Hollywood Babylon 2
Sam and Alexis walk up to Dean.
"Walter's a little testy for a PA, huh?" Dean asks.
"How's it going in here?" Sam questions.
"Why are you wearing a headset?" Alexis flicks the microphone causing Dean to shake his head. "You're really leaning into this new job, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am. Its going good. Tara's stepped up her performance." Dean nods. "Probably from all the sense memory she's drawing on."
"The sense memory, are you kidding me?" Alexis crosses her arms over her chest.
"Sense memory?"
"Yeah." Dean shrugs.
"We were talking about the case, moron. What's going on in the case?" Alexis rolls her eyes.
"I thought you hated being a PA." Sam adds.
"I don't know. Its not so bad. I kinda feel like part of the team." Dean smiles.
He's such a dork, Alexis thought. A small smile appearing on her face.
"Its good. Oh, taquito? They're wonderful." Dean offers.
"Hmm, why not?" Alexis grabs one.
"No, um, listen. I conned my way into the morgue, then snuck Alex in. "
"I love being a criminal." Alexis smiles.
"And?" Dean asks.
"News reports are right. Brad's a doornail, no question." Sam answers.
"Copy that. I'm sorry, what?" Dean asks.
"He wasn't even listening." Alexis scoffs.
"Copy that?" Sam questions.
"What'd you say?"
"News reports are right. Brad's a doornail."
"They're aware." Dean says.
"Who? Who's aware?" Alexis asks.
"Sorry what were you saying?"
"Uh, what--The newspapers are right. Brad's a doornail, no question about it." Sam repeats.
"Its a good thing we didn't skip town." Dean nods.
"I'm starting to think otherwise." Alexis mutters, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Oh, come here. I want you to hear something." Dean turns around. "Copy that. On my way."
"I think I might kill him." Alexis mumbles.
~~~
"Hey, Dave, can you play them the thing you were playing me earlier?" Dean asks.
"Sure." Dave hands Sam and Alexis each a headset. It was normal for a second but then the audio crackled.
~~~
"E.V.P." Sam states.
"From the night of Brad's stage dive." Dean nods. "All of a sudden, I'm getting electromagnetic readings up the wazoo. Its a legit haunting now."
"Who's the ghost, Dean? What's it want?"
"Do you want us to do all of the work?" Alexis asks.
"I don't know. I think we should take a look at Brad's death scene."
~~~
Dean leads Sam and Alexis to a trailer where he kneels in front of a TV, slipping a DVD into the player.
"Hey where'd you get this DVD?" Sam asks.
"They're called dailies." Dean starts as he sits down on the coffee table. "I got it from Cindy. She's got this on and off thing with Drew. He dubbed me an extra copy."
"Really?" Alexis asks, more interested in that than the actual job.
"Yeah--"
"Guys." Sam grabs their attention. Alexis sat down on the floor, looking at the TV. Dean fast forwards the DVD.
"This us where the guy fell through the roof." Dean says. "Here we go."
"Hey, wait, wait, go back." Sam instructs. "Right after--Right after--Yeah, right. Wait."
Dean pauses it and in the corner a woman dressed in all white stood.
"Its like Three Men and a Baby all over again." Dean mumbles. "Selleck, Danson, and Guttenberg. And I don't know who played the baby." Dean explains as Sam gives him a weird look.
"What's your point?" Sam asks.
"Sam, no offence, but you're really dumb." Alexis sighs.
"There's a scene where people saw the camera caught a ghost on film." Dean continues. "In the background if one scene, there was a boy that nobody remembered from set. Spirit photography."
"I've seen her before." Sam says.
~~~
"Here, check this out." Sam holds out a paper.
"Yeah, go for Ozzy." Dean says.
"Who are you talking to now?" Alexis asks.
"No, I don't have a 20 on Tara. I think she's 10-100." Dean pauses. "Okay, copy that. Sorry, what were you saying?"
Alexis sighs. "Sam, would you be mad if I strangled your brother? Cause I'm real close to doing that."
"Not sure yet." Sam mutters in response. "Elise Drummond. Starlet back in the '30's. Had an affair with a studio exec. He uses her up, fires her, leaves her destitute. So Elise hangs herself from Stage 9's rafters right into the scene they were shooting."
"Like our man Brad."
"Yeah." Alexis nods.
"What, she's got it in for studio brass?" Dean asks.
"Possibly. I mean, its a motive, and Brad's death matches hers exactly." Sam nods.
"We're digging tonight, aren't we?"
"Yes, Dean, yes we are." Alexis rests her head against the table.
~~~
"Which way?" Sam asks.
"Uh, over here." Dean gestures. "Hey." He calls out as they pass a headstone with a humpty dumpty statue on it. "Ha. This map is totally worth the five bucks. We gotta check out Johnny Ramone's grave when we're done."
"Sounds like a plan." Alexis nods.
"Wanna dig him up too?" Sam asks.
"Bite your tongue, heathen." Dean says. "That's cool." He shines his flashlight at another statue.
"What I don't get is why now? After 75 years, Elise Drummond suddenly goes homicidal, you know. Why this movie?" Sam asks.
"Maybe she thought it sucked." Alexis shrugs.
"Or maybe she's mad they're making a scary ghost flick." Dean suggests.
"Come on, is it really scary?" Sam asks.
"Here we go." Dean sighs, dropping the shovel and nodding toward the grave.
~~~
"Run in with a giant fan." Sam states as he, Dean, and Alexis watch a bunch of cops wander around the crime scene. "Sam thing happened to an electrician back in 66. Guy named Billy Beard."
"What the hell, dude?" Dean asks.
"I don't know. Doesn't seem like Elise this time. Its not her m.o."
"Yeah, but we burned that bitch. Why the hell is there another ghost?" Alexis shoves her hands in her pockets.
"Yeah, these things don't usually tag team." Dean shrugs. As they walk out of the building a guy, who's name Alexis completely n forgot was yelling at a bunch of people, who were gathering around him.
"Everybody gather around. Everyone huddle in. In light of Jay's accident last night and in cooperation with the authorities we're shitting down production for a few days. I know, I know. Look, I'm not gonna lie to you, we've had a few setbacks this week.
A few, Alexis thought.
"But we all know what Jay and Brad wanted more than anything...and that was to see Hell Hazers 2: The Reckoning on screens all across American. Now we owe it to them to go on and pull together and make this damn movie, huh?"
The crowd reroute in applause.
"But not today. Go home. Someone will call you."
~~~
Alexis was almost asleep when Dean walked in the trailer. She blinked, refocusing on the movie.
"So you find out where the electricians buried?" Sam asks as Dean grabs a drink from the fridge.
"He wasn't. Billy Beard was cremated."
"Yay." Alexis groans, pulling the blanket over her shoulder.
"Great. Now what?" Sam asks.
"No idea." Dean sits down beside Alexis on the couch and she turns, scooting closer to his side as she rested her head on his shoulder. "Any more ghosts cameos in the dailies?"
"Not in the first six hours."
"The longest six hours ever." Alexis adds.
"You know, maybe the spirits are..." An actor in the movie says.
"Trying to shut down the movie cause it sucks." Sam fill in. "Because I mean, it kinda does."
"Thank you, Sam. My point all along." Alexis nods. "You got it right."
Movie Tara starts reading some ritual. Sam rewinds to hear again. "Listen to that invocation. That's the real deal. A necromantic summoning ritual. What the hell is that doing in a Hollywood movie?"
~~~
"Guys, we're all shut down. What're you still doing here?" A writer asks as Sam, Dean, and Alexis walk into his office. Across the hall, someone was already scraping Jays name off the door.
"Yeah, um, just--Sorry, man. We--we couldn't help ourselves." Sam shrugs. "We just had to tell you, we read the script."
"And?"
"And it totally doesn't suck ass. At all." Alexis tries to sounds sincere, but she didn't mean it.
"Yeah, uh--its awesome." Sam gives her a look.
"Awesome." Dean nods.
"Really great. Loved it." Alexis adds.
"I know, its pretty rocking, right? I'm glad you guys liked it."
"Yeah, I liked it. Uh, I liked the attention to detail." Sam says.
"Dude, right on. That's my thing. I mean, color me guilty, but that is me. I'm a total detail buff."
"No, I can tell. The way you worked in all those Enochian summoning rituals in all the authentic language, and..."
"What, you mean that Latin crap? No, man. That's Walter. Walter Dixon, the original writer. You like that garbage."
"Wait, Walter the PA, Walter?" Dean questions.
"He's not a PA. He's got a clause in his contract that allows him to come on set."
"Oh, okay." Alexis nods. So Walter's summoning ghosts. Cool.
"But he wrote the invocations?" Dean asks.
"He wrote a whack-job screenplay. There's no pace, no love interest. Its all wackadoo exposition. I cut like 90 percent of it to make it readable. Another 10 percent to make it good."
~~~
"Should've kept Walters original script. Its actually pretty good." Dean says.
"Better than the six hour snoozefest me and Sam watched earlier." Alexis agrees.
"And it reads like a how to manual of conjuration." Sam drops the script to the floor. "Like a textbook on how to summon ghosts and get them to do whatever you want."
"Yeah, like kill people."
"Why else would you summon ghost? To ask how their day went?" Alexis asks.
"So lets say somewhere down the line Walter learned some black magic." Sam starts.
"Yeah, and lets say he pissed at these people for wreaking his movie. " Dean adds.
"Motive and means."
"Its worth checking out."
"Lets do it." Alexis nods.