Recap: Supernatural, Episode 9.04 – "There's no place like home."

Recap: Supernatural, Episode 9.04 – Slumber Party

1935. James and Peter introduce themselves after activating the master switch at the Men of Letters batcave. Rookie Peter is very excited, but six months pass and no action or adventure. That is until they get a call from “Frank’s daughter,” Dorothy who brings a THE wicked witch in a body bag. She hopes James and Peter know of a way to off her.

Fast forward to present day. Sam gives Crowley paper and a crayon to write down more demon names, but he wants a room with a view first and a chance to stretch his legs. Sam just leaves.

Dean is back after dropping Kevin off at a motel for a little break. He also picks up season 1 of Game of Thrones for Sam so they can take a break too. But first, Sam wonders why Castiel left so fast and thinks he found a way to help him. After Kevin told them about the table map lighting up when the angels fell, Sam looked for what it was connected to and found a room with a big 1950s-era computer with a strange power source. While trying to pry open the back of it though, Dean unknowingly knocks over a jar of goop.

Dean has Sam pick Charlie up to help with their IT problems. She fills them in on what’s been up with her since they last saw each other and admits she’s done some hunting; small cases like a teenage vampire and ghosts. They were intense, but she wishes they were more magical too.

They head to the computer room and Charlie is geeking out over the awesomeness. Turns out the computer is like a “global badness” alarm system and automatically locks the place down. They ask if she can wire it to track angels and she gets to work.

She has her spiffy Microsoft Surface filled with all the Men of Letters files being downloaded onto it. The Bros ask about her hunting and she mentions reading up on the Supernatural books. The Bros ask what secret place she was able to get copies from and Charlie says “Amazon.” Plus, someone with the screename BeckyWinchester176 uploaded some unpublished stories that are surely written by Ben Edlund.

While the Microsoft Surface is loaded up with files, they decide to watch some Game of Thrones in Sam’s room. Charlie asks when Sam will “move in” and make the room more homey. To which Sam responds he has moved in. This leads to a little tiff between the Bros with Sam saying this place is where they work, not their home. Dean thinks there’s no difference.

Dean goes to get more beers. Sam asks Charlie what she meant about wanting hunting to be more magical. She says she wants a quest, like in the Tolkein books she reads. Sam says quests suck. And he knows from experience.

Back in 1935, the witch has scratched her ties off and uses Peter to speak through. They have something of hers here. Dorothy hurries up to the lab. Possessed Peter attacks James forcing him to stab him in the stomach. James hurries after Dorothy and the witch and sees a white light flash from the room.

Back to 2013. Sam, Dean and Charlie go back to the computer room and find something has grown on the wall. Dean goes to cut through it and out falls a body… Dorothy.

She’s surprised to see there’s a Woman of Letters, but more importantly, she tells them she had used a binding spell that froze her with the witch in the jar. So now that’s she out, so is the witch and they need to find her. Dorothy is protected by the kiss of the Witch of the North, but the rest of them aren’t.

The witch heads downstairs to where Crowley is. He tosses her the crayon and paper and tells her to write down what she needs.

Sam and Dean look for the witch and Charlie tries to make small talk with Dorothy. Dorothy reveals her father was L. Frank Baum, a Man of Letters and “glorified librarian.” She’s not too fond of him or the Men of Letters.

But Charlie protests. They may have been sexist, but they were also smart. And James, one of the Men of Letters who was there when she arrived, had been working on her case until he retired. He also found a way to stun the wicked witch using poppy flowers. James had gotten some poppy extract from a fairy so Charlie will use it to put into bullets to help kill the witch.

Dorothy is impressed.

Sam and Dean head down to Crowley who whistles “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and tells them what they want… if they let him stretch his legs.

They unlock his chains and he shows them the paper where the witch wrote “key.” Crowley sent her off to the kitchen, which she has now trashed.

They meet up with Charlie and Dorothy. Charlie hands them each a bullet and they ask Dorothy if she knows anything about a key. She explains that there are several ways into Oz; tornado, eye of a hurricane, whirlpool. But this key can turn any locked door into a portal to Oz.

Dorothy shows them a drawing of the key and Dean recognizes it from when they were doing inventory and saw it stashed with old porn. It’s in his room. He and Charlie go get it while Sam and Dorothy go look for the Wicked Witch.

Sam and Dorothy run into the witch first. Dorothy shoots at her, but the bullet grazes her arm and she dissolves into a green puff of smoke and slips into the vents where she pops up in Dean’s room. She grabs the key that Dean has just found and sends him flying.

Charlie sees the Wicked Witch about to deliver a final blow and she jumps in front of it, absorbing the blow. Dean shoots at the Wicked Witch and she disappears again.

Dean carries an unconscious Charlie to his bed. Sam comes running into the room and Dean immediately calls for Zeke. He appears and says Charlie is gone. Dean wants him to bring her back, but Zeke says he can’t keep doing this as it will continually drain him. Which means he’ll have to stay longer in Sam to recover. Either he can help with the powerful witch or he can save Charlie.

Dean chooses Charlie. Zeke puts his fingers to Charlie’s head and she is revived. Zeke collapses and Sam assumes control of his body again. Dorothy comes by and says the Wicked Witch is wounded and they can still catch her. She offers to stay with Charlie as the Bros go after the witch.

In the hallway, Sam asks Dean who Zeke is, but Dean pretends not to know what he’s talking about.

Charlie mentions how she just had a weird dream about Christmas with her parents. But Dorothy surprises her with the news that she had just died and filled her in about heaven being her dream life. She would know, because she died too.

Dorothy explains that she had tagged along with her father into Oz and got left behind. She met up with three freedom fighters who the Wicked Witch would eventually turn into a scarecrow, a tin man and a lion. And the Wicked Witch would kill her too. That little part didn’t make the books.

Dorothy says the books are just revisionist history, but Charlie says they might just be guidebooks L. Frank Baum left to help his daughter.

While looking for the witch, Dean asks Sam why he really hasn’t moved in. Sam says he doesn’t even know what home is. He doesn’t have memories of home with mom and dad like Dean does and whenever he has tried to make a home, it never ends well. Dean says this is as close to home as they are going to get.

Suddenly, the witch appears and possesses both Sam and Dean.

Dorothy takes Charlie to the garage which is full of amazing classics, including her own old bike. She looks through the back and finds a pair of red heels. They are filled with magic from Oz and they are sharp which could be just what they need.

The possessed Sam and Dean show up. Charlie tries to get Dean and Sam to fight back against the witch, but Dean grabs Charlie and slams her into a window. WitchDeanSams reveal she is not going to go to Oz, she is going to bring her evil army of flying monkeys here.

Meanwhile, upstairs, the Wicked Witch has her cauldron boiling as she sticks the key into a door to open it and reveal Oz.

Charlie kicks Dean’s balls. Dorothy tosses the other shoe to her and she hurries to the witch while Dorothy takes care of the WitchBros.

The Wicked Witch’s flying monkeys are flying from the castle towards the door, but Charlie sticks a heel in the back of witch’s head then one right to the face. With the Witch melted, Charlie hurries to close the door. When she opens it again, it’s a regular old stairwell. She looks through the witch’s cloak and finds the key.

Sam chains Crowley up again and gives him a fresh piece of paper.

The Impala has a new home in the garage. Sam gives Dorothy a copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Off to the side, Charlie asks Dean about getting brought back from the dead. Dean assures her she will be fine, but to keep it between them.

It’s time for Dorothy to go finish what she started with the rebellion in Oz. She asks Charlie if she wants to come with. Hell yeah she wants to come!

Charlie and The Bros say their goodbyes and wish each other well. Dorothy uses the key and opens the door to Oz. Sam and Dean can’t believe it. Charlie and Dorothy walk onto the Yellow Brick Road and the doors close. The Bros open them up again and it’s back to a plain old tunnel.

“You think she’ll be back?”
“Of course, there’s no place like home.”

Episode Thoughts
Damn. Okay. I had no idea what this episode was about at first. I thought the whole Dorothy and witch stuff at the beginning was just some *wink*wink* jokes. And then, well. Let’s just say they went all out! Wow.

Now I hate to compare the two. But Grimm has had a lot of fun intertwining real life history and famous stories with the Wesen world. Supernatural‘s done a lot with reimagining heaven and hell and death, but nothing like this before.

You know you’re going to have a good episode when Felicia Day is back as Charlie. But it was very fitting that an episode like this centered around Charlie. It was a nice send off for her character though of course we know she’ll be back.

That Supernatural spin-off that’s supposed to be introduced in the Spring about hunters vs. monsters in Chicago? Uh… how about we do a Charlie in Oz spin-off instead? This set-up Supernatural has come up with sounds much more interesting than any of the Oz projects that are in development at the networks this development season.

This episode was really unexpected, but very awesome. It had some of the best special effects they’ve done in a long time. They did a lot of work showing us A LOT of the batcave that we haven’t seen yet. And it was a whole lot of fun. I mean, come on. Jared and Jensen playing the Wicked Witch of the West? Hilarious.

Anyway, I really loved this episode. I would love to see an episode in the future where Sam, Dean, Kevin, Castiel AND Crowley have to go to Oz to save Charlie or something. Forget purgatory, let’s go to Oz for a few episodes!

Miss the episode or want to watch it again?
Download full episodes of Supernatural on
.

Also order Season 8 on Blu-ray and DVD at
.