A nervous man is drinking in his living room and the phone rings. It has a caller ID of "SHA33".
'What's got him all shaken up?' Dean questioned.
'Not sure. I don't recognise him.' Sam commented.
He answers and tells the person on the other end, who he calls "Linda", that she can't keep calling him. She begs him to "come to her". He hangs up and she calls again, and he tells her to leave him alone before hanging up.
'Why doesn't he want to talk to her?' Mary questioned, looking confused.
She calls again, so he rips the phone out of the wall, but the phone rings again anyway. Finally, in despair, he pulls out a gun, puts it under his chin and shoots.
'Was that a ghost?' John wondered.
'Nope.' Dean replied.
Dean is on the phone on a bench outside a university. Sam comes over and says the professor doesn't know crap. Dean tells him Bobby told him about a possible case in Ohio, phones going haywire, computers flipping on and off.
'That definitely sounds a lot like a ghost.' Jo commented.
Sam says they're already on a case, his. Dean says they're chasing their tails and he would like to do his job.
'You can't just forget about it though.' Jo added, looking worried.
He hates Sam's idea of summoning Ruby, admitting to him she told him that she can't save him.
'I'm with Dean on this one. That definitely sounds like a bad idea.' Mary added.
Sam is upset over Dean keeping this secret, and Dean calls him out on "who's been keeping secrets from who."
'That's fair.' Sam conceded.
Sam and Dean drive to Milan, Ohio, and talk to the wife of the man who shot himself. She tells them the phone was ripped from the wall, and Sam takes a look at the phone, getting the number. She admits she heard her husband talking to a "Linda," but she listened in and there was no one on another end.
'What? That's impossible.' Jo commented, looking concerned.
In this week's motel room, with the décor of starbursts on the room divider and wallpaper and gold circles on the bedspread and curtains, they figure out that Linda died in a car accident with the man who shot himself.
'How is this not a ghost?' Cas commented.
'You'll see.' Sam replied.
Sam found out the phone number was over a hundred years old, so they visit the phone company.
'Now that is weird.' John commented.
They are taken to the basement by Clark Adams, the manager, and meet Stewie Meyers, a seedy tech downloading porn on the Internet.
'Gross.' Jo commented.
Dean tells the tech that the platinum membership at is worth every penny. Sam asks him to trace the "SHA33" number, and the tech does so after Dean gets tough with him. He finds out that it's been used recently in ten different houses in the past two weeks.
'A ghost can't do that I don't think. Not with a specific number.' Bobby commented.
Sam, in a rental car, pulls up to a house asking if they received any strange phone calls. The dad denies the calls, but the daughter acts suspicious.
'She definitely has had a phone call.' Mary realised.
She goes outside to talk to Sam, and Sam turns on the sympathetic charm to get her to admit that she's been getting calls from her mother who's been dead for three years.
'So whatever it is is impersonating dead people and calling them. I wonder why.' Jo questioned.
Dean calls and tells Sam that he met a woman who's been getting calls from her husband who died in Korea. After he hangs up, Dean gets a call and is shocked to find it's John Winchester.
'What the hell. That's me.' John realised, looking very confused.
Dean tells Sam about the call, and asks what he should say if he calls back. Sam suggests "hello," and Dean gets mad and leaves.
'To be fair that would have been a good place to start.' John commented.
He comes back later to find Sam hasn't had any luck on research. Dean shows him a pamphlet about Thomas Edison. They go to the museum and endure an annoying tour guide using "quoting fingers" in order to see Edison's Spirit Phone, which he supposedly used to communicate with the dead.
'That sounds like it's connected.' Mary commented.
'That tour guide is so annoying.' Cas added.
Sam gets nothing on the EMF and they ask why it would start working now. While Sam is sleeping, Dean gets another phone call from his dad.
'Why didn't you wake me up?' Sam asked.
'Well you and Dad always used to argue whenever you met.' Dean replied.
He asks Dean why he made the demon deal and has a way for him to get out of it. He tells him the demon that holds his contract is there.
'That's good. Mabye you'll be able to get out of it.' John questioned.
Lanie, the girl Sam spoke to earlier, is on the computer and starts getting IMs from her mother. She says she wants to see her.
'That's definitely not a good idea.' Bobby commented.
The screen goes black and the ghostly image of her mother appears in the monitor. Lanie turns the computer off, but "Come to me" starts repeating over and over again on the monitor.
'That's super creepy.' Jo said.
Dean is on the computer, and Sam comes in telling Dean about Lanie. Dean shows Sam weather reports where electrical storms have been everywhere that they have been over the last two weeks and the demon is following them.
'That's not good.' Mary commented.
Sam doesn't believe that, and questions an exorcism Dean has that can kill a demon. He tells Dean he and Bobby already checked it out, and there's no proof it works. Dean says he's waiting on the next call from dad to find out where to find the demon.
'That sounds like a good idea. Then you can kill it.' John theorised.
Sam goes to leave, and Dean berates him for not wanting to help. Sam tells him they have no proof and he's going on blind faith, and begs him not to go anywhere until he gets back.
'That's not going to happen.' John said, smiling.
Sam talks to Lanie at her house. At the same time, her brother receives a phone call from their mother on his toy phone.
'Oh no. He's just a kid.' Mary said, slightly upset.
Dean gets a call from John. Lanie tells Sam her mother wanted her to take all her dad's sleeping pills and told her to come to her. Sam is stunned and tells Lanie that's not her mother.
'Definitely not.' Bobby said, adamantly.
Dean pulls up in front of a house and gets out his duffel bag. Sam tells Lanie not to use the phone or computer, but they discover Lanie's brother is missing.
'Where did he go?' Mary asked.
'You'll see.' Sam replied.
Dean goes into a house, pours holy water and paints a devil's trap. Lanie's brother walks into traffic and steps in front of a moving truck, and Sam yanks him away before he is hit.
'Thank god.' Mary muttered.
Sam calls Dean and tells him it's a crocotta.
'Of course it is.' John said, annoyed that he didn't get it.
'Wait. I never phoned you at this point?' Dean questioned.
'It was the creature.' Sam replied.
Dean mentions the flies at the phone company. Sam goes there and confronts the tech in the basement, threatening to kill him. The boss (Clark) comes from behind and knocks Sam out with a baseball bat. He then knocks out the tech.
'That's not good. How is one of you always being captured?' Jo said, with a smile.
Sam and the tech are tied up in the basement, and Clark has a dagger. He kills the tech and shows his spiky teeth, then sucks the essence out of him, devouring his soul.
'He is so gross.' Jo commented.
Sam figures out the crocotta was on the phone with him impersonating Dean. Clark uses his power to call another guy, mimicking his dead daughter who tells him the guy that killed her is at his house and is going to kill him.
'Isn't that the house that Dean is at?' Cas questioned.
'Yes. He ended up attacking me.' Dean replies.
He then tells Sam how he found out all the information about them through old phone calls and emails while Sam works on freeing himself.
'He's not very smart is he?' Mary said, with a smile.
He also says that people are fools, thinking that they can delete information. The other man comes into his house and shoots at Dean with a shotgun, and then they fight. Clark monologues some more, and then Sam breaks free just before Clark goes to stab him. They fight.
'That was very close.' Mary said, looking worried.
Dean and the other man crash through French doors and the man lands on top of the devil's trap. Dean tries to read the exorcism, the prayer of Saint Benedict of Nursia, an old exorcism prayer that is no longer used by the Catholic church.
'That won't work. He's not a demon.' Cas added.
'Yeah. Shame I didn't know that at the time.' Dean replied.
He utters the first line and part of the second but is inturrupted when the man walks through the trap revealing he's not a demon. Sam and Clark fight over the knife, and Sam slams the back of Clark's head through a metal spike on the wall, killing him.
'Lucky that he liked the sound of his own voice.' Bobby commented.
Dean and the man finish the fight, and Dean tells him he didn't kill his daughter. The man asks him why he is there, and Dean says he doesn't know.
'Because you listened to someone using my voice.' John said, looking guilty.
Sam and Dean meet up at the motel, both looking beat up. Sam tells Dean he was sorry it wasn't Dad, and Dean tells him he was right. He admits he wanted to believe it so bad, and he's scared.
'I should have been there for you guys more. I'm sorry.' John commented.
'We got over it a while ago.' Dean replies, trying to act nonchalantly.
He says it was the last act of a desperate man, he can't expect anyone to show up with miracles, and that the only person that can get him out of this is him.
Both John and Mary looked down guiltily.
Sam replies, "And me," and Dean teases him for such a lame answer. Sam asks if he wants a poem, and Dean gets them both a beer and turns on the TV.