Roadkill



Summary
Sam, Dean and a near-victim race against time to vanquish a ghost who kills on the anniversary of his death.

Recap
Full Synopsis

Opening Teaser: It’s 12:50a.m. Molly and David are driving down a dark, deserted highway, appearing to be lost. The two of them have been on this road for over an hour and haven’t seen a single car. Looking at the map, David insists that they are not lost and that they are on highway 99. A few seconds later they pass a sign which reads highway 41. David corrects himself by saying they’re just taking the scenic route. But Molly is none too amused to be spending their anniversary in a car. David, trying to make up for their current situation, starts acting all immature causing Molly to take her eyes off the road. After David screams at Molly, she puts her mind back on the road and immediately jerks on the brake when she sees a man standing in the middle of the road, causing her to drive off the highway, down the hill, into a ditch.

Molly awakens without a scratch on her, although she still struggles to get out of the car. David is nowhere to be found. She screams his name frantically, but no answer. Molly starts walking further into the woods, calling David’s name several times. In the distance she sees a farmhouse slightly lit. She proceeds towards the house and enters through the front door. When she walks in, she sees the man from the road standing in the corner. He turns around and is bleeding gushy blood from his stomach and transforms into a skeleton and vanishes.

Highway: Molly bolts out of the house in a flash and runs back through the woods and up the hill to the road. In the distance she sees the headlights of a car and darts out in front of it screaming “STOP!” It’s Sam and Dean in the Impala and a very frightened Dean jerks the car to a stop. The boys hop out of the car and Molly explains to them that she ran off the road and crashed the car and when she came to, David was missing and the man from the road started chasing her. Sam and Dean ask Molly to come with them so they can get her somewhere safe, but she refuses to cooperate and asks them to take her back to her car.

Upon arriving at the site of the crash, the three of them are stunned to find her car gone as if no accident occurred. Molly can’t understand what could’ve happened to it and walks down the hill. Sam tells Dean they need to get her out of there because Greeley could show up any minute. Dean says if they tell her the truth, she’ll take off running in the other direction. However they do convince Molly to come with them.

As they’re driving down the road, Molly tells them that she and David were supposed to be in Lake Tahoe for their five year anniversary. All of a sudden the radio dial moves back and fourth and then stops on a song which plays. Molly recognizes the song. The song was playing in the car when the crash took place. In the background of the music a small voice hisses in a low tone, “She’s mine” Looking down the road Dean sees the man from the road standing out in front of the car, but doesn’t hesitate at all and drives right through him blowing him to dust. As they look in back of them, nothing remains. A few seconds later, they are halted along the side of the road, as the car dies out.

Sam and Dean get out of the car and open the trunk. Molly is officially freaked out after seeing the trunk loaded with weapons and starts walking off. Dean yells out to Molly that it wasn’t a coincidence that they were out here. He continues that they are tracking down this man they saw on the road, whom they believe is Jonah Greeley. He died fifteen years ago on this road. Every year on the anniversary of his death he haunts this road and the boys are out to stop him.

Hunting Cabin: Molly takes Sam and Dean back to the farmhouse where she saw Greeley. The room contains several surgical tables covered in stale blood, leading Dean to believe that this farmhouse was his hunting cabin. They look around trying to find Greeley’s body so they can salt and burn it. However when Greeley died, his wife claimed the body and that the last anyone ever saw of her. Most likely she brought the body back here, but the property is one-thousand acres and it could be anywhere. The boys waste no time being that they have till sunrise to finish the job.

Searching the outside premises, they head down a brick path to Greeley’s house, which contains no headstones outside. Sam and Molly check the upstairs of the house in search of any papers or records showing where Greeley is buried. One of the rooms holds about every piece of mail and receipt they ever had. Molly picks up a photo album containing pictures of Greeley and his wife. Molly asks Sam how such people can turn so evil. Sam’s response is that there’s usually some unfinished business keeping them here, something along the lines of revenge, love, or hate. There’s a part of them that just can’t let go.

Dean walks in and reports that there’s nothing downstairs giving any lead on the whereabouts of Greeley’s body. Pulling the dresser out from the wall, Dean finds a small door leading to the attic. After breaking the door open with his foot, they find the remains of Greeley’s wife. She apparently hung herself most likely because she couldn’t bear to be alone.

Outside Sam and Dean carefully carry her body downstairs and outside and bury her remains beside the front step because they feel she deserves to be put to rest. Molly is curious as to what happens to spirits after they’re put to rest. Truthfully Sam and Dean don’t know what happens, hopefully somewhere better.

Greeley’s House: Back inside the house, Molly is in the kitchen looking through the photos in the album. Sam tells Dean that they should tell Molly the truth about David. Dean objects strenuously saying that he feels sorry for her too, but that they need to stick to the plan and get her out and then they’ll tell her. Suddenly they hear the same song from the car playing in the house. Dean walks slowly into the other room and finds the music coming from a jukebox which is unplugged. Molly standing by the window, starts screaming as Greeley smashes the window open and grabs her out of the house. But as fast as Sam and Dean can respond, Greeley and Molly have disappeared. Back inside the house, Sam and Dean search for any leads on the whereabouts of Greeley’s body. Sam’s looks at one of the photos in the album that was taken outside the hunting cabin on February 6th, 1992, about two weeks before the accident. However a tree appears to be missing. It suddenly dawns on Sam that it’s an old country custom to plant a tree as a grave marker. Dean’s a little freaked out by Sam’s level of knowledge and makes the comment, “You are a walking encyclopedia of weirdness.”

Hunting Cabin: Sam and Dean rush to the hunting cabin where they see Molly hanging by her hands from the ceiling. Greeley circles around her several times and takes his finger digging marks through her face and her stomach. Dean bolts through the door firing a round of rock salt at him. He vanishes, but only fools Dean and he reappears right behind him throwing him against the wall. Greeley grabs a knife from the wall and comes up to him attempting to stab Dean in the heart. But Sam comes to the rescue as he salts and burns Greeley’s remains outside the cabin. As his bones burn, Greeley is engulfed in the flames disintegrating to dust.

Highway: Sam, Dean, and Molly head back up the road to the Impala. But Molly is persistent and demands to know what happened to David. Sam tells her that David is alive and that they’ll take her to see him.

Outside David’s House: The Impala pulls up outside of David’s house. Molly gets out and walks up to the door, but stops as she looks through the window and sees David kissing another woman. The boys explain to her that the woman inside is David’s wife. Fifteen years ago, Molly and David hit Jonah Greeley with her car, David survived. Every year on the anniversary of his death, Jonah Greeley decides to punish someone for what happened to him. That someone is always Molly. She’s been appearing on that road every year. Several flashback scenes are shown at this point. The first scene goes back to the Impala before they run into Molly. Sam and Dean are discussing the case and point out that there have been twelve accidents over the past fifteen years, five of them fatal all happening on the same night. The next flashback shows Sam and Dean at the library looking up a news article on the accident as well as them talking with David. They also show the scene in the Impala right before Molly darts out in front of them. That’s when Molly realizes that she’s really dead and that she’s here in spirit form.

Molly is in shock to realize the truth about what happened. She still feels the need to go talk to David. Sam and Dean tell her that if she wants to go inside, they’re not going to stop her but they warn her that she going to freak him right out for life. They feel that if she lets go of everything that’s happened, she’ll move on to a better place. As much as Molly wants to go see David, she understands that the boys are right and agrees to let go. She walks into the glare of the sunrise and is taken away with the light. As Sam and Dean head back to the Impala, they look back at the sunrise and hope she’s going to a better place.

Featured Supernatural Being

 * Ghost

Featured Music
"The House Of The Rising Sun" by The Animals

Trivia

 * At the end of the episode, Dean tells Sam "Alright Haley Joel, let's hit the road." Haley Joel Osment is an actor best know for his role as the child in the movie Sixth Sense with the ability to not only see, but commiserate with ghosts.
 * After Sam tells Molly that ghosts weren't evil people when they were alive, Dean says "Sammy is always getting a little J.Love Hewitt when it comes to things like this." Jennifer Love Hewitt is an actress portraying Melinda Gordon - a girl who can talk to ghosts - in the TV series Ghost Whisperer.

Quotes
Sam: "Should've thought of it."

Dean: "What?"

Sam: "It's an old country custom, Dean. Planting a tree as a grave marker."

Dean: "You're like a walking encyclopedia of weirdness."

(walks off)

Sam: (calls after him) Yeah, I know."

Dean: (after they come to see a creepy-looking house) "You know, just once I'd like to round the corner and see a nice house."

Dean: "Hey, follow the creepy brick road."

International Titles

 * Finnish: Tien nielemä (Swallowed by the Road)


 * French: Le Temps des adieux (Time to say goodbye)


 * German: Highway 41