Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (Afterlife)
Original Air Date 10/19/2006

A college student's death in a car crash is not enough to keep her in the grave, as Sam and Dean uncover a gruesome tale of broken hearts and black magic gone awry.

Notes

Writer

Raelle Tucker

Director

Kim Manners

Guest Stars:

Tamara Mason (Angela)
Christopher Jacon (Neil)
Jared Keeso (Matt)
Leela Sevasta (Lindsey)
Serge Houde (Dr. Mason)

Filming Locations:

VanDusen Botanical Gardens
Harbour Park
Barklay Manor
Strathcona

Completely useless trivia:

John's dogtags read:
  Winchester, John
  306-00-3594
  Type - AB
  Non Religious

Neil's house is the same one used for Misourri Moseley's house in the season 1 Journey Home episode

Review

First things first. Never before have I seen a Supernatural episode so devoid of music! ¿Que pasa? The Then/Now recap was set to a few simple guitar licks, which may have been an actual song but I didn't hear enough of the music to recognize it. And for the second time in a row, the Impala drives off without it's traditional accompaniment. Oh despair, has Metallicar broken her cassette deck? Still, the lack of track didn't diminish my enjoyment of this episode at all. While it continues the theme of the season with the low intensity hunts and high profile brotherly angst, it delivers a whopper of an ending that had my jaw firmly planted on the floor.

The episode opens with Neil comforting a heartbroken Angela, who has just caught her boyfriend Matt with another woman. Neil goes all out with the M&M's and beer, but when Matt comes to the door, she books it out the back door and races towards home. Alas, like most girls in the Supernatural universe, she fails to learn from the many horror movies she's undoubtedly seen, and she continues to drive her car erratically down the curving road despite the fog, the tears and the cell phone call from her angry boyfriend. Why don't people pay attention at the movies? As expected, she plows her car full speed into the concrete divider leaving her boyfriend calling her name through her blood-covered phone.

Ignoring Deans protests, Sam insists they go to visit their mother's grave. Well, headstone, anyway. Dean reminds him that there's no grave since there was no body, just a headstone placed by an uncle they've never met. While Sam is visiting with his mother's headstone and burying his father's dogtags, Dean notices a dead tree in the middle of the lush cemetery. Beneath the tree a large circle of dead grass surrounds a grave marker. The grave belongs to Angela Mason, our hapless accident victim. Determined to find the reason for the unholy ground surrounding her grave site, they visit her father. A professor at the local college, he teaches anthropology and Greek history. Dean peruses his very interesting book on Greek rituals while Sam asks about Angela. Her dad paints her as a good girl who died in a tragic way. When Dean pushes him on the details, he says "Family is everything, you know. I'm just lost without her." It's interesting that Dean seems to disengage at this point. He looks out the window as though he's bored with the conversation, but we can guess that the words hit a little too close to home for his liking.

In their hotel room, Sam again pushes Dean on the subject of their father's death. Sam insists that Dean is avoiding the issue, pointing out that he wouldn't even look at their mother's grave. Dean refuses to be pushed, despite Sam's offer to let him throw another punch. Instead, he leaves the room to get a drink. Alone. I love the acting in this scene. Sam is trying to push a chick flick moment, and Dean won't allow it. He manages to keep control of his anger this time, which in it's own way is more disturbing. The look in his eyes is a mixture of masked anger and subtle defeat. There's something there that he doesn't want Sam to see, and he will continue to fight against Sam's probing.

Meanwhile, Angela's boyfriend Matt is watching videos of happier times. His plant withers before our eyes, forewarning us of trouble, and when he freezes the TV on her smiling face, her reflection appears in the image on the screen. Matt barely has time to turn around and gasp before he meets his untimely end.

Dean, knowing he's onto something despite his brother's skepticism, breaks into Angela's house to investigate. Her roommate Lindsey is home, but Dean, aka Alan Stanwyk, puts her at ease before she can call the police. When he says Angela's dad gave him a key, he shows her his keychain full of keys. I can't help but wonder what all those keys are for! The first one is a GM key so I assume it's for Metallicar, but there's a good six or eight other keys there. Dean has no house, no cabin, no storage unit I'm aware of, no workplace, and no significant other. What could he possibly have keys for? Has he been keeping the hotel keys after he leaves? Are they trophies of the girls he's been with? (Not nearly enough for that.) Is he holding on to the house keys for the old place in Lawrence? Either way, it's enough to convince poor gullible Lindsey that this total stranger has a legitimate reason for being in her house. She pours out her heart to him, telling how broken up she is over Angela's and Matt's deaths while Dean watches her tears with distaste. I love how he hands her the tissue. His demeanor says "take this and stuff it!" Anything to get her to stop the incoherent sniffling and give him some real answers.

When he finally returns to the hotel room, he catches Sam watching "the Skin Channel". "Up next, Casa Erotica IV, the tale of two latin beauties." I guess Sam is missing Jessica more than we knew! Dean relates the new information and admits to stealing Angela's diary, from which they find out about her best friend Neil. They go to see him, posing as grief councilors. Neil doesn't want to talk to a couple of shrinks, but he does tell them that Matt wasn't feeling grief, he was feeling guilt. Angela's death was his fault. This leads the boys to believe that Angela is an angry spirit who has taken her revenge and therefore is at peace. To make sure, they decide to burn her bones. When Dean suggests it, Sam asks "are you high?" and before answering, Dean has to stop and think about it. Very cute little tidbit there, I'm glad they included it! Sam goes on to explain that there won't be bones yet, she's only been in the ground a couple of days; she'll still be juicy. They dig up her coffin anyway but find it empty. The satin on the lid has been torn away, revealing familiar Greek symbols and writing on the wood beneath.

Back at Neil's house, we get our first look at Angela. She and Neil kiss, despite her blackened lips and colourless skin. I really appreciate her makeup job, not only does her dead skin get flakier as the episode progresses, but I can almost see the bondo on her forehead where the funeral home tried to cover up the effects of her head hitting the windshield. She's a very creepy woman and I'm surprised Neil can kiss her ice cold lips so easily. I guess love really does conquer all!

The Greek writing leads the boys to conclude that Angela's father is responsible for bringing her back. They go to confront him, and when they show him the writing, he confirms that it's a divination ritual used for necromancy. Dean is angry that anyone would stoop to this level of desperation, and he delivers the first of his recurring lines on the subject: "There are people that I would give anything to see again, but what's dead should stay dead. Haven't you seen Pet Cemetery?" Despite Mr. Mason's denial of any knowledge or involvement, Dean won't let up. He keeps pushing, getting angrier and angrier with every word. Sam has to drag him out the door, pointing out the healthy plants throughout the house and apologizing all the way to the innocent Mr. Mason. Outside, Sam admonishes Dean for his behavior, saying that he needs to find a way to deal with the anger because it's killing him. Sam has already lost everyone he loves, he doesn't want to lose Dean too. When Dean says he can take care of himself, Sam replies with "No you can't, and you're the only one who thinks you should have to." But Dean still refuses to talk about it. Not while there are more important things going on, like zombies wandering around killing people.

Back at the hotel, they discuss methods of killing the undead. There is so much lore on the subject that there is no clear way to dispose of a zombie. Dean suggests they waste her with a head shot, to which Sam accuses him of watching too many Romero flicks. (George Romero writes zombie films such as Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead) Sam suggests silver bullets, but first they have to find her. Looking through Angela's diary again, Dean suspects Neil is responsible. He was obviously more than just a friend to her, and he was her father's teaching assistant so he had access to the Greek texts. They go to his house, but neither he nor Angela are there, only the row of wilted plants and the "zombie pen" in the basement attest to his guilt. There are a couple of great lines in this scene. When they first enter the house, Dean calls out "Neil, it's your grief councilors, we've come to hug!" Then, when Sam asks about the silver bullets, Dean says he's loaded with "enough silver to make her rattle like a change purse". While the lines aren't quite the calibre that we're used to from this show, they're certainly enough to make me smile.

Dean mentions that the roommate seemed more broken up about Matt's death than Angela's, and maybe she was the other woman that Matt was with. Cut to the house where Lindsey is pining for Matt and hearing odd noises outside. She opens the door to check, but it's too late. Angela is already inside. Angela attacks with a giant pair of scissors, but during the chase she falls and impales herself on them. Lindsey is so shocked at seeing her dead roommate in the house that she has to stop and stare for awhile. Just long enough for Angela to wake up, in fact. If only Lindsey had watched more Romero, she may have had the presence of mind to RUN while the zombie was lying motionless on the floor! But sadly she wasn't quite smart enough for such ideas, and she'd rather be rescued by a couple of cute boys anyway so she sat and stared until the zombie woke up and grabbed her by the hair. Just in the nick of time, Sam and Dean break in with guns at the ready. They shoot Angela several times but it does little good, she's out the window and down the street before they can catch her. Dean offers the gratuitous line "Damn that dead chick can run!" so we have an excuse to accept her outrunning Sam later in the episode despite his freakishly long legs.

On to plan B, Sam says another theory on how to kill zombies is to nail them into their grave beds. He goes on to say that this might be where the idea of staking a vampire came from. Nice touch there, the writers lend just enough credence to the staking theory to appease the Buffy fans, but still leave room to insist that beheading is the only way. I appreciate the nod to traditional vampire lore. They find Neil at the school office and confront him about Angela. Another great line from Dean when Neil calls him crazy: "Your girlfriend is past her expiration date and we're crazy?" He also takes the time to reiterate his mantra for this episode: "When someone's gone, they should stay gone." He asks Neil where Angela is, and is told she's back at Neil's basement. The wilted plants tell another tale though, and Dean knows she's close by. Neil shoots an unconscious look at the closet door, confirming his suspicions. Inspiration hits, and knowing Angela can hear him, Dean explains his plan to perform another ritual at her grave to reverse the one Neil performed. Since Neil won't come with them, Dean lowers his voice and tells him to leave as soon as he can, and not to make any sudden movements or make her angry. When it's safe Angela comes out of the closet and begs Neil to help her stop them. He agrees, albeit reluctantly, and goes to get the car. She follows him down and when she realizes he was planning to leave her there and run, she effortlessly snaps his neck. One thing I'd like to know here; when Angela first comes out of the closet, she's hiding her chest with her arm. When she lowers it, Neil gasps at the necrified tissue where she was stabbed by the scissors, and the bright red blood on her dress from the gunshot. Why was there blood? Wasn't she embalmed before she was buried? Even if she wasn't, why would the blood still flow, it should be hardened in her veins by now. The scissors wound is cool, though. I like that when her skin is damaged, it decays faster than the rest of her. It makes me wonder how she'd look in a few weeks after she's had time to ripen some more. Would Neil still want to kiss her?

In the graveyard, Sam and Dean light candles as though they're really performing a ritual. Sam hears crackling in the trees and goes to investigate. Angela sneaks up behind him and when he catches her she begs for his understanding. It's not her fault after all that she's this undead thing. She's just an innocent victim in all of this. Sam doesn't buy it, and shoots her point blank in the forehead. Unfazed, she chases him down and tackles him, landing on top of him and trying to twist his neck as she did Neil's. Dean is ready though, and shoots her with the silver bullets again. She staggers backwards and into her grave. Dean, with the grace of a ballet dancer, slides in after her and pins her down with a short sword despite her pleading. Satisfied with his work, he looks down at her now-still body and repeats "what's dead should stay dead." The boys fill in the hole and head back to the car. Sam lifts his shovel over his shoulder with his broken hand, and complains "I think she broke my hand." I can't help but wonder why he doesn't carry the shovel with the other hand? Dean jokes that he's too fragile, (to which I say everyone who knows me knows I agree with that!) and promises they'll have it checked out later. On the way past he looks at his mother's headstone with ??? Longing? Insecurity? Sorrow? Sam offers to give him a minute, but he's not interested. They drive away, again without any music.

Driving in silence down the highway, Dean's eyebrows are knitted, his eyes determined. He pulls to the side and gets out of the car. Sam follows, not sure what to expect. Dean opens with an apology, then continues to explain his feelings and the reason for his behavior. Unable to look Sam in the eye, he tells him everything he's been thinking since the hospital, about their father, about his miraculous recovery. With tears in his eyes he asks Sam what he could possibly say that would make it all right. But Sam has no answers today.

I am so glad they chose to set this scene out on the open road in broad daylight up in the mountains. Dean by nature prefers the dark; he hides his feelings and emotions. Here he is being open and honest for the first time since their father's death, and the scenery reflects that in a beautifully symbolic way. I do, however, take exception to his use of the phrase "I was dead and I should have stayed dead." Obviously the thought has been a recurring theme throughout this episode, but technically Dean was never dead. He came awfully close in the hospital when his heart stopped for those few seconds, but he fought his way back all on his own. I wonder if this feeling isn't a reflection of his conversation with Tessa? He can't remember any of what was said, but perhaps some vague sense of the conversation remained with him. He was awfully close to giving up the fight, maybe he lost a bit of his resolve in the process.

Now that he has explained himself to Sam, will he be able to heal? To move on? Or will this be a constant struggle for him? In Faith he experienced similar thoughts and feelings, and never really resolved them. If he can't find some way to reaffirm his worth and his right to exist, he'll continue on a downhill spiral that will result in a very dark, angry character. The sad part of it is that he won't be able to accept any input from anyone in this regard, especially not Sam. He'll have to find a way to reason it out himself and draw his own conclusions. He has always felt that he has to carry his own burdens, that no one else is strong enough to handle them. He tries to protect Sam, and in the process he loses a part of himself. He needs to find a way to trust Sam to stay out of trouble. To believe that Sam can take care of himself. Until he does, he won't be able to move past the overwhelming sense of duty he carries with him, and I for one want to see Dean learn to trust again.

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (Afterlife) Original Air Date 10/19/2006