4x06 D'Yer Maker
The episode begins with Frannie Mulvaney doing a voiceover recounting the Mulvaney family hunting history to Sam and Dean. This scene is unrelated to the rest of the episode and detailed in full below.
Sam and Dean are in the car when Dean gets a phone call from Bobby, who says he has a lead on a seal he thinks Lilith is trying to break. He thinks it can be stopped but could use the boys’ help. They meet up with Bobby at an abandoned factor in Rock Ridge, Colorado, and are surprised to find Chandler Mulvaney with him. They’re even more surprised - and a little put out - a few minutes later when Frannie and Charlie Mulvaney join them.
Bobby and Chandler explain how they think Lilith is trying to destroy the mythical sword of the knight Roland, Durendal. The sword is supposed to be indestructible - Roland tried to destroy it just before he died, lest it fall into the hands of his enemies, but was unable to do so, so hid it instead. That was supposed to be in France, but Chandler claims that the Church gained possession of it, eventually moving it to Quebec, where it was stolen. He’s been trying to track it down, not because he thought it was a seal, but because he thought it would be useful in the demonic war, maybe even able to kill demons. Chandler did track it, to a former bank executive who’d bought it on the black market. The executive lost everything in the recent stock market collapse and ended up selling it - to Belphegor. Sam and Dean want to know why they think Belphegor hasn’t already destroyed Durendal. He’s been trying, Bobby and Chandler tell them, and then lead them to the center of the factory, where an enormous pit plunges through the floor to unseen depths. He just hasn’t succeeded yet. Chandler mentions that Belphegor has a “couple of buddies” with him. Bobby is pretty sure destroying Durendal will break another seal.
Bobby and Chandler have a trail to follow to Belphegor. As everyone heads to their vehicles, Bobby says that Belphegor has “a few friends” with him. Sam says Chandler said it was a couple. Bobby and Chandler shrug. Dean asks just how many demons they’re talking about here.
Cut to Belphegor in full biker regalia tooling down to the highway to Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild.” Durendal is strapped to his back. Pull back to show two more bikers (with female riders behind them) beside him. Pull back to show a dozen more bikes barreling down both lanes of the highway, everyone armed to the hilt. Belphegor stops abruptly - something has caught his eye off the highway. His gang pulls to a stop behind him. Belphegor grins. Belphegor and two of his buddies are strapping Durendal to a railroad track. A big freight engine is headed their way. Belphegor & Co. jump into a nearby ditch, nodding and grinning at each other. They duck down as there is a huge collision noise behind them. Pieces of metal fly overhead. Belphegor peeks up over the edge of the ditch when things settle down. His face falls. “Ah, sh-“ he says.
The Winchesters, Mulvaneys and Bobby are picking through the train wreckage. Bobby says that Belphegor isn’t the brightest cookie in hell, but it does make him easy to track. They ponder where they would head next if they were Belphegor. Bobby says the question really is how they would try to destroy Durendal if they were in Belphegor’s place. Dean suggests melting it down but Chandler says that’s what they were trying at the factory. Sam suggests Black Magic, but Bobby says if a spell to destroy it existed, Lilith would have used it already - she’s put Belphegor on the job because this is a brute force kind of task. Charlie says he’d blow the damn thing up. Bobby asks with what, and Charlie grins and says he has some ideas.
Belphegor and the gang are tooling down a dirt road only now they have an addition to their ranks - a tank. They chain Durendal to a tree and blast away. The sequence ends with Belphegor’s crestfallen, “Ah, sh-“.
The Scooby gang surveys the scene. Frannie and Dean are looking the tank over with great interest. Chandler and Bobby are thinking hard. Sam comments that Belphegor didn’t do this alone, and Chandler concedes that he has “a gang” with him. Charlie is inside the big hole in the ground. Charlie pokes his head out of the hole and says he’d try jet fuel next. In the distance, there is a massive fireball that shoots into the sky. Bobby dryly says that he thinks Belphegor is ahead of him there. Charlie suggests the Death Star. Frannie joins the conversation and says they’re all idiots and it’s time to get down to business.
Perfectly aligned silos line the horizon. The rumble of bikes and headlights head toward them.
Belphegor and the gang are partying at a biker bar. Sam is peering in a high window. Outside, Sam jumps down from the Mulvaneys’ truck’s hood and reports that there is a horde of demons with Belphegor. Frannie says the time to strike is now, while the demons are partying and their guard is down. Tomorrow they’ll be headed out to those silos to pick themselves up a nuclear missile; it’s the perfect time to stop them. Dean says great, any ideas how to stop a horde of demons with one demon-killing knife. Frannie tells him to man up, they’ve got a decent-sized gang of hunters here, they can take them. Chandler says he has to side with Dean - they can’t just barge in there, guns blazing. Frannie and Chandler argue about this and finally agree to attack the demons in the bar.
The Scooby gang gathers outside the front door of the bar, loaded down with weaponry. Chandler gives a brief prayer and they burst in the door. Instead of reaching for guns, they start pelting the startled demons with salt-dipped holy water balloons. Some of the demons try to escape out doors and windows, but each one has a Devil’s Trap guarding it. Chandler hops up on the bar and starts reciting the exorcism ritual. Demons keep trying to take him out but get pegged by a balloon each time. The battle ends with most of the demons exorcised, but Belphegor and two others escape at the last minute by smashing a hole through the wall with Durendal. They hop onto their motorcycles and head off toward the silos.
Sam and Dean are in the Impala, tearing along behind Bobby’s Chevelle with the Mulvaneys’ truck behind them. Sam is telling Dean that you can’t just set off a nuclear warhead, it has to be armed and there’s all kinds of safeguards and blah blah blah. Dean gives him an incredulous look and reminds him that these are demons with an indestructible magic sword. Sam is annoyed and grumbly. They pull up next to the bikes. Chandler runs up and asks which silo should they try first. The shrieking noise of metal tells them where to go - Belphegor is smashing a hole through the wall with Durendal. The Scooby gang runs toward the sound and Sam barely pauses in stride as he wipes out Ruby’s knife and rams it through the throat of a demon guarding the path. At the gap in the wall, the second demon is guarding it and Charlie nails him in the face with a holy water balloon. While he’s screaming and steaming, Sam offs him.
Inside the silo, the hunters split up and start looking for Belphegor. Chandler is the one to find him - in the empty center where the missile should be. Belphegor is holding Durendal and looking mournfully up the empty center of the silo. He turns to Chandler and bemoans nuclear disarmament and budget cuts. Then he stakes Durendal in the ground, grumbling that Lilith gave him one job to do. Sam and Dean come running in, Sam with knife in hand, and Belphegor shoots out of his host and out the top of the silo. Chandler pulls Durendal out of the ground and holds it reverently.
The hunters are packing up their vehicles. Charlie is holding Durnedal. He has his thinking face on. Chandler comes up and takes it away from him, saying that he and Bobby know a safe place to keep it for now. Dean points out that it could come in handy someday. Everyone gets into their cars and hits the road. Rock music plays.
Quotes
(Frannie’s voiceover with running montage of footage.)
When our great-great-great-grandfather Seamus was a fur hunter in the days Michigan was considered uninhabitable, he ran into some trouble when a wendigo made the hunters the prey. He was the last member of his party to be picked off but he was tougher than the creature gave him credit for. Finding that he couldn’t kill the wendigo with bullet or knife, he took an ax to it, gathered up everything that was left and burned it.
(Seamus [played by Jeremy London], in Davy Crockett clothes, tosses a limb into a bonfire.)
Our family motto since then has been if everything else fails, chop it up and burn it. Seamus stayed up north and expanded his hunting to werewolves, vampires, and anything else that went bump in the night. He raised his three sons the same way, and even taught his wife Brigid to hunt. She killed a werewolf that busted into the cabin with her solid silver knitting needle.
(Brigid jabs werewolf through the heart with knitting needle.)
Of course, all good hunters meet their end.
(Older Seamus loads cannon in a frontier fort. He yells, “Hey, boys, watch this!” and then there is an explosion.)
My great-great-grandfather, Owen, and his brother, Charlie, returned to hunting after the Civil War. It’s totally coincidental that they were in Chicago in 1871 cleaning out those ghouls.
(Owen and Charlie [played by Jason London] stand over a burning corpse. Charlie turns and says, “Careful of that cow.”)
Fortunately, both Owen and Charlie married and spawned before that thing with the lake monster.
(Owen and Charlie are on frozen lake with a TNT detonator. Owen says, “Do you think this is safe?” and Charlie shrugs.)
My great-grandfather, Jack, had a soft spot for soft, furry things that widowed his wife at a young age.
(Jack bends over cute, white, fluffy creature, holding out his hand. Jack says, “Aw, look at you. Who could be afraid of a sweet little guy like you?” Creature suddenly bares vicious fangs, growls and lunges.)
Jack’s wife raised the children in the family business but then World War II broke out and Sean and Billy went off to fight other kinds of evil. That’s when Sean’s wife, Coraline, broke their sister, Mary Frances, out of the convent so the two of them could keep the home front safe. For the next two years, they tallied up a supernatural kill count still unrivaled today. Only thing is, they also tallied up a path of crime and destruction that puts Thelma and Louise to shame. It didn’t end well.
(Image of Coraline and Mary Frances [played by Leah Cairns] surrounded by police, hands in the air.)
Sean died at Normandy, but Billy, my grandfather, came back safe, married, procreated and lived to a ripe old age.
(Elderly Billy, in 1970s clothing, has a grenade in his hand, his two sons watching. Chris says, “Dad, be careful with that.” Billy irately snaps, “I’ll show you careful, boy!” and there is an explosion.)
Our Uncle Chris was quite the renowned hunter - even civilians called him in to work cases.
(Chris is walking through a very dilapidated house. He turns to the frightened civilians and says, “I know you said it’s condemned, but this place is safe to walk around in, right?” just before the floor collapses and he falls through it.)
Then there was our dad, Danny. Taught us everything he knew.
(Danny crouches in front of little Frannie and twins. “Now, what do we do if nothing else works?” he asks. The children recite, “Chop it up and burn it!” Danny says, “You got it!”)
He was kind of a showoff, though.
(Danny has a hold of a snarling ghoul with one hand, and a stick of dynamite in the other hand. He yells, “Hey, Singer, watch this!” and then there is an explosion. Fire dissolves into homemade aerosol can/lighter flame-thrower that Frannie is testing.)
“And so here we are,” Frannie concludes. Behind her, Charlie loads up a shotgun and tests the sights. Cut to Winchesters, who look terrified. “You girls about ready?” Frannie asks. She and Charlie leave the motel room.
Sam and Dean look at each other. “I’m not going anywhere with them,” Dean says.
“Ever again,” Sam adds.
Dean: Hey, great, a family reunion.
Bobby: I said I could really use your help. [loud boom then crashing from behind them]
Charlie: I’m all right! It’s all good!
Sam: What did he (the banker) get for it (Durendal)?
Frannie: His soul back?
Chandler: $2.4 million bonus from federal bailout money just before the bank went under. His soul’s toast.
Chandler (Act 1): He’s got a couple of demons with him.
Bobby (later in Act 1): He’s got a few buddies with him.
Chandler (Act 2): He’s got more of a gang with him.
Dean (Act 3): Is it them? (Sam nods.) How many are there?
Charlie: A few?
Frannie: A gang?
Sam: I think the term for this is horde. There’s a horde of them.
Dean: Oh, that’s great.
Frannie (to Chandler): I can’t believe I have to tell you to man up. I’m going into that bar to kill some demons if I have to do it myself. (over her shoulder) Come on, Charlie!
Chandler (grabbing her by the shoulder to stop her): Frannie, stop. There are things we can’t just barrel our way through. There’s got to be a point when we say something is too much. We’ve been trained better than this. What would Dad say?
Frannie (after a beat): Atta girl?
Charlie: I knew you had it in you?
Chandler (after a beat): Okay, that was a bad argument.
Frannie: You think? The man’s last words were, ‘Hey, Singer, watch this.’
Bobby: That is what he said.
Frannie (putting her hands on Chandler’s arms): Chandler. It’s a war with demons. The only way it could be better is if it was a war with zombies. Why do you want to take this from me?
Chandler (after they stare at each other a moment): All right. But we’re going in with a plan.
Charlie (grinning): Awesome.
Chandler: Father, protect us in our stupidity and devotion to our calling. Forgive us our failings and remember that we have always sought to do your will. And should we fall, bring us home safely. Amen.
* This has become known in fandom as the Prayer of the Mulvaneys.
Belphegor (to Chandler): Can you believe this? Nuclear disarmament, budget cuts, world peace - look what you people do when you’re left in charge of the world. (He stakes Durendal into the ground with disgust.) She gave me one stupid job to do, and look-(holds out his hands in defeat).
Dean (entering bar full of demons fully armed): Last call, everyone!
Trivia & References
Rock Ridge, Colorado, is the fictional setting of the Mel Brooks parody Western Blazing Saddles.
Bobby: I’m open for suggestions. We gotta get there ahead of them this time.
Charlie: Death Star. (Chandler gives him a look.) C’mon, man, it’s the ultimate power in the universe!
Chandler: Its power is insignificant next to the power of the Force.
Charlie and Chandler are quoting Star Wars IV: A New Hope.
Dean (to Chandler): So this is some big secret Church club Da Vinci Code type of thing?
Sam (to Dean): When did you watch The Da Vinci Code?
In 1.19 Provenance, Sam asks Dean if something is a Da Vinci Code type of clue and Dean doesn’t get the reference, saying that he’s waiting for the movie.
In Act 3 when Chandler and Frannie argue, Frannie says, “It’s a war with demons. The only way it could be better is if it was a war with zombies.” Leah Cairns ad-libbed a number of versions which are included in the Season 4 blooper reel:
A war with Nazis
A war with flying monkeys
A war with Stormtroopers
A war with cars that turn into robots
A war with robots who look like humans (a reference to Battlestar Galactica, which Leah Cairns had a recurring role in)
A war with zombie Nazi raptors
The title of the episode is taken from a Led Zeppelin song.
Promotion
How the Zombie Handbook Promos, shot during this episode, originated
SuperPretendWiki entry
4x10 Heaven And Hell
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