Episode Details

Supernatural Season 5, Episode 9, The Real Ghostbusters recap 👻 Sam and Dean get lured to the first-ever Supernatural convention, complete with cosplayers, LARPers, and a whole lot of fake Sams and Deans, where a REAL haunting is about to crash the party, on Denim-wrapped Nightmares, a Supernatural rewatch podcast. (The title is a nod to the classic 1986 cartoon.)

Becky (Emily Perkins) tricks the boys into showing up at a hotel hosting a fan convention for Chuck's (Rob Benedict) Supernatural books, where Chuck, under his pen name Carver Edlund, is the guest of honor. While Dean is horrified and Sam is just trying to escape Becky, the convention's ghost hunt LARP starts getting a little too real: the hotel is built on the site of a burned-down orphanage run by a woman named Leticia Gore, and her ghosts are scalping people. Luckily, two cosplaying fans, Damien (Devin Ratray) and Barnes (Ernie Grunwald), are ready to help.

Episode Highlights:

• Thank fuck for Chuck (and his nervous con energy)
• Becky's very hands-on crush on Sam
• The LARP, complete with cardboard EMF meters
• The hotel employee LARPing as Leticia (Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe), who absolutely did not care
• The scalping scenes, our gore of the episode
• Damien and Barnes, the cosplayers who save the day
• Barnes resting his head on Demian's shoulder (they're partners, and we love them)
• Becky dropping a big clue about the Colt (and a name fans will never forget: Crowley)
• Dean's change of heart about the fans

In the lore segment, we dig into the real Gore Orphanage legend of Vermilion, Ohio: the abandoned Swift mansion, the rumors of an orphanage fire that never happened, and how a nearby school tragedy and the sound of unseen truck traffic became the ghostly cries of children.

Sam: "Oh, hey, Chuck. If you really want to publish more books, I guess that's okay with us."
Chuck: "Really?"
Sam: "No, not really. We have guns. We'll find you."

Your turn, hunters: Have YOU been to a Supernatural convention? And who's your favorite fake Sam and Dean? Tell us in the Spotify comments, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts (it's how new hunters find us), or send us fan mail. Bonus points for fandom fun facts we missed.

Sources:

• https://supernatural.fandom.com/wiki/The_Real_Ghostbusters
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gore_Orphanage

Send us your review!

Support the show

Denim-wrapped Nightmares is a Supernatural rewatch podcast hosted by Berly and LA, breaking down every episode of the Winchester saga with lore deep-dives plus cast and crew interviews. Special thanks to David Fesliyan and Fesliyan Studios.

Subscribe, leave a review, and, if you choose to drink, please drink responsibly.

Join the hunt at linktr.ee/dwnpod where you can find links to socials and sign up for emails. Until next time, cheers!