Mint Condition
Written by: Davy Perez
Directed by: Amyn Kaderali
Air date: November 1st, 2018
HALLOWEEN HORROR – Dean continues to struggle. Meanwhile, Sam must think fast when action figures come to life and the hunters find themselves living in a real-life horror movie.
Tropes
- An Aesop: Samantha refers to Jordan as their personal Willy Wonka, indicating she completely missed the point. In both the book and the film, Willy Wonka didn't reward children with everything their hearts desired. He tested them and then punished them if they gave in to self-indulgence and committed acts of greed, avarice or deception. Charlie was only rewarded after he refused to profit by selling his gobstopper.
- Affectionate Parody: The All Saints Day Show Within a Show franchise is one towards Slasher Films, lampooning various trends of the genre such as an Implacable Man villain shouting catch-phrases, copious amounts of Gorn, and The '80s clothing and hair styles. Dean and Dirk are both huge fans of the series, and he's very excited when a ghost actually possesses a full-body mock-up of the bad guy.
- Amusing Injuries: Stuart's injuries from being beat up by an action figure, although potentially traumatizing in real life, are played for comedy.Dean:The hospital report said that you had marks on your face, your legs, your back, and your genitals. That's not a slip and fall.
- An Arm and a Leg: Hatchet Man digs his hatchet into a janitor's leg in one of the movies.
- Armor-Piercing Question:Sam: I want to check up on you. You doing okay? You haven't really come out of your room in almost a week.Dean: Well, since when is "okay" part of this job?
- Asshole Victim: Stuart is a thief, argumentative, short-tempered and generally unpleasant to be around or deal with. He trolls the internet, helps himself to a five-finger discount, and generally leaches off his friends and family.
- Brutal Honesty:Stuart: He said I couldn't beat up Superman.Samantha: Okay. Again, Superman is not real. And I've seen you get winded eating a taco.Stuart: Okay. That doesn't matter. If I had kryptonite gloves I could beat up Superman. Anyone could. That's science, Sam!"
- Catchphrase: The Hatchet Man doll once possessed by Jordan is limited to pre-recorded responses including:
- "It's time to slice and dice..."
- "I like it when they run..."
- "We all do bad things sometimes..."
- "Trick or treat!"
- "Knock, knock. Time to die."
- "You can't run from Hatchet Man."
- Clark Kent Outfit: At the beginning of the case, Dean dresses in a shirt and khakis and throughout the episode adds to his outfit piece by piece until he's wearing a tacky blazer, ugly tie, and big thick glasses, looking like a mild-mannered insurance agent until someone is needed to save the day.
- Continuity Nod:
- The show addresses the source of Sam's hatred of Halloween, a disdain that was initially introduced in the first five minutes of the pilot episode.
- Hell Hazers is the franchise being filmed in season 2's Hollywood Babylon episode
- One of the matching Halloween costume themes that Dean proposes to Sam is Rocky and Bullwinkle. That cartoon was the source for Crowley nicknaming the brothers "Moose and Squirrel".
- Another suggested matching costume is Shaggy And Scooby-Doo, whom the Winchesters met last season.
- After giving Sam a hard time for growing out his beard, Dean now mocks him for shaving.
Sam: Yes. I shaved.Dean: I mean it's so smooth. It's like a dolphin's belly.- Dean claims they are with "Campbell and Sons Insurance. This may be allude to the Campbells, Mary's side of the family.
- Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: The Hatchet Man mannequin possessed by Jordan is about to kill Dean when Dirk stabs him from behind. However, all it does is piss the ghost off.
- Creepy Doll: The panthro doll moves on its own and eventually attacks
- Cut Himself Shaving: Stuart recants his story of Panthro attacking him and tells Sam and Dean that he just fell.
- Elimination Catchphrase: Hatchet Man's phrase before killing.Hatchet Man: Time to slice and dice...
- The End... Or Is It?: After Sam and Dean destroy the ghost and leave town, an orderly from the hospital finds the Hatchet Man mannequin. It's vaguely implied that the killer may or not be truly dead as a nod to similar endings in slasher films.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The Chiller TV advertisement at the beginning of the episode featured Blink and You'll Miss it footage from Route 666, The Benders, and Dead Man's Blood, including a cameo of John Winchester's hand in one flash and his back in another.
- Girlfriend in Canada: Stuart claims to have learned about burning sage from his super hot, wiccan, goth girlfriend who lives in Canada, but says she was too dramatic so he dumped her before they could meet in real life.
- The Grinch: When they're passed by a group of tricker treating kids who yell "Boo!", Sam can barely muster up a half-hearted "ahh!"Dean:Still not a fan of Halloween, huh?Sam: Nope.Dean: So lame...
- Halloween Special: A horror-movie themed episode that aired the day after Halloween. In the episode, tricker treaters are seen throughout the day.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: When Sam MacGyvers an explosive to break out of the store, Samantha asks him how he possibly knows that, which Sam dismisses with a laconic "I had a messed up childhood".
- Internet Jerk: Sam discovers that the reason Stuart recanted his story is due to the amount of Internet harassment he was receiving.Dean: Gotta love the internet. Where everyone can be a dick.
- Jerkass: Stuart comes off as petty, irresponsible and quick to anger, spending his time on the internet being little more than a Troll, getting into fights for ridiculous reasons and stealing from the store. The final one gets him in trouble when Jordan possesses the Panthro doll he grabbed and uses it to beat his ass.
- MacGyvering: Sam escapes the locked, shatter-proof glass encased book store by creating an improvised explosive device using cleaning products and a lunch box.
- Made of Incendium: Averted. The keychain is difficult to burn until Samantha finds ethyl alcohol and they submerge it and set the liquid on fire.
- Manchild: Stuart is an emotionally immature adult obsessed with nerdy things to the point where he'll almost get into a fight over any Fandom-Enraging Misconception, and was apparently spoiled rotten by his indulgent mother.
- Murderous Mannequin: The life-sized replica of Hatchet Man is possessed by Jordan and used to go after Stuart for stealing.
- Odd Friendship: Dirk and Dean get along surprisingly well, bonding over their nearly-obsessive love of the Hatchet Man series.
- Only Sane Man: Samantha to Dirk and Stuart.
- Plot-Based Photograph Obfuscation: Inverted. Not only is Jordan easy to see, Stuart conveniently has a group picture of Jordan, his old boss who fired him on multiple occasions for stealing, Dirk, his former roommate and ex-best friend whom he's currently mad at, and Samantha, his current boss who has to yell at him daily, conveniently all in front of the comic book store.
- Resolved Noodle Incident: Sam reveals that the real reason he hates Halloween is because he got so nervous after being invited to a Halloween by his crush, Andrea Howell, that he puked at the party during Bobbing for Apples, throwing up all over his date and sending all the partygoers scattering, leaving Sam mortified and forever hating Halloween.
- Shoplift and Die: Jordan’s violent campaign against Stuart was triggered because he kept treating Jordan’s shop like it was his own personal toy store, pinching anything that caught his fancy.
- Shout-Out: This episode is chocked to the gills with shoutouts.
- The comic store has a mannequin wearing a Red Hood costume from the Batman comics and animated films; Jensen Ackles voiced the character in Batman: Under the Red Hood.
- The comic bookstore is disproportionately stocked with DC Comics merchandising. Justified since CW and DC films and shows are both produced by Warner Brothers, so there's no licensing to be dealt with.
- Shocker TV may be a reference to Chiller TV, a now-defunct horror movie channel that ceased operations at the conclusion of December 2017.
- The store also has unnamed by obvious replica figurines of Freddy Kreuger and Jason Vorhees.
- Thunder Cats: Panthro is mentioned by name.
- Stuart insults a customer by calling them a "mongloid tribble in a robotic exoskeleton built by Tony Stark's inbred third cousin" after the customer tells Jordan he can't beat up Superman.
- Dean points out that Samantha shares many similarities with Sam, claiming the two are Wonder Twins!
Dean: Soft, delicate features, luxurious hair. She's like your Wonder Twin- When Sam checks in with Dean at the beginning of the episode, Dean says he's already watched Halloween.
- Sam gives their aliases as Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore, lead singer and guitarist respectively of the rock band Deep Purple.
- Stuart and his roommate have a blowout argument about which version of Fist of the North Star is better, dubbed or original audio.
- At Stuart's mom's house, Dean drinks out of a The Flash mug.
- Stuart rage quits Fortnite. In response, Dean claims to be a lifelong The Legend of Zelda fan.
- Stuart has a The Texas Chainsaw Massacre poster in his basement. Dean stops and looks at it before he himself is attacked by a floating chainsaw.
- The comic book store is located in Salem.
- Samantha refers to Jordan as their own personal Willy Wonka.
- Sam uses a ScoobyDoo lunch box to make his IED.
- Show Within a Show: The All Saints Day movie franchise that stars the Hatchet Man, and through which Dean connects with Dirk.
- Sticky Fingers: Jordan fired Stuart for stealing from the store when he was alive. Stuart still pilfers things, although now he pretty much buys them by having his pay docked. Jordan's ghost doesn't seem to get this part.
- Stranger Danger: Averted. While Dean isn't particularly worried about the people in the bunker he does remind Sam that he doesn't know any of them and that's a perfectly valid reason to stay in his room rather than going into other parts of the bunker.
- Surveillance Station Slacker: The hospital security guards are so hilariously distracted by their slasher movie marathon, they don't even realize the movie is being re-enacted in their hospital mere feet away.
- 30 Minutes, or It's Free!: Stuart chews out the pizza shop for not delivering his pizza on time.
- Trail of Blood: After Stuart is attacked, Dean follows the trail of blood back to the basement where he is also attacked by a floating chainsaw.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The possessed Hatchet Man figurine roams the street to get to Stuart in the hospital. Justified because it's Halloween, so there are a lot of masked figures out and about, including another tricker treater dressed as Hatchet Man who is extremely impressed by the figurine's realism.
