From MadCap's Couch - "Supernatural: Hollywood Babylon"

"Must. . .avoid. . .actor. . .paradox."

Hurray for Hollywood!

Hollywood Babylon begins with a stereotypical horror movie scene of a young woman in a tight top shining a flashlight around as she calls for her friends. One of her friends comes up, hysterically ranting about something that is killing everyone. We get some good bad acting. . .leading into a less than awesome scream at a tennis ball.

It's a movie set, where apparently a film called Ghost Rider With A Chainsaw (if the concept art is to be believed) is being made. The lead actress is having some difficulty with her big scream and, more to the point, the set is haunted! Well, that's the word among the crew, anyway. . .and seems to be something the actress doesn't believe until she finds a dead man in the rafters, a ghost flickering out of existence behind him.

The actress finally finds her scream, much to the delight of her director.

We get a joke that you really only get if you know that Jared Padalecki was on Gilmore Girls (which I didn't know before I had to look it up for this review) and we get the reason why the boys are here: originally just for vacation, but Sam found them a job.

Dean mentions the Poltergeist curse, thinking that this might be something similar. He is very much onboard when he learns the name of the lead actress, Tara Benchley. Dean's apparently a fan of her body. . .of work. Also, she was the one from the beginning with the difficulty screaming at a tennis ball.

Also, random note - Bob Pinciotti from That 70's Show is an executive producer. Just noting it for later.

Sam and Dean get mistaken by one of the studio heads for a PA and stick with it as a cover to investigate the set. Dean finds no EMF in the rafters, finds a new love in mini Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, and Sam has found out that four people had died messily in the last 80 years, with any one of them having the potential to be an evil spirit.

It's a trap!

Dean takes the time to flirt-question Tara. She mentions having seen "something" disappearing behind the man when she found him, but thinks she might have imagined it. When Tara pulls out a polaroid showing the man who was murdered, Dean recognizes him.

Sam and Dean show up at his door to find that he's very much alive. It seems, he faked his death to drive up business. He even mentions the ghost, saying that it was a projection. With that settled, it seems like there's no case to be found here.

Back on set, though, they're getting some kind of feedback on the sound and so go for another take. The nosy executive steps away, finding the ghost of a woman in a 1920s style dress. He mistakes her for a ghost. . .she strips, and lures him up into the rafters which you just know will end well. During the take, the executive drops down from the roof - his head in a noose and his earpiece clattering to the ground.

After another terrible take, Sam has been keeping his mind on the job - namely that this victim isn't faking it. When one of the sound guys plays back the sound for Sam, he and Dean pick up EMF. Dean brings up one of the dallies on a DVD, playing it back so he and Sam can watch over it and find the ghostly woman in the corner in a Three Men and a Baby-esque moment of spirit photography. Sam does some research, finding a starlet from the 1930's who hung herself much like the studio executive supposedly just did.

The shooting wraps for the day and Sam and Dean find the actress - Elise Drummond - and dig her up to salt and burn the bones.

While that happens, Bob gets the ultimate foot up his ass when the lights go out and a man with a split open head somehow kicks up enough power with a fan to pull him right into it.

. . .finely sliced Pinciotti, anyway?

We then get a trailer for the movie - Hell Hazers II: The Reckoning, where they cleverly use a few bits of stock footage from Scarecrow and Route 666, before getting back to the plot. The set is shutting down for a few days. In their trailer, Sam and Dean look over the movie again (Sam jokingly saying the spirits must be trying to get the movie cancelled because it sucks) and Dean tells Sam the second ghost was a man who was cremated. When Sam hears the incantation being used in the movie, he recognizes it as a real necromantic summoning ritual.

They question the writer, who admits that the rituals are all that remain from the original script from the original writer: Walter Dixon. He apparently had written the film and the studio took it. He's actually shown up in a few scenes beforehand, Dean having assumed him to be another PA. Thus, Sam and Dean put two and two together and realize Walter's the guilty party.

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Dixon lures the new writer, Flagg, into a trap and sics the ghosts on him. Luckily, Sam and Dean arrive just in time to save his sorry butt (Flagg telling Sam that he's one Hell of a PA). When confronted, Walter tries to defend his actions and, when that doesn't work, he summons up the ghosts again to raise a little hell. Sam uses his phone to pick up where the ghosts are so that Dean can shoot them (giving us a few glances at a Verizon logo). Sam hands the phone to Flagg and goes after Walter, managing to catch up to him. . .and then Walter smashes the talisman to Sam's shock.

Now the spirits are freed. . .and they are very unhappy with him. Walter dies horrifically, a view through the phone showing the ghosts tearing him apart.

The next day on set, the phone view of ghosts gets used in the film. Sam chides Flagg for using his knowledge of the afterlife to do...this...and then walks by Tara's trailer to find Dean leaving after having taken her around the world, Tara telling him that he's one hell of a PA.

With that, Sam and Dean head off into the sunset. . .only for it to be rolled away as just another prop. Dean proclaiming that he loves his town. . .

And that's it for Hollywood Babylon. There really isn't a lot to say here, it's your standard ghost story draped over a Hollywood set. Dean's fanboying over several aspects of Hollywood pop culture as well as him taking to being a PA is adorable, as is Sam's exasperation at his brother's antics. It's one of those episodes that is bare basics, but reminds you of what Supernatural can be at its best with monster of the week episodes. After the unrelenting sadness and existential dread in Heart, we definitely needed a bit of levity and we certainly got that here.

Next time, we go from hardly working to hard time. The law has finally caught up with Sam and Dean and they've been clapped in irons, with Agent Henriksen coming along to take them away. . .or is that really what's happening? Whatever the case, Sam and Dean are in for a bad case of the Folsom Prison Blues.

Be there!