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The Usual Suspects is the 7th episode of Season 2. It premiered on November 9th, 2006.

Summary[]

Dean Purgatory Blade.png There was something about being there... It felt pure.

This episode summary is an official CW press release. It may contain errors.
DO NOT CHANGE!

Sam and Dean investigate the murders of a lawyer and his wife who claimed to have seen a ghost right before they died. However, after local detectives Ballard (guest star Linda Blair) and Sheridan (guest star Jason Gedrick) uncover the Winchesters' records, they arrest the brothers for a double homicide before they are able to find the ghost. When the ghost begins to visit Ballard, she begins to wonder if the tale Sam and Dean are telling her could be true, and if she might be the next to die.

Plot[]

POLICE STATION: In Baltimore, Maryland, a cop is walking through a police station, talking on a cellphone. He comes to a fax machine that is printing off a fax, and takes it out. After looking at it, he suddenly says, "I need to call you back," and hangs up the phone. Elsewhere, a team of cops are making their way up to a room in a hotel with gun while the cop, Pete, is talking to someone not visible across a table. "At first I thought you were just stepping up your game," he says. "Credit card fraud – breaking and entering – but this one puzzled me. Grave desecration. But still, these are a long way from murder."

UNKNOWN MOTEL: A SWAT team pause outside a certain room.

POLICE STATION: "But you're suspected of torturing and murdering a young woman," continues Pete. "However no one could prove anything, of course, because supposedly you died there."

UNKNOWN MOTEL: The cops break into the room and the lead cop, a woman named Diana, hurries inside with a gun.

POLICE STATION: Pete's voice goes on, "But I gotta tell you something. You look pretty healthy to me. So now we know Karen Giles wasn't the first person you murdered."

UNKNOWN MOTEL: Diana continues inside and lowers her gun, looking at someone in the room. "Going somewhere, Sam?" she says, and Sam looks back at her, hands in the air.

POLICE STATION: "... But I guarantee it, she's the last," finishes Pete, and as he walks away, Dean turns to watch him, a look of calm doubt on his face.

Sam is sitting by the window in an interview room, and he gets up as Diana walks in, holding a cup of coffee. "Thought you might be thirsty," she says, and Sam replies, "Okay, so you're the good cop. Where's the bad cop?". "Oh, he's with your brother," she smiles coldly. "Okay, and you're holding us why?" asks Sam. "Well he's being held on suspicion of murder, and you – we'll see." Sam leans forward, looking shocked. "Murder?" he asks increduously. "You sound genuinely surprised," she says, smiling. "Or are you that good of an actor?". "Who is he supposed to have murdered?" asks Sam, and she replies they'll get around to that. "Well you can't just hold us here without formal charges!" argues Sam. "Well actually we can, for 48 hours, but you being a pre-law student would know that" she retorts. She tells Sam she knows all about him, and, opening a folder, she begins to read off all kinds of things about Sam – the death of his mother, his girlfriend, and how he left law school. Sam says he needed some time off, so he's taking a road trip with his brother. She asks him how that's going. "Great," replies Sam, sitting down. "I mean, we saw the second largest ball of twine in the continent of the U.S. Awesome." Diana continues that they ran Dean's fingerprints and came up with over a dozen possible hits. "Possible hits," says Sam. "Which makes them worthless". "But it makes you wonder," she continues, "What are we going to find when we run your prints?". Sam laughs. "You be sure to let me know, all right?" he says blithely. He points at the coffee. "May I?" She nods, and he picks it up. "Sam, you seem like a good kid," she says, leaning on the table. "It's not your fault Dean's your brother. We can't pick our family." She tells him that the detectives in St. Louis are looking at a corpse, trying to figure out how Dean faked his own death, after torturing all those young women. "Dean's a bad guy," she goes on. Sam just sits silently. "His life is over," she adds. "Yours doesn't have to be." Sam looks up at her. "You want me to turn against my own brother?" She says no, they already caught him at the Karen Giles murder scene. "We just need you to fill in a few missing pieces". "Why would I do that?" asks Sam. She tells him that she can talk to the DA, make a deal for him. He can get on with his life. "Dean's as good as gone," she says. Sam sighs. "My Dad and Tony Giles were old friends. They were in the service together. We've known him since we were kids, you know? So we came as soon as we heard about his death".

FLASHBACK: In Sam's memory, he walks along towards a table, where Dean is sitting with a newspaper. He hands Dean a coffee. "Anthony Giles," says Dean. "He's a Baltimore lawyer. Working late at his office. Check it out." Sam looks at the paper. "His throat was slit but the room was clean," reads Sam. "Huh. No DNA, no prints". "Keep reading. It gets better," says Dean. "Security cameras failed to capture footage of the assailant," continues Sam. "So I'm thinking either someone tampered with the tapes –" "... or it's an invisible killer," finishes Sam. Dean smiles. "My favourite kind. What do you think, Scully? Wanna check it out?" "I'm not Scully," says Sam. "You're Scully." "No, I'm Mulder," answers Dean, "You're a red-headed woman."

POLICE STATION: "... So, it would be pretty hard for Dean to kill Tony, seeing as we weren't in town at the time," finishes Sam. "So, tell me what happened next," Diana asks. "Okay – that's when we went to see Karen. She was barely holding it together. We just wanted to be there for her"

FLASHBACK: In Sam's memory, Karen is looking at the insurance papers. "I totally forgot about the insurance," she says, obviously crying. Dean and Sam are sitting with her, wearing suits. "We're very sorry to bug you right now, but the company is required to conduct its own investigation, you understand," says Sam. She nods. Sam asks her to tell them anything she remembers about the night her husband died. "Tony and I were just supposed to have dinner," she begins. "But he called and said he was having computer trouble and he had to work late. That's it". "Do you have any idea who could have done this to him?" asks Sam. "No," she says. "No. It's like I told the police, I have no idea". "Did Tony mention anything – unusual – to you in the days before his death?" asks Dean casually. "Unusual?" she says. "Yeah, like strange," says Dean. "Strange?" she says. "You know, Karen, weird!" Dean says. "Noises, or visions, anything like that." Sam clears his throat and Dean turns to look at him. Sam makes a face at him across the table but when Karen turns to look at Sam, he quickly assumes his sympathetic face again. "He had a nightmare the day before he died," she says. Sam asks what kind of nightmare, and she replies that he woke up in the middle of the night and there was a woman standing at the foot of the bed. "He blinked, and she was gone, it was just a nightmare," she adds. "Did he say what she looked like?" asks Dean awkwardly. "What the hell difference does it make what she looked like?" asks Karen. "Our company's very thorough," says Dean after an awkward moment of struggling. "He said she was pale and she had dark red eyes," Karen tells him.

POLICE STATION: "So I gave Karen a hug, told her to call me if she needed anything. That was it," concludes Sam. "End of story". "Sam, I am trying to help you here," the cop says, obviously becoming irritated. "But you have got to be honest with me. Now we have an eyewitness, someone who saw two men fitting you and your brother's description, breaking into Giles' office". Sam tells her that Karen called them later and said there was some stuff she wanted from Tony's office, but the police weren't letting her in. Pictures of the two of them in Paris and some other stuff. "It was wrong to enter a crime scene, but she gave us the key," says Sam.

FLASHBACK: Dean and Sam pick the lock at Tony's office and enter the room. Sam shines his flashlight on a patch of blood on the floor, and tells Dean that Anthony Giles' body was found right about there. "Throat was slit so deep, part of his spinal cord was visible," reads Sam from a paper in his hand. Dean whistles. "What do you think? Vengeful spirit? Underline 'vengeful'?" "Yeah, maybe. I mean, he did see that woman at the foot of his bed," replies Sam. Dean picks up a piece of paper off the desk and looks at it, then gives it to Sam. "Take a look at this," he says. Sam looks. The word 'danashulps' is type-written over and over again on a piece of paper. "Dana Shulps," says Sam. "What's that? A name?" Dean is looking at some more paper. "I don't know, but it's everywhere," he says, and the paper he's looking at is the same. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," laughs Dean. Sam is at a glass table. He shines his flashlight on it and then breathes along it so his breath fogs up. Written on the table is "danashulps". "Wow," says Sam. "I'd say we've officially crossed over into weird". "Maybe Giles knew her," says Dean. "Maybe it's the name of our pale, red-eyed mystery girl," guesses Sam. "Well," says Dean, taking out a file. "Let's see what we can see."

Quite a while later, Dean throws down the papers he's looking at and says, "There's not a single mention of a Dana Shulps anywhere." Sam is sitting at the computer on Tony's desk. "There's not a D. Shulps. Or any other kind of freakin' Shulps," adds Dean, obviously frustrated. "What have you got?" he asks Sam. "Nothing. No Dana Shulps has ever lived or died in Baltimore in the last 50 years at least". "So, what now?" asks Dean. Sam replies that he's pretty close to cracking Giles' password, so maybe there's something in his personal files. "By close you mean...?" asks Dean. "Thirty minutes, maybe?" replies Sam. Dean looks at his watch. "Awesome," he says, and then walks over to the desk and sits down. "So I just get to... hang out." He watches Sam for a few seconds and then gets bored immediately and begins making noises with his mouth. "Dude, seriously!" says Sam, and Dean stands up, saying he's going to go talk to Karen again and find out if she knows anything about this Dana Shulps. "Great," says Sam, and Dean flicks the flashlight on and off at him. "Keep going, sparky".

POLICE STATION: "And then Dean went back to Karen's place to check up on her," says Sam. "I mean, she had been pretty upset earlier." "So why didn't you go with him?" asks Diana. "I just went back to the motel," says Sam. "How did you know I was there, by the way?" She explains they found the motel matchbook on Dean when they arrested him. "Now, let's stop fooling around. You were with your brother the whole time you were in Baltimore. Why separate now? Because your brother left you, to go murder Karen". "He didn't kill anyone," insists Sam. She hits the table angrily. "I heard the 911 call! Karen was terrified. She said someone was in the house!"

FLASHBACK: Karen is sitting on the couch, watching TV. She suddenly sees someone walk by in the hallway. She shakes her head and when she looks up she sees someone standing at the window in the other room. She screams and turns on the light, but they're gone. She gets up and quickly walks down the hall. She hears something behind her and quickly runs up the stairs, locking herself in her room. She picks up the phone and calls 911, but before she can finish telling them her address, the phone dies. The lights go out, and suddenly her printer starts printing off something. She goes over and looks at it, and 'danashulps' is printed over and over again. She goes into her closet instead and when she turns around, there is a woman with red eyes standing behind her. She screams.

Dean is knocking on Karen's door. He calls her name, but no answer. He glances around, and then takes out his lockpick and picks the lock. He goes inside, and looks around. He tries the lights, but they don't work. He goes upstairs to her bedroom, and sees her lying on the floor, a pool of blood around her. Her throat is cut. "Oh God," he says, and finds the paper saying 'danashulps' on it on the table. "Seriously, what the hell?" he asks. He crouches down next to her, and lifts up her hand, noticing strange red marks on her wrists. "Freeze," says a voice suddenly, and he turns to see two cops at the doorway, guns pointed at him. "Stay on your knees," the cop orders, and tells him to put his hands where she can see them. Dean puts up his hands, and the other cop comes and handcuffs him.

POLICE STATION: Dean is sitting behind the two-way mirror, handcuffed to the table. Pete is sitting inside, and Diana. "You getting anywhere with him?" she asks. "No," he replies. "Just a lot of wise-ass remarks. You?". She shakes her head. "Sam's story matches Dean's to the last detail." "Well, these guys are good," Pete says, getting up. "I'll give them that". "If we don't get Sam to flip, we have nothing but a lot of circumstantial evidence," she says, following him out into the hall. "Hey, we've got Dean at the crime scene, blood on his hands. Juries have convicted for less", Pete reassures her. "Yeah, but I mean, where's the murder weapon?" she asks. "What's the motive? You talk about reasonable doubt..." "Diana," says Pete, turning to her. He touches her face. "Do you have reasonable doubt?" He quickly takes his hand away as another cop walks by. "We keep leaning on these guys, one of them will tumble. And don't forget about St. Louis. I'm telling you. This Dean guy is our guy". Diana tells him that she knows Tony Giles was a friend of his, and he replies yes, he was, he was a good friend. "And I know you wanna clean this mess up quick", Diana continues. "But come on, Tony knew a lot of criminal types. Maybe we just..." "Criminal types?" laughs Pete. "He was a defence lawyer, for God's sake. Of course he knew criminal types". She says they should get back at the brothers, but Pete says no, let them just stew in their juices for a bit. Pete glances around, and then kisses Diana. Then she leaves.

DEAN'S INTERVIEW ROOM: Dean is muttering 'danashulps' to himself over and over again.

SAM'S INTERVIEW ROOM: Sam is writing 'danashulps' on a piece of paper.

DEAN'S INTERVIEW ROOM: Meanwhile, Dean is muttering to himself that maybe it's not a name.

SAM'S INTERVIEW ROOM: "An anagram maybe?" wonders Sam, beginning to write the word in a bunch of different ways.

DEAN'S INTERVIEW ROOM: Dean is trying to figure an anagram out in his head, and just then a man comes to the door and says, "Mr. Winchester?". Dean nods, and the man walks in. Then he tells Dean his name and that he's a public defender. He then tells Dean he's his lawyer. "Oh, thank God. I'm saved," mutters Dean. He asks the man for a piece of paper and a pen, and begins writing down 'danashulps' in different ways. The lawyer is talking about how they caught Dean and what's good and what isn't, but Dean doesn't appear to be listening at all. "Mr. Winchester?" asks the lawyer. "What are you doing?". "I think it's an anagram," mutters Dean, still writing furiously. "A what?" asks the lawyer, and Dean replies, "An anagram. Same letters, different words." Dean pushes the paper toward him and asks him to look at it and see if he recognizes any of the words, if they're names or local places. The lawyer asks him if he realizes how serious these charges are, and Dean laughs. "I'm handcuffed to a table. Yeah, I get it. Humour me," he says. The man comes up with "Ashland" which is the name of a local street, not far from there. The lawyer begins to get back to the case, but Dean asks him if he can get in to see his brother. "Mr. Winchester, you could be facing a death penalty here," says the lawyer, and Dean looks up at him. "Thanks for the law review, Matlock. But if you wanna help me, I need you to see my brother." He holds out the paper to the lawyer.

POLICE STATION: Diana is sitting at her computer, typing up the case report. Suddenly, 'danashulps' starts appearing over and over again on her screen. She presses a few keys, trying to stop it, but it continues, and then suddenly it's gone, like it was never there at all. She glances around.

SAM'S INTERVIEW ROOM: Sam is looking at the note Dean wrote for him. It says "Hilts – it's a street Ashland – McQueen". "I hope that was meaningful," says the lawyer. "But I'd like to discuss your case now." Sam motions to the chair in front of him. "Sure thing, Matlock." "You two really are brothers, aren't you?" says the lawyer, taking a seat. Just as he's beginning to talk, Diana opens the door. "We need you – with the other one," she says to the lawyer.

DEAN'S INTERVIEW ROOM: A bunch of people have set up a camera in front of Dean. Diana and the lawyer walk in. "Counselor?" says Pete. "Your boy has decided to confess". The lawyer tells Dean he advises against that strongly, but Dean doesn't say anything. Pete tells him to talk directly into the camera, and start by stating his name for the record. "My name is Dean Winchester," begins Dean, looking into the camera. "I'm an Aquarius. I enjoy sunsets, long walks on the beach, and frisky women. I did not kill anyone. But I know who did. Or rather what did. Of course I can't say for sure, 'cause our investigation was interrupted. But our work in theory is that we're looking for some kind of vengeful spirit". "Excuse me?" says Diana from the side. "You know Casper, the blood-thirsty ghost?" says Dean. "Tony Giles saw it. I'll bet you cash money Karen did too. But see the interesting thing is the word it leaves behind. For some reason it's trying to tell us something. But communicating across the veil – it ain't easy. Sometimes the spirits – they get things jumbled. You remember 'redrum'? Same concept. It could be word fragments... other times, it's an anagram". He pulls out the piece of paper from inside his jacket, the one he wrote 'danashulps' in all the different ways. "See, first we thought this was a name, Dana Shulps". Diana is looking in shock at the word on the paper. "But now, we think it's a street. Ashland. Whatever's going on, I'm betting it started there". He smiles. "You arrogant bastard," says Pete. "Tony and Karen were good people, and you're making jokes." "I'm not joking, Ponch," replies Dean. Pete walks around the table toward him. "You murdered them in cold blood just like that girl in St. Louis!", Pete says heatedly. "Oh yeah, that wasn't me. That was a shapeshifter creature that only looked like me," Dean says into the camera, smiling. Pete yanks Dean off the chair and shoves him against the wall. Diana yells at him "That's enough!". "You asked for the truth," says Dean. Pete lets him go and starts to leave, telling them to lock him up as he goes.

SAM'S INTERVIEW ROOM: Diana and Pete go into the room to find Sam gone. "Where is he?" asks Pete, looking out the window. Diana finds the paper on the desk that Dean wrote for him. "These two guys," she says in an exasperated but amused manner, and Pete looks at the note. "Hilts and McQueen. What is that?" he asks. "Hilts is Steve McQueen's character in The Great Escape," Diana explains.

POLICE STATION WASHROOM: Diana walks into the washroom and tries the lights, but they only flicker. Suddenly, all the taps start running hot water, fogging up the mirrors. Diana turns to see 'danashulps' slowly being spelled out on the mirror. She wipes it away with her hand, only to see the reflection of a woman with a slit throat in the mirror. She turns around and the woman comes closer, making odd noises like she's trying to speak, but can't.

DEAN'S INTERVIEW ROOM: Diana comes into the interrogation room where Dean is sitting. Dean rubs his eyes and asks, "Can we make this quick? I'm a little tired. It's been a long day, you know, with your partner assaulting me and all". "I want to know more about that stuff you were talking about earlier", Diana says. "TimeLife: Mysteries of the Unknown. Look it up," replies Dean. "Let's pretend for the moment," begins Diana, "you're not entirely insane. What would one of these – things – be doing here?" "A vengeful spirit?" Dean asks. Diana nods. "Well they're created by violent deaths. And then they come back for a reason, usually a nasty one. Like revenge on the people that hurt them". "And these... spirits, they're capable of killing people?" asks Diana, lifting up her hand to rub her neck. Dean smiles, then stops. "Where'd you get that?" he asks suddenly. Diana slowly lowers her hand and pulls up her sleeve, there are red marks on her wrists, just like the ones that Karen had on hers. "I don't know," she says. "It wasn't there before". "You've seen it, haven't you? The spirit," Dean says. "How did you know?" asks Diana. "Because Karen had the same bruises on her wrists," says Dean. "I'm willing to bet if you look at Giles' autopsy photos he's got 'em too. It's got something to do with the spirit. I – I don't know what." Diana turns away. "I know," says Dean. "You think you're going crazy. But let's skip that part, shall we? Because the last two people who saw this thing died pretty soon after. You hear me?" Diana looks at him. "You think I'm going to die." "You need to go to Sam," says Dean. "He'll help." "You're giving your brother up?" asks Diana. "Go to the first motel listed in the Yellow Pages. Look for Jim Rockford. It's how we find each other when we're separated. Now you can arrest him if you want. Or you can let him save your life."

A MOTEL ROOM: Sam is looking at some papers when he hears a knock at the door. He opens it to see Diana standing outside. He looks at her wrists, and asks her if the bruises showed up after she saw it. She says yes. Sam asks her to tell him exactly what she saw. "You know I must be losing my mind," she says. "You're a fugitive. I should be arresting you." Sam tells her she can arrest him later, after she lives through this, but right now she has to talk to him. Sam asks her what the spirit looked like. Diana tells him the exact description that Karen gave, except she also adds that her throat was cut. She says that it appeared she was trying to talk to her, but she couldn't. "There was just a lot of blood," she says. "You know what, here," says Sam, gesturing her towards the table. "I've been researching every girl who's ever died or gone missing from Ashland Street". "How did you get those? Those are from crime scenes and booking photos", Diana asks as he hands her some pictures. "You have your job, I have mine," shrugs Sam. She looks at the photos and finds one girl that she recognizes. "This is her," she says. "I'm sure of it." She hands him a picture of a blonde girl. "Claire Becker? 28 years old. Disappeared eight or nine months ago." says Sam. "But I don't even know her," says Diana. "Why would she come after me?" "Well, before her death, she was arrested twice," says Sam. "For dealing heroin. You ever worked narcotics?". "Yeah. Pete and I did," says Diana. "Before homicide". "You ever bust her?" asks Sam. "Not that I remember," says Diana. Sam reads off a bit more of the report. Apparently the police never found her body. "So we gotta check it out, see if we can find her body," says Sam. "What?" asks Diana. "We gotta salt and burn her bones," says Sam. "It's the only way to put her spirit to rest". "Of course it is," says Diana resignedly.

ASHLAND STREET: Sam and Diana are in an abandoned building that Claire was last seen entering. She asks him what they're looking for, and he tells her he'll let her know when they find it. Diana and Sam split up and Diana hears something behind her as he walks. She turns around and sees Claire. She starts coming toward Diana, reaching out. Diana yells for Sam and he comes, but by the time he arrives, Claire is gone. "She was over there by the window," says Diana, and the pair move aside a shelf to get to the window. On the other side of the window is written 'Ashland Sup(plies)'. "Our mystery word," says Diana. Sam takes out his EMF meter and, after explaining it to Diana, he picks up a signal from inside a wall. He breaks the wall with a crowbar and says he can definitely see something inside. As he continues breaking in the wall, he says "You know, this is bothering me". "Well, you are digging up a corpse." says Diana. Sam laughs and says, "No, not that. That's, uh, pretty par for the course actually". "Then what?" asks Diana. "It's just... I mean no vengeful spirits I've ever tussled with wanted to be wasted. So why the hell would Claire lead us to her remains? It doesn't make any sense". Diana and Sam lift out the body, which is in a bag. Sam cuts the rope tying it and unwraps it. They take a look at Claire's body inside, and Diana sees that her wrists are tied. Sam agrees that her wrists would be bruised, just like Diana's. Diana then finds a necklace on the girl. Diana says that she has seen one like it, they're very rare, they're custom made over on Carson Street. She pulls one just like it from under her shirt. She says Pete gave it to her. "Now this all makes perfect sense," says Sam. "I'm sorry?" Dana asks. "Yeah, you see Claire is not a vengeful spirit, she's a death omen". "Excuse me?", says Diana. "Claire's not killing anyone. She's trying to warn them. You see sometimes, spirits don't want vengeance, they want justice. Which is why she's here in the first place, she want us to know who her killer is." Sam pauses. "Detective, how much do you know about your partner?". Diana thinks for a second. "Oh my God," she says. "What?" Sam asks. "About a year ago, some heroin went missing from lock-up. Obviously it was a cop. I never found it who did it, but whoever did it would need someone to fence their product..." "...somebody like a heroin dealer," says Sam, "Somebody like Claire".

ON THE ROAD: Pete is driving down a road at night in a cop van with Dean is in the back. He asks why Pete himself would decide to transfer him to St. Louis at two in the morning. Pete doesn't answer. "This can't be good," murmurs Dean.

Diana hangs up her phone and tells Sam that Pete just left – with Dean. "What?" says Sam. "He said the prisoner had to be transferred. And he just took him," explains Diana. "Dispatch has been calling but he won't answer the radio." "Radio? He took a county vehicle?" asks Sam. "Yeah?" Diana says. "Then it should have a lowjack, you just gotta get it turned on!"

Pete stops the van after pulling off the road. He gets out of the van and yanks Dean out after him, throwing him to the ground. Pete tells Dean that the people in St. Louis will never buy Dean's story. "You're not going to make it to St. Louis," says Pete. "You're going to die, trying to escape". He pulls out his gun. "Wait, wait!" says Dean. "Let's talk about this. You don't want to do something you're going to regret. Well, maybe you do..." "Pete!", a voice interrupts. Both men turn to see Diana and Sam. Diana is pointing a gun at Pete. "Put the gun down," she says. "How did you find me?" he asks. "I know about Claire," says Diana. "I don't know what you're talking about," says Pete. " "Put the gun down!" says Diana again. "I don't think so," says Pete, still aiming the gun at Dean. "You're fast, but I'm faster". "Why'd you do it?" asks Diana. "I didn't do anything," replies Pete. "It's a little late for that," replies Diana. "It wasn't my fault," says Pete. "Claire was going to turn me in, I had no choice." "And Tony?" says Diana, "Karen?". "Same thing!" yells Pete. "Tony scrubbed the money, and then he got skittish, and he wanted to come clean. I'm sure he told Karen everything. It was a mess, I needed to clean it up. I panicked". "How many more people are going to die over this, Pete?" asks Diana. "There's a way out," says Pete. "This Dean kid's a friggin' gift. We could pin the whole thing on him, hey? No trial, nothing. Just one more dead scumbag". "Hey!" says Dean, and Pete aims the gun at him again. "No one will question it," he says. "Diana, I still love you." She slowly lowers the gun. "Thank you," says Pete. "Thank you." He turns toward Dean and suddenly Diana shoots him. Dean rolls out of the way. "Why don't you buy me another necklace, you ass," she says, and he suddenly jumps on her. Sam comes forward, but Pete aims the gun at him. "Don't do it! Don't do it!", Pete warns him. He aims the gun at Dean again. Both boys hold up their hands. Suddenly Diana looks behind Pete. Claire is standing there. Pete turns around and sees her, and then Diana shoots him from behind.

Diana kneels beside Pete's body while Dean and Sam watch. She walks over to them. "You doin' all right?" Sam asks her. "Not really," she replies. "The death omen, Claire. What happens to her now?". "It should be over. She should be at rest," replies Sam. "So... what now officer?" asks Dean. "Pete did confess to me," says Diana. "He screwed up both your cases royally. I say there's a good chance we can get both your cases dismissed". "You'd take care of that for us?" asks Sam. "I hope so," she says. "But the St. Louis murder charges? That's another story. I can't help you. Unless... I just happen to turn my back and you walked away? I could tell them that the suspects escaped". "Wait, are you sure?" asks Sam. "Yeah, she's sure, Sam!" says Dean quickly. "No, it's just, you could lose your job over something like that". "Look, I just want you guys out there doing what you do best. Trust me, I'll sleep better at night. Listen, you need to watch your back. They're going to be looking for both of you right now. Get outta here. I gotta radio this in". Dean asks her if she knows where his car is, and she tells him it's at the impound on Robertson. Thinking he was going to ask her for help with it, she says, "Don't even think about it." Sam says it's okay, they'll just improvise, as they're pretty good at that. "Yeah, I've noticed," she says.

"Nice lady," says Sam as they walk away. "Yeah, for a cop," says Dean. "Did she look familiar to you?" Dean asks."No, why?" replies Sam, pushing Dean with his shoulder gently. "I dunno. Anyway, are you hungry?", Dean asks as the camera pans away. "No", Sam replies. "For some reason I could really go for some pea soup..." says Dean.

Characters[]

Main Cast[]

Recurring Cast[]

Special Guest Stars[]

Co-Stars[]

Featured Supernatural Beings[]

Continuity[]

  • This is the first episode where Dean does not refer to Sam as Sammy.
  • Among the potential crimes Diana mentions about Dean is his framing at the hands of the shapeshifter in Skin. Detective Sheridan also refers to it in the interrogation room.

Trivia[]

  • Antagonist: Peter Sheridan
  • Anthony Giles is likely a play on Anthony Head, who played Rupert Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)
  • The title of this episode is from the 1995 Kevin Spacey crime drama of the same name.
  • Dean tells Detective Ballard to look for Sam at the first motel in the yellow pages under the name Jim Rockford. Jim Rockford is the lead character in the 1970s detective show The Rockford Files.
  • At the end when Dean and Sam are walking away, Dean says, "Did she look familiar to you?". "No, why?" Sam replies. "I don't know," Dean muses. "Anyways, you hungry? Man, for some reason I could really go for some pea soup". Linda Blair, who portrayed detective Diana Ballard in the episode, played Regan in The Exorcist and her vomit resembled split pea soup.
  • The CW's official summary for this episode has an error where a closed parenthesis is missing between 'Blair' and 'and', where the words have been joined together.

Errors[]

  • When Sam pulls the rack away from the window to reveal the name of the store as "Ashland Supplies" (Only Ashland Sup is fully visible as the sign has deteriorated). They turn around and see the name beaming on the wall. The way the sign was on the window was dark letters on a clear glass background so the letters on the wall should have been shadow letters on a sunlit background. It instead was sunlit letters on a shadow background.
  • Diana Ballard is writing a police report on the computer, she has misspelled the word "measurements" to "measurments".
  • Dean's lawyer mentions he could be facing the death penalty. However, Maryland does not have the death penalty, although Missouri (where the shape-shifter framed Dean for murder in the Season 1 episode Skin) does, and there are several mentions of the possibility of extradition, including the build-up to the final showdown at the end of the episode.
  • Searching for the remains of Claire, Sam is seen punching down a brick wall with his elbow. In reality he would have broken his arm or at least severly hurt himself but he is seen doing it without flinching.

Deaths[]

Cultural References[]

The X-Files (1993) (TV Series)

  • Dean calls Sam Agent Scully at the coffee shop.

The Shining (1980)

  • Dean mentions "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," while investigating the office and uses the word "redrum" to explain the jumbled message of the ghost.

Casper the Friendly Ghost (1945)

  • Dean refers to the vengeful spirit as "Casper the bloodthirsty ghost".

CHiPs (1977) (TV Series)

  • Dean calls the interrogating investigator, "Ponch". This is in reference to Erik Estrada's character in the TV show CHiPs.

The Great Escape (1963)

  • Dean addresses his note to "Hilts" and signs it "McQueen". Captain Hilts, the main character in The Great Escape, is played by Steve McQueen.

Matlock (1986) (TV Series)

  • Sam and Dean both refer to their lawyer as Matlock.

The Rockford Files (1974) (TV Series)

  • The brothers check in to the first motel listed in the yellow pages as Jim Rockford when split up.

Mysteries of the Unknown (1987) (Books Series)

  • When Detective Ballard asks Dean about ghosts, he refers her to Time-Life's Mysteries of the Unknown.

The Exorcist (1973)

  • The line "I could go for pea soup." at the end of the episode is a reference to "The Exorcist", this also a reference to this episode's guest star, Linda Blair.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) (TV Series)

  • The lawyer's name, Anthony Giles, could be an amalgam of Anthony Head and his character Rupert Giles on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", one of many nods to the earlier supernatural CW show.

Quotes[]

Dean: "So Scully ... what do you think?"
Sam: "I'm not Scully, you're Scully."
Dean: "Naw... I'm Mulder... You're a red headed woman."


Jeff: "I'm Jeff Krause. I'm with the public defenders office. I'm your lawyer."
Dean: "Oh, thank God, I'm saved."


Jeff: "Mr. Winchester. What are you doing?"
Dean: "I think it's an anagram."
Jeff: "A what?"
Dean: "An anagram. Same letters, different words. Uhhh... Could you do me a favor? See if you recognize any of these words, you know, names, places, anything like that."
Jeff: "Do you understand how serious these charges are?"
Dean: "I'm handcuffed to a table, yeah. I get it. Humor me. Take a good look."


Dean: "My name is Dean Winchester. I'm an Aquarius, I enjoy sunsets, long walks on the beach and frisky women. And I did not kill anyone. But I know who did. Or rather what did. Of course, it can't be for sure, because our investigation was interrupted. But our work in theory, is that were looking for some kind of Vengeful Spirit."
Diana: "Excuse me?"
Dean: "You know, Casper - the bloodthirsty ghost."


Dean: "Can we make this quick, I'm a little tired. It's been a long day, you know, with your partner assaulting me and all..."
Diana: "I want to know more about that stuff. You were talking about earlier?"
Dean: "Time-Life: Mysteries of the Unknown. Look it up."


Sam: "You know, this is bothering me."
Diana: "Well, you are digging up a corpse."
Sam: "No, not that. That's, uh, that's pretty par for the course, actually."


Dean: "You don't wanna do something that you're gonna regret."
(Peter cocks his gun.)
Dean: "Or maybe you do."


Dean: "Hey, uh, you wouldn't happen to know where my car is, by chance?"
Diana: "It's at the impound yard down on Robertson... Don't even think about it."
Sam: "It's okay, it's all right, don't worry. We'll, uh, we'll just improvise. I mean, we're pretty good at that."
Diana: "Yeah. I've noticed." (smiles)

International Titles[]

  • Finnish: Vakioepäillyt (The Usual Suspects)
  • French: La main de la justice (The Hand of Justice)
  • German: Die üblichen Verdächtigen (The Usual Suspects)
  • Polish: Ci, co zwykle (The Regulars)
  • Italian: I soliti sospetti (The Usual Suspects)
  • Hungarian: A vádlottak padján (On the Prisoners box)

External Links[]

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