Supernatural S1 E4 “Phantom Traveler” Summary and Counts

Our episode starts in an airport, with a very nervous middle-aged dude. He’s right to be nervous, because he gets possessed in the bathroom by some gritty black floaty goop that sails into his eyes. As he gets onto the plane and is welcomed by the flight attendant, we see he has acquired total confidence and solid black eyes. Well, at least he’s not afraid of flying anymore.

Forty minutes into the flight, he goes to stretch his legs and pull the emergency door open. Of course, this isn’t conducive to keeping a plane flying. Thus, our Death By Monstrosity count goes through the roof.

Death by Monstrosity: 93+

The scene changes to Dean, asleep in a hotel room. Sam wakes his ass up at 5:45 in the morning. We find out Sam basically hasn’t been sleeping. He blows it off, Dean pretends he only cares for pragmatic reasons, and thus we add the “Healthy Processing of Our Emotions” count to our list.

Healthy Processing of Our Emotions”: 1

Toxic Masculinity: 1

Sam and Dean talk about the job and fear for a moment. Dean claims he’s never afraid. Sam pulls a huge hunting knife from beneath Dean’s pillow. But it’s not fear, it’s precaution.

Toxic Masculinity: 2

Dean gets a call from Jerry Panowski, whom Dean and their dad had helped with a poltergeist problem a while back. He’s got something worse. So they head over to see him. They make small talk as they walk through a hangar, and Sam finds out his dad was actually proud of him for going to college. D’aw.

Daddy Issues: 1

Jerry plays them a recording of the cockpit voice recording for the doomed flight. We find out there were over 100 people on board, with only seven survivors. The accident is being blamed on mechanical failure, but…

The NTSB has the wreckage, so Dean creates some Homeland Security badges at a local copy shop. He makes eyes at a pretty woman as he comes out, so I’m starting a new count here, too:

Definitely Hetero Dean: 1

The show just tries too damned hard to reinforce this.

Sam identifies EVP saying “No survivors!” on the voice recording. They discuss the history of haunted flights and phantom travelers, then go to interview survivors, beginning with Max Jaffey, who’s checked himself into a psychiatric hospital. After some coaxing, he tells the brothers that he’d seen a passenger with black eyes open the emergency exit, which shouldn’t be possible for a human when a plane is in flight.

They identify the passenger as the late George Phelps, and go to the dude’s completely ordinary house to question his thoroughly normal wife. The brothers learn of George’s fear of flying, and that he was thoroughly ordinary himself. Having hit a wall with witnesses, they rent some terribad suits and go play Homeland Security to get at the wreckage. Unfortunately, their new look doesn’t include Sam combing his hair.

At the NTSB warehouse, Dean whips out a homemade EMF meter and gets to investigating. It goes off when he waves it over the emergency door handle, which is dusted with a yellow substance. Sam scrapes off a sample. Meanwhile, two actual Homeland Security agents show up, so the brothers have to run for it. Dean discovers that terribad suit jackets are at least good for covering razor wire.

We cut to one of the survivors, pilot Chuck Lambert, who is getting a pep talk from his co-pilot. He’s obviously terrified to fly again, but is determined to get back in the air. His co-pilot leaves, which is unfortunate, because this gives the black grit stuff a chance to sneak out of a vent and jump in through Chuck’s eyeballs.

Meanwhile, in Jerry’s office, Jerry identifies the yellow stuff from the emergency handle as sulfur, and then conveniently goes off to fire someone for screwing up some equipment, leaving the brothers to ponder what it means: demonic possession!

Demon-Chuck zips over to his co-pilot with verve and confidence, and they take off. Forty minutes into their flight, he repeats what the original demon had said about time flying, and crashes the two-seater.

Death by Monstrosity: 95+

Meanwhile, the boys go back to the hotel to figure out what sort of demon this might be, and for a moment, decide on a Japanese one, as those have been known to cause disasters. This disturbs Dean, who thinks the job is too big for them without their dad.

Daddy Issues: 2

But Jerry calls with news of Chuck’s crash (just outside of Nazareth, get it?), and they go off to investigate, finding more sulfur. Also, with the fact that two planes went down forty minutes into their flights, they realize they’re dealing with Biblical numerology. They get the symbolism wrong, though. 40 doesn’t signify death, but “a period of testing, trial or probation.” Oops.

Culture Thieves: 1

Screenshot shows Sam sitting at the laptop. On the wall behind him are drawings of various demons and a photograph of the crashed plane in the NTSB warehouse.

Sam finds six plane crashes that match the pattern. Flight 2485 was the only one with survivors. So Dean figures out that the demon is trying to kill them off. The only survivor flying is Amanda Walker, the flight attendant, who is scheduled to work at 8pm. They can’t reach her by phone. Dean breaks all the speed laws to drive them to the airport she’s taking off from. They make it with 30 mins to spare and page her, but Dean’s attempt to keep her from flying by pretending her sister’s in the hospital fails miserably. Then he attempts to convince her that her ex-boyfriend needs her. I’m pointing Dean for the whiny don’t-be-like-that when she refuses.

Swimming in Sexism: 1

So the boys have struck out, and the demonic black smoke is issuing from a vent. Crunch time! Sam decides they’ll have to get on the plane. There’s just one problem: Dean is terrified of flying.

We decided fear-tears count, so our cumulative count for Dean’s Man Tears goes up:

Dean’s Man Tears: 4

Dean freaks out quietly a lot, is so scared he can’t even flirt with a pretty woman, and is super-awkward trying to determine whether Amanda is possessed because most of his mind is focused on his terror. He completely loses his shit when the plane encounters some turbulence. (And his fears will prove to be well-founded when the demon tries to crash the plane.) I’m sorry. I cannot stop laughing. Jensen Ackles does this so brilliantly.

Sam finds an exorcism in their dad’s journal that will expel the demon. Problem is, it’ll temporarily be more powerful, able to act on its own. They search the plane, discover the demon is in the copilot (apparently, even demons need to leave the cockpit for the occasional wee).

Screenshot shows a white man in a pilot's uniform, looking over his shoulder as he goes back to the cockpit. His eyes are solid black. Freaky!
They have to enlist Amanda to help them get to it. After a brief argument, they manage to convince her, and she lures the copilot out. They perform the first part of the exorcism, hijinks ensue, the plane nearly crashes, and tehn they’re able to complete the second half and save the day. Well, Sam does. Dean sort of stays panicked in a corner for that last bit.

They exit through Gate 13 (of course), and we have a dramatic moment with Sam being freaked out over the demon knowing about his dead girlfriend. Dean assures him it’s just because demons read minds. They get thanks from Jerry, and find out their dad reactivated his cell phone and updated his voicemail announcement in the past few months. Now Sam’s all mad, because their dad is obviously alive and on Earth.

Daddy Issues: 3

And there we end, with the boys driving on down the road.

Don’t forget to check Zeroth’s blog for his analysis of Dean’s Man Fears. And on Supernatural Thursday, I’ll be talking about all the lovely ways the writers subvert our expectations.

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Supernatural S1 E4 “Phantom Traveler” Summary and Counts
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