Denim-wrapped Nightmares, a Supernatural podcast
Join SPN family newcomers, Berly and LA, as they explore the TV series, Supernatural, episode by episode. Over drinks, they'll discuss lore, gore, and what they adore about the Winchesters and their adventures.
As a way to keep in touch during the 2020 pandemic, Berly and LA started podcasting with their debut, anything-goes talk show, The Tipsy Exchange. During those discussions, Berly and LA realized that they most enjoy talking humorously about TV/Film, mythology, suspense, and hot guys. Supernatural seemed a natural fit. It's a match made in heaven... or hell... you decide!
Now, let's get tipsy! CW/TW for violent and lewd commentary; listeners beware! 🔞
Denim-wrapped Nightmares, a Supernatural podcast
Taxi Driver (8x19)
Berly and LA tackle Supernatural Season 8, Episode 19: "Taxi Driver" - and the episode title should really be "We Told You So" because the hosts called EVERYTHING.
The episode opens with Kevin having horrific hallucinations of Crowley dismembering him on that disgusting houseboat (still not the bunker, Sam and Dean!). The hosts are STILL demanding Kevin get moved to safety, and spoiler alert: he doesn't, which goes about as well as you'd expect.
Kevin deciphers the second trial: rescue an innocent soul from Hell and deliver it to Heaven. The hosts were thrilled at the prospect of seeing both realms, but the 45-minute runtime had other plans. Sam and Dean torture a crossroads demon (after filming the Harlem Shake video at that location - priorities!), who tells them about Ajay, a Reaper who smuggles souls for a price.
Enter Ajay, a "cutie patootie" Reaper taxi driver who agrees to help for the low price of a future favor. He drops Sam in Purgatory (Hell-adjacent real estate!), which leads to the easiest journey ever - one monster fight, a conveniently placed weapon, and boom, he's in Hell. The hosts were suspicious of how smoothly everything went.
The heartbreaking twist: Ajay reveals he took Bobby Singer to Hell. Sam rescues Bobby from his cell (Bobby's ghost skills are on point now!), and they escape back to Purgatory. But Ajay has been killed by Crowley, leaving them stranded.
Cue the tears: Dean calls Benny for help. The vampire who doesn't fit in with humans OR vampires agrees to sacrifice himself, leading Sam through Purgatory to the portal. Benny stays behind to fight off other vampires, choosing to remain in Purgatory rather than return. Berly was SOBBING, noting this was somehow more tragic than if Benny had succumbed to bloodlust.
Sam successfully gets Bobby's soul to Heaven (with Naomi's help - she's maybe not completely evil?), completing the second trial. But back at the houseboat, Crowley captures Kevin after killing Mrs. Tran off-screen (the hosts are NOT okay with these beloved character deaths happening off-camera).
The episode ends with everything gone - Kevin, the tablet, all his notes. The hosts smugly remind everyone they predicted Sam would come around on Benny once he actually met him, and Dean admits he didn't burn Benny's bones, leaving the door open for his return.
Berly and LA were emotionally wrecked by Benny's sacrifice while simultaneously vindicated by their predictions. They're still confused about Naomi's true motives but appreciate finally getting some forward movement on her character.
"I already said goodbye to you once, Sam. Didn't seem to take. No reason to think I won't see you again somewhere down the road."
Sources:
- https://supernatural.fandom.com/wiki/Taxi_Driver
- https://www.buzzsprout.com/2076426/episodes/14802473
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Welcome to Dinner Wrapped Nightmares, a Tipsy Exchange podcast, where we explore the supernatural series episode by episode.
LA:Over drinks, we'll discuss the lore, the gore, and what we adore about the Winchesters and their adventures. I'm Burley, and I'm a new fan of the series. I'm LA, and I'm here along for the ride. Now let's get tipsy. Hello, LA. Hey Burley. Our last episode was Freaks and Games. Sam and Dean investigated some recent vampire kills, and were surprised to learn that Chrissy Chambers was involved. They find her, found out her father was killed, and she's been taken in by a man named Victor, who had taken in a group of orphan kids to teach them how to hunt. Victor is supposedly helping the teenagers find vampires who took their parents so they could get revenge. Sam is intrigued by Victor's method of giving the teenagers a home life as well as a hunting life, but Dean is suspicious of Victor's motives, and rightfully so.
Berly:Okay, so Victor, right?
LA:Like Yeah.
Berly:We didn't think he was an attractive man. Not ugly, but just not an attractive man. No. Definitely an improvement with the not black hair. The not black hair, like emphasized all the wrong things on that man whenever he was in season two. Okay, but not an attractive man. Like neither of us went, like, ooh, oh my god, hot, right?
LA:No.
Berly:So whenever I was making our social posts, I googled the actor's name. Adrian Huff Hugh? How do you say that? H-O-U-G-H? Huff, maybe. Look at this. Oh like what the fuck? Look at you. Like, good for you, Adrian. Yeah. He wasn't old in these episodes, but he was already up there. He already had some fine lines going on or whatever. But fuck. Like, that's Piers Brosnan hot. Like, he's hot.
LA:I wonder when that was taken.
Berly:Age has done Adrian well. And who did you say he was in the seasons before? He was the Steriga. He was like the doctor who pretended to be like a good old doctor trying to deal with the kids. And then it turned out, like, no, he was the witch with like the cloak and the white and like the long fingers.
LA:Oh. I don't remember. I mean, I know I remember what you're talking about, but I can't picture him as it.
Berly:He had like jet black hair, and I said I didn't like his face. And then age heard me and was like, really? Well, let's fix the let's take care of that. He's only 55.
LA:Oh, I would have thought he was a little older than that.
Berly:Right? He must not have been drinking his water or taking care of himself whenever he was on supernatural. Just like us. Right. But look, look what happened now that he is taking care of himself.
LA:I mean, that just tells me we gotta we gotta get our gas our gases, our asses in gear. Yeah.
Berly:Yeah, because goddamn, Adrian, good for you. Anyway, that was last last episode. Yeah, yeah. It was an important plot point that we needed to revisit, guys. Okay, today's episode Taxi Driver. It's the 19th episode of season eight and originally aired on April 3rd, 2013. The episode opens up. Kevin, he's he's on Fizzles Foley. Fizzles Foley again. And you know what, guys? You know what this episode should be titled? We told you so. True. We fucking told you so. We told you just let Sam meet Benny and he would immediately feel differently. Boom. We told you so. And we said, move Kevin into the bunker. What are y'all doing? Leaving him on the boat.
LA:That boat, I mean, I don't know what it is. It just looks grungy and dirty. And so does it.
Berly:Does it feel bad for him? Yeah. Kevin is not going to age like Adrian.
LA:He is not. Not at this rate. And that stress he's got going on.
Berly:Oh my God. But anyway, so the episode opens up. Kevin's in the boat, and it's the middle of the night, and we hear Crawley. I'm happy Crowley is returning to his smart, sinister self. They had him kind of being like almost a humorous villain. What am I looking for? Comic relief. Comic relief villain there for a little bit. He wasn't being his usual smart, menacing little self. And he he's kind of getting back to that now. Yeah. But yeah, Crawley's in his head. And Kevin's looking all around the boat, trying to find him, and he's like, uh-uh-uh.
LA:I like that he looked under the bed. I'm like, come on, Kevin.
Berly:That would have been really funny if he looked under the bed and Crowley's like, ah, yeah, well, yeah.
LA:Yeah.
Berly:Well, anyway, not only is Kevin having auditory hallucinations, which who knows if they're even hallucinations because Crowley does end up showing up at the end. Um, but I'm thinking he's hallucinating at this point because he's hearing Crowley and then he holds up his arm and his hand is completely gone because Crowley was saying, like, oh, the last time you crossed me, I took a finger. What do you think I'm gonna take this time, Kev? And it's like, his hand? And it was a terrible. It was that stub. It wasn't their best. It wasn't their best prosthetic. But that's okay.
LA:It was still startling.
Berly:I was like, oh, right. Agreed, agreed. And then you hear these crazy ass noises, and all of a sudden, he ain't got no legs.
LA:Yeah, he's like out a pool of blood.
Berly:Kevin, you ain't got no legs. Aw, forest. And he all both his arms are missing, both his legs are missing, and he's just upright on the floor, blood everywhere, screaming. And that's the intro.
LA:Yeah.
Berly:Sam and Dean come to see Kevin, not to move him into the bunker. Nope. Nope. No. Even though he's telling them that he's terrified and he doesn't feel safe and he feels like he should relocate. Not once does the even thought of, hey, maybe we should move him into this bunker that's worded from everything on the planet. Not once does the thought even occur to these guys.
LA:I think they're like, we finally have our own place and nobody else is coming in.
Berly:Except for Prometheus and his baby mama and his kit. Yeah.
LA:Yeah. Yeah.
Berly:They were allowed. Okay. Kevin has figured out the next trial. And it involves going to hell to rescue an innocent soul. Which I was like, what the fuck? How are they going to figure that out? Conveniently, they figure it out really quickly. So that's really nice. And they have to deliver that soul to heaven. So I thought we were going to get to see both places, get to see the boys in heaven this time, but apparently not. We didn't know we didn't have time for that. It's a 45-minute runtime, guys. Okay. We did not have time for that today. But because of this trial, Sam and Dean are like, well, we have to do some more research. So, like, Kevin, you just stay here freaking out by yourself, feeling scared and not safe, and and we'll talk to you later. Peace out, Kev. Yeah. Sam and Dean go to a crossroads, and they did a big ass devil's trap. Like that was huge. They were like, We're gonna be sure that we catch this crossroads demon that he doesn't accidentally pop up outside of it. We're gonna make sure it covers the entire crossroads section. They plant it there. He comes out and is just like, oh my god, hi. He was really happy to see them.
LA:Yeah.
Berly:He thought it was really nice, you know, to hang out with them and do whatever. I'm just kidding. They tortured him.
LA:Yeah.
Berly:And this is the episode where the guys did their infamous Harlem Shake video that apparently went viral back in the day. Uh and they did it, they did it in that little crossroads section. I'll have to send it to you. Yeah. It was a very short scene, but another scene was filmed there, just so you know, because I know you are worried about that.
LA:Thank you for clearing that up.
Berly:Yes, the brevity of that scene. Don't worry about it. It was worth it. It was all worth it.
LA:Clearly.
Berly:So he ends up telling them that what did he say? Like, you have to get smuggled.
LA:Yeah.
Berly:Yeah, you gotta go, you gotta go get smuggled. And so they go to see a reaper named AJ. And he's a cutie patootie, but he lets them know, like, oh shit, are y'all here? Like, because I took Bobby to hell. And it's like, what?
LA:Whoa, whoa, whoa. Mm-hmm. Um, when Dean was walking up to him, I swear he called him AJ. And I was like, oh, it's not AJ, it's AJ. AJ.
Berly:I mean, they were they were kind of saying it weird throughout the episode. Is that it? Was that AJ?
LA:No, I I think after a while it was starting to be like AJ, more AJ than Ajay.
Berly:AJ. I thought he was a cutie.
LA:Yeah, I didn't I liked him.
Berly:And he was a taxi driver, so I guess the episode was named after him. So I thought he was gonna be more involved, but not really.
LA:Right? Yeah.
Berly:Sam and Dean interrogate this guy, too, but luckily he's he's open for business. They aren't gonna have to torture him so much.
LA:What did they pay him? Do you remember? Didn't he end up being like you just like Oh, you owe me a favor. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right.
Berly:They don't have to repay that. Exactly. Yeah. That's all it was. I was trying to think. I was like, I didn't write down what the price was. Like, I knew they had to pay something, but no, it was a favor. You're right. At first, Dean is just like, okay, well, asshole. Like, you took Bobby down there. He doesn't belong down there. He's a good guy. So clearly, he's an innocent soul. Perfect pick for what we need to do to complete this trial. So we need two tickets to hell, three return tickets. And Sam is just like, no, Dean. Uh-uh. I have to do these by myself. You can't come with me. It's like he can't just tag along. He was sitting right there when you killed the hellhound. Why can't he physically be there? But whatever. Sam's like, no, I can't do it on my own. Can't even come with me. And so Dean agrees to stay behind for whatever reason. And A-Reluctantly. Yeah, he wasn't happy. He wasn't happy about it. But he did it. He did it. I expected more of a fight. Right. Like he was reluctant, but come on. But I guess it's because Sam's not doing so well, you know. It's it's hard for him already. He's gotta let him grow up, you know. He didn't want to add more stress to this already very stressful situation. True. So Ajay is just like, okay, Sam, follow me into this dark alley.
LA:Yeah, I was like, oh, so the gates to hell is just down an arc dark alley with like really cool graffiti.
Berly:It was really weird at first. Yeah. The graffiti looked really awesome, and I actually really like how they did it. Like, it's the Reaper, so he can get to wherever he needs to go just because he's a Reaper. He's the Reaper Ajay. So it was really cool visual effects. They just kind of dissipated and then they just like smoked in. Like it wasn't even smoke, it was like this I don't know, like a reverse dissipated into purgatory. Sure. I'm doing I'm doing a visual aid here, and you guys can't see it. This is what they did. And I really liked that once they were fully formed, Jared Patalucki did his like classic thing where he's like, oh, like he had just landed somewhere. And it's like I I like there's no way for them to know what the special effects are going to look like. So I'm sure they just started the scene with like, okay, you just landed in purgatory. And so Jared Patalucky's like, oh. I got a little chuckle out of that. Well, Ajay tells Sam, we're in purgatory, not hell. I'm not dumb.
LA:Yeah, I was real confused at first. I was like, wait a minute, it looks a lot of purgatory.
Berly:What do I do here? He's like, I'm not stupid. I'm not like taking you directly to hell. I'm not gonna get caught. Like, I'm already doing something I know I shouldn't be doing. So sorry, you're gonna have to take this shortcut through. Find it yourself. Here's some very vague directions. Good luck. I'll meet you back here at this exact same spot in 24 hours. Later, Sam says he was really specific and said to the minute, I didn't hear that, but whatever. Yeah, yeah.
LA:I liked uh that he said that uh he brought purgatory because it was hell adjacent.
Berly:Yeah. I mean, it is right. Yeah, I mean, yeah. We established that at some point. Oh, Crowley said it at some point. Oh, did he? Yeah, whenever he was pretending like he wanted purgatory for real estate. He said it was hell adjacent. Okay, yeah. AJ, I Ajay, Aj, Aj, just sends Sam on his way and disappears.
LA:But fortunately, it was real easy for him to do this.
Berly:Yeah, it did, it did. And one of those weird ass hacksaw, weird handmade hacksaw blade things were just sitting around. And so Sam was able to just like pick that up. He had his demon knife. Oh, I did forget. Before AJ leaves Sam, AJ like, or Sam pulls out his demon blade, and AJ is like, oh yeah, really good that you have that because it's really dangerous here. There's like monsters everywhere, and they're gonna be attacking you left and right. So it's really good you have a weapon, and then AJ just disappears. Yeah, he's like, Good luck. See ya. Dean goes back to the boat to check on Kevin and he took him nice a nice little lunch tray. I know.
LA:A big burger. Yeah.
Berly:Well, he he needs it.
LA:He does, he does. He needs his comfort food.
Berly:Yeah, and he was did he was he in a closet or his room? Because he called that closet too. And then he called it a room at one point.
LA:Yeah, I was confused.
Berly:And yet again, like he's hiding in a closet. He's in a little storage bay area. Yet again, Kevin is saying, Oh, I just can't wait for this to be over. And Dean has to remind him, dude, I've told you it's never going to be over. Like, this is your life from now on.
LA:Yeah.
Berly:I'm sorry. This like a lot of people have it easier than us, and good for them, but that's it's not us. Like you're a part of this world now.
LA:What did he say? You suck it up, move. I don't know what whatever he said it when he said it, I was like, Oh, it's it's like what I do every day. You just suck it up and keep going.
Berly:Well, for some reason, this is all very comforting to Kevin. And so he's just like, Okay, I will eat after all. And so he takes all the food with him back into his little storage area and shuts the door behind him. And Dean has the audacity to be like, That's my pie. Um, you're not taking him back to the bunker. He's scared for his life. Like, he's let him have the pie.
LA:He deserves it.
Berly:Yeah, he's earned that pie. So we see Sam in purgatory, and you know what, LA? You're wrong. This was a hard journey for him. He did get attacked by a single monster. He had he had that one fight, that one fight that he had to do between the Reaper dropping him off and him Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, so it was hard. Okay. So hard. Take it back. So hard. He took that head off. Mm-hmm. Good thing he found that weird purgatory.
LA:I know it's so convenient.
Berly:Yep. Well, there was that dead body. Ajay did just drop him off right next to that dead body that isn't a body, that is actually a monster's soul. It's because it's daylight, it hasn't become night, and then daylight where all the bodies reset again to go get killed again. Remember, we figured all this out.
LA:Yes, yes.
Berly:I really wish they had done a whole episode in Purgatory. As much as I poke fun at it, I really did like it.
LA:Yeah.
Berly:I had fun with it, and it just looked cool.
LA:I know, I like the the color tones and everything that they used.
Berly:Agreed, agreed. I wish we had gotten more. Sam notices a little cavern area that's covered by a rock. And he's like, hmm, that looks suspicious. And this seems to be the exact area that AJ told me about. And he goes and he pulls the rock really hard and it falls, like sucking in air, and he says, It's a rabbit hole. And the way he said it, I feel like that was supposed to mean something, but it didn't for me.
LA:No, I thought it wasn't.
Berly:Was it relevant?
LA:I mean, I don't I don't think so.
Berly:Maybe it's a reference we don't get. Like the silence of the lambs reference. I'm still like I love that movie. I've been obsessed with that movie, or not so much lately, but I was obsessed with that movie for a while. I'm like seriously still embarrassed that went over my head, that reference. Anyway, back to this episode. Sam just kind of gets sucked in. He just kind of dissipates into the hole. Can Sam dissipate into your hole, LA?
LA:Oh my. Oh my. Yes.
Berly:Well, he is in hell, and hell looks like a dungeon in a castle.
LA:Yeah, it's not great.
Berly:No, not looking good. He takes off his watch and puts it at the top of the column. And I really didn't understand what was going on at first. I was like, what's he doing? Why is he putting that there? Like he doesn't want to count his steps in his hell journey. Like, I don't understand.
LA:These don't count. Why did he do that?
Berly:But I guess he did that so that he could find the alcove area that he needed to go back to in order to get back to purgatory because there were a lot of alcoves, a lot of doors, a lot of cells, and it all looked the same. So good for him. I would have needed something way more obvious than just like the watch up on the little thing for me to find my way back. He goes through, what was it? Three, there's three cells. There's like a really bloodied woman, like burned, skinned, and I don't know what was going on. And she's in shackles, and I didn't understand what she said. And then there was like a dude in a prison cell area. I don't remember what he said either. Um, all of them look like from different times from like previous 20th century times, all of these people that he's walking by. So they've been down there for a while, so they're all kind of crazy. Yeah. As one would do, you know, being in hell for decades or centuries. And then there was one woman who didn't look like she'd been tortured physically at all. Looks like her torture might be more of the mental sort. Oh, yeah. Because she just goes, You've came. I've prayed for this. LA and I pray for Sam Winchester to come too. We get it, girl. And he was like, No, I'm not who, and she's like, Yes, you are. You came. I've prayed for this. I knew you would. I knew you would. And so Sam just kind of okay. We're just gonna talk. Keep it moving. And then here's the other thing. This just it felt, I don't know, it felt set up, right? Like he hardly the AJ thing happens so easily. He just you owe me a favor, they go straight to purgatory, hop, skip, and a jump, you're in a rabbit hole, and now you're in hell, and then you get to Bobby's cell so quickly, and it's open when you get there.
LA:It was, yeah, it was all just like way too convenient.
Berly:So I'm I'm like wondering, is it gonna turn around that this was somehow a setup? Like, does Crowley actually I don't know. I but that doesn't make sense. Something for someone to have been on the inside helping them along, wanting them to accomplish this, would have made all of this make sense. I was like, why was Bobby's cell door open?
LA:I guess because he said he the Sam's and Deans come in come see him all day every day.
Berly:I'm trying to remember whenever Sam turned the corner, did it like show somebody walking away from Bobby's cell or something? I don't think it did. I don't think so. Yeah, so I don't know. But anyway, he walks up and finds Bobby. And at first, Bobby slugs him right in the nose, tells him to get away from me, you black-eyed bastard. And Sammy's like, oh my god, hang on, I'll prove to you it's me. Your deepest darkest secrets that Dean promised to never tell anyone, he actually told me.
LA:Yeah.
Berly:I know about them. I know about your Mall of America pedicure, and I know you love Tori spelling, and that does the trick. Yeah. Bobby is just like, oh my god, it is you, Sam. And Bobby has gotten his ghost shit together in hell because he is able to hug Sam right away. He is able to take that demon blade with no problem. Like he has got it worked out. So they leave the cell. They only have to fight off, like, what was it? Just like one guy. There was a moment. I did giggle at this, where all of a sudden there's two Sams, like one of the demons changed to Sam or something, and they're both telling Bobby, like, no, Bobby, come this way. No, that's not him, Bobby. Come this way. And Bobby stabs the one closest to him, basically, and it's the demon. It does like the electric thing, and the it dies. And Sam was so touched at first, and he's like, You knew, you knew it wasn't me.
LA:Yeah.
Berly:And then Bobby goes, Lucky guess, or something like that. I took a shot.
LA:Sam is offended.
Berly:Right. So they get out of there. Sam knows exactly where he came from because yet again, luckily, he didn't have to go very far. So they get there, he gets his watch, they go through, they get into purgatory, and you would think that they would want to close the door so that people wouldn't be able to easily follow them into purgatory, but no, fuck that noise. Leave that rock right where it was. Let's go. They get right to where the Reaper was, but he's not there. And they're like, uh-oh.
LA:This is a problem.
Berly:This is a problem. Well, rewind, y'all. Turns out that Crawley figured out something was amiss. Did we see how he found out that AJ? I don't think we did. Or was it Naomi? No, she hasn't, she hasn't popped in to talk to him yet.
LA:Okay.
Berly:He finds out somehow. But we do know that he knows something's fucking up. We find we find out later in the episode. He's like, they killed one of my hellhounds for no fucking reason. And now they're breaking into purgatory. You know, something's going on. He knows something's going on. And then he said that his half of the tablet only has the notes from the author and the terms and agreement or something.
LA:Yeah, I thought that was funny.
Berly:I thought that was funny too. He was like, they apparently have the good half of the tablet. But anyway, he found out AJ did that shit somehow. And we know that he has an angel blade handy. So he just went and popped in to visit AJ and took took him out. Just stabbed him. I was got rid of him. I was like, oh. Yeah, me too. Do we have to get rid of him? I thought so too. I thought AJ was gonna be a bigger deal. I know, me too. I really did. I thought he was gonna be around a little bit more. I liked his character.
LA:Mm-hmm.
Berly:Crowley kills him. So that means Sam and Bobby are fucked. Yeah. They're stuck in purgatory. Well, Dean is on Fizzles Foley. He hung out. He stuck around hanging out with Kevin. He's making him breakfast and yelling for Kevin to come out of his closet that he's staying in because he's so terrified. And all of a sudden, Kevin comes walking in through the front door. So I guess Kevin, I guess Dean actually didn't spend the night. He went back to the bunker where he was safe and sound and slept on his memory foam mattress and then came back the next morning to make breakfast for him because he didn't know that Kevin had left. Yeah.
LA:Yeah.
Berly:Yet again, we told y'all so thoughtful. Oh my god. That breakfast looked good though. I love me some scrampled eggs. Right. Kevin says that he hid the tablet. Like he's done what he needs to do. And so he hid it. And Dean was like, where? And he was like, uh, if I told you it wouldn't be hidden very well, now would it? Duh. I'm not gonna fucking tell you, Dean. Kevin goes and locks himself back in his closet. And that's when Naomi pops up. And it's just like, oh my god, me, Dean. You don't know me, but. Yeah, let me introduce myself. I'm Naomi. And he's like, oh my god, Naomi.
LA:I know you.
Berly:Cass said your name whenever he was freaking out and beating my ass. So Naomi is telling Dean that, like, Cass has been off his rocker before, but it was real bad after purgatory. You know, she lost a lot of angels going to save him, and she had to rehabilitate him. You know, she's a good guy. She's on his side. They want to close the gates of hell too. They want to bring Castel back into the fold. Like they both want the same things. What did you think when she was all like, Yeah, but I've noticed that you haven't worded this place against angels. Oh, because you're hoping someone's gonna come back. Yeah, Dean Dean almost seemed ashamed when she said that. I was like, geez.
LA:It is like she caught me.
Berly:But yeah, she's like, I know you don't trust us, but I promise. Like we're on the same side. I could be helpful. And then she leaves. Dean goes to meet up with AJ to get his brother because he's assuming that they're back by now. It's been almost 24 hours. And sure enough, nope, nope, that's not the case. But he does find AJ in the cab and realizes fuck, how am I gonna find another Reaper who's willing to do business with us? Like this was a lucky fucking shot in the dark that we were able to get this. So rather than trying to go get another crossroads demon and doing everything that they did earlier, he decides instead to call in a favor. This was so fucking tragic. Like I thought the tra like I knew Benny's end was going to be tragic no matter what, but I totally thought that he was going to end up caving and feeding on someone because of how he was acting after we saw him the last time, right? Like kind of zoning out, staring at Dean whenever Dean was bleeding, and like I thought that something was gonna happen where he wasn't going to be able to fight off that urge, and that the guys were gonna end up having to hunt him down because of it or something. But this was somehow more tragic, I felt like, than that.
LA:Am I wrong? Well, yeah, because he I mean he sacrifices himself, so and he was so happy to hear from Dean.
Berly:And you could tell it was tearing Dean up, like he was on the verge of tears the entire time he's talking to Benny. Like he did not want to ask Benny to do this, but for whatever reason, he clearly felt like this was his last resort. Yeah. And Benny agrees. Benny agrees, he's like, it's your brother. And then whenever I I first started crying, like I was already tearing up because I realized what was gonna happen and that this probably wasn't gonna go well. But then I was like sobbing whenever he was saying, I don't fit in with the vampires, I don't fit in with the humans. Like, that wears on you. Like I have nowhere to go. And then, of course, I was screaming at my TV at the end whenever Sam was like, No, now that I've met Betty, like I get it. I was like, Ah, that's what we said how many episodes ago? Just let Sam meet him. And not in this weird in the middle of the night, Dean's been lying to me, sneaking off type of situation, like let him really meet him. But anyway, yeah, Benny agrees. And so Dean chops his head off to send Benny to purgatory so that he can lead Sam to that special portal that humans can get through. And I noticed Sam didn't have to step up and over into the portal. He just walked right in, no problem. And at first, oh, whenever Bobby was talking to Sam and was like, Oh my god, Dean was stuck in here for a year. Man, that must have been torture for him, but it must have been torture for you too, you know, trying to look for him for the whole year.
LA:And Sam was just like, uh, oh, about that.
Berly:Yeah. And Bobby was like, Holy fuck, you didn't look for him. And then they get attacked, and Benny shows up, and at first, Bobby is about to attack him, and Sam's like, No, no, no, no, that's one, that's Dean's friend. And Bobby's like, Okay, you sat aside and let Dean sit in purgatory, didn't even try to get him out. But again, he didn't know where Dean was. I still, I still I'm gonna come to Sam's side on that. He had no lead to follow with Dean. How the fuck was he supposed to figure out Dean was in purgatory? Anyway, that's neither here nor there. And then he's shocked that Dean had a vampire friend or whatever, but oh yeah. Then I think then he was like, Okay, you know what? I'm gonna trust him because he's hot. He kind of reminds me of a young version of myself, you know. So we're gonna go with it. We're gonna go with it. And Benny leads them to the portal. He's told Sam how to do the spell. So Sam and Bobby do the spell. Sam tells Bobby, I want you to come in me. And so Bobby does. He comes inside Sam and then he turns around and is like, okay, Benny, your turn. Like Sam wants more. He's like, I want you to come in me too. And Benny says, No, I will not come in you. That was only that was only for Dean. Oh my god, I forgot. Whenever Sam was like, that's Dean's friend, and Benny was like, he like made a face and was like, good friend. I was like, oh my god. Oh my god, Benny, what are you implying, sir?
LA:I mean, they were very um they were very close. Yeah. The I mean, even the conversations were very dramatic about this situation.
Berly:I mean, Benny shaved Dean's face every day in purgatory for a year. How are you not going to become more intimate doing something like that? Yeah, yeah. Benny is like, no, Sam, I will not be coming in you because look. And there's like these three vampires who are walking up that are like, oh my god, Benny, you're with the Winchesters again. This fucking guy. And so Benny's like, go, you need to go. And so he runs off. And Sam's not gonna argue. Like, he just throws Benny the weapon and he goes all the way, climbs up the little mountain thing, and gets all the way to the portal. And then he looks back and starts going, Benny. Yeah.
LA:Benny. I was like, okay, oh, if you're gonna do something, you should have done it.
Berly:I mean, I guess, but I think I think he thought that Benny was just gonna go take care of them real quick and then be right behind them. Yeah, but whenever Sam looks back over his shoulder, there's more, it's not just three vampires anymore. There's more. And so uh Sam gets sucked into the portal. And whenever he goes and meets Dean, you know, he lets him know, like, I'm sorry, like I have Bobby, but I couldn't get Benny. And he straight up told him, even if all those vampires showed up, I don't think he was planning to come with me. I think he was planning to stay. They do the little magic spell that we saw Dean do in the season premiere with Benny to let Bobby out. And he starts floating up, and then all of a sudden, his beautiful blue like soul smoke stuff turns a different shade. It like goes almost smoky and it's like hitting something that we can't really see, but he's like stuck. And so Sam and Dean are like, what the fuck? And they look over and there's Crowley. And he's like Bobby Singer. I recognize that soul. And I don't care how good you've been, you've pissed me off. You've annoyed me. You've killed a fuck ton of my guys. And so if I decide you're in hell, then you're gonna be in hell. We got our wish. We said that we hadn't seen the guys like up against a wall or something, and it wasn't quite a wall, it was giant trees. So they were slammed up, but they were pretty high off the ground. I was like, damn.
LA:Yeah.
Berly:I wonder how they did that, like effects-wise. But we didn't get to see Sam struggling his struggling stuff. We didn't get to see that. I thought we were going to. I was like, oh my god, are we gonna see it? But they didn't show us a lot of that. Naomi shows up and it's just like, hey fucker. And I don't remember what Crowley said to piss her off, but he does. And she's about ready to smite him, and he just disappears. So I guess Naomi's more powerful than Crowley. With Crowley being the king of hell, I thought there would be more, like maybe we would get to see some sort of superpowers fight or something. I don't know. But Crowley just pieces out, yeah. Because he pissed her off. She was about ready to throw down, but then he left. And the boys just fell from the trees. Fell smack down. And I was like, see, I told you you could trust me. And she flop-flop flap-flop is gone. And Sam is like, What? And Dean's like, Don't even. Don't even. Okay, bro. And then Bobby turns. Oh no, Naomi sent Bobby to heaven first. I do need to say that. She does. He turns back to blue and he like goes straight up to heaven. And then she goes, See, I told you you could trust me. And she leaves. Sam says the little incantation or whatever that he has to say at the end of each trial. It seems like this one was more intense. Like he he was screaming and he didn't fall over onto his hand or anything. But we see the light in his hand. He had on long sleeves, so we didn't see it pulse up or whatever. Uh, but that's going on, and Sam's or Dean's just like, oh my God, are you okay? And he's like, No, it's fine, it's fine. I got it. Back at the boat, we see Kevin. He is still, of course, panicking because he can hear Crowley. But then Crowley actually shows up. Like all the windows burst through. So much for Fizzles Foley. Not that it was looking like it was in the best of shape already. No. But you know, it's really fucked now. And uh we find out Crowley had captured Mrs. Tran. Oh, I know. You know, and tried to torture her, and that she refused to tell them where he was, and so they just killed her and looked it up the address in her phone. I was just like, fuck, man.
LA:Poor Kevin.
Berly:All these off-screen deaths for like characters that like you that we fall in love with. No. Frank and now Mrs. Tran. Uh, but I will say, like, I was sobbing, like boohoo crying at this point because of Benny. Oh, poor Benny. And then I'm listening to this Crowley Kevin conversation, like trying to get my shit together. And then whenever Crowley told Kevin that his mom was died, he was like this. No! Like just the way he did it. And I was like, did Crowley like freeze Kevin in place or something that I missed? No, I think he's just like was he not traumatized? He was just traumatized and frozen in fear.
LA:Yeah.
Berly:Okay, but yeah, just the way he did that, he just kind of turned his head just a little bit and just was no. I so I died laughing. I don't know why that cracked me up.
LA:That's funny.
Berly:There's no reason for it, really. But I thought it was funny for some reason. Crowley obviously kidnaps. He ain't there whenever Sam and Dean decide to show up and go check on him. Yeah. Everything's gone. Like everything. All his notes, all his shit, it's all gone. And again, we told y'all. We told y'all to move Kevin into the houseboat, and we told y'all to just let Sam meet Benny. Because, oh, I forgot that part. Dean does end up confessing to Sam that he didn't burn Benny's bones, that he just buried him. And so that's when Sam was like, if you want to leave the door open for Benny, I'm good with that because you're right. Like he's not what I thought he was. And I'm like, motherfucker. This episode I like that they leave it open though, for that he could possibly come back. I hope he does. I don't think he does. Oh, really? But I hope he does. Yeah. This episode was written by Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross Lemming, and it was directed by Guy Norman B. All right, gore. There was quite a bit of gore in this episode. We had the Kevin scene at the beginning.
LA:Yeah.
Berly:And then all the people in hell. It was just a lot of fake blood. A lot of blood. Yeah. Going on there. I can't think of any other gore particularly. Well, there's like the blood all over the ground after Dean killed Benny. That decapitation. I'm happy they didn't like show it, show it. Like they showed him. I like I would I did not want to see that with our little Benny boy. Yeah. Like normally I like it when they do the cool decapitations or whatever, but I did not want to see that with Benny. Oh, I didn't want to see Ty Olson's head. Ty Olson can't come off his body. Right. Yeah. I was about to say, let me rephrase that. Because maybe there's a way to put that sentence where I would want to see it, but no, don't want to see his head on the floor.
LA:No. Did you adore anything about this episode? Well, I I'm sure same as you, Ben seeing Benny.
Berly:Benny, oh, like I said, my heart's broken. I know. But I knew it was going to be a tragic end for him. I mean, he was a tragic character from the jump. Um, so I knew that. But yeah, it was good to see him. I'm glad they didn't just like have him just be abandoned and never come back and tie that up. Yeah. Um, and while it's tied up, I'm also in agreement with you. I'm happy that it's open that maybe he's gonna come back in a future season or something. I don't think we're gonna have him back this season because we're already on episode 19. Yeah, true. We've only got four left. It just seems like there's too much stuff that we need to tie up that he wouldn't really play a part in.
LA:Yeah.
Berly:With Naomi and closing the gates of hell and Castieel and this angel tablet thing is still hanging around out there. Like there's just too much to tie up. So I don't think we'll see him this season. And it was it was well paced. I enjoyed the pacement uh pacing of the episode. Like I said, there was a cup there were a few things that just were too easy and almost kind of took me out of the story because they were just too easy. Yeah. But again, I just I feel like something's going on behind the scenes. I don't know. There has to be. There has to be something that hasn't been revealed yet. I feel like it could be way off though. I'm happy we're finally getting like some answers with Naomi. True, yeah. Like she she wants them. She's like, I you know, I'm keeping y'all around. Like the I didn't understand what she was saying whenever he said Castell told you to kill me, and that she was like, Yeah, he would take it that way. Girl, we saw your little training center where you had him kill Dean over and over and over again. I was like when she said that, I was like, what other way would he take it? I don't feel like this was a miscommunication on Castille's part, you know? But now she's saying we want the gates of hell closed. Like we want you guys to do what you're doing. So I'm just I'm I'm still very confused with Naomi, but at least it's not so mysterious now. At least she's like speaking more and doing more, and like it feels like we're even though we don't really know much more about this fucking bitch, like it feels like it's moving forward a little bit. So I like that too. All right, what about lore?
LA:Well, we are going to recycle a purgatory lore from season six, episode 10, caged heat.
Berly:While use of the word purgatory as a noun appeared perhaps only between 1160 and 1180, giving rise to the idea of purgatory as a place. The Roman Catholic tradition of purgatory as a transitional state or condition has a history that dates back even before Jesus Christ, to the worldwide practice of caring for the dead and praying for them, and to the belief found also in Judaism, which is considered the precursor of Christianity, that prayer for the dead contributed to their afterlife purification. There was a single sentence. Long one. It was a long one. That wasn't even all of it. There was like a little parentheses part in it that I decided to leave out because the sentence is too damn long. Anyway, the same practice appears in other traditions, such as the medieval Chinese Buddhist practice of making offerings on behalf of the dead who are said to suffer numerous trials. However, for the purpose of today's lore, we are going to focus on the idea of purgatory as a place. In the birth of purgatory, Jacques Legoff or Jeff, who knows? We know who knows, okay, attributes the origin of the idea of a third other world domain, similar to heaven and hell called purgatory, to Paris intellectuals and sisterian monks at some point in the last three decades of the 12th century, possibly as early as 1170 through 1180.
LA:Do you care if you got words wrong? Which one did I get wrong? It's Cistercian. And I only know that because my stepsister went to a school.
Berly:I was about to ask, how did you know that, male? That's the only reason I know. Okay, Cistercian monks. I learned something new today. I thought that they misspelled Caesarean. No, you didn't know that.
LA:No, when you said that, I was like, that sounds right, but then I looked at the word and I was like, wait a minute, that's Cistercian.
Berly:Now previously, the Latin adjective purgatorious, as in Purgatorius ignis, cleansing fire, existed, but only then did the noun purgatorium appear, used as the name of a place called Purgatory. Robert Bellermine also taught that purgatory, at least the ordinary place of expiation, is situated in the interior of the earth, that the souls in purgatory and the reprobate are in the same subterranean space in the deep abyss, which the scripture calls hell. Reprobate, that word is making me think of uh who framed Roger Rabbit. I don't remember why they're having some sort of argument. Roger thinks that they're talking about prostate, and the detective guy is like, not prostate probate.
LA:Oh, that sounds vaguely. Yep, yep.
Berly:I can't remember the. I can't remember the it totally popped in my head. I said reprobate, and I heard in my head, like, not prostate probate.
LA:That's funny.
Berly:The change happened at about the same time as the composition of the book Tracatus di Purgatorio Sancti Pantrici. An account by an English what is it? Cistercian. Cistercian of a penitent knight's visit to the land of purgatory reached through a cave in the island known as Station Island or Saint Patrick's Purgatory in the Lake of Lou Derg, County Donegal, Ireland. There you go, Crowley. Why are you torturing monsters? Right? It's right there. Get in the cave. Just Google it. Get in the cave or the lake. Legoff said his book occupies an essential place in the history of purgatory, in whose success it played an important, if not decisive, role. One of the earliest depictions of St. Patrick's Purgatory is a fresco in the Covenant of San Francisco in Todiumbria, Italy. Whitewashed long ago, the fresco was only restored in 1976. The painter was likely Jacopo Domino del Palacio. And the date of the fresco is around 1345. Wow. Purgatory is shown as a rocky hill filled with separate openings into its hollow center. Above the mountain, St. Patrick introduces the prayers of the faithful that can help attunate the sufferings of the souls undergoing purification. In each opening, sinners are tormented by demons and by fire. Each of the seven deadly sins. What's that first one? I'm happy you got stumped on that one too. Avaris, envy, sloth, pride, anger, lust, gluttony. Okay, so anger, I'm guessing, is wrath. Gluttony, pride, sloth, envy. Is greed listed? No. Greed. Greed. Okay. We learned a new word today.
LA:Huh.
Berly:Anyway, each of the seven deadly sins has its own region of purgatory and its own appropriate tortures. Legoff dictates the final chapter of his book to the Purgatorio, the second canticle of the divine comedy. I really should have gone through here with a thesaurus and changed out some of these damn words. No. A poem by 14th century Italian author Dan Dante Alighieri. He's gonna bring that up. Well, Alpha Vamp brought up Dante. Oh, that's right. Remember, he's like, uh, not doing all good, not caught up on our Dante boys. In an interview, Legoff declared, Dante's Purgatorio represents the sublime conclusion of the slow development of purgatory that took place in the course of the Middle Ages. The power of Dante's poetry made a decisive contribution to fixing in the public imagination this third place, whose birth was, on the whole, quite recent. Dante pictures purgatory as an island at the antipodes of Jerusalem, pushed up in an otherwise empty sea by the displacement caused by the fall of Satan, which left him fixed at the central point of the globe of the earth. The cone-shaped island has seven terraces on which souls are cleansed from the seven deadly sins or capital vices as they ascend. Additional spurs at the base hold those for whom beginning the ascent is delayed, because in life they were excommunicated, indolent, or late repenters. At the summit is the Garden of Eden, from where the souls, cleansed of evil tendencies and made perfect, are taken to heaven. The Catholic Church has included in its teachings the idea of a purgatory rather as a condition than a place. On the 4th of August in 1999, Pope John Paul II, speaking of purgatory, said, The term does not indicate a place, but a condition of existence. Those who, after death, exist in a state of purification are already in the love of Christ, who removes from them the remnants of imperfection as a condition of existence. Whenever Sam was about to tell him to come inside him, Sam said there wasn't going to be time for goodbyes whenever they got up top. And Bobby said, I already said goodbye to you once, Sam. Didn't seem to take. No reason to think I won't see you again somewhere down the road. But if they give me a rocking chair up there, I'm raising hell. It was a fun we forgot Bobby. We adored Bobby too. Oh, yeah. That was a fun cameo. I was not expecting that the hell that Bobby was gonna be in hell. Like that was, yeah, it was wonderful to see Jim Beaver.
LA:I agree, yes.
Berly:He was fantastic. Okay, now cheers. Cheers.
LA:Thank you for listening to Denim Wrapped Nightmares. Follow us on Twitter or Instagram, leave a review, and let us know how we can get involved in the fandom. This was fun. Jerks. It always is.
