AI Show Notes

Summary

In this episode of Devil's Trap Podcast, Diana and Liz discuss season eight episode 20 of Supernatural, titled 'Pac-Man Fever.' They start the episode by sharing their recent experiences, including trips to Mexico and a psychic and spirit conference. They then discuss the engagement announcement of DJ Qualls and Ty Olsen, as well as the news that the show Walker may not be renewed for a fifth season. The main theme of the episode revolves around the case of a clerk named Tom Blake who was found dead with liquefied insides. Dean, Sam, and Charlie investigate the case and discover a blue handprint on the body. They break into the coroner's office to gather more information. In this episode, Sam and Dean team up with Charlie to hunt down a gin that feeds on fear. Charlie's past catches up with her as she confronts her own fears and guilt. The episode explores themes of family, loss, and facing one's fears. It also delves into the history of the pantsuit and its significance in women's fashion. The emotional moments between the characters, especially Charlie and Dean, provide a touching and heartfelt storyline.

Chapters00:00

Introduction and Recent Experiences

09:05

Engagement Announcement and Show Renewal

12:37

A Trip to Mexico and a Psychic Conference

27:48

The Clue of the Blue Handprint

41:39

Charlie's Nightmare

48:04

Rescuing Charlie

56:22

Charlie's Emotional Goodbye

Welcome to this week's episode of Devil's Trap Podcast. I'm Diana.

I'm Liz and once again cursed by the need to sneeze. How? Every time.

Every time press record time to sneeze. Yeah, this week we're going to talk about season eight episode 20 Pac -Man fever.

Tasty.

Black man fever.

But before that, while you're about to sneeze, what have you been up to, Liz?

So I went like, yesterday was like one of those days where I think it was time I was like, I have so much to do, but I'm so tired. And then I realized like how much I'd already done, including the fact that I had, you know, went to Mexico. We both went to Mexico.

Yeah, we both went to Mexico. Opposite coasts, almost same time.

opposite coast almost the same time. My trip got cut shorter because airlines are stupid. Well, listen, it was really, you know, the weather was stupid. Like the airline didn't, it wasn't their fault, you know. And so, you know, it was a few days in Mexico. It was fine. Then,

Yeah.

It really was. I got a bad sunburn, realized I made the right choice in leaving the corporate world. But you know, but the pools are really great. So I got to spend a lot of time in a pool and then came back and it was the third annual Psychic and Spirit Conference Convention.

Festival I forget what the fuck the curious twins are calling it. But so that festival was Saturday well, I guess and they did a ghost on Friday, which I did not participate in and Saturday they had the event with all the speakers and this year they also added a traveling exhibit for the Warren's a cult museum Which is really good timing because last podcast on the left is starting their series in the war and to I'm pretty sure pieces of shit and

people within the ghost hunting community most do not share that opinion and all like so this exhibit is they basically had like 13 pieces from the Warren's museums and if you're not familiar with Ed and Lorraine Warren, we've talked to them like briefly about them on this up on the show, but they are the protagonists of the conjuring series were like kind of Hollywoodified them, but they weren't that really you know, they were a

Yeah.

Bitch (02:29.384)

a couple who found their money or or their calling, whatever you want to say in paranormal investigations. Ed Warren was a demonologist and likely a probably a pedophile. You know, there's lots of like weird like things about him grooming like a teenage girl and all sorts of stuff that just make me go. And so I just would rather be like, but also how could I not?

pay to go to this museum and god damn it it was like $40 get in there and they had so many people coming in to see like these 12 things and the two dudes who were with their you know they're from the museum one of them like knew ed like growing up and was very fond of them.

Their highlight was not the Annabelle doll that the Warrens used to have, which I believe that's in Bagans Museum of Think, but they had the a prop from the Annabelle movie on the actual chair that Annabelle sat in.

I think so, you said that.

Hmm. Hmm.

So they had that, they had the toy, dinosaur from, the glazel haunting and that one, like, I just really wanted to play with it. It was like, it was a lot of fun. They had, the, the one, like the one that was in like the big spooky room was the shadow doll. And that one, I think was used as the, the lore behind that was you would basically use it to curse somebody, you know? And so the shadow would eat their soul, whatever, blah, blah. And.

Bitch (04:10.728)

So, ooh, that was in there. Yeah, there was many creepy dolls. There was the fire doll, and her eyes were very creepy, and she apparently set a house on fire.

Creepy dolls.

Huh.

Yeah, that's a lot for a doll to do. But yeah, I was just like, wow, like they brought like 16 things, like probably like not even a trailer's worth, right? And like, and hundreds of people, $40 a pop.

It is.

in.

not a bad gig if you can get it so but it was still you know always a good time saw some fun mediumship examples and it was you know mediumship you know that word

Right? Right?

mediumship.

Like you're, you know, remember we were joking about, so there were protesters and police out at the festival and sadly they were gone by the time that I got there. I really, I wanted to make some friends, but Diana said ever so I'm sorry. I'm throwing you under the bus with this terrible.

well, yeah.

Uhhhh

That's fine. No, it's terrible. It's fucking terrible, but I'll own it. It's all right.

And you're like, they're psychic. Should they have known they were coming? And then I was like, now you're going to make me be a Hermione and say being psychic doesn't necessarily mean that you predict the future. Sometimes it means you talk to ghosts and those are mediums. So medium shit. That's a good word.

I know medium, but I just haven't heard medium ship. It's like a, I like it. I'm just, it is. Snort, snort folio. No.

along with Snortfolio, which we're just not gonna explain. I'm just not gonna explain Snortfolio. So that was my weekend and yeah, and just lots of other things have been filling out the calendar and the calendar just does not stop, but I'm looking forward to this weekend and getting to see you and babe. And so how was your trip to Mexico? Tell us how you became Gidget.

Yeah, it doesn't.

Yeah, yeah.

It was good. It was good. We we went to a site, which was is lovely. And it's a small town, but it was a whole lot of walking and a lot of hills and cobblestones. So it was a no no high heel zone for Diana. I knew that so I didn't pack any. I was smart. But yeah, I surfed, which is pretty cool. Am I good? No. Did I get up? Yes. That's that's all that matters.

I did not injure myself. Well, to be fair, I did bruise one of my boobs. That's okay. like, you're like flopping onto the board and like, and then I fell obviously repeatedly. but anyway, so now, and then we went to the Playa de los Muertos where you had to walk through a cemetery on a hill to get to this other little, slightly isolated beach. It's not like a secret or anything. There's so much people there, but.

and you didn't hurt yourself.

Hmm, it's like my beach. Is it all gothied? Like is everybody in black?

Yeah. It was not. I wish, but it was not. But it was very pretty. And there's a...

So maybe that's where I open my goth beach bar.

There you go. And there's and there's a lot of beach doggo's in this town. Lots of beach doggo's. I did not see any gotos only only.

Any beach gatos?

I say kind of like, I kind of feel like you get one or the other, right?

Yeah, yeah. They don't they don't they don't necessarily hang out. But yeah. And I came back from a few days in Mexico, which were lovely. I actually like did not take a laptop. I did not actually had spent more than a few hours without checking my email. Very proud of myself. And then, yeah, we came home and I chopped my hair off. And then and then we went to a show we went and saw a really great.

show. Not my not my first choice of locations, but it's all hot water music with quicksand and off with their heads. So it was a really, really good show. And now. What? You could get you and we got. Yeah, I mean, now we're just gearing up to go. Go down to San Antonio for a hot rod hillbillies to open up for the necromantics.

Really good shoe. Really good shoe.

and then have a little holiday weekend.

I remember to fix this, the spikes on my vest. I was very proud of myself. I'm contemplating putting a third row on, but I didn't want to start because once you stop, like you have to like, yeah, so I'm just kind of like, I took a break and it was like, if I get, it's just a nice thing to do while you're watching TV, just like as much like you're bedazzling, you know, shoving spikes and studs into things is also very soothing while you watch TV.

No, you have to finish. If you don't have time to finish, you're out of luck, yeah.

That's it. Yeah. Yeah.

And, yeah, I think we've got two pretty big pieces of news associated with the supernatural universe.

Yes, for the S... within the SPN family. Well, there's many pieces, so let's go through them. Okay.

number one. Well, well, I've got two. I got two. So the one that I would, I'm going to share first is the engagement announcement of DJ Qualls and Ty Olsen. So Garth and Benny are getting married.

That is so amazing. That is just the most adorable thing I have ever heard. I love it. I love it so much.

And apparently they've been together for like 10 years and they've been fairly quiet about it. It's kind of a thing. So I dug in a little bit on that because we know that I do every, you know, we all love Garth because DJ Qualls is great. But I have a soft spot for many. So there we go. So on that note, yeah, so congratulations to DJ and Ty. That is amazing. Yeah.

That's amazing!

You have a wet spot for everybody. I'm sorry, what?

Thank you.

Super cool. And then in less positive news, it looks like Walker is not going to be renewed for season five. They're going to finish season four out and not be come back for season five. That's what I've seen.

Well, it's still up in the air, but they're dismantling the sets.

Yeah, and I did see some writing from Jared that might say that it's not, but either way. So yeah, so it looks, it's looking bleak for another season.

yeah, okay. Okay, it was like, you may be more caught up, like what I saw earlier today. So, yeah, that's a bummer, and hopefully they'll figure something out.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah. Yep, that's the hope. So if it's if it is accurate, it was as yesterday Jared Padalecki posted on his Twitter and CW shared it as well that the Walker will not be airing for a fifth season. So there we go.

So that's lame, but that means he can go off and do other things, but thank you for providing much, you know, jobs to Austin and dripping Springs for that show. That's really cool and appreciated. And yeah. And so speaking also of their careers past, Justin Ackles is episodes of tracker have been airing. He is

still so attractive. So, so attractive. And there was blood magic in this episode. That's all I'll say. I'm spoiling them at like, like everything is just better when it's spooky. It just is.

But yeah, so I need to I need to check out tracker. I have watched it and I like that the other actor Justin. Yeah, I was like, I know his name is Justin. That's all I got. I like him as well. So I would I need to add that to my rotation. I'm just so deep in some like I'm really deep in iZombie. And and now I got babe watching Girls 5Eva with me. So.

Alright, so...

Justin Hartley.

Yeah, those are all good reasons to not watch things.

All right, so let's talk about Pac -Man Fever. So this was season eight, episode 20. We're getting to the end of season eight. This was written by Robbie Thompson, who we last saw this season in Goodbye Stranger. That was episode 17. Before that, he also did LARP in The Real Girl, so Charlie's other episode. This was directed by Bob Singer, and we last saw him this season in Torn and Frayed, and that was episode 10. And he also did the first of the season,

These exist. Yeah, they exist. Yeah, those. Then we talk about Charlie. And so we know we might get some Charlie action and then the trials, of course. So. Our episode opens with a scene with some, you know, my clothes are some vintage anti -communism posters, but actually it's a scene that's pretty much a.

It's Dean waking up in like a World War II style military office -ish. Adjacent. Not exactly.

Sort of, yeah. We've adjacent, right? We got some jazzy music. There's some things that's indicating that, you know, he's got like a doctor's coat on, right? But underneath that's an army uniform.

What maybe? Yeah, but it's

Over. Yeah, like a military doctor. It's a military doctor type uniform. It's like the white coat over the uniform. And we've got Night Hop by Benny Carter playing.

Yep. Which had to be hot as fuck, man. Can you imagine, like, having to wear, like, that full -ass uniform and then put a doctor's coat over it?

Yes. I can't. But yeah, so and he's barricaded in this office for some reason. But you know, he's gonna he's gonna leave and find out why he's back in there because he don't know he just wakes up there. And he finds a he's got a weapon from a table leg and finds a newspaper on the floor, which this floor is strewn with dead bodies of military personnel and nurses bloody mass.

you

The newspaper says it's 1951 and there's a headline about Truman. So. Fucking time travel is my first thought.

But you also know it's weird like this is Yeah, it looks more like movie time travel or something is like, you know, it's not right But there's a non working elevator and something making monster sounds

is not accurate. Something's off.

And then we go to 24 hours earlier.

All right. And so we're at this bunker and Dean has brought beer and some other things and Sam comes out and he looks like hell. Dean comments on his hair like he should.

Mm hmm. Apparently he's been asleep. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because his hair needs a haircut. And apparently he's been asleep for a very long time. And then Dean throws him a beer and he misses it and it shatters all over the floor and no one reacts.

Yeah, because a beer is what I want the first thing when I wake up after sleeping for a day, like, please give me some beer?

Where's the coffee is the question? Damn it. Yeah, that's fair not beer not beer it's probably not even that cold of a beer

Or maybe just some water. But probably not. Probably not. But... No, no. We now know Samus Wildly.

But yeah, so Sam's wobbly because he didn't catch the beer and he's kind of stumbling and he wants, but Sam's like, we need to go find Kevin. And Dean's like, no, I've hacked into all these cameras. There's nothing there. Garth's out looking for him. We got Hunter APB out. You need to fucking chill, bro. And.

Sam's like, I can still hunt. I'll prove it to you. Let's go to the gun range, is what Dean says. So they go to their own private gun range in the bunker that we didn't know existed? What? It gets in my cooler!

Yep. Yep. There's a shooting range. There's a shooting range in the bunker. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

How'd they keep this from us? I wanna move in the bunker now too.

I really want to let you know you so they're so like when we're bunker surprise that I'm keeping from you

Well, Sam's shooting about like how I did every week. Just kidding. Wasn't that bad. No, it wasn't that bad. It was not good, though, but it was not bad. But yeah, he can't he can't even hit like the paper target, much less somewhere on the target. It is not good. And so Dean's like, that second trial is just hitting you harder.

I really hope you weren't shooting that bad.

So yeah, so now we're like, yeah, this is the second trial has come. Like this is, whatever this is, it's whooping his ass. But.

So now, and they still don't know what the third trial is yet, they gotta find Kevin to tell them what the third trial is so they can do the third trial.

Right. Right. And then you've got mail.

From Charlie? What? She's in the neighborhood and found a case.

Well, the subject is, where are you? I couldn't track your signal. And then it says, where are you at? Tracked yourselves a 20 mile radius of you peeps, then signal could put, text Addie please.

Yeah, so and then Dean's pretty stoked because that means that the bunker is like a blocked out area.

Yeah, it's basically a cell phone jammer and that's awesome. It is super Aussie bunker life.

Yeah. Which is a pretty impressive that it would have been a blocker before a cell phone existed.

Yeah, I don't wanna go, yeah, it's maybe, but I mean, if you think about where's, no, I'm not gonna nerd on this. It's possible, but anyways, go on. So.

Okay.

Cool. So they're going to go meet Charlie and they meet her and she pulls up in her yellow gremlin. And Sam is just not looking great. And she's like, yeah, I'm just in town for this comic convention. So and she really wants to see the bunker. Yeah.

Of course she does, right?

And apparently she's still doing her cosplay and having fun with that. But and Dean and commits that they are not going to miss the upcoming Jubilee. So I guess they're keeping up with her Mundo world. Yes. And she's like, yeah, but here's the case. Tom Blake is this clerk in Salina. And so we're in Salina, Kansas, which funny enough, I've been to anyways. It's not much of a town, but there's.

was lerping.

There is a military training facility there. I got lost in a field and screamed at the universe there. I could do sometimes. So.

Yep, major family friends lived there.

Sounds fun.

Yeah, this sounds actually does sound like fun. I want to go into a field and scream at the universe. That sounds like a grand old time. I was like getting jealous of like the kid on the airplane behind me. Like he was just screaming at the top of his lungs. I'm like, why do you get to do that? I want to sit in this plane and scream that loud.

So.

I was just screaming.

Well, Tom, this clerk has been, I was found dead and his insides were liquefied. And Charlie has been studying up on monsters because she's got this really cool diagram. I don't know. What would you call it? It's a, it's a bunch of pictures of monsters and she's, well, that's a good way. Yeah. It's a Pingo card and she's going through and she's ex.

I call it a bingo card.

It's basically a database that she has made like little pictures on so you can like go to but you can X out like what type it is so you can be like no it's not it not it and then this must be my monster.

Elimination. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty good. Apparently, she got very obsessive about researching monsters. And then and then she found the Carver Edlin books and I like her meta madness comment. And thanks them for saving the world. And they're very Sam and Dean are so bummed. They're like, we need to burn those books. They're online now. Sorry.

Yep, you cannot go away.

No. But yeah, so Dean's like, all right, let's go do this case. I'm on it. And, you know, Charlie can come along if she proves herself at the range.

Right, so you got Charlie really wants to go and Dean's just like, I'm gonna pull the same shit I did with Sam, right? Like, you can come if you can hit these targets.

Charlie a bad bitch at the range

Yeah, she just double taps a target in the head and is like, are we cool now?

And Dean says, yeah, as long as there's no novelty t -shirts. So... It's montage time.

So what time is it now?

It's a fashion montage. Everyone loves a montage.

And we've got walk on sunshine plan. We've got a bunch of different outfits as she's trying to find the perfect outfit to go on the on the case with Dean.

And Dean finally approves of a very, very ugly pantsuit.

Yeah. And, as they're leaving though, he tells her we get basically that we get like the good cut where it's like, obviously he's told her all about the trials and, and she asks about Castiel and then she's like, she's like giving them pep talks after reading those books. She's all hype. There's pretty much nothing Winchesters can't do if they work together.

I thought it was very touching, it was just very charming. Just being like, aww, reminded, and Dean's like aww, I remember my brother Sammy, and how we saved the world. Right.

It is cute.

Yeah, no, it's very cute reminders. It's just it's just it's just very funny how she's like all like hyped after reading their books. I appreciate it. And Dean uses Charlie's phone to call Sam. And while he's practicing at the range and still not doing very well, but he says he tells himself it's good enough.

Yeah, I would also be obsessing over this, especially if I had a shooting range down there and I was shooting that like, my, I would just be like, get it right, get it right. And then I would just get worse and worse because I would overthink it.

yeah, overthinking it for sure. Absolutely. That's how that's how you spiral like that. Yes. And I would, too.

That's what that's this is a perfectionist downfall

So Dean and Charlie go to the coroner's office and she, Charlie is not great at playing this game out the gate. She's got her badge upside down and all this stuff is real awkward. It's bad. But they found the coroner who's going to be a super duper stickler for paperwork and doesn't fall for the Dean Charm agent crap apparently.

Yeah, but she's asking for a chain of custody and I'm not sure that's the right paperwork you would have in the situation because chain of custody usually yet usually implies that you're passing evidence from like one person to one person and they are taking possession of it. And so I don't think they would be passing possession of the corpse over to the FBI. So I.

Because they're not taking it. They just want to see it.

Right.

she would be retaining possession, they would just be observing.

Yeah, I don't know. I think y 'all made up a bad form. Well, you didn't make it up. You just use a term wrong, but whatever. Maybe, maybe.

Or maybe it was on purpose. As we watch this episode, it could have been intentional just to trick and not release it. So Dean's like tries to charmer and fails and though they leave and Dean kind of calls out Charlie about how bad she was at this. And he's I really like her comment. She said she couldn't control or delete her way out.

Perhaps, perhaps, now we're just going deeper.

Yeah, and sometimes it's just making small talk is hard.

So Dean's like, it's all right, we'll just come back. And Charles, he kind of freaks out about doing a breaking and entering. And Dean compares it to hacking. And she's like, well, yeah, but one I've been doing since I was a teenager, starting with NORAD. And the other I've only done one other time with Sam and Dean, and I broke my arm.

And honestly, when she was a teenager, getting into NORAD probably wasn't that hard.

That's valid. So we cut to two teenage boys walking by the train tracks at night playing their handheld gaming system, which I don't want to guess which one it was and say wrong. I couldn't tell. And they find a dead body that is fairly bloated. Well, yeah.

Dude!

Dude watched right over it. Like he was just like so into his game that like, yeah.

It's like kids on their phones today shake my fist at this guy. But yeah, they're like.

That's okay, their eyelids are on going to look really weird.

Yeah.

And they get the wrinkles they're gonna get. Like they're gonna get a whole new kind of wrinkles. Anyway, so we've got a very bloaty corpse. Don't poke it, don't poke it.

And so they start poking it with a stick. This is a terrible idea. Don't poke the bloated body with a stick.

It is, but also, don't poke it. Don't, but also like how can you not poke it? Because I also want to poke it. It's an intrusive thought. It's an intrusive thought. The leg. Don't poke it. Because I want to poke it.

No, I do not. But I would resist. I would resist. I would resist.

I walked past some door in a medical building today and there was a sign on the wall that had a water, like a gauge for water pressure and there was a lock on the door. And all I wanted to do was get in there and figure out what it was. But intrusive thoughts, like I can't see things like that. Like usually you can't not poke the bloated corpse of the stick.

not want to mess with it.

Well, they do. And it explodes all over them. So Dean and Charlie have to show up to this crime scene. And guess who's already there? Sam, because he was and he does look like shit, but he's playing FBI card two and he's going to work the case. And this is a different victim. Jake, Jake Hale is a librarian. And the corner has already scooped up the body by the time they've all gotten there. So yeah.

And he looks like shit.

Dean wants to go, I want Sam to go home. But while they talk about it, they send Charlie to go talk to these witnesses, these two young men.

but she didn't want to miss the bromant.

She did not want to miss the bromance. And but she's the perfect person to go talk to these two kids because she can fucking talk gamer to them. So it's it's actually pretty good. And we've got Sam and Dean having their moment about Sam. It reminds Dean that he can't protect them both. And Sam needs to play through the pain and which are things that Dean has said before. So it's kind of funny.

But yeah, Charlie shows back up though and is like, by the way, the witnesses saw a blue handprint on that body before it covered them in years of therapy. Really funny line. So there we go.

I wonder what their gut microbiome looks like. all right. So yeah, so they've got a blue handprint and now it's time for some breaking and entering. Also, Sam stole your car.

Yeah, it's all over these kids. You can probably check it.

Yeah. Yeah. So they go to the coroner's office again. Sam and Charlie and Dean all meet up there in two different vehicles. And while they're there, they, right when they get in, they see the headlights and the coroner has shown up. So Charlie is all confident now. She's fucking ready. She feels good. She's got her mojo after talking to those, those witnesses, and she is going to try to stall our coroner while.

while Sam and Dean go look at this body. So she just strolls right into the coroner's office and asks for the blank copy of the form that they need.

all the lies and the lies and excuses.

While Sam and Dean discover that the body's already been burned. That was fast.

Yeah, that seems really, really fast. You know, no, no, no other investigation. But they apparently were saying there was an outbreak scenario and the CDC signed off on it.

Yeah. And so while the while while Charlie Charlie is trying to delay our corner, she moves to a new tactic instead of just a form. She wants advice on power suits.

and our coroner tells her it's really simple all you need are three jackets three pairs of pants and you're all set so we're going to talk about pantsuits why because it's our show and i don't do where the fuck i want to do so it's lore but fashion

And so pantsuits are evil maybe revolutionary. I'm not sure they are my enemy I have vowed to never wear a pantsuit again and Also, they're just really hard to shop for unless you get a custom thing like they're not made for a midget people with giant boobs So because they're made for men Realistically, you know

Hmm.

The term pantsuit though has been around since the 1860s, but it used to describe the suits with shorts that young boys would wear and your coming of age would then be symbolized by you get to go to full -length trousers. Like, I'm a man now, I have long pants on, daddy. So that was usually around, how did my knees? You can't see my knees anymore, I'm a man. So, but.

Jerk (30:05.998)

Hide my knees, daddy.

Yeah

Women, at least in Western fashion world, have worn some version of suiting since the 19th century, but those suits were typically a fitted jacket that were paired with a skirt. The Turkish trouser or pantaloon became popular in the US when basically the story is that Amelia Bloomer advocated the attire in her paper, The Lily in 1851.

Although it likely originated in the utopian Oneida community, like this one of those weird like utopian weird.

Yeah.

Okay.

I don't want to be dragging my skirts. Yeah.

The bloomers became associated with the women's suffrage movement. Amelia Bloomer was a strong advocate for women's suffrage. But that also may be the reason that they became unpopular, because all the satirical drawings of the time of the suffragettes usually portrayed them in some exaggerated form.

with their bloomers and the bloomers were also being blamed for the unsexing of women, right? This was very much, you know, the culture war of that time of, no, I'm going to not be a lady anymore if I wear these pantaloons. So the leadership of the suffrage movement basically kind of pushed the idea aside because it was just becoming too much of they said.

Hmm.

too much of a distraction for the issues they want to get through, like voting. They're like, why am I sitting here arguing about what I'm wearing when I still can't cast a right to vote? Right? So.

There was kind of that pushback within the movement. Most of them started wearing regular clothes, like that regular clothes, but you know, just like lengthen this, lengthen it down so they would stop being, that would stop being the point of focus. There were other like rival groups that like did like do show up with some reform things, but.

Duh.

The French designer is still a staple. So the French designer Marcel Rochas, I'm like not a fashionista, Rochas, but so he is credited with originating the idea of pairing pants, women's suits in 1932 when he introduced a pair of gray wool trousers and matching jacket with extreme patterned shoulders.

It's still a staple, weirdly, but also awesome.

One of the earliest trouser suit images in Vogue came in 1933 with Marlena Dietrich in a summer trouser suit. And they so they didn't want to call them pants suits because again, we had the boy confusion and just, you know, his trousers. So they were often called masculine style lounge suits, which.

Mmm.

That's a mouthful.

That's a lot of things to say. So again, you know, so women are wearing them, but it's still, it's edgy. You know, if you do, it's very, very edgy. And then they even kind of became a sign more of just like outright rebellion in the forties and fifties. So, especially in California, we have Pachukas.

Right.

who were, you know, members, the female members of the Pachucos, and they began wearing zoot suits to project a tough rebellious image, and probably also because they had shit to do. The London Teddy girls, they were known for their rolled up jeans and their flats. And then I just have a note in here that says hysterectomy pants, I call them.

Bitch (35:10.888)

Bitch (35:33.64)

and the less smoking suit was a tuxedo and that had a dinner jacket and trousers with a satin stripe down the side, a white shirt, a black bow tie and a cummerbund and it kind of became this iconic like...

Yeah.

pretty baller. I mean, just like, there's also, it's also stupid to just be like, I can wear this and it's a dress and it's fine, but I can't wear the pants. Okay, cool. Whatever. Fuck you. So Pat Nixon became the first sitting lady to be photographed in a trouser suit in 1972. And that was also the first year that women in the FBI were allowed to wear pants. So this is when Charlie's pants, who the FBI would have originated. And that is because that's when Hoover finally died.

It's stupid, but it's.

In 1973, the perfume Charlie by Revlon was launched and so they have this advertising campaign with women wearing pantsuits by Ralph Lauren as they went out for a night in the town or like we're running through the city streets. They call it Charlie. Go look at the ads on YouTube. They are hilarious. So according to the revolutionary history of the pantsuit, from

which is extra funny with Charlie in this episode. Go ahead.

so extra funny, which really didn't get there. so smart. So for 1972 to 1985, the percentage of women in the workforce grew to 49%. And so as that did, so did the rise of the actual power suit. And that was the big shoulders, the big lapels, like what you wore in Working Girl and in what was the Bette Midler one I just watched that was so great. So.

big shoulders.

But then in the 90s Vogue declared that power dressing was over and people started taking suits out of the stores. Neiman Marcus even eliminated the suit department. I didn't know they did that. Like that was crazy. And they came back, but that was just weird, right? Like Vogue says it's over. Suits are gone! Just take them out! No more! And this is the other thing that I did not...

Take the whole department out. Remove them from my sight.

The day I learned fat, that kind of blew my mind. But in 1993, women in the Senate were finally allowed to wear pants. And that is after Senator Mosley Braun and Barbara Mikulski, they basically bucked the system. And after they, one of them like was on purpose, one of them was not.

More formal. More formal.

And so they changed the written policy manual to read women are required to wear business attire, i .e. dress, skirt slash blouse, business suit, coordinated pantsuit, slacks and matching blazer, no stirrup pants. Who? I mean, like, does someone just really hate stirrup pants? Like, they're just like, and no. Susan, Susan, we saw you. No, you put the stirrup pants away.

I mean, I don't blame him for that one. I mean, don't. No. That is a faux pas, ma 'am. That is hilarious.

Why do we even have stirrups? Like I know I have them, but I don't understand their purpose as a fashion item.

They would stay, they would, they would stay in place was the whole thing. They wouldn't like, I don't know, they didn't write up. So I don't know why that was the thing though. yeah.

I don't know.

trousers suits during the State of the Union Address to show solidarity with the suffrage movement and support for women's issues. I just like calling it a trouser suit and I will be calling it a trouser suit from now on. It sounds way better than pantsuit. It just does, right? Trousersuit. I feel like Catherine Hepburn wore trouser suits, like she didn't wear pantsuits.

Hmm. I guess.

I mean that's reasonable. She didn't wear a pantsuit. Pants.

I think pants like pants like it's also or pantaloons right and like your pantaloons are showing.

I want a suit so bad, but I want to get like real fancy where you get like the pants, the skirt, the vest and the blazer. You know what I mean? Like I want all four so I can like mix and match. That's what I need to get in my life.

Yep, then you'll have them custom -made so they actually fit you my dad suits and he had a lot of custom -made suits And he had like his name like sewed into the thing I don't know there's also you have part of me that thinks you know that suits are just the leadest and you know a way of He's distinguishing between classes in but also I just don't look great in them. So fuck them fuck suits Anyways, that's the fun history of the I thought we do something different this week. So that was the fun history of the pantsuit

Ha!

I like it. That's very cool. The history of the pamp suit.

Lower but faster.

Yeah, that's awesome. That's cool. Super cool. I like it. I like it. Someday I'll get my pants suit custom made one of these days.

Sorry.

So, what are these days? So we go back to Charlie's pantsuit dilemmas and she awkwardly leaves her new friend.

Yeah. And, so, and they, so they all, they, they make it out of the morgue because Sam and Dean have finished getting the information they need and they go back to the bunker where, Charlie is showing her super cool bingo card of monsters and Sam hates it, but also wants one.

reasonable. And Dean is looking through journals and finds that there is an offshoot of the gin. And this has the blue eyes, but it passes as human and its victims end up with a jelly like insides. And then Charlie gets to come back with I hate that and I want one about the journal. It's a cute little exchange.

So journal for the win, the journal for the win. And we are also reminded that just like the other gen that these can be killed with a silver blade dipped in lamb's blood. Poor lamb.

Mm hmm. Yeah. So Charlie is going to go says she's going to leave. She's going to pick up some food and some pie because she won't forget Dean's pie like Sam does. And as she leaves, Sam and Dean agree that Charlie something's off with Charlie. Like they're glad to have her and they like Charlie. But something's just since she's shown up, something's off about this whole thing. So we cut to Charlie's.

House? What the fuck is this? Apparently she's got a place in town. I don't know. There's a very unclear about all of this, but she has a place and she's got a lock box full of multiple passports, IDs and money. And she hops on her laptop and starts transferring funds around.

So dreamy. Sorry, I just want to imagine how having all those identities, it's so nice.

Well, she is moving funds around. Here's a noise goes and looks out in the hall and our coroner is there and our corner has blue eyes. So our corner is the gin. Yeah, pantsuit gin. So Sam is trying to call her and while he's doing this, he has a gnarly coughing fit.

no, it's the Pantsuit Monster!

And they're just trying to figure out why she lied to them They don't really know exactly what she lied about but she lied about something and they need to figure it the fuck out And Dean's like, just let's just pull up her GPS because I totally turned that on her phone when I used it to call you

Not necessarily.

Anyways, so they find her house apartment thing and they knock on the door. Her furniture is all knocked around. And obviously there was a struggle and she didn't she left unexpectedly because all her IDs are laying everywhere. Her money stuff was up on her on her monitor still. And she's been making donations to the Shawnee County General Hospital in Topeka specifically for a patient named Gertrude Middleton.

So Dean's got to figure out who Gertrude is while Sam looks for the gin.

So we cut to the hospital where Dean is talking to the nurse about Gertrude. Gertrude has been in a vegetative state for 16 years. She got worse a year ago and she is on a ventilator. 16 years ago, her and her husband were hit by a drunk driver and their husband died and they were on their way to pick up their daughter from a sleepover.

And after that, the 12 year old girl got into trouble and has not been seen in years. shit. Is this?

No. And some nurses think that someone's been reading to her, but nobody's ever officially signed it.

Yeah, and they know that some donations are caring for her. That's it. And so Dean tells Gertrude, who has the nurse leaves, that she's got one hell of a daughter and they're going to find her. no, this is Charlie's mom. This is sad. So we cut to Charlie tied to a chair in a basement or something.

new.

Yep, Pantsuit Monster has her tied up and she smells fear. And she sniffed her fear and she followed her scent. Ew.

Smells fair.

And Charlie is like, Jen can smell fear. And she's and that was the giveaway. Our Jen was like, wait, if you know that, then you are hunters, not FBI. It's kind of interesting.

Like, duh, like you really think they're FBI to begin with? Come on.

Yeah, so she explains that her type of djinn prefer bitter blood with a taste of fear. Gross. And so she does the blue glowy tribal tattoo thingy.

and tells her that she'll make a good meal for two. What?

Yes, and grabs her arm. So why is it for two and grabs Charlie's arm and it's not good. So.

Yep, and then just tribal, tribal tattoo feeding. So everybody you see with a tribal tattoo, they're Gen. Don't trust them. They're gonna, they're gonna, they got tribal sleeves. They're just gonna suck your fear.

Is that what it is? If they've got if they've got if they've got tribal slaves, gin.

Back in the bunker, Dean tells Sam about Gertrude and he implies an empathetic similarity to holding on to their mother. It's kind of an interesting thing. And Sam is... I lost my spot. That's terrible.

Yeah, Sam has found a John Doe from nine years ago and

That's what it is. And that, yes, that's what it was. And that the coroner was the assistant coroner at the time.

Yes, and she accidentally sent the body to be burned. Oops.

Oops. Hmm. Hmm. Well, Charlie's trying to talk shit to this gin because that's what she do. And and the gin is like, yeah, no, sorry. By the way, Sam and Dean reeked of fear, too. Or Dean, she didn't realize she's here yet. So he reeked of fear, too. And he grabs and the gin grabs Charlie's arm. And when this time when she grabs it, Charlie screams like she's in pain. That's that.

Yeah, damn it, Pantsuit Monster.

But Sam and Dean have discovered that our gin got sloppy. They own two properties, a house and an abandoned shipping warehouse. Woohoo!

And Dean says, of course, because he is also sick of the warehouses.

But it also seems like really like weirdly obvious. Like that's public record. Wouldn't you need like an ex like a reason to own this weird warehouse? I don't know. I mean, is it just an investment?

I don't know, I'm buying you a warehouse for your next birthday. We'll find out.

Is owning a warehouse sus is the question? So they sneak in and they find Charlie tied to this chair with a blue handprint on their arm and she is unconscious. This is not good. And the.

There's a whole thing that I don't know. I'll let you jump in. It gets kind of weird for a minute. We've got the gin fight, but not.

Yeah, so Sam and the gin, gin, Jennifer, they fight and Sam's not doing well. Dean stabs her. Then Sam takes her gin and juice and then he puts the gin and juice into Charlie and that's not working.

Ugh.

No, it doesn't bring her back. And so they're like, well, she's still got to be in the feedback loop that the gin sends you in, but it should have brought her back. So we don't really know. And so Dean is going to drink this weird cinnamon drink they put together.

It's African Dream Roo and it's gonna help him dreamwalk into Charlie's mind. Dreamweaver. Yes.

It looks like horchata with. It looks like horchata with some like cinnamon sticks in it.

That's probably what it was.

And then Dean tells Sam to knock him out. And so Sam has to punch him not once, but twice.

But he does it without hesitation. It's very funny because he's just like, I know this is going to be really hard for you and Sam's just like, bam.

But pops them. Yeah, no. So we go back to the scene that we opened in, which is this like pseudo 1951 scene. And he is trying to open the elevator. We cut we cut up, we do the build up and show like how he got back there. So he's at the elevator trying to open the door. And we've got monster, commie monsters attacking basically.

Every grandpa's fear is the commies. So the commies are coming and the elevator door is open.

Elevate and it's Charlie with an eye patch and she's got some bad bitch vibes going with tactical gear and shotgun ready to roll. And she just starts blasting these guys and says and then she stops and says, come with me if you want to live, because she's always wanted to say that. And she's curious, though, what what the fuck Dean's doing in her dream. And he explains where she actually is and and comments on this being a very weird, happy place.

Yeah.

And she's like, no, this is not my happy place. This type of gin feeds on fear. And this is my reoccurring nightmare.

explains a lot. And it's based on a video game called Red Scare that she stole, reprogrammed, and then released for free, and then was later arrested for it.

She reprogrammed it to reflect her flamingly liberal politics And just like I remember when you can like steal games off company servers and change them. the good old days I mean that that I knew Okay, so anyways, so she was 12 and she did that and then we go to like tuberculosis Sam

Yeah, he's coughing up something and hears a noise. It's real weird. It's a weird. Yeah, for real. And then Dean and Charlie are trying to figure out how to get out of this fucking dream. And he's like, it's he's not really sure because he like we killed the gin and she's like both of them. And he's like, fuck.

Sam's got the consumption now.

So now Dean knows that there's two Jin, but Sam does not yet know this until he gets stumbled upon the Jin's son.

kill my mom and then it's like you've got to beat a child Sam I'm like this is like not like no he's a child I know he's a gen child but it's still like moose Jared Padalecki beating on a child

That's not very nice. Yeah.

Well, we've got Dean wants Charlie to tell him about the game. He's like, and they're both just blasting commie monsters all day. It's everybody's dream. And she says every time that she beats a level and saves the patients, she comes back and with fewer weapons and there's faster monsters, they're vampires. And it's just an infinite loop. Like,

Pac -Man without level 256.

And that is otherwise known as the Map 256 glitch. And in the original Pac -Man, on this stage, the right side of the screen turns into a jumbled mess of numbers and letters, while the left side is normal and it is impossible to beat.

So they barricade themselves inside a room and they realize that this is where the patients are. So Dean opens a curtain and we see Gertrude and he tells Charlie that he knows who this is and that they found her crash pad, they visited Gertrude and Charlie confesses that yeah, she does sneak into the hospital and reads to her mom because her mom used to read her The Hobbit when she was a child. So.

Dean says to her that I'm sorry for your loss. Charlie's response is she's not gone. And then Dean opens the other curtain and there is Sam unconscious in a bed. So Charlie asks, my nightmare or yours? In the meantime, Sam is getting his fucking ass kicked by this teenager.

you

Yep, this child is just kicking him up.

The child is whooping up on him. and he calls out he monologues to this kid as they're fighting about what happened, which is basically mom. The mom, Jen isn't the one that fucked up on these bodies. Kid Jen is. And he's like, and I didn't I it was my coming of age and I didn't know. And then Sam stabs him.

Yeah, and mom always told him not to play with his food. So we go back inside the game.

Yeah. And Charlie is like, we've got to save the patients. That's what we have to do. It's the boss battle. But Dean's like, look, we're both going to die out in the real world. And you have to break the loop. I think the answer is we don't play. We don't play the game. And she's very resistant to this plan. But Dean points out on the concept level of being outside the emotional havoc of all this.

that if the whole point for the Jinn is fear, then you just have to let go and stop being afraid and not play the game. And it's, you know, and of course it's not not afraid of commie vampires or the game, just afraid of losing her. So.

Yep. And then we found out even sadder that Charlie blames herself for the accident. And that's she had her parents were driving to come pick her up and then they got into the accident. So she blames herself for that. And she just wants like the chance to go back and tell her mom that she's sorry. So fucking sad.

Because she was scared. It's fear.

Yeah. It's very sad, but she gets this off her chest and she pauses as Dean tells her to let go and she drops her gun. The monster is trapped, stopped trying to get in. And when they pull back the curtain, Gertrude's gone. So Dean wakes up, Sam's there, Charlie's waking up and she's crying and we get a very special hug between her and Dean. So.

We back to the bunker and Charlie thanks Sam for saving them and tells him that he'll be okay because the books portray him as tough and if anyone can get through the trials, it's him. I bet both of them needed that.

Yeah, that was very, very sad. Very, very sad, very touching. And then he offers to let her dig through the archives and then she leaves. What's wrong with you?

Well, and he like refers to her as like a woman of letters. It's cute. But yeah. Yeah. So Dean asked her what's next, and she's got to go to the hospital and.

I would move in immediately.

She asks Dean if he'll ever let go and he says never. And then we get our Star Wars quote along. Of course.

Charlie tells Dean that she loves him and then he says, I know and they hug goodbye. It's so cute.

For the record, we shall be impressed that I know it's a Star Wars quote along. But I feel like that's like a rule to know that one.

I'm not that impressed, Diana.

So inside the bunker, Sam admits that Dean was right. Sam thinks like I should have hung back. And we're everybody's expecting, including Sam Dean, just go off on my grave. You're damn right. I'm right. You know, whatever. But he doesn't. He just hugs Sam and says that they're going to go find the prophet. It's really sweet.

Yep, so then we go to the hospital where Charlie has signed in for Real's Reels.

Yeah, and then we all cry because she's reading her mom, The Hobbit, one last time.

Yep, and if you don't cry, you may be dead inside. I'm saying, I'm seeing a therapist. But anyway, so we all deal with our own emotions in the same way, but I found it very touching and I balled. So, do we have people to talk about?

It was.

We have a couple. So a couple casting notes are Dr. Jennifer O 'Brien, a .k .a. Coroner, a .k .a. The Jinn, was played by Linda Boyd. She's done a ton of anime verse work, voice work, and especially like starting out her career, which I thought is an interesting starting point. She's been in episodes of X -Files, ER, Smallville, Arrow, and Supergirl. She was Alicia in the 1996 movie Generation X.

she was Mrs. Lucille strict in, disturbing behavior. She was a party guest, which is an extra, but in best in show. It's one of my favorite. she is, Nora in final destination three Cheryl and she's the man, Ms. Boswell in fast and furious Tokyo drift. Rose in Republic of Doyle, over 77 episodes of that, Lily in Virgin Richard Virgin river, which Netflix series recently, and she's done a.

a hallmark in recent years.

The other person I would like to highlight in my casting notes today is Diego. This is one of our video game playing teenagers slash witnesses. This played by Manny Jacinto. You may have seen him in episodes of Once Upon a Time, The 100 Bates Motel, I Zombie, Wayward Pines and Roadies. He was warring Wade in Bad Times at the El Royale.

He was a code in the brand new cherry flavor show series. He's done a ton of voice work and most importantly, I think he was Jason Mendoza in the Good Place.

He was Jason. Go Jaguars.

So good. So, yeah. That was, that was, I, that is probably one of the best short run, intentionally short running sitcoms in ages, in my humble opinion. So, here we go.

I would point out though that you also you did miss somebody, but I don't think they were in the credits So Jared's parents appeared as extras in this episode And they are at the crime scene in the background like most people in the William the paddaleckis were there

Jerk (01:00:41.518)

That's amazing. Huh. Very cool.

So, what did you think?

you know, I thought first off, you know, I don't think either of us are mad and episode bringing Charlie in. She's fun. And I feel like the writing is always the right writing and dialogue is always fun. That's.

Yeah, it always picks up, I think, because she's a perky character. And so the writing just, yeah, it's, yeah.

No. And it's witty. That's just her person. It has to be for her character. So it's fun. And then, well, and the pop culture references, even if they're nerdier than I would necessarily be like into, I get them and it's fun. I think that the some of the emotional components of kind of coming around and coming together were super important. And I thought it was a fun.

catalyst to do that through her reading the books about them. I thought that was a really cool way to bring it about. So. But it's kind of weird that Kevin's missing and they don't like they weren't like there's like, I don't know, I think he's on these hiding somewhere where we all know that. He's not.

Where's our profit?

That mayhaps he's on a demon plane or something. We don't know.

Yeah, it's not good. So yeah, that's how about you?

I obviously pro pro Felicia day pro Charlie. So it's again always fun when she's on we're getting you were there is out of this like it didn't really do anything to make push us towards the end of the season, I guess.

I disagree, I think it did because they needed to give Sam and Dean the confidence to work together. Now that's not like a huge plot thing, but I think it is a component. I wanna give it that.

Okay, not wrong with that. So, I'm glad that we're almost done with the season. No. It has a lot of great episodes in it, you know, and we found a lot of people, but, you know. Anyhow, alright, so I like this episode. It wasn't a bummer. So on that note, cheers, cheers.

Jerk (01:02:55.118)

Cheers, bitch.