Plucky Pennywhistle's Magic Menagerie - Recap

Sam is running away from something horrible that is on his trail: a clown. He enters a garage and tries to lock the clown out, but it smashes in behind him while another one appears behind Sam to attack him.



Sixty Hours Ago

Sam and Dean check in with Frank for the most recent news on the Leviathans, and then drive to Wichita to check on the death of a man named Brian Harper. According to the coroner, harper was apparently killed by a 30’ octopus that sucked out his blood. The coroner dismisses it as a fetish attack, but the brothers talk to Brian’s widow. Debra. She hasn’t seen anything supernatural, but suggests that they talk to Stacey, their nanny. As they leave, Debra’s young daughter Kelly watches them from the top of the stairs. Outside, the brothers discuss the case but figure that if Debra was the one responsible, she would have had no reason to summon a giant octopus to kill her husband.

Dean goes to talk to Stacey, who insists that she wasn’t having an affair with Brian. However, she tells Dean that Brian was at his daughter’s birthday party for only five minutes, while Debra was out of town entirely. The party was at Plucky Pennywhistle’s Magical Menagerie, a local pizza joint for kids. Kelly was very upset when her father came and went. When Dean asks Stacey if she noticed anything else, the nanny admits that Kelly thought that there were monsters in her closet. Dean calls and has Sam talk to Kelly. He approaches her as she’s drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, but Kelly says that her mother will be mad at her after she told the police that a monster killed her father. Debra sees Sam talking and orders Kelly inside, and Sam notices that the girl was drawing an octopus with fangs.



That night, a man is running away from a horse-like creature. He climbs over a baseball field fence and takes refuge on the scoreboard on the other side. For a moment he’s safe, but then the creature, a unicorn, rams its horn through the board and his chest, killing him.



Now

Sam tries to shoot the clowns but his bullets have no effect. They disarm him and start beating him.

Thirty-Six Hours Ago

Dean goes to the ball field to check out the murder and confirm that the police have no idea what happened. However, the police officer in charge notes that the dead man had an eight-year-old son, Billy Pogue. Mrs. Pogue is at the crime scene and explains that while Billy didn’t have a birthday, Mr. Pogue took his son to a friend’s birthday party at Plucky’s. Dean calls Sam and tells him what he’s learned, and asks him about Plucky’s. Sam reminds Dean that when they were children, Dean would drop him off at Plucky’s while he went cruising for chicks. Dean says that he’ll talk to Billy while Sam goes to Plucky’s, and then realizes that his brother is still afraid of clowns. Irritated, Dean tells Sam that if it bleeds, it can be killed.

At Plucky’s, Sam goes past the attendant, Howard, and asks for the manager. While he waits, he notices one of the workers, Libby, tending to her son Tyler. There is also a board with children’s drawings of their worst fears, and an empty space where Kelly’s picture was. Manager Jean Holiday comes over and explains that the owner is obsessed with helping children and the drawings let the children visualize and face their fears. Sam asks her about Billy and Jean explains that Billy’s father threw a fit and pulled Billy away from his friend’s birthday party. Sam starts to call Dean but the janitor, Saul, comes over and tells him that he needs to talk to him later about something important, and that Sam should come back that night. Late, Sam gets back to the hotel and tells Dean what happened. He also confirmed that Billy’s picture wasn’t at Plucky’s, but Dean confirms that he talked to Billy and the boy drew a vicious unicorn.



That night, Saul is preparing to leave but Jean tells him to clean the puke out of the ball pit. He takes the vacuum into the pit but something attacks him, first biting his leg and then pulling him under and ripping him apart. Sam and Dean arrive in time to see the police out front, taking away Saul’s body. The brothers confirm that he was ripped apart by a 20’ shark, and go inside. A new picture is missing and they figure that the kid who drew it was afraid of sharks, and the killer decided to use it to eliminate Sam before he could say something important.

The next morning, Libby drives to work and tells Tyler that he’ll have to catch the bus from there. She leaves him and he puts down his sketch of a giant killer robot.

Now

Sam grabs a tire iron and tries to fight back against the clowns.

Four Hours Ago

Sam and Dean go back to the motel and try to figure out what to do. Sam decides to play bad cop and interrogate the employees while Dean follows anybody who reacts. Dean points out that his hanging out at a kid’s restaurant is creepy, but Sam insists. They go back and Jean tells Sam and Libby that she’s roped off the ball pit but otherwise it’s business as usual. Sam takes Jean in back first to interrogate and Dean tries to blend in with the kids. He spots a giant Slinky that he really wants and talks to Howard, who refuses to sell him one but says he can earn it by getting tickets.

Sam starts interrogating Jean, but she has an ironclad alibi. She admits that there was a lot of competition for the job and she was recently promoted, but insists that she did nothing wrong. Meanwhile, Dean is busy playing skeeball to earn tickets and spots Jean come out. She goes to the back loading dock and he follows her, but she’s only smoking a reefer to ease the stress.

Sam interrogates Howard and gives him his card while Dean comes back in and sees Tyler yelling at a kid who is cheating. Dean backs Tyler up and chases the kid away. Libby gives her son some pizza and goes back to work, and Dean tells Tyler that he should cut his mother some slack. He admits that his father used to haul him around to places, and then notices that Tyler is drawing a picture of a giant robot with laser eyes.



Sam interrogates the Plucky’s mascot, Cliff, and the teenager finally cracks and runs out the door. Sam and Dean both chase after him and quickly tackle him. Cliff insists that his brother was the one running a meth lab in Butte. He doesn’t know anything about the murders, but says that he and Saul heard strange noises coming out of a sub-basement beneath Plucky’s.

As Libby leaves with Tyler, Tyler complains that someone took his sketch. He starts to yell at his mom again, but sees Dean and apologizes to her. Dean figures that Libby will be the next victim and Sam goes after her while Dean goes to the boiler room. He finds a chamber covered with the children’s pictures and a brazier in the center. Howard comes in behind him and holds Dean at gunpoint, and tells him that he learned how to draw on the children’s fears, burn their drawings, and then use something personal from the person he plans to kill to send the fear after them. Dean disarms him and rips apart Tyler’s sketch, but Howard says that he has bigger plans. He throws Sam’s calling card into the fire and tells Dean that he has chosen a special picture just for Sam.



Outside, Sam goes to his car and a clown comes after him.

Right Friggin’ Now

Dean notices Howard’s personal collection of Plucky dolls, while Howard insists that management refused to promote him and the parents got what they deserved. When he insists that the children are better off, Dean notices a picture that Howard drew as a child. It shows Howard’s brother drowning, and Howard insists that it wasn’t his fault and that his parents were the ones who didn’t listen when he tried to warn them. Dean grabs the sketch into the fire along with one of Howard’s dolls. Howard tries to shoot, but his greatest fear appears: his drowned brother. It touches Howard and he drowns, water pouring out of his mouth.

The clowns get the upper hand and prepare to kill Sam... and explode in a burst of confetti.



As Dean leaves Plucky’s, he finds Sam outside, covered in seltzer water and confetti. As they prepare to leave, Dean apologizes for leaving Sam at all of those Plucky’s restaurants years ago, and Sam admits that the experience was therapeutic. He gives Dean the giant Slinky and Dean gives him a Plucky doll in return... and Sam tosses it away as they drive off.

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