Catching Up, Season Two
Chapter 16 – Playthings
What is he talking about? Sam groaned dismally, "Please don't be what I think this is."
"Oh it is little brother," Dean was practically jubilant. He bounced his way through starting the show which opened on the creaking sign for the Pierpont Inn. Inside, Ms. Thompson, presumably is closing the place and has a hired mover to get rid of some stuff including what appears her daughters' toys. The girls are seen sitting at the top of the stairway clearly upset.
"Could they make it more obvious that other child is a ghost?" Mary scoffed.
"Yeah this is not The Shining," Dean shrugged but brightened when the scene flipped to a collection of dolls. "Hey Sammy…"
"You suck," Sam shifted uncomfortably. Aw Samshine, are you scared? "No." Sam thought petulantly. One of the girls comes and begins to arrange smaller dolls into detailed dollhouses except one seems to move and is found at the bottom of the stairs. At the same time, the mover is found in the same spot in the actual inn, bleeding out, his neck twisted almost 180 degrees.
"Oh I love a good ghost story," Rowena rubbed her hands together.
"More horror movie, less family trauma, I can get onboard," Mary smiled.
"Cas you okay over there?" Dean asked. "You've been really quiet."
"I'm fine Dean, just enjoying the show. I wasn't around for any of this, it's rather fascinating."
The title sequence plays and they catch up with the TV!Winchesters who are unable to track down Ava or figure out more leads on the demon. Turned out, they'd been searching for a month with no luck, TV!Sam thought it was time to do other cases as well, not let others suffer. "A very mature stance Sam," Cas approved.
"Thank you Cas."
"Still makes me uncomfortable."
"No asked you Dean."
"I see Dean's love of Scooby Doo pervades all things," Cas commented on TV!Dean's comparison to the old cartoon. "Especially Daphne."
HA! "What?" Sam asked. I'll tell you later.
The TV!Winchesters check into the inn and Crowley snorted, "Not the first time someone has got the wrong impression of the two of you."
"Yeah a painful amount of people used to think we were a couple back in the day," Dean explained with a wince.
"And now we have destiel," Sam smirked, making Dean and Cas squint-glare at him.
"A vicious triangle of codependency if you ask me," Rowena threw in.
She's not wrong. "Alright enough digs at our perfectly healthy and non-sexual dynamics," Sam said pointedly. The room lapsed into silence as the brothers begin to look around the house, finding hoodoo symbols and the room containing the dollhouse and the dolls, including the one that had it's neck snapped. TV!Sam talks to the owner's daughter Tyler and she says neither she nor Maggie broke it because it would upset Grandma Rose. When the brothers suggest speaking to Grandma Rose, Ms. Thompson, Susan, shuts it down saying her mother is ill. "Not suspicious at all," said Crowley.
Yes pay no attention to the crone under the veil… Sam sent an affectionate mental nudge. In more grave matters, Susan is told that the hotel will be demolished, moments later the solicitor handling the sale hangs in himself in the perfect parody to another doll in the house.
"Oh I'm loving this," Mary wrapped her arms around her legs but then caught herself. "I should feel worse about people dying."
"It's all over and done with, all this is now is a story." Dean assured her, "Besides we have a Sammy as a downer." Onscreen, TV!Sam was drunk and depressed being unable to save anyone. He believes that saving as many people as possible will stop him from turning into a monster like Gordon had previously said he would. He made his brother promise to stop him if he ever does turn.
"You were right the first time Dean," Mary held his hand. "John had no right putting that on you."
You could never be a monster. A warmth draped around Sam's shoulders and he leaned into gratefully. "I thought you said this wasn't The Shining dude." The scene had changed to bar scene very reminiscent of the one from the Overlook.
"Yeah, might have to rethink that."
Director made a good call. Similar but not a one-to-one recreation, good lighting and seg-way, it's a nice touch. "You're a director now?" I could be. In the show, TV!Dean finds out that Grandma Rose had a Creole nanny when she was younger who most definitely would have taught her hoodoo. The following morning, the boys sneak in to try and speak with the elderly woman but they realise she'd had a stroke and couldn't possibly perform the spellwork necessary.
"Not entirely true," Rowena shook her head over the boys getting caught and kicked out. "But the power needed…it's not easily found." Meanwhile, Susan insists that her daughter start, finally officially revealing Maggie to be her imaginary friend.
"What a shock," Mary said blandly.
More ominously however was Maggie saying she didn't like Susan. The Inn was turning on her and the dollhouse playground came to life, mirrored in real life. This distracted Susan from the fact that her car had started on it's own and would have run her over if it weren't TV!Sam and TV!Dean. Susan is still disbelieving but they put together that Grandma Rose was using the hoodoo to keep an evil spirit out – Maggie. It's also revealed that Rose had a sister named Margaret that drowned in a pool. Upstairs, that same spirit was standing in front of Rose, swearing to keep Tyler forever.
"Everyone and their mother can see where this is going," Dean commented.
True to form, cut to the spirit attempting to drown Tyler but then a mysterious voice draws her away in time for TV!Sam to save her. It's shown that Rose had traded her life for Tyler's and mother and daughter left while the spirits of the sisters remained at the inn.
"What became of the place?" Mary asked.
"Heritage site," Sam gave a one shoulder shrug. "What else could Susan do? Any attempt to demolish it would result in more death. So, they converted it into the local town museum plus all the attention from the incidents drew in paranormal investigators and true crime writers to keep revenue up." Life…finds… a way.