Recap of Supernatural
Season 7, Episode 16
Out With The Old
Written by Jenny Klein and Robert Singer.
Directed by John F. Showalter.
Air Date: March 16, 2012.
A ballerina is killed by a pair of cursed dancing shoes in Portland, Oregon
, and the brothers must track down several other cursed objects that have been sold. However, that's the least of the brothers' concerns when they discover that the store where the shoes were sold has been bought out by Leviathans, along with the rest of the street.
Body Count:
For this episode = 4 humans and 1 Leviathan.
For the series so far = At least 785 humans (of which 6 were witches), 89 demons, 55 angels, 36 ghosts, 36 Jefferson Starships, 26 vampires, 19 zombies, 15 gods, 9 hellhounds, 7 skinwalkers, 6 changelings, 5 shapeshifters, 4 ghouls, 3 djinn, 3 dogs, 2 Amazons, 2 arachnes, 2 kitsunes, 2 Leviathan, 2 vetalas, 2 werewolves, 1 crocotta, 1 dragon, 1 fairy, 1 Khan worm, 1 lamia, the Mother of All, 1 okami, 1 phoenix, 1 Purgatory creature, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 reaper, 1 rugaru, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 wendigo, 1 whore of Babylon, and 1 wraith.
Tropes
- An Arm and a Leg: The ballet dancer dances until her feet are worn to stubs.
- Apologetic Attacker: Dean keeps getting kicked in the face while trying to take the shoes off the little girl. "Sorry!"
- A Rare Sentence: "Monsters cure cancer. A sentence I never thought I'd say."
- Artifact of Doom
- Bad Boss: Joyce, to George.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The cursed gramaphone brainwashes people into killing whoever touched it.
- Captain ObviousSam: I'm going with cursed object.Dean: You think?
- Cliffhanger
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: At one point, Sam mentions that Lucifer is currently singing "Stairway to Heaven". Slightly less cool when you remember that it's just Lucifer's latest way of not letting Sam sleep.Dean: Good song.Sam: Not fifty times in a row.
- Creepy Ballet: A ballerina finds a cursed pair of shoes that causes her to dance herself to death.
- Dirt Forcefield: The ballet shoes have no trace of blood.
- Driven to Suicide: The woman who bought the cursed teapot, once it whistles and she touches it, is compelled to pour the scalding hot water down her throat.
- Failed a Spot Check: Scott Freeman. Even if he didn't believe in mysticism, how on earth did he miss the fact that every box and all the walls in his hunter mother's safe were adorned with sigils and wards, thereby implying that all the cursed objects she put in there were in the safe and not on the shelves for a damn good reason?
- Friendly Neighborhood Leviathan: Averted with George. He seems to be heading in this direction when he helps to kill Joyce, but then we learn he wasn't trying to switch sides; instead, his only reason was...
- I'm a Humanitarian: George helps the Winchesters kill Joyce so he can eat her.
Sam: [to George] One minute. That's how long you have to explain to us why you helped us.George: Because I am dying to know what that bitch tastes like. - Girl on Girl Is Hot: Why Dean watched Black Swan.
- Involuntary Dance: The cursed ballet shoes cause this (possibly a Shout-Out to The Red Shoes fairy tale).
- Left the Background Music On: "Bad Moon Rising" turns out to be playing in Frank's campervan.
- Loose Lips: Discussed:Joyce: Well, we can't have Scott here running his mouth. Loose lips, yada, yada, yada.
- Magic Pants: The ballet shoes adjust themselves to fit a potential wearer. Even Dean.
- Make It Look Like an Accident
- Must Have Caffeine: Sam coping with Lucifer keeping him awake. Apparently Hallucifer has No Indoor Voice.
- Punny Name: The "vintage gentleman's magazine" was sold to a man named "Peter Yankit".
- Ransacked Room: Frank's campervan.
- Shout-Out: Several to Black Swan.
- Sleep Deprivation Punishment: It's revealed that Lucifer isn't letting Sam sleep; eventually Sam falls asleep behind the wheel and is nearly hit by a semi truck.Sam: Every time I close my eyes, Lucifer is yelling into my head. It's like, I let him in once, now I can't get rid of him.Dean: You know he's not actually...Sam: Yeah. Yeah, no. I know. Uh, try telling that to the volume control inside my brain.
- Snarky Echo: Frank tells Dean that his "silence is [his] cue" to start giving information; later, when it's Frank's turn to give up info, Dean uses the exact same phrase to get Frank to start talking.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The cheery, upbeat strains of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising" over the brothers' discovery of Frank's blood-covered, damaged trailer.
- Tempting Fate: This little exchange:George: How about you make me a new [cup of coffee]?Coffee Vendor: Here's an idea—why don't you eat me?George: ...Don't tempt me.
- Ungrateful Bastard
- Villainous Demotivator
- Villain Teleportation: The ballet shoes.
- You Do Not Want To Know: One of the cursed items is a "vintage gentleman's magazine". Dean wonders "how old porn can kill you", to which Sam name-drops this trope; after retrieving it off-screen, Dean comes to agree.
- You, Get Me Coffee
