Thinman (9x15)

Ghostfacers, Slender Man & the Internet's Darkest Urban Legend

A teenage girl is taking selfies and there is something behind her with no face... and a receding hairline. Odd choice.

This week the Ghostfacers are back! Ed and Harry roll up in their van chasing clout, filming crime scenes, and generally behaving in ways that have Berly and LA deeply conflicted about two characters they used to love. Meanwhile Sam and Dean are investigating what looks like a monster but turns out to be something far more human and far more depressing. The villains this week murdered people over a declined PTO and an unanswered date request, yet somehow that still isn't the most upsetting thing about this episode.

The lore covers Slender Man: where he came from, why he works, and why this episode has almost certainly been quietly pulled from syndication. It started as a Photoshop contest in 2009. It did not stay there.

Drop a comment with your thoughts, and if you're enjoying the show, a review helps other fans find their way to the bunker. See you next week. Jerk. Bitch.

Sources:

• https://supernatural.fandom.com/wiki/Thinman
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender_Man
• https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27776894
• https://techcrunch.com/2014/06/30/the-story-of-slenderman-the-internets-own-monster/ 

Transcript

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Berly 0:01

Welcome to Denim Wrapped Nightmares, Tipsy Exchange podcast, where we explore the supernatural series episode by episode.

LA 0:10

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 to Hello LA.

Berly 0:26

Hey Burley. Our last episode was titled Captives. In that episode, Sam and Dean were stunned to discover the Men of Letters bunker is haunted. Their investigation led them to a storage facility owned by Crowley. So of course, demons were working there, and they were keeping hidden a prize possession. It was Mrs. Tran. But thankfully, Kevin told Sam and Dean about Mrs. Tran still being alive and how they could find out where she was so they could save the day. Meanwhile, Castiel was captured by Bartholomew. And things didn't end so well for Bart.

LA 1:09

Alright, well, today's episode is titled Thin Man, but stylized as hashtag Thin Man. And it is the 15th episode of season 9, and it aired on March 4th, 2014.

Berly 1:22

I am curious, which we'll get to this in the lore, but on TNT or other places where Supernatural has been syndicated for years, I imagine this episode has been pulled or had been pulled. It's not syndicated on shows like networks like that anymore, I don't think. But I'm curious to go and look and see on Amazon Prime if this episode is even an option anymore. You would think. I'd be curious. Yeah. We'll have to go check that out.

LA 1:52

Well, back to it. Uh well, we start out in Springdale, Washington, and this teenager girl teenage girls' room. And she's, of course, taking thousands of selfies to get that w right one perfect post. You know, her MySpace. Yes. But as she's taking pictures, she goes to check them, and there's a creepy, creepy figure behind her.

Berly 2:18

It made me think of Dick Tracy. And so I wanted to be like, don't worry, girl, it's just Madonna. It was not Madonna, no. Because it didn't have a face.

LA 2:27

No. That's not why it wasn't Madonna.

Berly 2:30

It didn't have a face, but it did have a receding hairline.

LA 2:33

Yeah. Odd choice.

Berly 2:35

Odd choice. Yeah. Odd choice.

LA 2:37

So she freaks out naturally.

Berly 2:40

Understandably. I would have pissed myself.

LA 2:41

Oh my god, yeah. The way they did it, too, the way he kind of blended into almost the um the wall behind her, too. That was pretty cool. It was. So she races to her closet and calls 911, and she's so scared. And the poor thing, when the 911 person asks for her location, she can't even get it out. No, she's so scared because she's like you said, she realizes the things in there with her.

Berly 3:10

Yeah.

LA 3:10

And it slices her, I'm assuming, and then the blood just pours out of her closet door.

Berly 3:17

Through the slats up high. I was like, what happened there? And then after we saw the carpet, I don't want to know what happened.

LA 3:24

I mean, he must have gotten the jugular or something for the blood to be pouring like that. Yeah. Uh so poor thing. Her name was Casey. We learn. And uh back at the bunker, uh, Dean is ready to go work on this case he he read about. And Sam's like, oh, should I go with you? And he's like, I don't know. Do you want to? Yeah. Ugh. So they're still doing that.

Berly 3:51

Great.

LA 3:53

Um, but they do end up going together. And they go to Casey's house and they talk with her mom and her sweet little mom. Poor thing. Bless her heart. She was talking about how she was trying to get the blood out of the carpet and she's gonna have to pull it up. And but as uh they are questioning her, she actually brings up that there are no cold spots, and that catches both of them off guard. Right. And me too. When she said that, I was like, Wait, yeah, where'd that come from, lady? I I think it was Sam who asked her, you know, why why do you bring that up? And she talks about how when the supernaturalists called, you know, she learned about it, and they think that it might be something like that instead of just a killer, a regular old killer. They were wrong. Yeah. So it turns out the guys realized that these supernaturalists are our old friends, the ghost chasers. How excited were you? I was pretty excited.

Berly 4:54

Yeah. I was sad to see it wasn't the whole team. Yeah. I thought we when we saw the van, I thought it was gonna be everybody. Right. I was kind of excited.

LA 5:03

But no, sadly, we learned they they meet up with the guys at a diner that they're eating at. And we that's where we find out they ask Dean very unkindly asks where the other two are.

Berly 5:14

Right. Um I did not appreciate that. I didn't either. I loved me some spruce. Also, like, don't fat shame. Yeah.

LA 5:22

Brood. Just because you're perfect, Dean.

Berly 5:25

Yeah. I mean, we appreciate looking at it, but that doesn't mean you have to be an asshole about it. Right.

LA 5:31

So yeah, he well, the boys end up telling us that they felt like they were dead weight and they just got rid of him.

Berly 5:38

I like when we find out later that they actually just moved on. Spruce is has a new startup and Britney is or Brittany, right? I think so. I think that was her name. Uh, she is a roller derby competitor now. Nice. I was like, that's nice, nice, good for her.

LA 5:55

So sadly, we do not see them. But the guys start to threaten the ghost facers, Ed and Harry. And Dean, oh, Dean threatens to like take out their knees or something?

Berly 6:07

Yeah. He's like, y'all can either walk away or crawl away. And what did you think whenever Harry flashed his gun? Oh my god, it was so funny. He said Dean was like, Am I supposed to be admiring that treasure trail or that lady pistol in your pants?

LA 6:20

I mean, Dean. Jeez. Okay.

Berly 6:22

Who spotted the treasure trail before you said something about it, Dean? Where were your eyes going?

LA 6:30

But I did like uh Harry saying, What did he say? Say hola to me little pistola. Yeah. It's like, oh my god. Oh man. It was pretty good though. I'll give that. His little pistola was pretty cute. Came in handy later, too. It did. They mentioned with this whole Casey um case that they're working, that uh I guess I think Dean or one of them mentioned a ghost thinking, because that's what they were thinking it was.

Berly 7:00

Oh, Dean was so firm on it's a ghost, like digging his heels in, despite Sam showing him all this other contrary evidence that I don't think it is. And he's like, no, the veil is fucked up right now. It's a ghost. It's a ghost, it's a ghost, it's a ghost. I'm gonna start researching what what deaths have happened in this town that could be the ghost. And Sam's like, it's appearing all over the world. And he's like, no. Yeah.

LA 7:24

Well, and I like to at uh the diner whenever the because the guys, the ghost faces already knew it wasn't a ghost. And well, one of them did. Well, yeah, that's true.

Berly 7:33

Well, no, you're right. Both of them did. Yeah. Uh Harry thought it was something from the trees or whatever.

LA 7:38

Yeah. But Harry got a real good kick out of letting them know that they were wrong about it being a ghost. He was like, oh, you silly bitches. That's no ghost. You're what you were saying about Sam in his research, he realizes and finds that Ed and Harry have written a book on this thing called The Thin Man.

Berly 7:59

It's a bestseller. True. People have read it all over the world. Yeah.

LA 8:03

The ghost facers are recording in Casey's room, and we do realize that Sam and Dean were absolutely right about them, that it's not really about helping people or anything like that. It's just they want clout.

Berly 8:15

They want clout. Um, Harry wants to prove his girlfriend wrong because we find out eventually his girlfriend called the ghost facers stupid and wanted she wanted him to quit doing it completely and go work for her dad. So he needs to like shove it in her face that she was wrong, that ghost facers isn't isn't dumb and all that other stuff.

LA 8:34

And he is obsessively stalking her online throughout the episode. Oh man, yeah.

Berly 8:39

Yeah. Throughout, which hey. Ed was clearly annoyed by it, and it's like, yeah, uh same. Yeah.

LA 8:45

Yeah. Uh well, meanwhile, while they're doing their thing in poor Casey's room.

Berly 8:51

Oh man, when the mom walked in and heard them, oh my god, my heart broke for her.

LA 8:55

And what he was about to say too, when he was like, we're gonna have so much be covered with like basically ladies. Yep. And all that.

Berly 9:04

Yeah, I was like, Yeah, she straight up comes in, sees them videotaping, doing their whole the thin man comes in, like dramatic dramatizing her daughter's death, essentially. And she's trying to bring them lemonade because she thinks that they're there to help. Just her face. I said it for her. Get the fuck out. I imagine that's what was said next. Real fucked up boys.

LA 9:30

Well, our other boys are at the police station while they're doing that, and we meet this little cop. Yeah. He's like a deputy sheriff, right? Yeah, yeah. Because the real sheriff's out of town. So he's he's actually grateful for finger call help. Out of town. That's true. And of course, he's already met up with the ghost facers too. So the boys are like, oh my God.

Berly 9:54

Like, come on. We cannot escape them. Oh, we did miss an important thing. Oh. Whenever all four of them were at the cafe, we saw the restaurant manager come up and berate the bus boy that he hadn't washed the dishes well enough and he needed to get his ass back to work. And the bus boy, I didn't really notice it at the time, but in hindsight, he was lingering and like trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. I think. No, no, I think I said that with a little bit more confidence than was you know earned. But I think I think he was kind of hanging around. Yeah. Because they knew who Ed and Harry were, obviously. If they've known if they know what Thin Man is, they they know who Ed and Harry are. Right.

LA 10:39

Um, so later that evening, the restaurant manager that you were talking about, we see him. He's, you know, all the lights are off, he's closing up the restaurant, and he sees something on the camera out like kind of flash across the screen outside. Then all of a sudden he switches to a different view of the camera and it's on him. And yep, then man's right behind him. Yeah.

Berly 11:04

That was another good one. It was another good one. I don't know why he was he was sitting there just kind of going through the security footage, and I was kind of wondering, like, what happened that you're doing that? But I don't know. Maybe that's part of closing procedures for a restaurant manager. Yeah. Maybe he's just nosy. I don't know. But that was done really well because it was like him, something else, something else, parking lot, and he kind of, huh? Then he goes to the next one and boom. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and the guy just slashes his throat. Holy shit, yeah. And we got our 79th blood splooge of the supernatural series. It's been a hot minute. It it seems like it, yeah. It's been a while. Our last one was in episode seven. Oh. So back in the first half of the season. Wow. But it got splashed all over the bar.

LA 11:48

Yeah. Oh my gosh. And the next day when the guys show up and the guy's laying there, his face is gray and just in a puddle of blood. Yikes. But of course, who's there? The ghost faces.

Berly 12:01

Ghost faces.

LA 12:02

Just record-I mean, Harry's like up on the bar top filming the dead man. Right. I mean, inappropriate guys.

Berly 12:10

Totally insensitive. Yes, they want clout. They want to be seen as these things. Of course, that's who they are. But it just seemed to be excessively that for them this episode. The lack of empathy for the victims.

LA 12:25

Yeah.

Berly 12:26

And then it finally kind of kicks in later in the episode where they're like, oh shit, you know. But it just seemed to be very excessive to me. The conversation they were having in the girls' bedroom. There's still blood on the carpet. Yeah. And they're talking that way. Yeah. And then this scene where it shows them being so insensitive, like filming a body. Like, y'all were squeamish about stuff. I mean, it's been a while. I get it. I get it. But I don't know. I was just like, oh man. I wasn't I wasn't a very big fan of what they did with Ed and Harry. Yeah, no. It was good to see them, but oh yeah, yeah. But as the episode was going on, I was just like, come on, guys. Right. We liked these characters. What are you what are you doing to them?

LA 13:08

Well, hopefully we'll see them again in a better light somehow. Fingers crossed. Yeah. But at the scene, at this scene, they uh Sam asks the cop if there's footage, um, surveillance footage. Of course there is. And they actually see the whole murder take place. And they see that somehow he teleported from the parking lot to being right behind Trey.

Berly 13:32

They were videotaping that too, the actual killing of this man. Like it was nothing. Sam and Dean had to be like, what the fuck? And push them away.

LA 13:42

And some I think one of the ghost facers, they talk about how it they they're like, oh, it's the thin man. It's the thin man. He's part man, part tree.

Berly 13:50

And the sheriff, whenever Dean said, so definitely not a ghost, the sheriff said something about like, oh, so you're a believer now. And he seemed like way too excited about that. He did. He did.

LA 14:02

And we learn after everybody leaves this scene that the ghost facers are online and someone has uploaded the footage of that to their blog.

Berly 14:12

Yeah. And they don't know who, but just somebody did. Ed was the one who was like, who? And Harry's like, who cares? And I was like, you should fucking care. Because who got a hold of that footage and knew to immediately go to your website to upload it? Right. And have access to it. Have access to the footage and the to your blog as well. Right. Like within minutes, knew to go and upload that. Because they left in a hurry after Harry thought this is confirmation. It's thin man. Let's go to the woods. So he was like, let's get out of here, like in a hurry. So they left very quickly. To the woods. To the woods. To the woods. Yeah, like they had their moments, right? But it's just Harry just seemed so obsessed with getting evidence to prove to his girlfriend. Which, okay. You know, I've I've seen, I I've certainly gotten hung up on trying to stick it to somebody. So I understand the motivation, but just the complete and utter lack of empathy that Harry displayed in the first half of this episode. I was like, come on now.

LA 15:08

Yeah.

Berly 15:08

He was a sweetheart. What happened? That he's like literally in a corpse's face. Yeah. Just to stick it to his ex. But anyway. Bit much. Yeah. I mean, it was the sheriff. We know that now. Right. But at the time, I was going, y'all should fucking care about that. Ed's. That's right. And of course, Ed is freaking out, which we find out why. Because he's feeling a little guilty. Mm-hmm.

LA 15:37

Uh well, the ghost facers and our boys split up. Our boys go back to the um hotel, motel, which I liked their cabin. It was like very lodge, lodgy look to it.

Berly 15:49

I'd stay there for a weekend. Yeah. It was cute.

LA 15:52

And it was kind of cute. They have like this little kind of heart-to-heart moment about when they were younger and they were dressed up like superheroes, and they jumped off the shed, and Sam broke his arm, and Dean drove rode with him on his handlebars on his bike to the ER. And it was cute. And the, you know, a little nostalgia.

Berly 16:12

I thought it was funny that Dean didn't get hurt, and Sam did. And Dean's reasoning behind that was, well, yeah, I was dressed like Superman. Superman can fly. Batman doesn't fly. Everybody knows that, Sam.

LA 16:25

Sam's like, well, I didn't know. Clearly.

Berly 16:29

It was cute. And I was waiting whenever they kind of their faces changed after they were smiling, enjoying the memory, and their faces changed. I was like, oh God. Like I was waiting for Dean to be like, but I guess times like that are over. You know, something. Oh yeah. And he didn't. And I was so thankful for it that they just sat in that moment of silence. I was like, thank you. Thank you.

LA 16:52

Little progress. Thankfully.

Berly 16:54

I'll take it.

LA 16:55

Yeah. Well, the Ghost Facers decide to split up. Uh, Harry is gonna go to the woods, the parking lot woods.

Berly 17:04

And when he's filming, he's like, I'm in the middle of nowhere, and there's a woman unloading groceries in her car.

LA 17:13

Harry, so Harry's doing that. Ed goes to the guys, and he reveals that the as the ghost casers were starting to disperse, he didn't want to get lose Harry to his girlfriend. So he decided to make up this thin man character in order to get Harry back in the game with him and you know, leave Dana or whatever behind.

Berly 17:35

And now he's freaking out because people are actually dying, like they faked their first case. And you could tell something was a little off with Ed during the whole episode, right? And he was just kind of happy to see Harry getting excited and and seeing Harry be all into it. Then he you could tell that he just stop thinking about your girlfriend, like let's focus on the case. But he had there was something off with him the whole episode. Yeah.

LA 17:59

Well, I mean, understandably. I would be quietly freaking out too if some character that I made up just to keep my friend just killed a girl, yeah. Yeah, is now a real thing that's happening. And I'd be like, what the fuck?

Berly 18:13

Right. And you don't feel like you can tell your friend, hey, so this isn't a ghost and this isn't thin man, this is a person dressed up like it because I made it up.

LA 18:21

Just to keep you.

Berly 18:22

Yeah, because they already they already explained it can't be a tolpa because the legend changes from blog post to blog post to blog posts, like there's no consistency. Which and the Tolpa episode, if I remember correctly, it changed as well, which is why the monster's powers kept changing. But whatever. We won't nitpick. Um, so they knew it wasn't a Tolpa, so that's my whole thing is that Ed had to have known from the beginning this must be a person.

LA 18:49

Oh yeah.

Berly 18:50

What else could it be? Mm-hmm. And that it took another person dying for him to speak up. I mean. Again, I just I had a little bit more faith in our guys. Yeah, yeah. They let me down.

LA 19:03

I feel like it was really passed over a little bit that like they weren't freaking out about how this came to fruition. This made up thing came about, you know?

Berly 19:14

Right. That's what I'm saying. Like, Harry understandably is in the dark, thinks Thin Man is real, right? Thinks that's what they're hunting, that it's actually Thin Man. Understandable.

LA 19:24

Ed bro. Right. Well, and even when he tells the guys they're just it's they're I'm like, I would be like, what the like how how is this happening then?

Berly 19:34

Like what the fuck is going on? Well, that's what I was saying is that I that I thought that the uh logical conclusion would have been that it's a person. No, well, yeah, but I guess you're right though. They didn't jump to that conclusion right away.

LA 19:47

Yeah, it just seems I don't know.

Berly 19:49

I would have They were more worried that Ed needed to tell Harry the truth. Yeah. That was the next step that needed to happen.

LA 19:56

I don't know.

Berly 19:56

Which understandable because then everybody can be on a united front. So I guess I guess maybe this is right. Plus, they did they did kind of say, hey, dude, so there's actually somebody out there murdering people and you just left your friend alone in the woods. Yeah. We need to go. We need to go get it, get Harry.

LA 20:12

Even though it's the parking lot woods, we still need to go go get it.

Berly 20:16

He did kind of say that. I mean, it wasn't really the woods. He was like, it's not really the one. I kind of understand why he thought it wasn't really a danger. Like, again, we saw a woman sitting there unloading groceries. I kind of get that. Yeah. But it was not, it was not safe for Harry to be there.

LA 20:32

No, he but it was cute. He was out there all by himself narrating his video footage, and then he walks into this pile of sticks that he's like, Oh, we we are not alone.

Berly 20:44

It's laid out in the shape of a pile.

LA 20:51

And then so he keeps walking, but then hears a noise, turns around. Oh, that pile is messed up. The sticks are everywhere. And then guess who shows up? The thin man. And I was worried he stabbed him. He slashed out. But he yeah, he's a real slasher. Yeah. And uh poor Harry, yeah, his his stomach got all bloody, but I guess because he had his big old jack.

Berly 21:17

He kicked him in the nuts. Did he? I didn't even see that. Yeah, that's how he got away. He kicked Thin Man in the nuts. And that's why whenever Thin Man kicked him in the nuts later, he was like, Oh, you got me back.

LA 21:27

Okay, okay. Well, man, I did not get it.

Berly 21:29

But yeah, so he kicked him in the nuts and turned around and ran, and luckily runs right out into the parking lot in front of the Impala. But I mean, that for sure, kicking a ghost in the nuts isn't gonna do anything. So they know they're dealing with an actual physical b being at this point.

LA 21:46

Yeah. Well, they doctor up Harry and they go back to the motel, and Ed does fess up to Harry, and Harry is not happy.

Berly 21:58

Oh man. Hang on. Okay. So I I'm not defending Ed per se here, right? But for air Harry to blame Ed for his decision, Ed didn't force you to do anything. Ed gave you a story, and you chose the ghost facers over your girlfriend and a job with her dad.

LA 22:18

Yeah.

Berly 22:19

You could have chos differently. True. Yes, be mad at Ed for lying to you for sure. Be mad that I gave this up to pursue something because I thought we had a real thing to chase, and now I regret my decision. I wouldn't have made the decision I made. But on the other hand, you had to have been looking for an excuse to get out of the situation you were in, right? To have made the decision that you made. So you want to be mad at him. You clearly didn't want it that badly.

LA 22:48

Yeah, I thought, I mean, I under I understand feeling betrayed and being upset, but the level of anger that he pushes toward Ed, and then like how even at the end he's talking about how he can't forgive him, it's like it's a bit over the top to me.

Berly 23:03

Agreed. And if that anger was people are dead now because of us. Right. Valid. Accurate. Valid. Valid. But that wasn't what he went on his big speech about. He went on a big speech about how I could have been married, I could have had a good job, I could have da-da-da-da. Yeah, you could have. Yeah, you could have. And that's where I was sitting there sitting being like, he didn't make you make the decision that you made. He just created something that he thought would be a strong enough reason to keep you from making what he knew was going to be a mistake for you. And clearly some part of you felt the same or you wouldn't have made the decision that you made.

LA 23:35

Yeah.

Berly 23:36

And now you want to be mad that she's moved on so quickly. But we don't even know that she really has. Right.

LA 23:43

It's just a arm around her and a picture that she cut the person out of.

Berly 23:46

That's what I said. She cropped him out. He can't be that important. And she put it's complicated on there. Maybe she's talking about you, Harry.

LA 23:56

Yeah. I don't know.

Berly 23:57

It was all it was just it's the motivations of the characters, right? Like if if they changed the motivations of the characters just slightly, if they had Ed acting way more guilty from the jump, if the reason Harry is so betrayed and like I can't trust you, is because people died because of what we did. I just killed a man, which he does say, but that's later. Um it could have been it could have been so much better, in my opinion.

LA 24:24

I agree. Yeah. It was it was reaching.

Berly 24:26

I feel like it just it just took away any humanity and empathy that Harriet Ed had. And they were, while they were funny, they still had humanity and empathy the last time we saw them.

LA 24:38

Right, yeah.

Berly 24:39

That didn't seem to really be there until the end.

LA 24:42

Yeah, until it affected them.

Berly 24:44

Right, exactly.

LA 24:45

Yeah. So yeah, they they were a little disappointing this episode. But I mean, I'm glad we got to see them, but like I said, I do hope we do see them again and that they that we get a little bit of a redemption for them. I want a redemption for them, too. Yeah.

Berly 24:58

And it would be nice to get the whole group together again.

LA 25:01

That's true. Well, I don't know if that's gonna happen. I doubt it, yeah. So so yeah. Um, so everything's on the open, they know what's going on now. And Dean has um a lead on the tire tracks that were found that they found when they went to go save Harry. So they meet up with the cop who I think helped them find this lead, and they're at some I don't even know an abandoned.

Berly 25:27

Oh, it was um the dude who owned the car, he was working a late shift at that at this warehouse place. Yeah, and that's why they were going there. And I knew from the jump when they showed up and the sheriff was there, I was like, that's weird, that never happens. So I was immediately suspicious.

LA 25:47

And you were right, because the guys go Sam's face when he's sitting there about to like pick the lock and try to open the door, and it just like it's just open. Like he barely touches it and it opens. His face was like Yeah. What? Which should have told him something. Red flag, Sam, red flag. But they go in anyway, and sure enough, they get tasered from behind by the cop.

Berly 26:13

Mm-hmm. Double tasers. And he was super happy. He was like, I've always wanted an excuse to use these, and it's like, oh guess what?

LA 26:21

The boys are tied up. Oh, that never happens. Who would have guessed it? Um, and we find out, of course, in his villain monologue, as he reveals everything, that cop is the mastermind behind this thin man, the thin thin man escapades, and our bus boy from the restaurant is actually the the psycho doing the killings, another incel as well. Yes.

Berly 26:46

Oh.

LA 26:47

I liked whenever they were like, Well, what about how did you do this? How the teleporting and all that, and he's like, Oh, it's a team effort. And then the thin man guy comes walking in for his big reveal.

Berly 26:58

Right. He took off his mask and I was like, That was a buzzboy.

LA 27:02

Right. And then like they're asking him why he's he did this, and like, Trey was a dick. Yeah. And he wouldn't, he he should have given him his days off he asked for.

Berly 27:12

Oh, that's why they killed the sheriff.

LA 27:14

Yeah.

Berly 27:14

No. Wait, what? They killed the sheriff too, because remember, they looked over and saw the body in the bag, and the deputy was like, Yeah, he should have approved my time off request.

LA 27:22

That's what, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they killed Trey just because he was an asshole. I was writing notes at that time, so I didn't see who was saying what.

Berly 27:29

Oh, it's the sheriff. They they murdered the sheriff, they murdered the restaurant manager um for not giving them what they wanted at work. And poor sweet Casey got murdered because she wouldn't agree to going on a date with the busboy.

LA 27:42

Yeah. Oh, and what how did he say he say that about Casey? He's like, well, she wouldn't go out with me, so I introduced her to someone else. My knife. Oh, yeah. What a duo, you know. Ugh, disgusting. Yeah.

Berly 27:54

And you know what? Good thing they made the villains so fucking despicable and gross because it did deter a little bit from how disappointed I was in Ed and Harry.

LA 28:05

True, yeah. At least that someone was there was uh uh behaving worse than behaving worse than them, yeah. Well, uh I oh my god, and then when Dean says, what is this? Uh some cosplay. But the buttons like, no, cause real. Right. What? Oh, anyway, he goes. I was a little worried at this point when he goes and stands behind Dean.

Berly 28:29

I mean, he was getting ready to do a slashy. He was and Sam started panicking and was like freaking out. And I was just like, okay, good, this is gonna be the moment where it's like I I'm not ready to really lose my brother. Yeah, you know.

LA 28:42

For a second I thought, holy shit, they Dean's about to get sliced. Yeah. And um, but no, they hear a noise, and Harry and Ed have shown up to save the day and take out this thin man that they created.

Berly 28:58

Clean up their own mess.

LA 28:59

Yeah. Well, uh, so yeah, the two guys go to deal with head and Harry. Ed and Harry.

Berly 29:05

Yeah, there you go.

LA 29:07

As they're doing that, our boys get out of their ties that they're tied to the chairs.

Berly 29:12

Well practiced. They're well practiced at this. Yes.

LA 29:15

How do they go why wind up going back to where the boys were?

Berly 29:18

So they took Ed and Harry back to the to where they had Sam and Dean tied up. Okay. And they were explaining that they were going to kill Harry. Like that was they stalked them, they were following them, they were going to kill one of them, and Harry was the one by himself in the woods, so that the other one could like live to tell the tale. So they're explaining more of their villain monologue to Ed and Harry as they're walking them there, and then they look around and they're like, the fuck? Because Sam and Dean are not there.

LA 29:47

Yeah.

Berly 29:48

And then they jumped out and attacked them.

LA 29:51

Well, and Dean.

Berly 29:52

That was disturbing. Just straight up stabs slowly, too. Like the the busboys trying to fight back and just like slowly stabbed it into him. And Sam saw that and didn't say anything, right? I was like, I would have been like, hey, so what's up with you just murdering people now?

LA 30:09

So after Dean stabs the k kid, the cop goes to shoot uh uh Sam, I think. And Harry rushes in between. Ed. Oh, sorry, and Ed rushes in between to get him to stop. And as soon as he does that, like the gun's raised, we he's about to shoot, but Harry shoots him dead.

Berly 30:28

Mm-hmm. Right in the heart. Yeah. Right in the heart with his little pistola. But I mean, that sheriff, he was totally gonna fire. He was like, I've got enough bullets for both of you. I I don't I don't need to I don't care.

LA 30:38

Well, and I I uh because I was that just sounded really weird.

Berly 30:41

That's what I've been doing this whole episode is uh like stuttering, stuttering, stuttering.

LA 30:46

Uh because I was taking my notes, I thought he did shoot because I was taking my notes. I looked up and I just saw I heard the shot and it looked like gunpowder in front of Harry. Right. So I thought he had shot him at first, and then I was like, thank God. Um, but yeah, so they took out the team thin man.

Berly 31:06

And Dean set the scene so that it looked like it was a murder suicide that they took each other out and left the mask there and everything. So I mean they cleaned up their mess, they cleaned up Ed and Harry's mess, but all is not well with the ghost facers, yeah.

LA 31:20

No, so they're sitting there having a conversation after all this by the van, and that's when Harry's talking about how he they're never gonna be the same, he can't forgive him for this and whatnot, which I'm like, okay.

Berly 31:34

And that's when he finally says people are dead. I literally just had to kill a guy. Yeah, finally. And I'm like, it took a little long took yeah, took too long for us to get there.

LA 31:43

Well, Harry leaves, he does he doesn't want to go with Ed, and he asks the boys for a ride, and they take him. And on the way, I think Dean asks how he's doing back there, and Harry starts talking about how you know you think we're gonna grow old with somebody, and you know, sitting on the porch within your rocking chairs when you're old, but then you know, life things happen, and you look over and that other rocking chair is empty. Then he's like, you know what I mean? And both Sam and Dean are just quiet. Mm-hmm. That's it. This episode was written by Jenny Klein and directed by oh Janot Schwartk. Schwark?

Berly 32:25

He he was a hoot, a hoot and a half from some of the stories I've heard shared about him. Oh, okay. And he was like constantly smoking a cigarette. No. All right. So gore. Obviously, we got a blood splooge, our 79th blood splooge, but I would say the goriest thing was the cold open killing.

LA 32:44

Yeah, all the the blood coming out of the closet.

Berly 32:47

And then the the showing of the restaurant manager at the end. So we had some good gore in this episode. Did you adore anything about this episode?

LA 32:56

I mean, I was really excited that the ghost facers were back, but they were it's conflicting.

Berly 33:02

Yeah. I was very excited to see them. I was like, oh yeah. And then just as the episode went on and as things were revealed, that's when it was just kind of like, oh fuck. Yeah. Y'all have turned out to be some real assholes, some real selfish bricks. Yeah. Not liking that. Yeah.

LA 33:18

But well, and then I guess outside of them, I would say that little heart to heart that Dean and Sam had. That was very cute. Yeah.

Berly 33:25

And Sam and Dean both looked real good in this episode. They did. Their five o'clock shadows were perfect. There were moments where we got to see Dean with some tension in his face that was real hot. So, yeah, they're looking, they're looking very good this season. And thank goodness. Some sort of distraction from the ridiculousness. Yeah. I need something to look at whenever they're just having their repetitive drama with each other. Well, for today's lore, we're going to be talking about the obvious inspiration for the episode and also why we imagine this episode has been removed from syndication. Um, it hasn't aged very well for a very sad reason, unfortunately. Which on the flip side luckily had a different outcome from what we've seen in this episode, but still is very sad and uh somewhere that I don't think anybody would have ever wanted this to go. We're talking about Slender Man, a monster with an electronic paper trail and a much darker legacy than most creepy pasta. The origin is almost embarrassingly documented, unlike vampires or werewolves with centuries of murky folklore. Slender Man has a literal creation date event in June of 2009 on a something awful forum during a Photoshop contest challenging users to create paranormal images that look real. A user named Eric Nudson, who was going by Victor Surge at the time, submitted two black and white photos of kids with a tall, faceless figure edited into the background, captioned with fake witness accounts about disappearances. That's it. That's what that's what started the legend. It was a contest. I didn't know that. But well, it's a lot like what happened in today's episode, too. Like Ed was talking about how I just photoshopped some shit and this is how it started. So yeah, that's how Slender Man came to be was through this contest. But then the internet did what the internet does again, much like what we saw in this episode. They piled on. Other forum users immediately started adding their own lore. Backstories stretching back to the 16th century, Germany, a whole mythology nobody had asked for. It just kind of spun out of control here. Fan fiction, cosplays, and eventually massive YouTube found footage series like Marble Hornets. Nobody owns the canon. He's basically an open source monster built collaboratively the way old campfire legends used to spread. Slender Man is deliberately vague. It's useful in the way this folklore and legend and everything happened. No blood, no gore, just a tall guy in a black suit who shows up in the woods or abandoned buildings, messes with your recordings, and leaves his purpose totally unexplained. Folklorists have actually pointed out that's exactly why he works. Everyone gets to fill in their own blank with whatever scares them most. Now, let's talk about the part that's not so fun. Like in the episode, things went way too far. Only a couple of months after this episode aired. This episode aired in March of 2014 and in May of 2014. Two 12-year-old girls in Wisconsin lured a classmate into the woods and stabbed her nearly to death. She thankfully survived. The two girls later told investigators they believed the attack would prove their loyalty to Slender Man and protect their own families from him. The victim crawled to a nearby road for help and, like I said, was able to get that help, thank goodness, and survived. When they were investigating, like we're talking millimeters of a difference from vital organs. This girl is so lucky to have survived.

LA 37:25

She's and I some of the stuff that I've seen about this case, um, when they interview her, she's so impressive. She's like this sweet thing and just this horrific thing she went through. And I think she's doing like really well, successful when in school and whatnot now. But I just found her like really impressive for having been through that and like strong enough and brave enough to be interviewed and talk about it, you know.

Berly 37:50

Good, good for her for surviving not just physically with her life, but also surviving such a traumatic event mentally. Yeah. Uh, and be able to come out on the other side. Both of the girls who committed the crime were later diagnosed with serious mental illnesses. They were tried as adults and both were committed to psychiatric institutions for lengthy terms. Nudson, the character's creator, released a brief statement saying that he was deeply saddened and declined further interviews. The real event triggered a nationwide moral panic, prompted an HBO documentary, and, as one contemporary tech reporter put it, became a stark reminder of how little we understood about a generation raised entirely on internet folklore, where a fictional image could travel from forum meme to genuine motive for violence in just five years. The legend eventually cooled off. Post-Wisconsin, a lot of the original fan communities either shut down or softened Thunderman's image. Some later petroials even turned him into a protective anti-hero figure. He wasn't on those playgrounds to hurt the children, he was there protecting them. And folklorists think that was kind of a collective response to the tragedy.

LA 39:13

Yeah. Well, a quote to close it out it's Ed saying to the Thin Man, he says, it's Scooby-Doo time, douchebag. Take off the mask. Cheers. 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, jerk.

Berly 39:37

It always is, bitch.