Guest Author - Deanna Joseph

Okay, I couldn’t resist reviewing a few more episodes of “Supernatural.” They certainly didn’t disappoint!

Episode 4 - Phantom Traveler - The boys are called by a family friend to investigate a mysterious plane crash. During their investigation of the recovered wreckage they find that the emergency door handle is covered in sulfur residue, which leads them to believe that they are dealing with a demon. The boys decide that an exorcism is in order. Their “friend” cannot believe that a demon can cause an airplane to crash, so the boys explain that in Japanese folklore it is believed that certain demons are responsible for both man-made and natural disasters.

It is true that in many demonic encounters, the smell of sulfur is present, and that the only way to be rid of a demon is through an exorcism. And though there are tales of demonic creatures causing disasters, (such as the Jishin-Mushi in Japan who causes earthquakes or the Greek Siren who caused the destruction of many ships), as of this writing there is no evidence of demon caused plane crashes.

The brothers also note that after 40 minutes in the air, the plane crashes. Dean tells Sam that 40 is biblical numerology – a number that means death. Where I could find no information on “40” being equal to “death,” we can’t deny that 40 has been a pretty significant number used throughout the bible (It rained for 40 days on Noah, Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert for 40 days and after Moses freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt they wandered the desert for 40 years, but not until after Moses spent 40 days on the mountain getting the 10 commandments). In biblical numerology 40 more relates to being tested.

Episode 5 – Blood Mary – We now find the brothers in Toledo, Ohio, investigating more mysterious (and of course, very bloody) deaths. They discover in their investigation that a young woman believes that “Bloody Mary” is the cause of one of the deaths.

Bloody Mary (really more of an Urban Legend than true folklore) is a spirit woman who appears if you say her name three times in the bathroom mirror and scratches your eyes out.

Through some investigation, the boys discover there is an unsolved murder of a woman named Mary. Before she died she tried to write the name of her murderer in blood on her mirror. At this point Sam states ”There’s a lot of folklore about mirrors; that they reveal all your lies, all your secrets, that they’re a true reflection of your soul, which is why it’s bad luck to break ‘em.”

And this is very true. Mirror lore goes back thousands of years, when mirrors were made of smooth rock or metal. It was believe that the soul could be trapped in a mirror, and that mirrors should be covered when sleeping or ill, or if someone had just died, so that their soul would not become trapped.

Episode 6 – Skin – Brings the brothers to St. Louis, Missouri. A friend of Sam’s has been accused of murder, and even though he has an alibi, has still been arrested because apparently he’s also on video tape at the location of the murder. Sam and Dean’s first thought is that this may be the work of a Doppelganger (German for “double walker”) which is a double of someone, but rarely seen by anyone other than the person who has the doppelganger.

They quickly rule this out when they discover an attempted murder and the accused swears he “ran into himself” in his own living room.

The brothers determine they are working with a shapeshifter, a being that can change its physical shape at will, and can only be killed with a silver bullet to the heart.

Stories of shapeshifting belong to just about every culture, and date back thousands of years. Some of the tales actually recount an individual’s progress through reincarnation (as in the story of the Hindu god, Vishnu). In other tales, such as the Welsh story of Taliesin and the Cauldron of Cerridwen, the characters actually change their physical form.

Using silver bullets for killing a shapeshifter seems feasible too, after all, they are effective on werewolves, who are in fact, just shapeshifters themselves.


If you haven’t had a chance to see this show yet, I highly recommend renting the first season on DVD. It definitely has everything a true lover of folklore and the paranormal could ask for.