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Wishful Thinking is the 8th episode of Season 4. It aired on November 6th, 2008.

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 a small town where the wishing well really works. A teddy bear comes to life, someone wins the lottery and the town geek gets a hot girlfriend. The brothers realize that while everyone is happy now, the end result will be disastrous.

Plot[]

InvsblPerv1

An invisible being lurks around a woman, Candace, in the showers of the Cascade Women's Fitness Center. Candace throws her towel at the wall and ends up accidentally draping it over the invisible figure, which awkwardly greets her. Candace screams.

Elsewhere, over shots, Dean rebuffs Sam's questions about remembering Hell, and denies flat-out that he can. He is, however, extremely eager to investigate the shower-spirit case. At #1 Lucky Chin's, a restaurant in Concrete, WA., Candace tells Sam about her ghostly encounter (for his book, tentatively titled Supernatural). Rather than harming her, the spirit knew her name and helped her when she fell, begging her not to tell its mom. Dean finds no EMF at the site, but he and Sam do come across a man claiming to have been attacked by Bigfoot—a well-known hoax.

Sorry

They can't explain the huge tracks they find in the woods, though, which lead to a raided liquor store. A little girl on a bike, Audrey Elmer, drops off a box full of alcohol and porn, along with a "Sorry" note. While passing by Winchesters, Busty Asian Beauties magazine falls to Dean's feet from the girl's box. Sam and Dean follow her home, and are surprised when she tells them that her teddy bear is responsible for the damage. The girl's teddy is big, real and can talk—and it's in the midst of an existential crisis, holed up in the TV room crying at news reports. Audrey tells Sam and Dean that she wished for him at the Wishing Well at Lucky Chin's.

TeddyMeet

Teddy wants to be alone.

They visit the restaurant, and Dean tests the well by wishing for a sandwich. Dean's wish immediately comes true as they realize it works. Posing as health inspectors, they clear the restaurant and drain the fountain. Dean asks Sam if he's tempted to make a wish, to reset his life so he could be normal again. Sam says he wouldn't, but if he did, he'd ask for Lilith's head on a plate, bloody. They notice an ancient coin at the bottom of the fountain, which refuses to budge. Dean goes on research duty, while Sam heads to the women's health center to scold the pervy teen who wished for invisibility.

Back at the hotel, Sam finds Dean in the bathroom, sick to his stomach. The wishes, it turns out, turn bad, because the coin is cursed. It depicted Tiamat, the Babylonian serpent deity of primordial chaos, and it has been known to wipe entire towns off the map with the trouble it causes. The only way to stop it is to find the first wisher, the one person capable of removing the coin and turning off the well. Back to Audrey's bipolar teddy, it tried to commit suicide with a shotgun but fails to kill itself.

DeanB4Todd1

Dean is made to kneel before Todd.

Dean wakes from a fitful nap, dreaming of Hell. Sam confronts him about the nightmares and his increased drinking. Dean deflects the questions, and deduces that the first wisher: Wesley Mondale, a nerdy guy announced his surprise engagement to the beautiful Hope Lynn Casey. At his house, Wes confesses that his grandfather found the coin while a soldier in North Africa in World War II, but he told Wes never to use it. Now that it's working, Wes is reluctant to undo his wish, but Sam and Dean convince him, with some helpful threats. Near the well, they see Todd, a small kid with super-strength, terrorizing a group of bullies. Dean tries to talk to him, but gets beaten up for his troubles. At the restaurant, a lightning bolt strikes Sam, thanks to Hope wishing that no one would take away her love for Wes. Wes removes the coin from the fountain, which reverses all the wishes in town. Afterwards, Hope couldn't even remember Wesley's name. A dejected Wes leaves Sam with the coin.

WesGivesUp

Wes surrenders the coin to Sam.

Later, Sam meets Dean at a pier, confirming that the coin's been melted down. Before they leave, Dean confesses something: he's been lying to Sam, and he does remember everything that happened to him in the Pit. When Sam tries to get him to talk about it, so he doesn't have to deal with it on his own, Dean refuses, telling Sam that there's no way to make him understand. Sam doesn't know what to say. So Dean slowly walks away, and Sam follows him.

Characters[]

Main Cast[]

Recurring Cast[]

Co-Stars[]

Featured Supernatural Beings[]

Continuity[]

Trivia[]

  • Sam, posing as an author, mentions the tentative title of the book that he is writing: "Supernatural."
  • The shower scene in the episode teaser references the famous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, in which Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is brutally stabbed and left to die.
  • When Todd flips over the car, he starts yelling "Kneel before Todd!" This is in reference to the DC Comics Superman villain General Zod, who has a habit of telling everyone to "Kneel before Zod!" in order to show his superiority over others.
  • When Dean says "Run Forrest Run" this is a reference to the movie Forrest Gump.
  • When Dean finds the broken bottles of Amaretto and Irish Cream and calls Bigfoot a "Girl Drink Drunk" this is a reference to the Kids In The Hall comedy sketch of the same name about an alcoholic who only drinks overly-sweet "girl drinks".
  • When Dean tells Todd that "with great power comes great responsibility", this is a reference to the superhero Spider-Man from Marvel Comics.
  • The actress who played Hope Lynn Casey in this episode, Anita Brown, co-starred with Jensen Ackles in the The CW series Dark Angel. She played the title character in the episode titled "Gill Girl." She also played the shapeshifter victim Lindsay in "Skin" from Season 1.
  • Audrey's teddy made an appearance in the short Supernatural Shake.
  • Dean shows Sam the item about local lottery winner George Neuman in the "Concrete News Daily." George Neuman is set decorator for Supernatural, and the photo in the paper is actually him. The by-line of the article credits 'Christopher Cooper, Daily Staff Writer;' Chris Cooper is the show's property master.
  • Although Sam often wears biker boots like Dean, when he was struck by lightning and flew out of his shoes, they were clearly Puma suede trainers with white stripes, the same shoe Sam lost in Bad Day at Black Rock.

Errors[]

  • Sam was shown to be wearing brown suede Puma trainers with white stripes when he was struck by lightning and killed, despite clearly wearing dark brown leather biker boots in previous and subsequent scenes.
  • "Counterfeit" was spelt "counterfiet" on the newspaper announcing that the local man's winning lottery ticket was fake.

Quotes[]

  • Wes: Aren't you the guys from the health department?
  • Sam: Yeah, and florists on the side.
  • Dean: Plus FBI. And on Thursdays we're Teddy Bear Doctors.

  • Sam: Yeah, just the typical UFO sightings and one possible vengeful spirit. Here check this out. Uh... Up in Concrete, Washington, eyewitness reports of a ghost that has been haunting the showers of a women's health facility. (Dean chokes on his beer) The victim claims that the ghost threw her down a flight of stairs. I can see you're very interested.
  • Dean: Women. Showers. (He slaps some money on the table) We have to save these people.

[Group of kids run past chasing a boy]

  • Kid: I got him.
  • Dean: Run, Forrest, Run!

[Group of kids run into a car flipped over by a boy]

  • Todd: Kneel before Todd! Kneel before Todd!

  • Dean: I gotta tell ya, I'm pretty disappointed.
  • Sam: Well psh, you wanted to save naked women.
  • Dean: Damn right I wanted to save some naked women.

Gallery[]

International Titles[]

  • Brazil: A Fonte dos Desejos (The Wishing Well)
  • German: Wunschdenken (Wishful Thinking)
  • Hungarian: A kívánságok kútja (The Well of Wishes)
  • Polish: Chciałoby się (Wish to be)

External Links[]

Navigational[]

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