(As I mentioned in my post announcing this rewatch project, there will be spoilers!)
Season 4, Episode 6: Yellow Fever
This episode opens with Dean running down the road at night, being chased by something. Oh no! He turns a corner and trips, telling a homeless man to run!
Then we see that itβs a cute, tiny, adorable dog chasing after him! Hahaha.
43 hours earlier:
Sam and Dean (agents Tyler and Perry) arrive in a town in Colorado. At the morgue, they are shown the body of a man who died of a heart attack. But Sam notes that this man was in his forties and a marathon runner. Dean notes that a couple of other perfectly healthy men died of heart attacks the other day. They ask for the results of Frankβs autopsy.
As the doctor performs the autopsy, Sam and Dean watch. He asks Dean to pass him the rib cutters. Sam and Dean have clearly been to a few autopsiesβ¦
Dean notices a tan line like the kind left by a wedding ring, except this guy isnβt wearing a ring. He says he didnβt know that the dead guy was married.
Sam asks how the man got the scrapes on his hands and arms. The doctor says that when you drop dead, you actually tend to drop. He probably got scraped up when he hit the ground.
Then the doctor says that he canβt find any blockages in any major arteries. He removes the victimβs heart, saying it looks pretty damn healthy.
Haha he hands the heart to Dean to hold, and Sam gets sprayed with spleen juice! Gross.
At the sheriffβs office, Sam and Dean meet the sheriff (who makes them take off their shoes before entering his office). He introduces himself (Al Britton) and after shaking their hands, loads up on hand sanitizer.
Sam says theyβre looking into the death of Frank OβBrien (the dead guy from earlier). Turns out heβd been a friend of the sheriffβs. Theyβd known each other since high school and says Frank was a good man.
Sam asks if he noticed Frank acting strange before he died. The sheriff says he was jumpy and wouldnβt answer his phone. When he sent some of his officers to check up on him, they found his body.
The sheriff starts to cough and uses some more hand sanitizer. A lot more. He wants to know why the FBI is interested. Dean says theyβre just checking, and it was probably just a heart attack.
In the next scene, as Sam and Dean are heading to the car, Dean says thereβs no way that was just a heart attack. Sam agrees, noting that they have three victims with the same red scratches and who all went from jittery to terrified to dead within 48 hours.
Dean figures something scared the victims to death and they try to determine what can do that.
βWhat canβt?β Dean asks, listing ghosts, vampires, chupacabraβ¦it could be a hundred things.
Sam says they should make a list and start crossing things off. They figure theyβll go talk to the victimβs neighbour, the last person to see him alive. Dean stops Sam. βI donβt like the looks of those teenagers down there.β Sam looks. Itβs 4 kids hanging out on the sidewalk by the car. Dean takes an alternate route.
We see the boys at the victimβs neighbourβs house β it seems he is a fan of snakesβ¦and Dean seems nervous.
They learn that the victim was freaking out and Dean, after taking a moment to look around in fear, asks what scared Frank.
The neighbour tells them: witches. But he means the bad witch from The Wizard of Oz. And it turns out that wasnβt the only thing that scared him: Al-Qaeda; ferrets; artificial sweetener; Pez dispensersβ¦
Sam asks what Frank was like and his neighbour doesnβt want to speak ill of the dead. He hesitantly says that Frank was a bully in high school.
Dean asks if anyone would have wanted to get revenge on Frank. The neighbour says no, Frank got better, and after what happened to his wife β she died 20 years ago and Frank was broken up about it.
The neighbour notices Dean staring at the snake heβd holding. He laughs, telling him not to be scared of this snake, Donny. βItβs Marie you gotta look out for. She smells fear.β
Then we see Marie slither over the back of the couch behind Dean and start to climb over him. That is a big snake!
Β Later we see Dean sitting in the car, scratching at his arm. Sam gets in the passenger side. Dean tells Sam what he learned about Frankβs wife, Jessie. She had manic depression and back in 1988 she went off her meds, and vanished. Her body was found two weeks later, three towns over, dead in what was deemed a suicide.
Sam asks if there was any chance that Frank had something to do with her death. Dean says no, he was working when Jessie disappeared and had an airtight alibi.
Sam, meanwhile, had been to Frankβs place. He didnβt find any EMF, hex bags, or sulphur, ruling out ghosts, witches, and demons.
Sam notices that Dean is driving the speed limit. Very unlike Dean.
They pass the motel and when Sam points it out, Dean tells him, βIβm not going to make a left-hand turn into oncoming traffic. Iβm not suicidal.β
Sam stares at him.
βDid I just say that? That was kind of weird,β Dean remarks.
Sam asks Dean if he hears something. His EMF meter! Itβs going nuts but as Sam moves it away from Dean it dies down. He moves it back towards Dean and it starts going off.
βAm I haunted?β Dean asks.
Later we see Sam approaching the motel, getting off the phone with Bobby, telling him to keep looking. He hears music. He turns and sees Dean in the car, βEye of the Tigerβ playing.
[Note: the end of this episode has the full video of Jensen Ackles rocking out to this song. It is very worth watching so I’ve embedded it here for your entertainment!]
Sam goes over to him and Dean gets out of the car, showing Sam the scrapes on his arm. Sam says he just talked to Bobby and Dean wonβt like this: itβs ghost sickness.
Dean doesnβt know what that is.
Sam says that some cultures believe that certain spirits can infect the living with a disease. Itβs why they stopped displaying bodies in houses and started taking them to funeral homes. Symptoms of ghost sickness include: getting anxious, then getting scared, then really scared, then your heart gives out. Just like their victims.
Dean says they havenβt even seen a ghost in weeks. But Sam says ghost sickness spreads like any sickness β a cough, handshake, whatever. Frank was the first to die and probably the first infected. He infected the other victims during a softball tournament. And Dean likely got it from Frankβs corpse.
Sam says Dean probably has 24 hours until his heart gives out. Dean asks why him and not Sam, who did, after all, get hit with spleen juice.
Sam says that he and Bobby have a theory: all three victims were dicks. They all used fear as a weapon and this disease is returning the favour. Dean says he doesnβt scare people, but Sam responds: βDean, all we do is scare people.β
Dean asks how they stop it, and Sam tells him they have to kill the ghost who started it all. They think it might be Frankβs wife.
Sam then asks Dean what heβs doing waiting out in the car. Dean tells him their room is on the fourth floor. βItβs high.β Sam says heβll try to get them a room on the ground floor.
Back in their room, Dean stares at the clock, and as it ticks, he notices his heart beating. As he looks at an old book with some gruesome pictures about ghost sickness, he begins to have hallucinations.
Sam comes back into the room to find the clock ripped off the wall and broken on the floor, and Dean drinking a beer on the couch. Sam says that Jessieβs body was cremated, so she is not their ghost. He tells Dean to stop scratching at his arm.
Dean coughs, and canβt stop. He runs to the sink and coughs something up. Sam realizes that Dean is their biggest clue.
βI donβt wanna be a clue.β
Sam says the abrasions on Deanβs arm and the wood chip he just coughed up are clues. They drive out to a lumber mill.
Dean takes a look and says he is not going in there but Sam says he needs backup and Deanβs all heβs got. Dean takes a gulp of some sort of alcohol and opens the trunk.
βItβs a little spooky, isnβt it?β he asks Sam. Sam rolls his eyes.
They grab some weapons. Sam goes to hand Dean a gun and Dean wonβt take it, saying it could go off. βIβll man the flashlight.β
Inside the mill, Dean keeps close to Sam while Sam looks around. Samβs EMF reader is lighting up. They realize the EMF wonβt work with Dean around. Sam puts it away.
He bends down to pick something up β an engraved ring. Frankβs ring. Dean asks what Frank was doing out here.
As they move slowly down a dark hallway, they hear a noise. They approach a set of lockers and Sam gets ready to open it. Dean looks so nervous. When Sam opens it and a cat jumps out, Dean loses it and screams.
βThat was scary!β
This clip is a classic!
They keep looking around and find an office. Sam looks at the papers on the desk and Dean notices something: a pass for an employee named Luther Garland, and a drawing of Frankβs wife Jessie.
Suddenly the machinery turns on! Creepy!
Then Dean sees a ghost β Luther, in the corner. Sam turns around and sees it too. He slowly approaches Luther and calls out to him. When Sam turns back to Dean, we see Dean running away in fear!
Sam turns back just in time to see Luther walking towards him, his face scraped up. Sam shoots him with a rocksalt round and the ghost dissipates.
Sam finds Dean crouched by the trunk of the car drinking. He holds up Lutherβs employee pass, saying theyβve got the right place. Dean looks very scared.
Back at the sheriffβs office, Sam gets the file on Luther Garland. Dean stands behind him, swaying.
βIs he drunk?β the deputy asks Sam, who replies no (but clearly yes).
Sam reads the file, saying that according to its contents, Luther Garlandβs cause of death was physical trauma. He asks what that means, but the deputy says that it happened 20 years ago, before his time. He doesnβt know anything more. Sam asks if they can talk to the sheriff, but he is apparently out sick.
Sam says to have the sheriff call and he takes the file with him.
After they leave, we hear the sheriff on the intercom to the deputy asking who it was. The deputy tells him it was the FBI guys, wanting the Luther Garland file. So the sheriff isnβt out sick after all.
We see him in his office scratching up his arm, loading his gun. He is hallucinating and it is not good.
Sam and Dean arrive at their next location, with Dean freaking out, telling Sam their plan wonβt work. Their badges are fake. If they get busted, they could go to jail! Sam is impatient, telling Dean to calm down and take a deep breath and not to scratch.
They approach Luther Garlandβs brother, saying theyβd like to ask some questions about Luther. They show their ID and Dean is super nervous as the man inspects them.
He asks what they want to know about his brother. Sam says that according to the police report, Luther died of physical trauma. His brother laughs. He says that it doesnβt matter what he thinks but Sam says theyβre trying to get the truth.
He says everyone was scared of Luther and called him a monster, he was too big, too mean looking, too different. It didnβt matter if he was kind or never hurt anyone. A lot of people failed his brother, including him. He was a widower with young kids and told himself there was nothing he could do.
Sam shows him the drawing of Jessie. He recognizes her and says that her husband Frank killed her. He said everybody knows. Jessie worked at the mill and she was always really nice to Luther. He had a crush on Jessie and Frank didnβt like that. When Jessie went missing he was sure that Luther had done something to her. Jessie killed herself but Frank didnβt know that.
We see a flashback of Frank coming at Luther with a gun, attacking him and chaining him behind his car, dragging him to his death. Frank was never arrested because Frank was buddies with the right people and Luther was just a freak.
Sam says he must have hated Frank. Luther’s brother says he did for a while, but life is too short for hate. And Frank wasnβt thinking straight, with his wife missing. It was a shame what he did to Luther, but thatβs fear: it spreads and spreads.
As they leave, Dean says he knows what the scrapes are on his arm: road rash. And Luther probably swallowed some wood chips when he was being dragged behind Frankβs car.
Sam says it makes sense β Dean is experiencing his death in slow motion. Dean says they need to burn Lutherβs bones and get him healthy, but Sam says it wonβt be that easy: Lutherβs body was ripped to pieces and thereβs no way theyβll find all of his remains. But theyβll figure something else out.
Dean starts to lose it: βWhat are we doing?β
Sam: βWeβre hunting a ghost.β
Dean: βA ghost? Exactly. Who does that?β
Sam: βUs.β
Dean: βUs. Right. And that, Sam, thatβs exactly why our lives suck. Come on, we hunt monsters! What the hell? Normal people, they see a monster and they run, but not us, no no no, we search out things that want to kill us or eat us. You know who does that? Crazy people! We are insane! Then thereβs the bad diner food and the skeevy motel rooms and the truck stop waitress with the bizarre rashβ¦I mean, who wants this life, Sam? Seriously! Do you actually like being stuck in a car with me eight hours a day every single day? I donβt think so! I mean, I drive too fast and I listen to the same five albums over and over and over again and I sing along, Iβm annoying, I know that, and youβ¦youβre gassy! You eat half a burrito and you get toxic! You know what? You can forget it.β
Dean tosses the car keys to Sam. Sam calls after him and Dean says heβs done with hit. Heβs out, heβs done, he quits, and he walks away.
Then we see Dean walking down the road alone, and he hears a noise. He turns around and sees the adorable little dog behind him from the beginning of the episode.
Next we see Dean sweating and out of breath in their motel room. Sam walks in, saying he looked everywhere for him.
Dean asks what they do now. Heβs got less than four hours. βIβm gonna die, Sammy.β
βYeah you are,β Sam says. βYouβre going back.β
βBack?β Dean asks.
Downstairs, Sam tells him. βHell. Itβs about damn time too. Truth is, youβve been a real pain in my ass.β
Deanβs vision is getting a bit blurry and we can hear his heart beating faster. As he looks at Sam, his eyes go yellow. Startled, Dean gets up but Sam puts out a hand and Dean is thrown back against the wall.
Dean yells at the demon to get out of his brother but Sam says no one is possessing him, this is what he is going to become. Itβs what he wants to become, and thereβs nothing Dean can do about it. He puts a hand around Deanβs neck.
Suddenly we see Sam calling Deanβs name, trying to get his attention. So that was all a hallucination.
Next we see Sam and Bobby meeting up on the side of the road somewhere. Bobby asks where Dean is and Sam tells him home sick. Bobby!!
We see Dean in the motel, watching Gumby and scratching his arm.
Bobby asks Sam if Dean has started hallucinating yet, and Sam tells him yes, a few hours ago. He tells Bobby that Dean has just under two hours. Bobby found an old encyclopedia of spirits β written in Japanese β that lists a ghost that could be what theyβre looking at. A buruburu infects people with fear but you have to burn its remains. The lore says that the ghost is fear, and it can be killed with fear.
βSo we have to scare a ghost to death,β Sam summarizes.
Back in the motel, Deanβs phone rings. Sam tells him heβll be fine and they have a plan. He tells him to hang in there and we see he and Bobby are at the mill. Bobby says this is a terrible plan but Sam says if Bobby has a better idea, heβs listening.
They enter the mill and Lutherβs ghost is there watching.
Dean, in the motel, hears hell hounds barking and clawing at the door. Suddenly the door opens and itβs the sheriff. Dean asks what heβs doing and the sheriff, with his gun drawn, asks why theyβre looking into Lutherβs death. He hits Dean and says Frank was his friend; so he made a mistake; so he didnβt bust him; so what? And Dean is going to bring him down over that? No.
They fight, and Dean throws the sheriff of him, thinking heβs a demon. We see the sheriff start to seize up as his heart starts to beat too fast, calling at Dean to get away from him. Dean tells him to calm down but the sheriff dies.
Back at the mill, Sam enters the office and tells Bobby on the walkie talkie that last time the ghost came right at him. Itβs almost like heβs scared. Sam puts his gun down and says heβs gotta make him angry.
Sam grabs a drawing of Jessie and starts ripping it, calling Lutherβs name. He rips up more drawings and the machinery comes to life again. Sam keeps calling Lutherβs name, and when he turns around, Luther is right behind him. The ghost grabs Sam.
Back at the motel, Dean is scratching his arm and hearing Sam talk about him going back to hell, while hell hounds bark.
Dean picks up a bible but he hears a voice say hi: itβs Lilith! The creepy little girl version, telling Dean itβs time to go back now. Dean tells her she is not real, but she asks whatβs wrong. Doesnβt he remember all the fun he had down there?
Lilith tells him he does remember β four months down there is like 40 years. βLike doggie years.β
Lilith tells Dean, as he grabs his chest, that he remembers every second. He tells Lilith that she is not real but she says it doesnβt matter. Heβs still gonna die and burn.
Dean asks why him, why he got infected, and she tells him he knows why; listen to his heart.
As Dean is panicking, Sam is fighting off Lutherβs ghost. He gets tossed around but manages to wrap a chain around the ghostβs neck and yells for Bobby. We see Bobby drive off and the chain around Lutherβs neck is connected to the back of the car. As Bobby drives off, the ghost is pulled behind him.
Meanwhile Lilith is still tormenting Dean, but as Lutherβs ghost is pulled behind Bobbyβs car, he vanishes and the machinery shuts off. It looks like they saved Dean just in time.
Dean and Sam and Bobby are on the side of the road, with Dean getting the lowdown on what they did to save him while he passes around some beer.
Sam tells him that it was what Luther was most afraid of β pretty brutal though. Sam and Bobby ask how Deanβs feeling and he says fine. Bobby asks if heβs sure β βthis line of work can get awful scary.β Haha Bobby.
Bobby drives off, leaving Sam and Dean together. Sam asks Dean what he saw near the end. He looks at Sam but sees his eyes flash yellow for a second. Woah creepy.
Dean lies. βHowler monkeys,β he says. Sam laughs. Dean says it was just the usual stuff, nothing he couldnβt handle.
Lore:
-ghost
-buruburu
Overall Thoughts:
This episode has some really good moments, including Deanβs speech to Sam about how strange their lives are, and it shows us that yes, Dean does remember his time in hell, and that time was longer down there than it was up here. While Sam and Bobby would have experienced four months passing with Dean in hell, for Dean it felt like 40 years. Thatβs a long time to be tortured.
And it also showed us that one of the things that Dean fears the most is not only Sam becoming some sort of demon, but choosing to become that way. And when he hallucinated Lilith, she told Dean that he knows why he’s been infected by the buruburu, perhaps hinting at something else that Sam (and the viewer) doesn’t know about Dean’s time in Hell.
I do love that Bobby showed up to save the day, because I just love Bobby, but I do think it was really cruel that in order to stop a ghost who was basically misunderstood and tortured to death, they had yo reenact his death. That just didnβt sit well with me.
Overall, this was a good monster of the week episode that sheds some more light on Deanβs time in hell.
