The Werther Project Recap
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TEASER: St Louis, Missouri (1973)
A teenaged girl (Susie) is lying on the living room sofa watching cartoons on television, when her brother (Brad) enters the room and turns off the television so he can play records. A brief argument ensues, which ends when the siblings’ mother asks Susie to do the laundry. Susie protests, but reluctantly takes the laundry basket. As she heads to the basement, she passes her father talking on the telephone and from his conversation we learn that the family recently purchased and moved into the house.
In the basement, Susie notices a place marked “X” on the wall. She picks up a sledgehammer.and breaks through the wall. Looking inside, she finds a hidden room that contains a small, metal cabinet. The Men of Letters’ (MOL) Aquarian star is visible on a circular emblem on the front of the cabinet.
When Susie opens the cabinet, she is knocked unconscious by a shock wave. As she lies on the basement floor, a green smoke winds its way out of the cabinet, passes over the unconscious girl and billows upstairs into the rest of the house.
Sometime later, Susie wakes up and goes upstairs. In the kitchen, she finds a pan smoking on the stove, but nobody seems to be around. She goes into the den and finds her father dead on the floor from an apparent gunshot wound to the head. As he calls for her mother, her brother suddenly hangs himself in the entryway. Susie screams and looks for her mother. When she finds her mother standing at the kitchen stove, she runs over to hug her, collapsing against her mother’s legs. The mother seems dazed, repeating “Everything’s going to be okay” as she cuts her own throat with a kitchen knife.
EPISODE:
Present Day:
Present Day:
Sam and Rowena sit in a restaurant, negotiating terms for Rowena’s help in reading the Book of the Damned. Rowena says that the only thing Sam can do for her is to kill Crowley. Sam agrees to do it if Rowena will read the Book and find a spell that will remove the Mark of Cain from Dean’s arm. Pointing out that Sam is desperate, and that she is likely the only witch alive who can understand such old, dark magic, Rowena admits that she can’t read the Book in its present form. However, Nadia, a long-dead Grand Coven witch, wrote a codex that can be used to decode the Book. Rowena tells Sam to start looking for Nadia’s codex at the Men of Letters’ bunker, because it was the MOLs who killed Nadia and took the codex.
As they are talking, Sam gets a text on his cell phone from Dean: “Hitting a nest in Tulsa. Join if you want.”
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Meanwhile, we see Dean behead a vampire inside a filthy trailer. He walks outside and uses water from a large drum to clean the blood from his hands and machete. As he prepares to drink a beer he found in an outdoor refrigerator, Sam arrives and runs over to him. In disbelief, Sam chides Dean for not waiting for him. Dean dismissively says that he killed six vampires solo, and needed to kill something to take the edge off (referring to the effects of the Mark). He accuses Sam of looking at him like he’s a “diseased killer puppy”, continues to be dismissive and refuses to discuss the matter further.
Back at the bunker, Dean has cleaned up and is asleep in his room. Sam goes through the MOL library’s files looking for information on the codex. His search leads him to a tape recording of Cuthbert Sinclair’s (Magnus’) expulsion hearing from the order in May, 1956.
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The recording reveals that Magnus created the Werther Box to protect the codex (hidden inside) from witches. The box is sealed with a warding spell that is 98% fatal. Two MOLs tried to open the box and died. One of them (Martinez) was found next to the box with his wrists cut. Magnus is unapologetic, and denounces the MOLs for being small-minded, cowardly, and inadequate. At the time of the hearing, the Box was still at the MOL house in St. Louis and therefore still a threat. Magnus is offered leniency if he will reveal the secret for opening the Box. He refuses; and as he storms out of the room, he utters a cryptic clue: “Martinez was on the right track”. The MOLs decide to leave the Box in its current location in perpetuity.
Continuing his research at the MOL library, Sam learns the address of the MOL house in St. Louis, and writes it down on a note pad. Sam calls Rowena to tell her that he knows where the codex is, but it is guarded by a violent enchantment. Rowena suggests an invocation that should work, and offers to join Sam to help, as the spell can “fizzle out” in the hands of someone inexperienced. Sam declines.
Sam arrives at the house in Missouri. Newspapers litter the front porch, so Sam assumes that the owner isn’t home.
He attempts to pick the lock, but is deterred when a gun muzzle emerges from the mail slot and a woman’s voice threatens to shoot him in the privates if he doesn't leave.Wisely, Sam backs away and leaves, returning to his stolen car, which is parked nearby.
As Sam sits in the car deciding what to do next, Dean suddenly gets in and greets him. Dean presumes that Sam went off on this a hunt without him to get back at Dean for going into the vamp nest alone. As they talk, we learn that Dean took an etching off the notepad Sam was using to find him. We also learn that Dean did some research of his own and discovered that the house has been nicknamed the "St. Louis Suicide House." He describes what happened to Susie's family and tells Sam that Susie was the only survivor and the house is now in her name. Dean surmises that Susie is the one who threatened Sam at gunpoint. Dean is curious, however, about why Sam is investigating this house, since there has been no recent activity there.
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Sam tells Dean that the house is a former MOL Chapter house, and that before Magnus was expelled from the MOLs, he built a magical box called the Werther Box. the Box was supposed to be guarded by MOLs, but since they were all killed in 1958, the house had remained vacant and the Box unguarded until Susie and her family moved in in 1973. Sam tells Dean that the Box has a deadly alarm system and it is hidden somewhere inside the house. It is essentially a time bomb, and because he and Dean are MOLs, Sam tells Dean that it's their responsibility to find and remove the threat.
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Dean offers to work the case with Sam, and returns to the house. When Susie opens the door, Dean (at gunpoint) pretends to be with the neighborhood watch and tells Susie he's looking for someone (fitting Sam's description) who might have been trying to get inside the house.
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Cautiously, Susie lets Dean inside. As Dean continues distracting Susie with small talk about her family and the house, Sam sneaks in through the back door, which leads into the kitchen. As he enters, a kettle on the stove starts to whistle, so Sam hides while Susie turns off the kettle and she and Dean continue talking. Susie makes a cup of tea for herself and puts the gun on the counter next to her.
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As Sam is hiding in the hallway next to the kitchen, he notices a padlocked door. He picks the lock and when he opens the door we see it is a basement. Sam goes downstairs. While searching the basement, Sam finds a pile of furniture stacked oddly against a wall. He starts trying to move the furniture to see what's behind it. Something falls and makes a noise. (Upstairs, Dean hears a noise from the basement. Susie apparently doesn't hear it, so Dean keeps talking as if he didn't hear it, either). Sam hesitates for a moment, but then keeps working. He moves the furniture and finds a large hole in the wall. On the other side of the hole, he finds the box Susie opened back in 1973 -- the Werther Box. He sits down on a nearby cinder block and begins preparing the ingredients and reciting the incantation to open the box.
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Upstairs, Dean keeps trying to distract Susie with small talk. We learn that after Susie's family died, her aunt moved in and raised her for a few years. Susie lives in the house alone now. When Dean asks about Susie's aunt, Susie says she told her aunt to never go into the basement. When Dean asks what's in the basement, Susie realizes something is going on and suddenly turns her gun on him. She accuses Dean of trying to trick her. She says she's been alone in the house for months with no visitors, and suddenly two people show up on the same day trying to get into the house. She tells Dean she knows he came for the box. She says she knew someday somebody would come for it, and she swore to never let that happen. Susie realizes that the noise she heard downstairs must be the same person who tried to get into the house earlier in the day. She accuses Dean of working with him.
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Realizing the ruse is over, Dean tells Susie that the other man is his brother, and they are trying to help her. At gunpoint, Susie forces Dean to call Sam upstairs. Dean calls to Sam, distracting him from his spell, which fizzles out. Realizing the spell didn't work, and that he has to go upstairs immediately, Sam simply turns the handle on the box and opens the box.
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Upstairs, Susie and Dean both hear a strange noise. Susie utters "no!", as she realizes what has happened. She hastily orders Dean out of the house at gunpoint. Following him to the door, she accuses him of "letting it out". Before either of them can make it to the door, the same green smoke we saw earlier in the episode winds its way into the room. Tendrils of smoke enter Susie's eyes and Dean's. They both suddenly have confused looks on their faces as the smoke dissipates.
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Sam comes rushing back upstairs and finds Susie and Dean in the living room. Susie still has the gun, and when Sam enters the room, she points it at him. Sam tries to convince Susie to put the gun down. But as they're talking, Susie sees her brother's ghost walk behind Dean and Sam on the other side of the room.
Susie is clearly frightened and tells the ghost to stay back. Dean and Sam realize something is wrong with Susie, but neither of them realizes what she sees and what's happening to her. Susie shouts "stay back" and fires her gun as Dean and Sam run from the room. Susie is shooting at the ghost, but the Winchesters think she's shooting at them, so they run.
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With Dean and Sam in the next room, the ghost of Susie's brother walks toward her and says "Is that any way to treat your family?" Susie is terrified and fires her gun again, but with nothing truly there to hit, the bullet hits the wall. Susie runs back into the kitchen, where she encounters her dead mother's ghost. Frightened, Susie runs into the study and closes the door. Her father's ghost is waiting for her in the study. As Susie backs away, her parent's ghosts and her brother's ghost tell her that she killed the family by letting "it" out; that they all died while she slept. Susie screams "no" and continues trying to back away, but the ghosts are all around her.
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Meanwhile, Dean chides Sam for not having a better plan or defense. As they're talking, they hear Susie scream "no". Sam rushes into the other room to try to help Susie. Dean, alone in the living room, hears a strange noise. He walks toward the sound, but looks down at his feet and realizes that he's standing on grass and not on the floor anymore. When he looks around and looks back down, the floor has returned to normal.
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Sam:
Sam searches the main floor of the house for Susie. He hears her in the study begging someone to "stop", but when he tries to open the door, it's locked. Sam bangs on the door and tells Susie repeatedly to open the door. But Susie is cowering against the wall, because the ghosts are closing in on her. Her mother tells her that she doesn't have to be sad or alone anymore. Sam keeps trying to get Susie to open the door, but she's crying and not responding to him. Sam calls for Dean.
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Dean:
As Dean is trying to figure out why the floor seemed to suddenly change, he sees a figure move past the doorway into the hall. He looks toward the area, but doesn't see anything. When he turns back around, he's not inside the house any longer, but he's standing in the middle of the woods. He calls for Sam, but realizes he's alone. By this point, the audience recognizes the woods as purgatory. Dean walks a short distance, but sees and hears someone/something lurking lurking just out of his view.
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Sam:
Before Sam can get the door open, he hears a gunshot from inside the room. When he tries the lock again, the door opens. He finds Susie dead on the floor. She has shot herself in the head. Sam walks over to Susie's body, but Susie's ghost is suddenly standing behind him. She is very angry. She tells Sam that for 40 years she survived in the house, keeping the box locked, but now he's opened it and she's dead. Sam apologizes, but Susie's angry ghost is not impressed. Susie confronts Sam; seemingly able to read his mind, she tells him that she is the first casualty of his "misguided mission", but that she's just one more dead person, so it doesn't matter to Sam as long as he and Dean survive. Susie taunts Sam about still not being able to find a cure for Dean.
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Realizing that there's no way Susie could be reading his mind, Sam tells Susie's ghost that she's not real. He tries to walk past her and out of the room, but she suddenly re-materializes blocking his path. She continues taunting him, telling him that he's reckless for making a deal with a witch to open the box. She tells him that Dean is doomed, but Sam will do anything to keep clinging to him. She asks angrily how many more people will die. Susie tells Sam that he has to be stopped, and he is the only one who can stop himself. Gesturing toward the gun, Susie screams at Sam to kill himself. Before Sam can react, Rowena appears in the doorway and recites an incantation that causes Susie's ghost to vanish.
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Sam is clearly surprised to see Rowena, who casually says "Told you you'd need me."Sam asks Rowena how she found him, and she says she used magic. She says she came because she had a feeling Sam might be in over his head, but Sam tells her she has to leave before Dean sees her.
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Realizing he hasn't heard from Dean, Sam rushes back out into the living room. Dean is standing in the middle of the room with a dazed look on his face. When Sam calls to him, Dean calls back as if he can't tell that Sam is right there.
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Dean:
Dean is walking through the woods when he's attacked. He fights with his attacker, which turns out to be a leviathan. The leviathan has Dean pinned down and is preparing to eat him, when suddenly Benny Lafitte appears and beheads the monster.
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Sam:
Sam is standing right in front of Dean, who can't see or hear him. Dean mumbles "It can't be you." talking to Benny, but Sam doesn't understand what he means. Sam tries to shake Dean out of his trance, but he can't.
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Rowena enters the room and tells Sam that Dean is too far gone to see or hear either of them, and that even she can't wake him up. Meanwhile, Dean mutters "You're not real", but he's talking to Benny.
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Rowena tells Sam that the only way to wake Dean up is to break the enchantment. Sam suggests that if they can open the box, they can break the spell and get the codex. But Sam says that the illusions produced by the spell caused Susie and her family members to kill themselves, and almost did the same thing to him, so they can't leave Dean alone. Rowena suggests they tie him up.
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Dean:
Dean and Benny are now walking through purgatory together, but despite Benny's insistent pleading, Dean is refusing to talk to Benny because he knows Benny isn't real and he isn't truly back in purgatory. Benny tries to trick Dean into trusting him, telling Dean that if he's just in Dean's mind, how can he mislead him. Dean keeps walking, trying to get out of purgatory, but after several attempts he realizes he's walking in circles and can't get out that way.
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Dean confronts the Benny apparition, insisting that he needs a way out of purgatory. But Benny challenges Dean, asking why Dean's hallucination would put him in purgatory unless Dean somehow wants to be there. Benny reminds Dean about what he once said about the "purity" of purgatory, reminding Dean that in purgatory he doesn't have to go looking for a fight; that if he's still for one moment, the fight will find him. He tries to convince Dean that the constant fight and the ability to kill without consequence is the purity he craves.
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Sam:
With Dean tied to a chair in the living room, Sam and Rowena head downstairs to work on the box. Rowena notices an inscription on the outside of the box, so she stirs Sam's spell ingredients with her fingers to revitalize the spell and utters an incantation. The letters around the box's lock begin to glow.
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Together, Rowena and Sam decipher the Latin inscription: "To silence the box, slake its thirst with the blood of our own." Sam surmises that since the box was built by Magnus, the spell must involve blood from a member of the Men of Letters; meaning his own blood.
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Dean:
Dean tells Benny that he's tired of fighting, but Benny reminds him that the Mark isn't. Benny tells Dean that he's in a bind because he can't leave purgatory, but doesn't want to stay. So Benny offers Dean a third way out -- suggesting that he kill himself. Dean says that he'll never do that. But Benny says that it will only be a matter of time before the Mark makes him kill Castiel and Sam.
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Benny also says that he knows about Dean's "plan" to ask Sam and Castiel to kill him. (Presumably, since hallucination Benny can read Dean's mind, Dean has truly been thinking about this). But Benny tells Dean that if Sam and Cas do kill him, they will never recover from it and it will destroy them. Benny tells Dean that he can't leave that job to them.
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Reluctantly, Dean admits that Benny is right. [Back at the house in Missouri, Dean breaks free of the bonds tying him to the chair, but he still has a blank, dazed look on his face, indicating that he's still under the influence of the spell.]
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Back in purgatory, Benny tells Dean that if he makes "the right choice" right now, he'll sleep forever and he'll never hurt anyone else again.
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In purgatory, Benny offers Dean a crude blade that he can use to kill himself. But in the real world, (at the house in Missouri), Dean breaks a wine bottle and prepares to use the sharp edge to kill himself.
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Sam:
In the basement, Sam rolls up his shirt sleeve, takes a small knife and cuts his arm. Holding his arm over a basin in front of the box, he lets his blood run into the basin. As the blood begins to collect in the basin, gears inside the box begin to turn as if the box is preparing to open.
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Rowena smiles and congratulates Sam on figuring out how to open the box. But he's bleeding badly and she tells him to slow down. Sam begins doing that, but as he does it, the gears stop turning. Rowena tells Sam that the box wants more blood -- it wants all of his blood. Sam says that the codex and the path to the cure are inside the box, so if it wants more blood he will give it. He makes a second cut on his arm, and bleeds more heavily into the basin. Rowena squeezes his arm, forcing the blood into the basin more quickly.
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Dean:
Back in purgatory, Dean seems to be considering killing himself. He tells Benny that he always did love it in purgatory, and that it's as good a place as any to call it a day. But then he turns to Benny and says that the "real" Benny would never let him kill himself. Dean also says that the Mark won't let him kill himself, either.
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Reluctantly, Dean stabs Benny with the blade.
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As Benny evaporates, the spell is broken and Dean is back in the house, awake and out of his daze. He drops the broken bottle and rushes to find Sam. When he enters the basement, he doesn't seem to see or acknowledge Rowena.
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Sam:
In the basement, Sam is very weak from blood loss and is barely conscious. Rowena is squeezing his arm, forcing more blood into the basin, and encouraging him, saying the box is almost ready to open.
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Suddenly, Dean comes rushing down the stairs and finds Sam barely conscious and kneeling in front of the box, bleeding himself to death. He rushes over to Sam and tells him that whatever he's seeing is a trick and it isn't real.
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Sam seems to barely realize that Dean is there, and tries to keep the spell going, but Dean slaps him to wake him up and knocks him away from the basin.
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Dazed, Sam swings at Dean with the knife, but Dean easily takes it away from him. Sam tells Dean that the box needs enough Legacy blood to take a life, and that what he's doing is the only way. As Dean is wrapping a bandana around Sam's arm to stop the bleeding, he says that the blood doesn't all have to come from one Legacy, so the box can have his. Dean rolls up his shirt sleeve and cuts his arm, mingling his blood with blood that's already filling the basin.
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Rowena looks on from the distance, but doesn't say anything. As Dean's blood pools in the basin, the gears on the box spin and click one final time, which opens the box. Rowena says "oh well" and disappears, letting the audience know that she was an hallucination the entire time; so Sam decoded the message on the box and figured out the spell by himself while under the influence of the enchantment.
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Amazed, Dean and Sam look at each other as the box unlocks itself. Dean opens the door, reaches inside and removes the box's only contents -- a small, ancient-looking book crudely bound with leather ties.
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Later:
Time has passed and night has fallen. Sam is looking through the codex while waiting for Dean in the Impala (parked around the back of the house). Dean emerges from the house with a sledge hammer slung over his shoulder. Sam suggests that since the enchantment is broken, the box is just a box, so destroying it was overkill. But as Dean returns the sledgehammer to the Impala's trunk, he says that the box is now scrap metal.
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Dean asks if Sam is okay. Sam is clearly still weak, but says he's okay. Dean comments that after only an hour apart, the spell had them both near the brink of death, and that they should know by now that they're stronger together than apart. Dean also apologizes for going after the vampire nest alone, but Sam tells him not to apologize.
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Dean asks what could be so valuable that it takes such a nasty spell to protect it. But Sam lies, saying he has no idea, but whatever it is they'll keep it safe.
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EPILOGUE:
Rowena arrives at an abandoned building that looks like it was once a brewery. She has apparently agreed to meet Sam there. When she arrives, Sam is waiting for her, and he has the codex and the Book of the Damned sitting on a table. Rowena is thrilled and surprised that Sam was able to get the codex.
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Sam asks Rowena if the codex is enough to translate the Book and find a cure for the Mark, and Rowena says "yes". Suddenly, Sam slaps shackles on Rowena's wrists and she discovers she is chained to a pillar.
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Furious, Rowena tells Sam that they had an agreement. Sam tells her that their agreement stands -- she will decode the Book and find a cure for Dean, but that is ALL she is permitted to do. He says he will then burn the Book and kill Crowley, but until then he plans to keep her locked up.
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As Sam leaves, he dismissively tells Rowena that if she wants to be released, she should hurry up and get to work. Rowena is livid.
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THE END
