Supernatural S04E01

The Hunters find themselves in a locals' sports bar called Griggsby's, but overhear a group chatting about a terrible paranormal experience they went through. With some eavesdropping, the team figures out that they are a paranormal investigation team, but one that seems to have encountered something very, very real: they were scared to death. One storms off from the table to use the facilities.

The Hunters introduce themselves and meet the team: Gabriel O'Gallagher (on his laptop), Jenson O'Doherty, Willow Young, Constance Moody, and (out for the moment) Harold Hilton. The team is analyzing evidence, but they are truly worried about the site and Harold, the one who left the table, as he is the most prone to psychic energy.

The team has little evidence to show (for example, there is some initial floorboard noise), but all claim a lot and describe the things they each saw and heard. From terrified children telling them its a demon to "evil" coming up on their melmeter. It sounds like nothing in their robust experience made it to evidence, not even the strong EMF readings one claimed to get. It's like the cameras were picking up an empty house.

Harold, now a bit freshened up, returns to the table and claims he has seen his worst fears. The presence of something truly malevolent, trapping other spirits in the house, including children, and he is too afraid of it to return. The house in question is Black Moon Manor, an old farmstead that is also being used as a haunted house attraction. The investigators are worried about all the people visiting the location.

The Hunters are intrigued, concerned, and take the case.

Black Moon Manor is an unassuming farmhouse, possibly from the Sears catalogue, with a small front porch, a parlor with big windows, a two-room addition and garage, and a second floor from the original floor plans with three rooms, a WC, and a peaked attic. It has a single-room cellar with a well underneath. There are storage compartments outside on the large back patio. Inside, however, it is covered with paint from either the current owners or (previous vandals), pointing to its use as a haunted house attraction.

A haunted attraction with one-star reviews, that is.

The house seems extremely divisive, with some visitors swearing it is haunted, and others feeling like they had been ripped off. Still, a few reviews were claiming that the reason the house was bad was that the actual hauntings interfered with how fun the attraction was.

The team is able to do enough opening research to confirm the background of the house from the paranormal investigators. Ciaran checks out the old newspapers for any information on the house, Jon heads to the assessor's office for due diligence on the house's records, and Airy gets curious about potential malpractice stories. It was owned by a Dr. Harvey, a smallpox doctor, in the 1840's. He saw over 200 deaths... but did he cause them? The investigators thought that Harvey might have been questioning himself. In the Hancock public library, however, there's no death ledger but Dr. Harvey is included. He's quite prominent and did treat at least 84 cases, with only three deaths included. Family cemetery records show that the earliest death in the house is a girl named Rachel in 1842. Later, in the 1930's, a lady threw herself down the well of the house; she is also supposedly a spirit haunting the house.

According to them, when the owners tried to talk about how it wasn't haunted in the past, they got punched by a spirit or force. An owner before that even said that the same thing happened to them, and when they moved in, the name "Rachel" was written over all of the walls. The current owner, is a direct descendant of the original owners, and has owned it for 3 years.

Meanwhile, Scott is scoping out the house itself and agrees to meet the two owners, Matt Speck and Lyra Noble, who show him around. Scott waits for them to leave and returns to investigate on his own.

While the Hunters go into this case expecting a malevolent entity, spirit, or demon, they are sorely mistaken. The house is "haunted" by two Djinn who have taken on the guise of Matt and Lyra. Scott stumbles into their attic lair, complete with humans strung up to blood donation bags and all seemingly unconscious. He sees the real Matt and Lyra among the victims.

Scott is attacked by "Matt" and "Lyra" and, easily overpowered, is plunged into his own private wish-verse, in which his mother has not died, neither of them went to Purgatory, hunting is a thing done on weekends, Hunting on rare occasions, and the whole family is together.

The others thought Scott was having an amorous adventure but realized he was actually missing as the next morning dragged on without any sign of him. They figure they need to go to the house, but still did not know what they were really up against, prepping still for ghosts or demons, and including the rug with a demon trap on it in their attack gear.

However, they are soon manipulated by the two djinn, who attempt hallucinogenic manipulation, at first causing confusion and "seeing ghosts." When this is broken somewhat, they confront the Hunters directly, missing first blows. Jon dives for the demon trap rug, Aine throws knives and them, and Airy pulls out a cross. Lyra gets to touch Airy, who suppresses his fears and then hallucinates the archangel Raphael. Jon succeeds in grappling Lyra, and Ciaran throws the rug on her, and they learn that they at least are not demons as the trap does nothing. Matt attempts to punch Ciaran, who dodges and unloads fire on the djinn.

Meanwhile, Scott tries and succeeds at waking up, seeing holes in the story woven from his own desires and then willing himself to snap awake. He is supported hanging on a rack with other victims around him, a blood draw IV in his arm. He's lightheaded, weak, and ravenous, but alive.

Lyra attempts to get out and fails spectacularly. Matt throws a knife back at Ciaran, who gets hit and has to reload. Jon fires his pistol at the djinn's head. Aine misses her throws. Scott appears, kicking the door in after crawling down the attic hatch.

Lyra moves in close to Jon to attempt to disarm him, but he shoots her. Matt goes for Ciaran, but he's able to shoot down Lyra, finally knocking her out. Aine gets some successful knife throws at Matt. Airy finally snaps out of his illusions and fires two shotgun shells at Matt. Matt fails in his retaliation and falls next to Lyra.

In victory, Jon shouts, "KO'D!"

The two djinn are not dead, and Matt revives fairly quickly. The Hunters interrogate him to confirm Airy and Scott's guesses that he and Lyra are djinn, with the genie's proverbial "wishes" being some sort of mind manipulation, though they admit not knowing anything about their nature for sure, just rumors. Airy seems to know the most, or guess what is more accurate than not.

The djinn, like fallen angels, were forced out because of some minor rebellion, not as bad as Lucifer but enough to be forced to walk the world or be lumped in with evil creatures. This makes them older than humanity and divine in origin, though Matt won't confirm the details. Most lore confirms them as highly intelligent, more likely to be the grand vizier to a sultan or the most trusted advisor and bodyguard to a caliph. While that could be true, they also generally don't see humans as more than interesting cattle, and being privy to their brightest dreams and darkest fears (or vice versa!) left most djiin jaded and disgusted millennia ago. Still, they need humans for survival.

Matt shakes his head that these Hunters won't be able to kill him or Lyra, but gives them credit for a good fight. He concedes that Lyra was getting sloppy and they can do better, and need to. In exchange for letting them go, Matt offers information on the Leviathan. The Hunters agree to the arrangement, as they don't know the djinn's weakness, and neither party is in a good position to fight more.

Matt warns the Hunters that the Leviathan are hunting out the monsters from Purgatory because they see them as competition. At the same time, they are trying to turn humans into cattle by manipulating their food. The Leviathan have infiltrated some food processing facilities, including corn syrup. He tells them to spread the word, since it's clear from being in their minds and memories that they have contacts in both communities.

The Hunters and the djinn drive off in different directions.