Playthings (Supernatural)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Playthings” | |
|---|---|
| Supernatural episode | |
 Maggie and Tyler over-looking the Pool. |
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| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 11 |
| Guest stars | Conchita Campbell Jonathan Bruce Annie Wersching Matreya Fedor |
| Written by | Matt Witten |
| Directed by | Charles Beeson |
| Production no. | 3T5511 |
| Original airdate | January 18, 2007 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Hunted" | "Nightshifter" |
| List of Supernatural episodes | |
"Playthings" is episode eleven of the second season of the television series Supernatural. This episode deals with Hoodoo and mischievous ghosts.
Contents |
[edit] Plot synopsis
It's a month after the last episode. At a dark and eerie Victorian mansion in Cornwall, CT, two little girls watch as a cheerful workman receive instructions from a lady about moving some boxes. The lady is Susan, the owner of the Pierpont Inn which is closing down, and the two identically dressed girls are Tyler and Maggie. The girls are sulking because the workman is there to take away some of their toys, which includes a large and exquisitely furnished doll house replica of the hotel and a huge collection of dolls. A sailor doll is lying at the bottom of the stairs inside the doll house. Its head is completely turned around. Susan screams from downstairs. The workman from before is lying at the bottom of the stairs gasping for air and no longer cheerful. His head has completely turned around.
In yet another tacky motel room, Sam and Dean discuss their failure to find the missing and presumably demon-abducted Ava Wilson. Sam then tries to persuade Dean to investigate the Pierpont Inn's two recent mysterious deaths. In the first of the episode's several in-jokes about the two brothers' unique personality traits, Dean joshes Sam about not exhibiting more of his "patented" angst over Ava before agreeing to check out the fatality-prone hotel.
Outside the hotel, Dean and Sam notice an urn with a quincunx engraved on it which leads them to speculate that someone in the place is practicing hoodoo that kills. They check in at the reception and bump into the little girls. They also meet Susan and Sherwin, the hotel's ancient porter, who are both convinced that the young men are gay. According to Sam, the impressions could be due to Dean's "over-compensating" macho butchness.
The Winchesters begin investigating and discover that the creepy doll collection belongs to Rose, Susan's mother. When the brothers ask to meet her, ostensibly so that Sam can get some doll dressing tips, Susan makes a quick suspicious excuse that Grandma Rose is too ill to have visitors. Later that evening, a representative from the company that bought over the hotel is found hanged in his room. A distraught and uncharacteristically drunk Sam makes Dean promise that he would kill Sam if the younger man ever turns evil. Leaving Sam to sleep off his guilt-ridden inebriation, Dean goes to speak to Sherwin, who shows him a photograph of an adolescent Rose with her nanny. The nanny, a Creole woman, was wearing a necklace with a quincunx on it.
Next morning, Dean helps Sam empty the contents of his stomach with some choice hangover remedy suggestions, probably as payback for Sam's slurred insults about Dean's relative lack of height and big brotherly overassertiveness. The brothers sneak into the attic to interview their suspect, Grandma Rose. Not too surprisingly, Rose is a red herring suffering from stroke-afflicted paralysis. Before Dean can poke Grandma with a stick to see if she really is incapable of practicing black magic, Susan stumbles in on them and shows the Winchesters the door.
The murderous tempo goes up a few beats. Susan's driverless car attempts to run her down and she has to be rescued by Sam. The brothers now believe that the killings are the work of a vengeful spirit and everybody has to be evacuated to safety. At this point, a terrified and bewildered Susan helpfully informs them that Maggie is Tyler's imaginary friend. Apparently, Maggie is Grandma Rose's elder sister who drowned in the mansion's pool when she was a child. The spirit, unhappy at the prospect of being left behind, has been on a killing spree starting a month ago after Rose could no longer perform hoodoo to protect the hotel.
Tyler and Maggie are standing on a small ledge overlooking the pool. Before Dean, Sam and Susan can get into the locked pool house, Maggie pushes Tyler in to ensure that she has a ghostly companion for eternity. While holding Tyler's head under water, Maggie hears a young girl's voice calling her name and leaves. Sam dives in and saves the second damsel in distress in a day.
Maggie is having a 'conversation' with Rose and the two of them make a pact in return for Maggie to cease her evil deeds. When the others return from the pool, Rose is dead from what is apparently another stroke.
Everybody prepares to leave the ghastly hotel. Susan rewards the heroic Sam with a long hug and Dean kids Sam about ending his self-imposed celibacy. Sam douses the light-heartedness by reminding his brother that he is holding Dean to his promise to kill Sam. A speechless Dean drives off with his sullen brother in tow. Upstairs in the abandoned hotel, two little sister spirits, Maggie and Rose, play skip rope together.
[edit] Featured music
- This episode did not contain any music from any major artists.
[edit] Production notes
- The episode includes several touches of The Shining. Both stories are set in similar situations. Both stories feature the presence of two fairly odd little girls. Sam and Dean are assigned to Room 237, which is featured prominently in the 1980 feature film. Dean bellies up to the bar for a chat with the butler, just as Jack Torrance does in The Shining. Also, one of the little girls states they can have tea parties "for ever and ever".
- Dean mentions running "... into Fred and Daphne" from TV Series, "Scooby-Doo".
[edit] External links
- Playthings at TV.com
| S U P E R N A T U R A L | |
|---|---|
| Main | |
| Episode Guide | |
| Main Characters | |
| Dean | Sam | |
| Secondary Characters | |
|
Ash | Bobby | Ellen | Gordon | Jo | John | Mary | Meg | Missouri | The Demon |
|
| Show Specific Elements | |
| The Colt | The Impala | Harvelle’s Roadhouse | Singer Salvage Yard | |
| Official Site | |
| Official CW Supernatural page | |
