Bloody Mary (Episode)

## "Bloody Mary"

*Teleplay by:*

* Ron Milbauer
* Terri Hughes Burton

"*Every version's got a few things in common. It's always a woman named Mary, and she always dies right in front of a mirror. So we've gotta search local newspapers—public records as far back as they go. See if we can find a Mary who fits the bill.*"
—Sam Winchester to Dean Winchester

**"Bloody Mary"** is the fifth episode of Season One of The CW's *Supernatural*. It was written by Eric Kripke and the teleplay by Ron Milbauer & Terri Hughes Burton and directed by Peter Ellis. It is the fifth episode of the series overall, and premiered on October 11, 2005.

## Synopsis

In suburban Nebraska, a group of partying high school teens jokingly dare their friend Charlie to look into the mirror and repeat "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary," not knowing this will unleash a series of mysterious murders. Sam and Dean realize that Bloody Mary has the power to travel through all reflective surfaces when she is hunting a victim. Worried that teens are accidentally summoning Bloody Mary, Sam and Dean race to destroy the violent spirit before she can kill again.

## Recap

*This section is a detailed recap of this episode. **There are major spoilers.** Click to expand.*

In Toledo, Ohio, three young girls are playing truth or dare. Lily's dare is to say "Bloody Mary" three times in front of the bathroom mirror. The other girls scare her by banging on the door, and then Lily’s father, Steven Shoemaker, appears and tells them to be quiet. As he returns to his bedroom, a figure appears in every mirror he passes. When he looks in the bathroom mirror, his eyes start bleeding. His eldest daughter, Donna, later discovers him dead in a pool of blood.

In the Impala, Sam wakes from another nightmare about Jessica, which he won’t speak about. He and Dean visit the morgue and bribe the attendant so they can view Steven Shoemaker’s body. While the cause of death is unclear, his skull was full of blood and his eyeballs had liquefied.

Visiting the Shoemaker house following the funeral, Sam and Dean speak to Shoemaker’s daughters and Donna’s friends, Jill and Charlie. Lily reveals she feels responsible for his death after invoking Bloody Mary.

The boys look for clues in the bathroom, when Charlie finds them. They admit they think there is something suspicious about Steven’s death, and Sam gives Charlie his cell number in case she thinks of anything helpful.

Later that night, while on the phone to Charlie, Jill jokingly says “Bloody Mary” three times in front of the mirror. Soon after, Jill sits in front of a mirror and the eyes in the reflection in her mirror start bleeding and the reflection says “You did it. You killed that boy.” Jill’s own eyes start bleeding, and she dies.

Charlie reports Jill’s death to Sam and Dean and helps them get into Jill's bedroom. On the back of her mirror they find the name “Gary Bryman.” Research shows that he was a young boy killed in a hit and run – and the description of the car involved matches Jill’s car. At the Shoemaker house, they find the name “Linda Shoemaker” inscribed on the mirror, which was the name of Steven’s wife who died suspiciously after a sleeping pill overdose.

Dean starts researching all deaths of women called Mary who died in front of a mirror and finds the death in Indiana of Mary Worthington. The brothers travel to Indiana and speak to the police detective who worked on her case.

Mary was 19 when someone broke into her apartment, murdered her, and cut out her eyes with a knife. Before she died in front of a large mirror, she tried to spell out her killer's name but only managed the letters T-R-E. A surgeon named Trevor Sampson was suspected but nothing was ever proven and her murder went unsolved.

Although she was cremated, the boys postulate that Mary’s spirit was trapped in the mirror, which they found has been recently sold to a shop in Toledo.

Meanwhile, Donna and Charlie are in the school bathroom, where Donna says “Bloody Mary” three times. Charlie begins seeing the figure in reflective surfaces. Distraught, she seeks out Sam and Dean. She had a boyfriend who once threatened to kill himself if she left him. When she left, he committed suicide. Sam and Dean remove or cover all reflective surfaces in their motel room so Charlie can stay there.

Sam and Dean decide that to destroy Mary they need to summon her. Sam offers to do it because she seems to be targeting people associated with deaths who keep secrets. Dean argues that his guilt over Jessica’s death is misplaced and he's not keeping any secrets, but Sam says Dean does not know everything.

After summoning Mary, she appears, and Sam’s eyes start to bleed. His reflection accuses him of being responsible for Jessica’s death and reveals that he had nightmares about how she would die for days before the event, but failed to warn her.

Dean smashes the mirror, but Mary emerges from the frame, and accuses Dean of being responsible for people’s death. Finally Dean shows Mary her own reflection, who accuses her of killing people. Dean smashes the mirror and she disappears.

The boys take Charlie home, and Sam tells her not to feel guilty over her boyfriend’s death because she couldn't have prevented it. Dean tells Sam it's good advice. As they leave, Dean asks Sam what his secret was, but Sam refuses to tell him. Just then he sees Jessica, standing on a street corner in a long nightgown, before she disappears.
## Cast

* Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester

Guest Starring* Adrianne Palicki as Jessica Moore
* Marnette Patterson as Charlie
* William Taylor as Detective
* Chelan Simmons as Jill
* Kristie Marsden as Donna Shoemaker
* Genevieve Buechner as Lily Shoemaker
* James Ashcroft as Coroner
* Duncan Minett as Steven Shoemaker
* Jessica King as Lily's Friend #1
* Victoria Tennant as Lily's Friend #2
* Jovanna Huguet as Bloody Mary

## Trivia

### Production Notes

* Bloody Mary kills the character Jill whose victim was a little boy named Gary Bryman. In real life, Gary Bryman has produced four films that were written and/or directed by Supernatural creator Eric Kripke.
* Set in the town of Toledo, Ohio. This is the hometown of series creator Eric Kripke and guest star Adrianne Palicki. Indeed Palicki makes a cameo appearance at the end of the episode, despite being killed off in the pilot.

### Behind the Scenes

* Marnette Patterson played a witch in *Charmed*.

### Goofs

* At around 10 mins, Dean turns on the lights in the bathroom, they appear to go on, but when the camera cuts back to the window, it is still dark and there is no change in light.
* At around 21 mins, the reflection of Charlie in the glass is wrong. The reflection is of her right side, it should be of her left, the side that actually faces the glass.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.webcitation.org/5rzRV5JLo
2. ↑ http://www.thefutoncritic.com/listings/20050929wb06/