Supernatural: Playthings

June 15, 2021 4:59 AM - Season 2, Episode 11

Sam and Dean investigate a Connecticut inn, run by a single mother, where mysterious deaths are taking place. They find evidence of hoodoo, and try to figure out who or what is responsible.
posted by orange swan (4 comments total)

Dean: Dude, this is sweet! We never get to work jobs like this. 
Sam: Like what?
Dean: Old school haunted houses, you know? Fog, secret passageways, sissy British accents. Might even run into Fred and Daphne while we're inside. Mmm, Daphne. Love her. 

Susan: Let me guess: you guys are here antiquing.
Dean: How did you know?
Susan: You just look the type. So, a king-size bed?
Sam: What no... ah no, no we're... two singles, we're just brothers.
Dean: Yeah.
Susan: Oh, I'm so sorry.
Dean: What did you mean that we look the type?

Dean: Of course, the most troubling question is, why do these people assume we're gay?
Sam: Well, you are kinda butch, but I just think you're overcompensating.

Dean: You know there's a really good cure for a hangover. It's a greasy pork sandwich served up on a dirty ashtray.
Sam: [with head over the toilet] Uh, I hate you.
Dean: I know you do.

Dean: Hey are those antique dolls, coz this one, this one here he's got a major doll collection back home. [to Sam] Don't you, huh?
Sam: Big time.
Dean: Big time. Yeah, you think he could... uh, we could come in and take a look, please? I mean he loves them. He's not gonna tell you this but he's always dressing them up in these little tiny outfits, I mean you'd make his day. She would, huh?
Sam: [with a shit-eating look] It's true. [smacks Dean on his way into the room with the dolls]

Dean Winchester: Don't go surfing porn, that's not the kind of whacking I mean.

Sam: You seem surprised.
Dean: Well, yeah, it's just, you know, not the patented Sam Winchester way is it?
Sam: Why is that?
Dean: I just figured after Ava, there'd be more, you know, angst, and, uh, droopy music, and staring out the rainy windows. Yeah, I'll shut up now.

From the IMDb trivia section:
When Dean returns to the hotel room and finds Sam drunk he says "Come on, time for bed, let's go, Sasquatch." Sasquatch is Jensen Ackles' nickname for Jared Padalecki in real life.

This episode is clearly modeled after the famous horror movie The Shining. There are many parallels that reference The Shining, such as room 237, two little girls, the quote stating that "we can play together forever and ever and ever", and the bar scene in which Dean talks with an older bartender.

This episode bears many similarities to the horror film Burnt Offerings, starring Karen Black, Oliver Reed and Bette Davis, in which the key to the mysterious events in an upscale holiday home, lies with a strange elderly lady who lives alone in the attic.


Really good and creepy performance from the young actress who played Maggie the ghost girl.

You'd think Sam and Dean would have burnt Maggie's bones. They seemed to assume she was gone -- atypically for them. I don't envy those who will have to demolish that old hotel.  

The Winchester boys may like their alcohol, but there are very few times when they actually get drunk.

Sam and Dean do in fact eventually run into Daphne later on in the show's run, but it doesn't do Dean much good.

Sam's best insults for Dean when's he's drunk are "bossy" and "short".
posted by orange swan at 5:15 AM on June 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

The idea of being entangled in a pool cover, while in the pool, ugh, that's one of the things you really feel in a show like this.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:41 PM on June 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

The pool cover was frightening.

I liked the dollhouse... and was that a bit of stop motion?
posted by porpoise at 2:53 PM on June 15, 2021

Sam's best insults for Dean when's he's drunk are "bossy" and "short".

Probably not technically the meanest thing he ever says to his brother, but also, richly savored like the meanest thing he can think of to say to his brother.
posted by jameaterblues at 8:12 PM on June 15, 2021