Hollywood Babylon - Recap

A young woman, Wendy, explores a cabin in the woods and calls out to her friends Ashley and Mitch. She gets no answer, until Brody comes up behind her and says that Ashley and Mitch are dead .Wendy refuses to abandon her sister, and Mitch takes off. She hears something in the woods, spins, screams...

And the director, McG, calls cut on the filming of the horror movie, Hell Hazers 2: The Reckoning. He tells Tara Benchley, the actress playing Wendy to dial up the scream a bit. As Tara sits down to take a break, she overhears one of the stagehands, Frank Jaffy, talking about how Stage 9 is haunted and when the day is over, he gets out fast. Tara goes off on to the set on her own to rehearse her dialogue, and hears something moving around. She figures that the crew is playing a joke on her and starts looking around. A hat drops down from the rafters and she looks up to see Frank, dead. She notices a ghostly figure just behind Frank and screams.



Sam and Dean are in Los Angeles, taking a tour of the set. Sam soon gets off the tram and Dean goes after him, insisting that Sam needed a break after losing Madison. Sam would rather focus on Frank's death, which is already all over the Internet. Dean speculates that the set might be cursed, and is thrilled to hear that Tara was the witness, since she's a big horror actress. They go onto the set, where executive Brad Redding is talking to the director and his producer, Jay Wiley. Redding has suggestions for them to brighten up the horror movie, spots Dean, and assumes that he's a PA. Sam leaps in to take advantage of the mistake so they can work on the set. Dean serves smoothies and slips up to the catwalk where Tara saw the ghost, and starts taking EMF readings while they run a scene below. He doesn't find anything and checks with Sam, who hasn't uncovered anything about Frank. Sam has learned that four people have died messy in the last 80 years. Tara comes by and Dean goes to talk to her, pretending to deliver a script. He then talks to her about finding Frank, and she reluctantly describes the spirit. Dean confirms that no one on the set knew Frank, but she does have a photo of him. Dean recognizes the man.




Dean and Sam go to see Gerard St. James, an actor who Dean recognized from the photo of Frank. He explains that the producers brought him in to fake his death for publicity. He claims that the ghost that Tara saw was a projection, and invites them to his dinner show. Gerard is confident that no one will recognize him as Frank because their different roles.

As they film on Stage 9, the sound man, Dave, hears odd noises on the recording and tells McG that it's no good. Brad complains that the rules of the plot don't make sense and goes to make a call. He finds a woman wearing an old-fashioned dress, entirely in black-and-white, with a rope wound around her neck. She removes her clothing and goes up on the catwalk, and Brad goes up after her. A few seconds later, the filming is interrupted when Brad plummets through the roof of the set, hung by the neck.



The filming continues after a moment of silence for Brad at breakfast. However, Tara is unable to continue filming and they take a break to discuss the dialogue. Walter Dixon, another PA, angrily storms off when he hears them complaining about the dialogue. Dean assures Sam that Tara is doing fine, but Sam is more worried about the case. He's confirmed that Brad is really dead and it's not another publicity stunt. Dean has found out from Dave about the sound track and plays it for Sam. He's picked up EMF readings now and they go into a trailer to play a copy of the dailies that show Brad's death. Sam catches a glimpse of a spirit in the background, and Dean explains that a similar incident happened on the set of Three Men and a Baby. Sam thinks that the ghost looks familiar. Back on set, Sam identifies the ghost as Elise Drummond, a star from the 30s who had an affair with an executive, and hung herself on Stage 9 after he dumped her.



That night, the brothers go to the celebrity cemetery to dig up Elise's bones. Sam wonders why Elise' ghost has suddenly become active after 70 years. They find Elise's grave and dig up the bones,

On Stage 9, Jay is on the phone talking to his boss and complaining about McG. The lights go off.

Sam and Dean salt the bones and burn them.

Jay stumbles around the set and sees someone moving in the shadows. He follows them to the cabin, but the figure turns around and reveals that their head is split up. Jay trips and one of the stage fans turns on. The figure disappears and the fan pulls Jay in.



The next morning, the brothers learn about Jay's death, and Sam notes that an electrician in 1966 died the same way. The brothers are stumped, since ghosts don't usually work together. McG calls the crew together and announce that they are shutting down production for a few days, but promises that they will finish filming the movie eventually. Back in the trailer, Sam watches more dailies while Dean confirms that the electrician was cremated. He listens to the invocation that Tara reads in the movie and realizes that it's an authentic Enochian summoning ritual. They go to see Marty and praise his script, and Marty explains that Walter, the original writer, put the rituals in. Walter isn't a PA, but has a contract that allows him to come on set. The brothers read Walter's original script and realize it's a how-to manual on summoning and commanding ghosts. They figure that Walter wanted revenge for the studio ruining his movie and set out to find him.



Walter calls Marty to Stage 9 and insists that his script could have resulted in an accurate movie, but Marty and the others ruined it with cleavage. Marty doesn't care, and Walter holds up a mystic talisman and recites an invocation. Marty turns around and finds himself face-to-face with the electrician's ghost. It hauls Marty toward the fan, but Dean and Sam arrive and dissipate the spirit with rock salt. Sam warns Walter that he's playing with fire, but Walter insists that they destroyed him. He tells the Winchesters to go, but when they refuse he summons more ghosts. The three remaining ghosts appear and then disappear before Dean can shoot them. They invisibly smash Sam aside, and the brothers grab Marty and get him into the cabin set. They barricade the door, only to realize one entire wall is open for filming. Sam uses his cellphone camera to spot the ghosts and direct Dean where to shoot them. When Walter runs overhead, Sam gives the cellphone to Marty while he goes after Walter.




Sam corners Walter as he tries to flee, and Walter destroys the talisman to keep anyone from using it. As Dean and Marty arrive, Sam warns Walter that now no one can control the ghosts, and they won't be happy with him. The spirits rip Walter apart as they watch on, helpless.

Later, filming continues and the actors now use cameras to spot the spirits. McG is thrilled but Sam isn't, and Marty admits he needed a little jazz for the script. Sam goes to find his brother, who has just finished having sex with Tara. The brothers walk off into a sunset backdrop as Dean admits he loves Hollywood.



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