Season 2 Episode 11: Playthings

If you find young children and dolls creepy, "Playthings" probably isn't the Supernatural episode for you. Pierpont Inn is a business run by a single mother Susan. The Inn has been in the family for generations, but is going to be sold to a company that plans on demolishing it. Susan has two daughters, Maggie and Tyler, who are seen at the beginning of the episode when a man comes to collect some of their toys. Coincidentally, individuals involved with the company that is planning to buy the Inn are dying under unnatural circumstances. The younger daughter, Tyler, has a dollhouse that is a scale model of the Inn and before each murder, Tyler finds one of the dolls in a position mirroring the death of the victim.

Sam and Dean go to the Inn and pretend to be collectors of antique items. There were several funny moments, first when Susan assumes that the brothers are actually in a relationship by asking if they would like a king sized bed, and second when Sherwin, the bellhop, guesses they are 'antiquers' and tells them they 'look the type'. This earns him a slightly offended look from Dean.

While staying at the inn, a man working for the company that is buying the property, dies in his room. At this time, Sam is still struggling with the disappearance of Ava, one of the other 'Special Children' who has powers from the Yellow Eyed Demon, Azazel. When Dean returns to the room, he finds Sam drunk and deeply upset. Sam tells his brother that he should have been able to save the man, and when Dean insists that he cannot save everyone, Sam says:

That's an excuse, Dean. I should have found a way to save him. I should have saved Ava too... The more people I save, the more I can change!

 This dialogue only emphasizes the irrationality of Sam's thinking and also how much pressure he puts on himself to help other people. I think this is actually one of the first times that we begin to develop an idea of how Sam views his abilities and his so called 'destiny', perhaps triggered by the recent events with Gordon. As the audience, we have no problem identifying that Sam's view that he should be able to save everyone is unrealistic. It can even be difficult to identify with Sam's perspective of himself, considering how he is consistently portrayed as empathetic and moral.

Sam then asks Dean to promise to kill him if he ever becomes something that he is not. Oddly enough Dean, who clearly idolizes John, speaks ill of his father by saying John never should have asked him to kill his own brother. Dean says, "He never should have said anything. I mean, you don't do that, you don't, you don't lay that kind of crap on your kids." I think this was a big step forward for Dean, as he is beginning to see how unhealthy his relationship was with his father. Growing up, John placed much of Dean's self-worth in being able to take care of Sam and his car. Dean also mentions frequently that he views taking care of his brother as his job in life. In some ways, Dean is a surrogate parent to his own brother, simply because of how much care he had to provide to Sam throughout their childhood. Asking Dean to kill Sam is basically like asking him to relinquish one of his primary roles in life. I would imagine that killing a person, much less one's own sibling would be extremely difficult, especially with the thought of disappointing a beloved parent who asked you to do so.

The next day, Dean pretends his conversation with Sam didn't happen, thinking that Sam will not remember anything due to his hang-over. The brothers discover that Susan's mother, Rose, also lives in the upstairs of the Inn and had a stroke about a month before the killings began. Initially, they suspect her of using hoodoo to engineer the murders due to the fact that they find various hoodoo symbols on the property. However, Sam points out that it would have been impossible for Rose to perform the rituals if she couldn't speak from the stroke. They then come to the conclusion that Rose wasn't using hoodoo to manipulate a spirit but to ward one off.

In a turn of events, we discover that Susan only has one child- Tyler. The girl 'Maggie' who Sam and Dean hear Tyler speak of, is her 'imaginary friend' according to Susan. The episode is shot in such a clever way that as the audience we assume that the girl appearing beside Tyler is her sister. When the brothers ask Susan if she knew a real Maggie who may have died on the property, she tells them that her mother's sister, Margaret, drowned in the pool. Sam and Dean are able to intervene just as Maggie is trying to drown Tyler. Maggie's motive for doing so is that she is lonely and wishes to be with her family again. Rose then makes a deal with Maggie to be with her forever in the afterlife if she stops harming people at the Inn.

Supernatural is good at using the case which the brother's are working to mirror aspects of their own situation. In the case, the ghost of Margaret is afraid to be alone and without the one's she loves, which will undoubtedly occur when the Inn is sold. As a result, she begins murdering people who are involved in the sale of the Inn. Similarly, Dean is coping with the fact that he might someday have to kill his own brother, and live without one of the only surviving members of his family.

This episode is of course, high up on the creepy scale, simply due to the sheer amount of dolls, and also because the ghost is a little girl. While the story-line was unusual, the humorous scenes make the overall theme of the episode work. I haven't watched this episode in ages, and I'm not really sure why, considering it was very good. I remember finding the episode absolutely terrifying when I originally watched it, but for some reason it doesn't have the same effect. "Playthings" is likely overshadowed by episodes close to it like "Nightshifter", which are discussed frequently in the Supernatural world.  The episode itself is very dull and dreary in colour which may be a contributing factor to its poor memorability. Often the scenes with Sam discussing his destiny can be interpreted as 'whining' and can make it difficult to enjoy the full depth of his character. For some reason, there is a great unbalance between the work done by Sam and Dean in this episode. Fans of Dean may be disappointed as he is slightly overshadowed in this episode.  While Dean does the majority of the legwork, Sam is the one who ends up rescuing Tyler and ultimately saving the day.

Fans of  The Shining, will be able to pick out multiple references to the psychological horror film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick. For instance, Sam and Dean stay in room 237, the center of paranormal activity in the movie. As well, The Shining involves two twin girls, while in "Playthings" there are two young girls, Maggie and Tyler.

Details
Episode Writer: Matt Witten
Episode Director: Charles Beeson
Air Date: January 18, 2007