“The Usual Suspects” starts out strong and just keeps going.

If you usually skip the recaps at the beginning of an episode, resist the urge. This recap includes a montage of the boys in their various disguises and it’s worth watching just for that.

We open on a police station in Baltimore. Det. Peter Sheridan is on the phone, talking about a possible ID on someone. From there he heads to an interrogation room, where he starts going through the cuffed suspect’s alleged crimes, including grave desecration and the murder of a woman in St. Louis—after which the suspect supposedly died. These scenes are intercut with others of a SWAT team converging on a motel room. Is this a good place to point out that Det. Sheridan is played by Jason Gedrick, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Chazz Palminteri [external links], who plays the lead detective in the movie after which this episode is named?

Oh, and the detective (Diana Ballard) leading the SWAT team is played by Linda Blair.

Dean is the suspect in the interrogation room. Sam is the suspect in the motel. Both are being held (separately) at the police station.

Ballard, with coffee: “Thought you might be thirsty.”

Sam: “Okay, so you’re the good cop. Where’s the bad cop?”

Ballard: “Oh, he’s with your brother.”

Sam’s being held for unspecified reasons, but Ballard has done her research—she knows everything about him, including about Jess’s death (points for ongoing continuity). She thinks Sam is a decent person, but that Dean is pure evil, and she wants Sam to fill in the blanks about some of Dean’s crimes.

I don’t like liars in real life, but it’s entertaining to watch Sam give Ballard a whole story about how they knew the murder victim (Karen Giles) Dean is accused of killing, only to find out in the next scene that she and her husband were just random people the boys decided to investigate. From a newspaper article, they read about Tony Giles’s murder—there were no prints, no DNA, and no footage on the security cameras.

Speaking of the lying, Sam also seems to switch emotions on and off easily this season. While the actor does a great job going back and forth in an instant, I’m wondering if Sam’s emerging personality is one we’re supposed to worry about. He was a sweet, caring kid when we first met him. Now he has no problem with things he used to criticize (like their shady sources of income), he lies as easily as breathing, and his caring might be as much an act as anything. He also has a short temper. Is this related to Yellow Eyes, or am I just overthinking it?

The scenes so far have been jumping between flashbacks and the present. When not being questioned at the police station, we see what led up to the boys getting arrested. Before she died (and yes, on this show it needs to be specified) Karen Giles tells them (in their guise of particularly thorough insurance investigators) that her husband had had a nightmare that he woke up and saw a pale woman with dark red eyes standing at the end of the bed. When Sam and Dean later sneak in to look around her husband’s office, they keep finding the name Dana Schulps. They speculate they could be dealing with a vengeful spirit, but can’t find a record of that name anywhere.

Well, that night Karen Giles spots that same pale woman. Karen starts to make a call to 911, but the call cuts out. As the lights flicker, the printer starts spewing out pages covered in the name Dana Schulps. And then the woman is behind her. By the time Dean gets there (breaking in when Karen doesn’t answer the door), he finds her lying in a pool of blood with her throat slit. He also finds the papers with the name on them. Of course the cops show up as he’s examining the body.

Back in the present the detectives meet to discuss how the interrogations are going, and Sam and Dean (still in separate rooms) both get the idea that “Dana Schulps” might be an anagram. With the help of his lawyer, Dean figures out that part of the name refers to a local street. His lawyer also delivers a note to “Hilts” (Sam) from “McQueen” (Steve McQueen played Hilts “The Cooler King” in The Great Escape).

Once Ballard is done talking to Sheridan (who seems ready to close the case despite the lack of substantial evidence), she heads off to write a report. As she’s typing the screen is suddenly filled with “Dana Schulps.” Before she can do anything about it, the words disappear, and then Dean announces he’s ready to confess on camera.

Being Dean (and innocent), his confession is that he didn’t do it, but he knows what did. When he starts talking about vengeful spirits, Sheridan is done, but Ballard realizes there’s something to what Dean is saying once he mentions Dana Schulps.

Things get weirder when the detectives go to see Sam and he’s gone. They probably shouldn’t have left him alone in a room with a window. Then when Ballard goes to the washroom to collect her thoughts, she comes face to face with the spirit. Like the murder victims, the spirit’s throat has been slit. It also seems to be trying to say something. Ballard heads straight back to Dean to find out about vengeful spirits.

It doesn’t take long for him to realize she’s seen the spirit and that she’s in trouble. He tells her where she can find Sam, and adds that she can arrest him or she can let him save her life.

Who knew the boys were so prepared? When they were being questioned separately, their stories were exactly the same. They had a code set up (Hilts and McQueen). They had escape plans and a place to go afterward. Sam even knows not to run or fight when he sees Ballard, because he realizes Dean must’ve sent her. They must have to plan all these details out before every investigation (I guess they need to talk about something on all those long drives from place to place). In another life, these two would’ve been running heists (or a small Central American country—either way).

Ballard does decide to let Sam help her (he promises she can arrest him afterwards). Together they discover that “Dana Schulps” is actually Claire Becker, a heroin dealer who disappeared a few months before. Ballard even has an idea of where to start looking.

Sam: “Guess we have to check it out ourselves. See if we can find the body.”

Ballard: “What?”

Sam: “Well, we have to salt and burn the bones. It’s the only way to put her spirit to rest.”

Ballard: “Of course it is.”

The path to finding the body is clever—I’m not going to describe it because I don’t want to spoil it (that’s right—you’ll have to watch it yourself). But when they do find it, the body’s wrists are tied in a way that match the strange bruises on Ballard and the Gileses. They also find a necklace—one that’s custom made—and Ballard has one just like it. Her partner, Det. Sheridan (did I mention they’re dating?) gave it to her. Putting all the pieces together, Sam figures out that Claire isn’t a vengeful spirit—she’s a death omen. The difference is that death omens arrive to warn victims because they want justice. He asks Ballard how much she really knows about her partner.

Well, for one thing he’s the type of cop who takes suspects for car rides to the woods at two in the morning, like he’s doing with Dean. It’s funny how prisoners always try to escape while being transported. He’s got Dean on the ground when Sam and Ballard show up. Sheridan confesses to all the murders, then tries to convince Ballard that killing Dean is the perfect plan (what’s one more dead scumbag, right?) Then to seal the deal he tells her he still loves her (because what’s a couple of murders next to true love? It could be the sequel to The Princess Bride [external link]).

There’s a scuffle and some gunfire. And then the spirit shows up. Sheridan freezes in shock, giving Ballard time to shoot him.

The spirit is finally at rest, Ballard has a confession, and the cases against the boys are so screwed up that they’ll probably be dismissed. But…the case in St. Louis where Dean supposedly killed a woman—there’s no dismissing that.

Ballard: “I can’t help you. Unless, I just happen to turn my back and you walked away. I could tell them the suspects escaped.”

Sam: “Wait, are you sure?”

Dean: “Yeah, she’s sure, Sam.”

The boys walk away, more or less free men, while Dean mentions a sudden craving for pea soup (ask Linda Blair).

This is a well-crafted episode: there’s horror, there’s a mystery, there’s surprises. The boys might not be in real peril, but it feels like they are. Linda Blair is great playing Ballard, and it’s fun to see her on Supernatural. I don’t know if it’s because of her or the Usual Suspects references, or just everything combined, but there’s a real cinematic quality to the episode. There’s even an important moral to the story: don’t buy more than one woman the same custom necklace—especially when one of them is a cop. ASB