Have you ever been creeped out by a noise you heard in the walls? A strange creak or scuttling, maybe? It could be the building settling, or a critter that got in. Or it could be something worse. Much worse.

In Philadelphia, a woman is annoyed that her new apartment isn’t exactly move-in ready. Aside from flickering lights, she notices some black goo on the floor. Then she realizes it’s dripping from the ceiling. As strange sounds start coming from inside the walls, more black goo oozes out of an uncovered light switch. She peers into the space behind the switch and sees a human eye staring back. The camera cuts away as we hear her scream.

Sometime later, Sam and Dean are at the roadhouse, where they can hear Jo and Ellen arguing inside. It turns out Ellen wants Jo to go back to college, but Jo wants to hunt. And she already has a case ready to go. While Ellen is busy taking a call, Jo fills the boys in on an apartment building in Philadelphia where six women—all young blondes—over the course of eighty years have vanished under mysterious circumstances. She wants to work it, but Ellen puts her foot down and refuses to let “Joanna Beth” have anything to do with it. She tells the boys to take it instead.

While Sam feels bad about taking Jo’s case out from under her, Dean doesn’t think she’s suited to hunting, although he doesn’t elaborate why.

When they get to the building, they and their EMF reader immediately spot the black goo.

Dean: “It’s ectoplasm. Well, Sam, I think I know what we’re dealing with here: the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.”

As they’re heading out again they run into the landlord…with Jo. Dean asks what she’s doing there, and Jo convincingly plays the part of his girlfriend, who is over the moon to have found such a great apartment! Then she hands over a wad of cash to the landlord and says they’ll take it. Dean goes along with it, but he’s not happy.

Once the landlord leaves, she reassures the boys that she won’t get into trouble because she told her mom she was going to Vegas, and also got Ash to lay a credit card trail “all the way to the casinos.” Dean tells her she shouldn’t be there. But when Ellen calls saying she doesn’t believe Jo went to Vegas, Dean covers for her and tells Ellen if he sees Jo he’ll drag her back to the roadhouse. Interesting that he doesn’t want her there, but he’s still helping her.

Of course, he also won’t leave her alone. He follows her around the building like a surly bodyguard, pointing out that she’s exactly the spirit’s type. Jo counters that being bait is the best way to draw the spirit out, which leads to an argument and Jo accusing Dean of being sexist. He snaps that women can do the job just fine—but not amateurs. He also adds that she’s got other options, and no one in their right mind would choose this kind of life.

Dean: “My dad started me in this when I was so young, I wish I could do something else.”

Jo: “You love the job.”

Dean: “Yeah, but I’m a little twisted.”

Jo: “You don’t think I’m a little twisted too?”

I think this is the first time Dean has said he’d rather be doing something else. I wonder if he’s not also feeling guilty about dragging Sam away from college and back into hunting.

They split up for a moment to look around, and we see a hand reaching through the grate on the heating vent behind Jo. She senses something, but it’s gone when she looks. When Dean returns he notices a weird smell that he can’t place. While he’s pondering that, he spots something inside the vent and fishes it out: it’s a piece of scalp with hair still attached.

Meanwhile, another blonde woman in the building sees black goo dripping from the ceiling. The lights start flickering, and a crack opens up on the ceiling and follows her across the room. She tries to call for help, but the phone is all static. She can’t get the door open, either. Then she sees the hand in the grate, just before it grabs her and pulls her to the floor. I guess Jo doesn’t make great bait.

The next morning, while Sam is out getting coffee (so that’s why Dean really keeps him around), Jo and Dean get to talking about their first memories of their dads. For Jo, it’s the feeling of being a family again when he would come home after a hunt. She admits she wants to be a hunter because it’s her way of being close to him. It’s a bittersweet moment that gets interrupted by Sam bursting through the door and announcing that another girl disappeared. So from six missing women in eighty years to two within a few days? The spirit is getting greedy.

They push their research into overdrive and Jo figures out that the field the apartment building was built on was once the site of prison executions. From there they look at a list of executed prisoners, and one name stands out: Herman Webster Mudgett, AKA HH Holmes.

Thanks to The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson [external link], HH Holmes is a name I know. He was a nasty piece of work and, as Sam points out, America’s first serial killer before anyone knew what a serial killer was. He preferred blonde women (although anyone was fair game), and was known to use chloroform, which is what Dean smelled in the corridor. He would also create secret rooms where he would leave some of his victims to starve to death (others he’d kill immediately). Jo and the boys realize the missing woman could still be alive (although they seem to have forgotten about the previous victim). Getting rid of the spirit is going to be a problem; however, since his coffin was encased in concrete (mind you, it was exhumed in 2017, so maybe the boys gave up too easily).

They start smashing walls and exploring inside (attracting the attention of absolutely no one, even though there should be people living there and this is early in the morning). At one point the space narrows and Jo goes ahead without Dean, since only she can fit. No surprise that the spirit grabs her. Just as Dean realizes Jo’s been taken, Ellen calls. The convenient coincidences are strong in this episode.

Ellen knows Jo didn’t go to Vegas because apparently Ash “folds like a cheap suit.” She’s already panicking about it before she worms it out of Dean that the spirit has Jo. That realization leads to this exchange:

Dean: “She’ll be okay, I promise.”

Ellen: “You promise. That is not the first time I’ve heard that from a Winchester.”

She doesn’t explain the comment, but she does tell Dean she’s taking the first flight to Philly. Somehow, at that moment she seems scarier than the angry ghost of HH Holmes.

Thankfully, Jo is still alive (for now), and terrified. She’s wakes up in a small space with bloody-looking scratch marks on the floorboards above her. She moves into a slightly larger area, where she discovers she’s trapped. Through a slot she can see outside her cell, and realizes another woman is also trapped. As the women talk to each other, the spirit shows up and grabs a chunk of Jo’s hair. It disappears but seems to be hiding nearby, because when Jo tries to break out, it suddenly shows up again. This time the ghost tells her she’s so pretty and beautiful. The way he strokes her neck and arm is extremely creepy.

Luckily Sam’s discovered that part of an old sewer system exists under the apartment building’s foundation. They realize that the spirit’s secret room isn’t in the walls, it’s in that old system.

It’s hard to tell how much time passes on this show. Did the boys have to run out and find a metal detector, or do they keep one in the car (possible—there’s a lot of stuff in that trunk). It stresses me to think of these women trapped with a psychotic spirit while Sam and Dean go looking for a metal detector, which they then use to find the hatch that leads to the sewer system.

This episode does an excellent job of conveying a sense of claustrophobia. Scenes are shot in spaces between walls, inside a narrow tunnel, under floorboards, and in a cramped cell. When Jo wakes up it’s like she’s been buried alive. When Sam is crawling through the tunnel, there’s no spare space at all, and the worry that he could get stuck is strong. This adds an extra level of horror to the episode, and it’s really well done.

It doesn’t end there, either. Holmes shows up again and covers Jo’s mouth and nose, suffocating her. As if we weren’t already feeling suffocated enough, this turns the dial up to eleven. It’s a relief when the boys finally get there and save Jo. But it’s only temporary. Just as we start to relax because Jo is safe, Sam and Dean inform her that they “have” to put her in danger again. While they get the other woman out, Jo is forced to stay behind.

She looks very small sitting in the middle of the cistern. There’s little comfort in being on the phone with the boys (and it’s hard to believe she could get a signal down there anyway). But when Holmes starts sneaking up behind her, they come through. As soon as the spirit gets close, they release a ring of salt around the room. Jo gets the hell out of there while Holmes screams in futility.

The circle of salt is a clever idea, but it raises questions. How did they set it up? When did they find the time? Where did they get so much salt and how did they get it all there? And where was the perpetually lurking spirit while they were doing all this?

Jo has her own question; namely, what will happen if the circle gets broken or washed away? The boys have already thought of that. Dean shows up with a cement mixer (which definitely wasn’t waiting in the car) and fills the sewer in.

This just leaves the really scary part: Ellen.

She acted on her threat to fly to them, which makes for an incredibly tense drive back to the roadhouse. Dean tries to defuse the situation by turning on the radio. “Cold as Ice” by Foreigner blasts for a couple of seconds before Ellen reaches over and turns it off. Even Dean doesn’t dare argue.

When they get to the roadhouse, Ellen drags Jo inside by the arm. Dean tries to take the blame and tells her how well Jo did, but that only makes things worse. Asking for a minute alone with her daughter, Ellen “accidentally” reveals a secret to her. When Jo comes out again, she’s clearly upset. She signals for Dean to follow her, but then is hostile when he tries to find out what happened. Finally, she gets the words out:

Jo: “Dean, turns out my dad had a partner on his last hunt. Funny—he usually worked alone, this guy did too. But I guess my father figured he could trust him. A mistake. Guy screwed up, got my dad killed.”

Dean: “What does this have to do wi—”

Jo: “It was your father, Dean.”

Dean: “What?”

Jo: “Why do you think John never came back? Never told you about us? Because he couldn’t look my mom in the eye after that. That’s why.”

Up until now Jo and Dean had a low-key attraction to each other. There was flirting, meaningful conversations, and chemistry. They hadn’t acted on it yet, but it seemed it was only a matter of time. But Jo ends her revelation by walking away as she tells Dean to leave. He looks devastated, and I don’t think it’s just because of what he found out about his father.

I like this episode. It’s scary, for one thing. Supernatural is pretty good at that, and using a real serial killer was smart. The episode also furthers character development and adds to the backstory. The annoying part is how unrealistic the resolution was, not to mention them smashing walls with abandon without anyone noticing. It’s strange how it’s possible to suspend disbelief for monsters, but not for mundane details. But that’s the thing—you watch Supernatural for the monsters, the monster hunting, and the characters—not for the practical bits. “No Exit” gets all the important things right.  ASB