Supernatural: There Will Be Blood
October 8, 2021 7:53 AM - Season 7, Episode 22 - Subscribe
To kill Dick Roman, Sam and Dean need the blood of an Alpha Vampire, but their efforts to acquire it are complicated by the fact that Dick knows what they're up to and has sent some of his leviathans after them.
Quotes
Dean: [about monks] Can't get laid, can't sleep in. Sounds like a frickin' tragedy.
Dick Roman: You know, where I'm from, you have to bite and claw your way to the top. Once you get there, trust me, the view's incredible.
Dick Roman: We are diving whole hog into what keeps Americans living longer... and tasting better.
Gloria Jane: You do, of course, mean to say the *food* will be tasting better.
Dick Roman: That's exactly what I mean.
Dick Roman: Put a "replace order" on Gloria there.
Susan: And with the corpse?
Dick Roman: Call Chef Fieri. I feel like barbecue.
Dean: What's Sucrocorp?
Sam: They make food additives, namely high-fructose corn syrup. That crap is in... well, it's in just about everything... um, soda, sauces, bread.
Dean: Don't say "pie."
Sam: *Definitely* pie.
Dean: Bastards.
Dean: I can't do this, man. I can't live on rabbit food. I'm a warrior!
Sam: It's the corn syrup. Everything in the store is laced with it.
Dean: Everything? [looks around] Hey, man, I'm gonna go into toxic shock, okay? I need my road food.
Sam: That's what Roman is banking on.
Dean: [finds a pie] Hey. Hey. This one says "natural". That means it's safe. Right?
Sam: I hate to break it to you, but corn syrup is natural, technically.
Dean: Well, then what the hell are we supposed to eat?
Sam: [holds up a basket of fruit and bottled water]
Emily: What's a Kardashian?
Dean: Just another bloodsucker.
Emily: [about cellphone] What is that?
Dean: That's, uh, that's Sam's douche tracker.
Dean: For a girl raised in a basement, you're a hell of an actress.
Emily: You were gonna hurt my daddy. [smiles affectionately at the Alpha Vamp]
Dean: Wow, you get a trophy in Stockholm Syndrome.
Alpha Vampire: You don't call, you don't write, you don't send cookies.
Alpha Vampire: So now you want to prevent the extermination of the vampire race.
Dean: No. But it beats going down with you.
Edgar: Where is he?
Vampire: Go to hell.
Edgar: No. My neighborhood is worse than that.
Edgar: Mankind's a limited resource, after all.
Alpha Vampire: There are seven billion of them.
Edgar: Only seven.
Alpha Vampire: Where exactly on the list is fixing our plague?
Edgar: My dear friend... nowhere. We want you to burn like the little roaches you are.
Alpha Vampire: We come from you.
Edgar: Barely.
Alpha Vampire: I am the son of Eve!
Edgar: A pathetic mutt. Hardly one of us. [walks up to him] I knew Eve, and honestly... your mommy was a whore.
Sam: If they figured out that we're here to get Alpha blood for a weapon...
Dean: I think any way you slice it, you got Pac Man and True Blood in the same room, and that's bad news.
Alpha Vampire: See you next season.
Dean: Looking forward to it.
Dean: Sam, look around. It's friggin' Woodstock. Everybody's hopped up on the brown acid. We don't need the song and dance. Give him a little prick.
Sam: [takes out needle, starts to draw guy's blood]
Stoner: Owww. That hurts. This is for Hurricane Katrina, you said?
Dean: ...Yes.
Dean: Okay, man, I have read this more times than the Playboy I found in dad's duffel.
Dick Roman: Anna Nicole?
Dean: Anna Nicole. Oh, the good... they die young, huh?
Crowley: [appears in Dick Roman's office] Hello... [sees devil trap on ceiling] ... Dick.
Crowley: I know where to start the Easter-egg hunt. Happy trails. [disappears]
Dean: Okay. Where, jackass?
[flames burn words onto altar]
Sam: Hoople, North Dakota.
Dean: Piece of paper would have worked.
Dean: You might want to slow down. You don't look so hot.
Bobby: I'm in the veil. My Brad Pitt days are over.
Dean: A little FYI. Bobby's officing out of the john these days.
Sam: Uh... awkward.
Dean: Yeah, you're telling me.
Sam: I'm just saying that the lore doesn't have a single real-life example of Casper the friendly ghost. It's all basically poltergeists, until a hunter comes along...
Dean: Yeah, well, the lore sucks.
Trivia
The book Sam finds that is concealing the button that unlocks Emily's room is titled, How To Serve Man, a reference to the 1950s short story, "To Serve Man". It is about aliens who come to earth. At an UN session, the aliens tell the humans that they are there to provide them with peace and plenty. They supply them with cheap unlimited power, a device to suppress explosions, and drugs for prolonging life. One of the characters steals a book from the aliens and translates the title as "To Serve Man". He believes it is a guide the aliens use to "provide for" and "take care of" man. After further translation, he discovers that it is actually a cookbook. This story aligns very closely with the Leviathans' plan for man: they are secretly purifying the gene pool, curing cancer, and ending hunger in order to harvest their perfect food supply... meanwhile claiming that they're "serving man for the greater good".
The man the Winchesters take blood from is wearing a Plucky Pennywhistle t-shirt from the clown-themed restaurant chain that featured in "Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie" (ep. 7.14), and the bench has an advertisement for Biggerson's Restaurant.
The convenience store clerk's name tag shows that his name is "Mott". The town he works in is "Hoople". This is a take on the band name Mott The Hoople, which recorded the song "All The Young Dudes".
In the town full of human happy meals Dean says, "It's freaking Woodstock. Everybody's hopped up on the brown acid." At the 1969 Woodstock festival someone got onto the speaker system to warn everyone to watch out for acid (LSD) dispensed on brown blotter paper. Supposedly this particular batch of acid was giving some users a very bad experience.
When Dick and his assistant are talking about replacing Gloria the news lady, the assistant asks what to do with the body, and Dick replies, "Call Chef Fieri, I feel like barbecue," likely a reference to Guy Fieri, a well known TV food critic.
In the Gas & Sip there are wall posters for "Margiekugel" beer on special. In the real Wisconsin there is a Leinenkugel brewery; the production designer needed a fake beer and his mother's name was Margie.
Dean mentions a copy of Playboy, Anna Nicole, and that the good die young. Anna Nicole Smith, born 1967, was a school dropout at age 14, married at 17, Playboy Playmate of the Year at 26, had a modeling career, and was the host of several reality TV shows. At age 38 she married an 89 year old billionaire and said it was for love. He died without adding her to his will. The last two years of her life involved a lot of criminal charges, a lot of civil litigation, the overdose death of her son, a paternity case and scandal, and ended with her drug overdose in a hotel room in 2007.
When Sam and Dean head into the vampires' mansion, a painting can be glimpsed in the hallway just outside the dining room where the Alpha Vampire is waiting for them. The work is "Saint Michel terrassant le démon" by artist Josse Lieferinxe -- one of many Michael vs. Lucifer depictions used throughout the Supernatural series. This particular one was previously seen in "Lucifer Rising" (ep. 4.22) as part of the angels' "green room" where Dean was held captive.
The title of this episode is likely from the 2007 Daniel Day-Lewis western There Will Be Blood.
"Gas & Sip" as a generic term for gas station/corner grocery comes from the 1989 romcom Say Anything.
When looking for the Alpha Vampire's retreat, Sam and Dean discover that it is near a monastery. Dean laments the monks' lifestyle and that "they can't get laid". He then refers to the monastery as a Monkey House. This is a play on the word "monk" and also a reference to the 1968 novel Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut, which is about government population control through suppressed sexual desire, among other things.
The alpha vamp says, "See you next season," to Sam and Dean, but he in fact does not show up again until season 12.
Quotes
Dean: [about monks] Can't get laid, can't sleep in. Sounds like a frickin' tragedy.
Dick Roman: You know, where I'm from, you have to bite and claw your way to the top. Once you get there, trust me, the view's incredible.
Dick Roman: We are diving whole hog into what keeps Americans living longer... and tasting better.
Gloria Jane: You do, of course, mean to say the *food* will be tasting better.
Dick Roman: That's exactly what I mean.
Dick Roman: Put a "replace order" on Gloria there.
Susan: And with the corpse?
Dick Roman: Call Chef Fieri. I feel like barbecue.
Dean: What's Sucrocorp?
Sam: They make food additives, namely high-fructose corn syrup. That crap is in... well, it's in just about everything... um, soda, sauces, bread.
Dean: Don't say "pie."
Sam: *Definitely* pie.
Dean: Bastards.
Dean: I can't do this, man. I can't live on rabbit food. I'm a warrior!
Sam: It's the corn syrup. Everything in the store is laced with it.
Dean: Everything? [looks around] Hey, man, I'm gonna go into toxic shock, okay? I need my road food.
Sam: That's what Roman is banking on.
Dean: [finds a pie] Hey. Hey. This one says "natural". That means it's safe. Right?
Sam: I hate to break it to you, but corn syrup is natural, technically.
Dean: Well, then what the hell are we supposed to eat?
Sam: [holds up a basket of fruit and bottled water]
Emily: What's a Kardashian?
Dean: Just another bloodsucker.
Emily: [about cellphone] What is that?
Dean: That's, uh, that's Sam's douche tracker.
Dean: For a girl raised in a basement, you're a hell of an actress.
Emily: You were gonna hurt my daddy. [smiles affectionately at the Alpha Vamp]
Dean: Wow, you get a trophy in Stockholm Syndrome.
Alpha Vampire: You don't call, you don't write, you don't send cookies.
Alpha Vampire: So now you want to prevent the extermination of the vampire race.
Dean: No. But it beats going down with you.
Edgar: Where is he?
Vampire: Go to hell.
Edgar: No. My neighborhood is worse than that.
Edgar: Mankind's a limited resource, after all.
Alpha Vampire: There are seven billion of them.
Edgar: Only seven.
Alpha Vampire: Where exactly on the list is fixing our plague?
Edgar: My dear friend... nowhere. We want you to burn like the little roaches you are.
Alpha Vampire: We come from you.
Edgar: Barely.
Alpha Vampire: I am the son of Eve!
Edgar: A pathetic mutt. Hardly one of us. [walks up to him] I knew Eve, and honestly... your mommy was a whore.
Sam: If they figured out that we're here to get Alpha blood for a weapon...
Dean: I think any way you slice it, you got Pac Man and True Blood in the same room, and that's bad news.
Alpha Vampire: See you next season.
Dean: Looking forward to it.
Dean: Sam, look around. It's friggin' Woodstock. Everybody's hopped up on the brown acid. We don't need the song and dance. Give him a little prick.
Sam: [takes out needle, starts to draw guy's blood]
Stoner: Owww. That hurts. This is for Hurricane Katrina, you said?
Dean: ...Yes.
Dean: Okay, man, I have read this more times than the Playboy I found in dad's duffel.
Dick Roman: Anna Nicole?
Dean: Anna Nicole. Oh, the good... they die young, huh?
Crowley: [appears in Dick Roman's office] Hello... [sees devil trap on ceiling] ... Dick.
Crowley: I know where to start the Easter-egg hunt. Happy trails. [disappears]
Dean: Okay. Where, jackass?
[flames burn words onto altar]
Sam: Hoople, North Dakota.
Dean: Piece of paper would have worked.
Dean: You might want to slow down. You don't look so hot.
Bobby: I'm in the veil. My Brad Pitt days are over.
Dean: A little FYI. Bobby's officing out of the john these days.
Sam: Uh... awkward.
Dean: Yeah, you're telling me.
Sam: I'm just saying that the lore doesn't have a single real-life example of Casper the friendly ghost. It's all basically poltergeists, until a hunter comes along...
Dean: Yeah, well, the lore sucks.
Trivia
The book Sam finds that is concealing the button that unlocks Emily's room is titled, How To Serve Man, a reference to the 1950s short story, "To Serve Man". It is about aliens who come to earth. At an UN session, the aliens tell the humans that they are there to provide them with peace and plenty. They supply them with cheap unlimited power, a device to suppress explosions, and drugs for prolonging life. One of the characters steals a book from the aliens and translates the title as "To Serve Man". He believes it is a guide the aliens use to "provide for" and "take care of" man. After further translation, he discovers that it is actually a cookbook. This story aligns very closely with the Leviathans' plan for man: they are secretly purifying the gene pool, curing cancer, and ending hunger in order to harvest their perfect food supply... meanwhile claiming that they're "serving man for the greater good".
The man the Winchesters take blood from is wearing a Plucky Pennywhistle t-shirt from the clown-themed restaurant chain that featured in "Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie" (ep. 7.14), and the bench has an advertisement for Biggerson's Restaurant.
The convenience store clerk's name tag shows that his name is "Mott". The town he works in is "Hoople". This is a take on the band name Mott The Hoople, which recorded the song "All The Young Dudes".
In the town full of human happy meals Dean says, "It's freaking Woodstock. Everybody's hopped up on the brown acid." At the 1969 Woodstock festival someone got onto the speaker system to warn everyone to watch out for acid (LSD) dispensed on brown blotter paper. Supposedly this particular batch of acid was giving some users a very bad experience.
When Dick and his assistant are talking about replacing Gloria the news lady, the assistant asks what to do with the body, and Dick replies, "Call Chef Fieri, I feel like barbecue," likely a reference to Guy Fieri, a well known TV food critic.
In the Gas & Sip there are wall posters for "Margiekugel" beer on special. In the real Wisconsin there is a Leinenkugel brewery; the production designer needed a fake beer and his mother's name was Margie.
Dean mentions a copy of Playboy, Anna Nicole, and that the good die young. Anna Nicole Smith, born 1967, was a school dropout at age 14, married at 17, Playboy Playmate of the Year at 26, had a modeling career, and was the host of several reality TV shows. At age 38 she married an 89 year old billionaire and said it was for love. He died without adding her to his will. The last two years of her life involved a lot of criminal charges, a lot of civil litigation, the overdose death of her son, a paternity case and scandal, and ended with her drug overdose in a hotel room in 2007.
When Sam and Dean head into the vampires' mansion, a painting can be glimpsed in the hallway just outside the dining room where the Alpha Vampire is waiting for them. The work is "Saint Michel terrassant le démon" by artist Josse Lieferinxe -- one of many Michael vs. Lucifer depictions used throughout the Supernatural series. This particular one was previously seen in "Lucifer Rising" (ep. 4.22) as part of the angels' "green room" where Dean was held captive.
The title of this episode is likely from the 2007 Daniel Day-Lewis western There Will Be Blood.
"Gas & Sip" as a generic term for gas station/corner grocery comes from the 1989 romcom Say Anything.
When looking for the Alpha Vampire's retreat, Sam and Dean discover that it is near a monastery. Dean laments the monks' lifestyle and that "they can't get laid". He then refers to the monastery as a Monkey House. This is a play on the word "monk" and also a reference to the 1968 novel Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut, which is about government population control through suppressed sexual desire, among other things.
The alpha vamp says, "See you next season," to Sam and Dean, but he in fact does not show up again until season 12.
So a boy makes the Alpha vamp’s behaviour creepier. Sure whatever, because we’re all used to girls being sacrificial victims.
As much as the boys hate vamps, it wouldn’t have killed them to acknowledge the Alpha’s contribution to the weapon’s creation.
posted by sardonyx at 8:12 AM on October 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
As much as the boys hate vamps, it wouldn’t have killed them to acknowledge the Alpha’s contribution to the weapon’s creation.
posted by sardonyx at 8:12 AM on October 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
I think the idea was that Emily was not going to willingly leave the vampire because she'd been there so long she was brainwashed and probably had also been turned and had drunk human blood, and Sam and Dean therefore knew they couldn't save her, while it wouldn't be too late to save the much younger boy.
I meant to add to my comment that Sam knew immediately who was in the Playboy issue in his father's duffel bag, which means he had read the magazine too. I enjoy the occasional little clues we get that indicate Sam likes porn just as much as Dean does -- he's just much more discreet/embarrassed about it.
posted by orange swan at 10:08 AM on October 8, 2021
I meant to add to my comment that Sam knew immediately who was in the Playboy issue in his father's duffel bag, which means he had read the magazine too. I enjoy the occasional little clues we get that indicate Sam likes porn just as much as Dean does -- he's just much more discreet/embarrassed about it.
posted by orange swan at 10:08 AM on October 8, 2021
Did they recycle the "brown acid" joke from a few episodes ago? IMDB trivia got it wrong, again.
Leinenkugel is (was?) super inexpensive in the midwest; a case (24) of brown bottles for <$10 all in. Eminently drinkable, tasty. I miss them. Still have a cardboard case I use as a toolbox.
HFCS is a $3 billion dollar/ year market. Buying out - even just the HFCS divisions of - the majors (who have other concerns) would be a >$30B proposition. That and monopoly laws, but that can take years, and they're shapeshifters.
The other way would be to have Sucrocorp overpay for all of the product from the majors, adulter the product, then sell at a large loss to food processors. But antitrust laws. But shapeshifters.
But yeah, even then there are lags in HFCS stockpiles and multinationals do actually care about QC (liability, but then, if the adulterant was supernatural...). Maybe the boys are just being cautious?
I'm not reading into the Anna Nicole Smith thing other than as a lazy joke. She was one of the few Playmate of the year around that era that went onto something close to mainstream/ notoriety, so it's just a low difficulty pop culture bit of trivia.
Why would (the empty) bloodbags have needles attached to them if they're for feeding on? I do like the symmetry of the vampires farming humans before the leviathan got into the scene, though the vamps seem to be doing it more renewably than the leviathans which looks like they're going to overharvest.
I do dig that the son of Eve is dark skinned.
Why would the boys leave Bobby in a hotel safe instead of carrying it with them all the time?
posted by porpoise at 7:39 PM on October 8, 2021
Leinenkugel is (was?) super inexpensive in the midwest; a case (24) of brown bottles for <$10 all in. Eminently drinkable, tasty. I miss them. Still have a cardboard case I use as a toolbox.
HFCS is a $3 billion dollar/ year market. Buying out - even just the HFCS divisions of - the majors (who have other concerns) would be a >$30B proposition. That and monopoly laws, but that can take years, and they're shapeshifters.
The other way would be to have Sucrocorp overpay for all of the product from the majors, adulter the product, then sell at a large loss to food processors. But antitrust laws. But shapeshifters.
But yeah, even then there are lags in HFCS stockpiles and multinationals do actually care about QC (liability, but then, if the adulterant was supernatural...). Maybe the boys are just being cautious?
I'm not reading into the Anna Nicole Smith thing other than as a lazy joke. She was one of the few Playmate of the year around that era that went onto something close to mainstream/ notoriety, so it's just a low difficulty pop culture bit of trivia.
Why would (the empty) bloodbags have needles attached to them if they're for feeding on? I do like the symmetry of the vampires farming humans before the leviathan got into the scene, though the vamps seem to be doing it more renewably than the leviathans which looks like they're going to overharvest.
I do dig that the son of Eve is dark skinned.
Why would the boys leave Bobby in a hotel safe instead of carrying it with them all the time?
posted by porpoise at 7:39 PM on October 8, 2021
Why would the boys leave Bobby in a hotel safe instead of carrying it with them all the time?
I think they were worried that as Bobby increasingly lost control he'd be put in situations where lashing out unpredictably would be more dangerous than helpful, like with Charlie. Locking him in the motel room doesn't work either, because he guesses the combination Dean used on the safe (because Dean used Bobby's birthday, so how hard was Dean trying actually) so he can take himself out and about, albeit in the body of some poor random woman. Which I guess he could have done anyway, if they did bring him along and he decided he didn't like their plan, though I guess then they would've known about it right away. Having custody of a belligerent ghost who's also someone you love seems like a pain in the ass.
Rick Worthy puts in such a good performance as the Alpha Vampire. Rich urbane vampire royalty isn't, like, a new trope but he brings a great mix of unprovokable confidence and menace, like once he's done with this episode he's going back to his fancier TV show on a better network and it's called Alpha Vampire. (I actually thought him lashing out when Edgar insulted Eve was a false note in that sense, I didn't even realize Eve had a relationship with her offspring such that they'd feel protective of her and the Alpha manages not to bring up the fact that Sam and Dean actually killed her, but I guess they had to start that fight scene somehow.)
posted by jameaterblues at 11:40 PM on October 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
I think they were worried that as Bobby increasingly lost control he'd be put in situations where lashing out unpredictably would be more dangerous than helpful, like with Charlie. Locking him in the motel room doesn't work either, because he guesses the combination Dean used on the safe (because Dean used Bobby's birthday, so how hard was Dean trying actually) so he can take himself out and about, albeit in the body of some poor random woman. Which I guess he could have done anyway, if they did bring him along and he decided he didn't like their plan, though I guess then they would've known about it right away. Having custody of a belligerent ghost who's also someone you love seems like a pain in the ass.
Rick Worthy puts in such a good performance as the Alpha Vampire. Rich urbane vampire royalty isn't, like, a new trope but he brings a great mix of unprovokable confidence and menace, like once he's done with this episode he's going back to his fancier TV show on a better network and it's called Alpha Vampire. (I actually thought him lashing out when Edgar insulted Eve was a false note in that sense, I didn't even realize Eve had a relationship with her offspring such that they'd feel protective of her and the Alpha manages not to bring up the fact that Sam and Dean actually killed her, but I guess they had to start that fight scene somehow.)
posted by jameaterblues at 11:40 PM on October 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
as Bobby increasingly lost control
Fair.
My concern is - putting "Bobby in a corner" - that's gonna piss him off, no? Totally thanks for your perspective! My ugh is towards the showrunners.
re: Rick Worthy - agreed!
posted by porpoise at 12:06 AM on October 9, 2021
Fair.
My concern is - putting "Bobby in a corner" - that's gonna piss him off, no? Totally thanks for your perspective! My ugh is towards the showrunners.
re: Rick Worthy - agreed!
posted by porpoise at 12:06 AM on October 9, 2021
My concern is - putting "Bobby in a corner" - that's gonna piss him off, no? Totally thanks for your perspective! My ugh is towards the showrunners.
Yyyyeah even pre-vengeful spirit phase it’s hard to see that going over well and you have to take him out of the safe eventually.
posted by jameaterblues at 6:45 AM on October 9, 2021
Yyyyeah even pre-vengeful spirit phase it’s hard to see that going over well and you have to take him out of the safe eventually.
posted by jameaterblues at 6:45 AM on October 9, 2021
I'm not reading into the Anna Nicole Smith thing other than as a lazy joke.
Pretty sure I can judge what Dean's standards of "good" was meant in that one.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:38 PM on October 15, 2021
Pretty sure I can judge what Dean's standards of "good" was meant in that one.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:38 PM on October 15, 2021
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Sam and Dean could have gotten around the corn syrup thing by doing their own cooking -- there does seem to be a stove in the cabin -- but I suppose they weren't going to do that, and can't do it when on the road. It does seem a stretch that Sucrocorp could have taken over the entire food supply chain so quickly. ALL the food in that convenience store was made by them? Really? What happened to the the other food supply, or at least corn syrup suppliers, so quickly?
Love the Alpha Vamp -- such a cool, charismatic, memorable character.
Sam and Dean should have known Emily might have been brainwashed/turned whatever. It also doesn't make sense that, given that she'd embraced her life with the vampires, that she would have been locked in a room, unless that was some sort of ploy to entrap Sam and Dean.
This show really went all out on the dick jokes when referring to the Dick Roman character. It's like the writers were a bunch of 14-year-old boys who were just waiting for the chance to do that.
posted by orange swan at 8:01 AM on October 8, 2021 [1 favorite]