Supernatural: "Long Distance Call" (Episode 314)

He's should get on the "Do Not Call" list...

I'm sorry to tell you guys, but this week Ghostfacers has been pre-empted to bring you this pretty good monster of the week episode of Supernatural. While it seemed for a moment that the episode might tie in deeply to the overall arc for the season, what with Jeffery Dean Morgan literally phoning his performance in, but it turns out the were other things afoot. I love how this show consistently pulls out obscure real-life mystical legends and pieces of trivia (so much more entertaining than racist trucks) and this episode I was interested to learn about Edison's spirit phone and the crocotta.

We begin with an average middle class businessman, drinking heavily on a rainy evening. The phone rings and the man looks terrified, damn telemarketers, calling at all hours of the night. The caller ID says “SHA33”, which I wonder if its some kind of demonic code. When he answers the phone, he's speaking with “Linda” on the other end of a staticy line and immediately I think of the ghost stories where in the end, the phone line traces to a disconnected circuit in the cemetary. This is going to be a good episode! Linda demands that the upset man come to her. When a spirit makes a demand like this of you, it can't be good. The man gets furious and rips the phone out of the wall, and of course, despite being on the other side of the room, disconnected and off the hook, the phone rings again. The man is pushed over the edge, pulls out a pistol and takes his own life.

Storm clouds. Title.

Elsewhere, Sammy and Dean are researching Dean's sold-soul condition when they get the call from Bobby about the white collar suicide, but Sammy's not happy because as far as he's concerned, they're already on a case: Dean's. Dean knows that its useless, but hasn't bothered to tell Sam about the information that Ruby gave him about how there is no way to save him from the pit. When Sam learns this information, the brothers are at odds. Sam reluctantly agrees to jump onto the suicide case.

In their somehow nicely pressed suits (where do they keep those things when they're on the road all the time?), the boys investigate the death by questioning the wife. She reluctant to give additional information, but when Sam sees the “SHA33” caller ID on the phone, the boys start asking tougher questions about strange phone calls and the like. The wife admits that she heard a conversation where she thought that her husband was talking to a woman, but when she tried to eavesdrop, her husband was only talking to himself.

It's just like my new job!A few quick research clicks later and the boys discover that “Linda” is the man's deceased high school sweetheart, but problem: she was cremated, making it not likely that its her spirit. The “SHA33” is actually a phone number that is over a 100 years old (I call shenanigans on it coming up on caller ID though). At the phone company, the boys convince the boss to help them out in tracing the number and he takes them to a little Indian man, who is lord of his domain in the basement. Just him and his computers, his filth and his porn. They convince the little man to help them trace a number and lo and behold, the number has been used to hit a ten different places in the last two weeks. The boys set out to do some door to door research.

At each of the residences, someone was receiving phone calls from someone who had passed away. At one of Sammy's places, the owner claims that he doesn't know anything about it, but the teenage daughter stops Sam on his way out and pegs him as lying through his teeth. It turns out she was lying too, she's been hearing from her dead mother. Sam reassures the young girl that she's not crazy.

Dean checks in with Sam and tells him about the grandmother he spoke with that has been having phone sex with her husband that died in Korea. Ugh. Dean gets another phone call and through the static, on the other end of the line someone says his name... it's Papa Winchester.

Later, Sam and Dean discuss the possibility of it really being their father. Turns out that Papa didn't get much more out before the call dropped. The boys start to believe that it might actually be their father, but Dean takes the importance of the situation much more seriously than Sammy. Later, the boys continue to snipe at each other. Sammy's research has turned up nothing, but Dean found in the hotel pamphlet stand a brochure for Edison's birth place. Huh?

At the Edison museum (didn't the Simpsons go here too at some point?), the boys half consider the Edison Spirit Phone that Edison built at the end of his life to try to communicate with the dead. They don't get any kind of EM off the invention and frankly it looks like a piece of junk. What with the moldy old phone number and the invention, they start to believe that it really could be Dad.

Later Dean takes another call from Papa, who is angry at him for selling his soul to save Sammy. He tells Dean that there's a way out of the deal, that the demon that holds the contract is here, now. However, Papa sounds different, sounds... simplistic. Which, when you know the end of the episode, reveals a very talented piece of writing, dialogue that is able to very carefully walk the right line.

As Boston sang, "Don't Look Back"Back at the young girl's house, she starts to get IMs from her mother late at night from “SHA33,” not that there's any reason for the IM name to correspond with the old phone number. “Mom” wants to know if Lanie will come to see her, but not at the cemetary. When she tells her mom that she's scared, Mom tells her that she's right there with her. The webcam pops on revealing a ghostly image behind her. When she shuts off the computer, it starts to print the words “Come to me” over and over again on the screen.

Later, Dean can't listen to information about Lanie because he's too tied up believing the information that he got from Papa about the demon that is probably tailing them. Sam is skeptical though. Dad even gave him an exorcism that will “kill” a demon. Sam can't verify it and Dean believes it wholeheartedly. At odds, Sam decides to continue to investigate the ghosts through Lanie and Dean is moving forward with the Dad possibility on blind faith.

Sam meets with Lanie and learns more about the situation, but at the same time, Lanie's little brother gets a call on his plastic toy phone. It's Mom of course, and the little boy just accepts it and asks where he can meet her. Sam learns that the spirits are trying to get these people to kill themselves and Sam knows for sure that it wasn't her mother. They notice that the young brother is gone.

“Dad” calls Dean and tells him where to find the demon. Dean heads out to a random suburban house and begins to prep to capture and exorcise the demon (gallon of holy water, binding seal spraypainted on the floor)

Meanwhile, the young brother is wandering aimlessly through traffic and Sam snatches him up a moment before he is splattered by a truck. Sam calls Dean to tell him that its not Dad, but a crocotta that mimics loved ones to lure them into the dark and swallow their souls. Dean remembers the filth at the phone company and sends Sam after the little guy with the phone in the basement.

He does love Indian food.Later, Sam lies in wait as the guy leaves for the day. Sam holds him at knife point, but its not long before Sam takes baseball bat to the back from the boss at the company. Little Man is thankful, but Boss Man thonks little man as well. They both wake up and they're tied to chairs. Boss Man executes the little guy in front of Sam and devours his soul. Sam realizes that the last phone call he had with Dean was actually the Boss tricking him into coming here. The Crocotta has become a master of the information age, manipulating technology to his benefit. He send another call to a police officer, posing as his dead daughter. She tells him that the man that killed her is at their house right now, laying in wait to kill him too. The Crocotta tells Sammy how he was able to snag all their numbers, emails, voicemails and put together a picture to mimic Papa Winchester so effectively. Technology makes life easier and allows him to eat souls so frequently, that back in the day community stopped him from luring people away, but now despite being so connected, humankind has never been so alone.

At the house, Dean and the cop are on a collision course, both stalking each other. The cop bursts in through the back door with a shotgun, but Dean is ready for him. They have fisticuffs, with eventually subduing the guy in the binding circle. He begins the exorcism rites.

At the phone company, Sam has undone his binds and tussles with the Crocotta. Sam fights with the Crocotta and eventually gets the better of him, slamming him up again a peg board hook that stabs into the back of his head.

At the house, Dean is performing the exorcism, appearing like some sort of Satanist to the cop. When he steps out of the circle, Dean knows there has been a mistake. The man is ranting about his murdered daughter. Dean subdues the man and they both realize how confused they are.

Later, Sam and Dean make up and discuss how they just have no idea how they're going to get out of this season's arc. They can't hope for a last minute reprieve from Dad or someone. They're only going to be able to get out of this on their own. And with that, they kick back and drink some beers together as brothers, while the old movie on the television sounds eerily appropriate.

NEXT WEEK: Texas Chainsaw Massacre?