and numerous officers surround and arrest them at gunpoint.
Back in Montana, Bobby is dealing with his own double after getting too close to Chet. The Leviathan takes a look at Bobby's thoughts and then taunts him. Bobby's doppelganger tells Bobby that he just pretends to be a cynic, and that he has hopes to end up with Mills. The doppelganger asks why he bothers, and Bobby picks up a machete and prepares to decapitate him again. Before he can, though, something from the ceiling drips on Chet's arm and starts eating away at his flesh. Chet screams in pain, and Bobby rushes upstairs to see what is leaking through the floor. He finds Mills cleaning something, and he kisses her before asking what was in the bucket.
Sam and Dean demand a phone call but the sheriff puts Dean in a cell and sends Sam to the interrogation room. Outside, their doppelgangers take on the form of deputies, enter the building, and start killing officers. Meanwhile, the sheriff goes to see Dean, who insists that he's innocent and asks for one phone call. The sheriff relents, and Dean calls Bobby, who tells him that the Leviathans are vulnerable to sodium borate, a chemical in industrial cleaners. The sheriff listens in and finally cuts off the call, thinking that Bobby and the Winchesters are nuts. However, when he goes back to the squad room, he sees one of his deputies eating another. Then as the sheriff watches, he and another deputy transform into Sam and Dean. He goes back and frees Dean, who tells him to find anything with sodium borate in it. Dean then grabs a gun from one of the dead deputies and runs into the Sam doppelganger. It easily disarms him and throws him against the wall, so he goes for a fire axe and the sheriff throws sodium borate on the doppelganger, giving Dean the opportunity to decapitate it.
Meanwhile, Leviathan!Dean finds Sam handcuffed in the interrogation room. He reveals that he's Dean's doppelganger, and then tells Sam that he and his brother could be so much more if they weren't worried about being good. Sam isn't bothered by what he's saying, so Leviathan!Dean tells him that Dean thinks he's insane. He then tries to upset him further by revealing that Dean killed Amy. He enjoys the look of shock on Sam's face and is finally ready to eat him, but the real Dean breaks in, douses him with sodium borate, and decapitates him. The sheriff frees Sam and agrees to help fake their deaths when the FBI arrives. Sam hesitates, and Dean asks if he's fine. Sam says that he is, and they leave in a hurry.
Later, Sheriff Osborne tells Agents Valente and Morris that he got the drop on the brothers and shot them. The sheriff's daughter, the coroner, already completed the autopsies and sent their bodies to the crematorium. The agents are unhappy that there are no bodies, but decide to take the easy way out and close the case.
At Rufus' cabin, Jody prepares to leave, and Bobby thanks her for the help before giving her Chet's head and asking her to toss it in the river. She says that she will, and he kisses her on the check. She smiles and leaves.
Back in Ankeny, the sheriff's daughter is examining the Leviathans' bodies and asking her father what's going on because they aren't normal. Agent Valente returns and says it doesn't matter, before attacking and eating them. He is a Leviathan, and he takes a look at the corpses of his brothers before calling his boss, Dick Roman. He explains that the Sam and Dean doppelgangers were decapitated and their heads taken, and Sam and Dean are in the wind. He suggests that they clone them again, but Roman tells him no, that they can't have the brothers come back from the dead for a second time.
When Roman gets into his limo, he finds Crowley waiting for him. Crowley introduces himself and suggests that they should work together, but Roman is unimpressed by his offer. When Crowley points out that he opened the portal to Purgatory, Roman laughs and says that he isn't interested in working with demons, which he considers even lower than humans. Crowley considers and then teleports away.
Dean and Sam pull up on a pier to dump the heads of their doubles, but Dean soon realizes that something is bothering his brother. Sam finally tells him that he knows about Amy and then walks away, saying that he can't be around Dean. He tells Dean to go on without him, and Dean apologizes before getting in the Acadian alone.
Characters
- Sam Winchester
- Dean Winchester
- Bobby Singer
- Sheriff Jody Mills
- Sheriff Osborne
- Crowley
- Frank Devereaux
- Chet
- Agent Valente
- Dick Roman
- Leviathan!Sam
- Leviathan!Dean
- Dr. Emma Porter
Definitions
Music
- "Big Wide River of Love" by Petunia and the Loons
- (plays at the gas station)
- "Waltz of the Flowers" by Pyotr Tchaikovsky
- (plays when Sam and Dead are getting their new identities from Frank)
- "All Out of Love" by Air Supply
- (plays in the car while Dean silently sings along)
Quotes
Leviathan!Sam: [pushing away his own plate] Dead plants with creamy goo. It's like eating self-righteousness.
Leviathan!Dean: I mean, honestly, I just... You know what? I can't stand the guy. Talk about a hero complex. And he doesn't have relationships. No, he has applications for sainthood. Oh, and he thinks he's funny. He thinks he's a damn comedian.
Leviathan!Sam: Who has two thumbs and full-blown bats in the belfry?
[points at himself with both thumbs]
Leviathan!Sam: I'm serious. It's nothing but Satan-vision on the inside. I mean, how he's walking around in a jacket with detachable arms is beyond me. You know, I had a brother with this many issues once.
Leviathan!Dean: Yeah?
Leviathan!Sam: You know what I did?
Leviathan!Dean: Mmm?
Leviathan!Sam: I ate him.
Leviathan!Dean: Of course you did.
Leviathan!Sam: How are these guys even a threat?
Leviathan!Dean: Boss says they gotta go, they gotta go.
Leviathan!Sam: Right. Idea. You wanna trade? I mean, I'll take chuckles over schizo.
Leviathan!Dean: No, I like this one's hair better. You can stay in the big one.
Bobby: What? No.
Dean: Are you even working, Richard Gere?
Sam: What do you care?
Leviathan!Dean: Because it pisses me off!!... You're wasting a perfectly good opportunity to subjugate the weak.[uncovers a basket filled with muffins]
Dick: You shouldn't have. I love a muffin.
Dick Roman: Why? Why in the world would we be?
Crowley: Well, I brought you here... Dick. I found the way to open the door to Purgatory.
Dick Roman: To steal every last soul, you mean. You and that angel friend of yours. Don't roofie me and call it romance.
Crowley: I think you've got me wrong.
Dick Roman: Now it's your turn to listen. I'd sooner swim through hot garbage than shake hands with a bottom-feeding mutation like you. You demons are ugly, lazy, gold-digging whores. You're less than humans, and they're not good for much till you dip 'em in garlic sauce. I'd never work with you, Crowley. In fact, if I wasn't busy with better things, I might actively wipe your kind from the face of the Universe. And you'd deserve it. Are we clear?
Sam: Nothing.
Trivia & References
Slash fiction is also the name of a genre of fanfiction which pairs two characters of the same gender in a sexual relationship – see Slash for more information. There are references in the episode that compare Sam and Dean to a couple - Honey Bunny and Pumpkin from Pulp Fiction, Mickey and Mallory from Natural Born Killers as well as Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
This video compares scenes from the episode with the original movies.Chet: Isn't that just a legal expression?
Bobby: You're gonna wish it was.
- Fruit of the poisonous tree is a legal metaphor in the United States used to describe evidence that is obtained illegally, and which is therefore tainted by the means used to procure it.
- In music, the greatest hits are considered the artist's signature songs. The B-sides are songs released to accompany singles, usually an outtake or a live performance. Deep cuts tend to be more obscure songs from full-length albums which don't get as much airplay or recognition as the singles.
- A reference to Popeye the Sailor Man's penchant for spinach which increased his physical strength.
- Mensa is an organization for people who score within the upper two percent of the general population on an approved intelligence test.
- Xerox is a brand which manufactures and sells scanners, printers, and multifunction systems that scan, print, copy, email and fax. Dean is referencing their ability to copy.
- Chatty Cathy was a pull-string "talking" doll manufactured in the late 50's and early 60's.
Dean: Rhymes with sing songs!
- Dean is referring to Ding Dongs - a small chocolate cake with a creamy center. In the gas station the box Sam picks up is called "Bing Bongs."
- A reference to the two main characters in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a 1969 film that tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, aka Butch Cassidy, and his partner Harry Longabaugh, aka the "Sundance Kid," as they migrate to Bolivia while on the run from the law.
- The Sundance Kid is also referenced by Sam in 6.18 Frontierland, when he calls Dean "Sundance."
- Both Robert Singer and Sera Gamble have mentioned the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when discussing season 7.
- The National Security Agency (NSA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI, or "Feeb") are intelligence organizations of the United States government. The March of Dimes is a nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies.
- Donna Summer is a singer/songwriter best known for several hit songs during the 1970s.
Dean: 200 million?
Frank Devereaux: Big Brother, he has many eyeballs, my friend.
- Big Brother is a fictional character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the society that Orwell describes, everyone is under complete surveillance by the authorities, mainly by telescreens. The people are constantly reminded of this by the phrase "Big Brother is watching you," which is the core "truth" of the propaganda system.
- Big Brother is also referenced by Dean in 6.14 Mannequin 3: The Reckoning when he notices a camera in the lab where a janitor was found murdered.
- Blue Steel was the name of a signature modeling pose belonging to the titular character in the movie Zoolander. See Blue Steel for numerous references in the show, and by Jensen and Jared, to the look.
- The aliases "Mr. and Mr. Smith" are a reference to the eponymous spy couple in the movie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie - Mr. and Mrs. Smith. In that movie, the Air Supply song "Making Love Out Of Nothing at All" features on the soundtrack, and at one point Brad Pitt mimes to it in the car - as Dean does to another Air Supply song in this episode.
- Chet is citing a lyric from the Diana Ross song "Touch Me in the Morning."
- This is similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger's famous line from the movie Predator: "If it bleeds, we can kill it."
- Candid Camera was a hidden camera reality T.V. show.
- Reference to the Doublemint Twins. Pairs of identical twins wearing matching outfits were used to advertise Doublemint chewing gum. The Doublemint twins were previously referenced in 3.01 The Magnificent Seven when Dean has a threesome with a pair of twins.
Sam: You know that's a line from...
Dean: Swayze movie! Swayze always gets a pass!
- "Nobody puts baby in a corner" is a line from the film Dirty Dancing.
- Dean has made multiple references to Patrick Swayze movies over the years. The most notable being in 2.01 In My Time of Dying.
- There is also a second season episode of Gilmore Girls Gilmore Girls where Lorelai says this to Rory while she and Jared's character, Dean, are learning how to waltz for her debutante ball.
Leviathan!Dean: Anybody moves and I'll execute every last one of you!
and
Bobby: They hit St. Louis. Pumpkin-and-Honeybunny'd a diner there.
- The robbery of the burger shop in St. Louis by the Leviathans references the diner robbery in Pulp Fiction almost line for line. Fake Sam's line is identical to Pumpkin's. When the fake Dean jumps up on a table, his line "If anyone moves, I'll execute every last one of you." is almost the same as Honey Bunny's in the movie - minus the expletives. The promo for the episode had Leviathan!Dean being bleeped as he said "motherfucking." A surf-rock style guitar riff plays after their lines, somewhat reminiscent of the opening scene of Pulp Fiction. Bobby makes an additional reference to the movie by referring to the Leviathans as "Pumpkin" and "Honey Bunny" Diner scene with Pumpkin and Honey Bunny from Pulp Fiction.
- Richard Gere is an American actor who came to prominence with his role in American Gigolo where he played a high-end male escort.
- Jody uses the term SNAFU, which stands for "situation normal: all fucked up."
- Don Herbert aka Mr. Wizard hosted a series of TV shows about science for kids from the 1950s through to the 1990s.
- Mr. Wizard has also been referenced by Sam in 5.06 I Believe the Children Are Our Future and Dean in 6.05 Live Free or Twihard.
- Desperate Housewives is a prime time soap that started in 2004 about a group of suburban families.
Minutiae
- This line is a meta dig at the fact that Sam and Dean keep coming back from the dead. As Ben Edlund said at Comic Con 2010 "...these creatures, these poor men, cannot die. The cruel universe that will not let them die...That’s TV. TV will not let people die."
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
Promotion
- Returning character
- S. E. Hinton's pictures from set:
- Title and Synopsis
- Tweet from Jim Beaver about the guest star
- Guest stars on this episode
- Episode Description from official press release
- Promo pics
- Promo clip
- Teaser clip #1 and Extended Clip
- WinchesterBros' Winchester Radio podcast with guest Kim Rhodes