2.8 "Crossroad Blues"
1938, we see the legendary bluesman Robert Johnson, arguably the best guitar player who ever lived, as the devil chases him for his soul. Naturally this ties in with the legend that Johnson met the Devil at a crossroads and pledged to him his soul, in return for being able to play the guitar like nobody else. Seems Satan has come to collect. Present day, Dean and Sam are reading a report about a man, Sean Boyden, who plummeted to his death from the top of a high-rise condo, having said he was being pursued by a big black dog. The brothers know that there is lore existent about Black Dogs; in some cultures they're vengeful spirits, in others death omens (seeing a link back to the previous episode?). They interview Boyden's partner, who tells them that Boyden was an amazing architect, but seemed to have picked up the skill almost overnight. One night he went to a pub called Lloyd's, unable to build a dog kennel, the next he's working on a huge commission and designing like Frank Lloyd Wright.
Posing as animal control officers, the brothers check out all the reports of stray black dogs in the area, finally ending up at the house of a Dr. Sylvia Pearlman. She however has gone somewhere and the maid does not know where. A photograph of her in the house though shows her at Lloyd's bar, and the maid confirms that Dr. Pearlman is the youngest chief surgeon ever, at just over forty years old. Another overnight success. She apparently landed the position ten years ago, so that would have been when she was in her thirties. Unheard of in the medical profession.
Cut to a hotel room, where the now very scared doctor appears to be hiding, huddled on the bed. The man outside the room looks oddly doglike as his face elongates and changes. Dean and Sam pay a visit to Lloyd's, which just happens to be built at a crossroads, and where yellow flowers called yarrow are growing. The boys know that these particular flowers can be used in summoning rituals. Things are beginning to add up. Walking to the centre of the crossroads Sam digs down a little and finds a metal box, inside which is what looks to him to be a bone from a cat, graveyard soil and some smaller boxes. This is serious summoning magic. The boys now know that they are not in pursuit of Black Dogs, but Hellhounds. People are coming here to the crossroads, to Lloyd's where they are making deals with demons. Back at Dr. Pearlman's room, time runs out for her as an invisible attacker smashes down the door and takes her.
Back to 1930, and we see Robert Johnson making his deal with the demon, which takes the form of a beautiful woman in white. He asks her to make him the greatest blues guitar player ever. She agrees, and disappears. In the present, Dean remarks that in order for such a deal to be struck the photograph of the person petitioning must be included, so they go in to Lloyd's to see if they can find a photo of the man they're looking for. They track him to an apartment building, where they see (with a wry shake of the head) black powder scattered outside the door: pepper won't keep out spirits, you have to use salt, we all know that. The man, George Darrow, pretends not to know what they're talking about when they mention Hellhounds, but when they push he lets them in. He tells them that he asked for talent --- and indeed, they can see he's become quite an artist --- but forgot to stipulate successful too. Now he's just another great artist who never has been and never will be discovered.
He's despondent, and ready to give up his soul, but he tells the boys that after he made his deal the demon stayed around making more compacts, and apart from Bowden and Pearlman there was one other guy, an Evan Hudson. Unable to convince him to try to let them save him, they reluctantly leave him to his fate and go to try to locate the final dealmaker. They learn from him that of all the four he was the least selfish, making the deal so that his wife, who was dying from cancer, could live. Dean still thinks it was an irresponsible thing to do, and gets really heated, but Sam calms him down. Dean says he's going to go to the crossroads and summon the demon, to try to trap it. Sam says he knows what Dean is thinking: he believes their father made such a deal, and this is why he's so angry about what Evan has done.
Dean summons the demon, who comes to the car but sees the Devil's Trap. She snarls at Dean that he's just like his father, trying to sacrifice his life for that of another. Now Dean knows for sure that John Winchester did indeed make that deal to save his son. The demon tells him that she could bring his father back in exchange for his soul after ten years, but Dean has been delaying all this time in order to lure her into a second Devil's Trap. With her trapped, Dean offers the demon the chance to escape if she will break the contract she has made with Evan, but she refuses, so he begins the exorcism. At the last the demon agrees to release Evan, but when she goads Dean about the agony his father is in he changes his mind and exorcises her.
Now the fate of their father is on his mind, and he will not rest until he has saved him and returned him to the land of the living, even if he has to descend into the very depths of Hell itself to do so.
MUSIC
Robert Johnson: “Hellhound on my trail”
Robert Johnson: “Crossroad blues”
Son House: “Downhearted blues”
Big Bill Broonzy: “Key to the highway”
Brian Tichy “Chaos surrounds you”
Nazareth: “Hair of the dog”
(You probably wanna watch
this video even if you hate the music...!)
PCRS
Dean doesn't know what Myspace is. He asks Sam is it a porn site?
Dean mentions “babes in Princess Leia bikinis”. No need to explain that one, I think.
Dean says “this house ain't going to be featuring on “MTV Cribs” any time soon. (The show on MTV where famous people invite the cameras in to see how they live. Rich bastards!
)
Dean also mentions “Let's Make A Deal”, an American sixties gameshow.
Dr. Pearlman stays in The Baskerville Motel, an obvious reference to the Arthur Conan Doyle novel starring Sherlock Holmes, which was all about a huge dog believed to be possessed of supernatural powers.
Dean says “Man I'm like Dillinger or something!” (Referencing notorious American bankrobber John Dillinger, who lived in the 1930s, another tie in to Robert Johnson's time).
BROTHERS
Sam is worried about Dean. We still don't know what John whispered in Dean's ear before he died, but it obviously wasn't a confession as to his making a deal with the demon for his son's life, and neither of the boys seem to know for sure, until now, that that is what happened. But when Dean sees the crossroads and realises people are making deals here, he thinks about his father and although ostensibly he goes there to help free Evan from the demon contract, he seems really to be thinking about making his own deal to get his father back. Sam thinks he realises what his brother is doing, but doesn't say anything in case he makes things worse, trusting Dean not to be that stupid.
But when the demon tells him that his father sacrificed himself for him, Dean seriously considers making the deal, with the sweetener that he will still have ten years left to enjoy with his family. At the last he pulls back, but we have to wonder if he was really going to go through with it. His anger at the stupidity and selfishness of the four people (five, if you include Robert Johnson, but who knows how many have made that deal down the decades?) is more directed at his father; he can't really believe, but can't not believe that his dad would make a deal to save his life. Dean knows he should have died --- the demon tells him so --- and feels he has cheated fate, replacing his death with his father's, and of course he feels terrible.
WISEGUY
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Dean still finds time to crack wise, particularly to the demon, when he quips “I usually like to be warned before I'm violated with demon tongue. ”
When the demon offers him the deal, he asks her “You think you could maybe throw in a set of steak knives?”
The ARC of the matter
Not a huge amount of arc material here to be fair, but the question that's been on both Sam and Dean's minds, and the answer to which we've all surely guessed a long time ago, surfaces here again, with perhaps proof, though who can believe a demon, even if she does look that hot? She could be lying, and she certainly takes pleasure in Dean's tortured face when she describes the torments John is apparently going through down in Hell, but is it the case or is she just messing with his mind? The fact that people are dealing with her --- or others of her kind --- here and who knows maybe other places too, is worrying. Once you sell your soul to a demon you're theirs, and you'd have to wonder what happens after they collect?
And why do they want souls anyway? Sure, there's the obvious, but considering what we've been told, or what's been hinted at, can they be gathering up as many mortal souls as they can to fight on their side in the war that's looming?