2.06 No Exit

In Philadelphia a young blonde woman, Katie Burns, is upset and on the phone. She complains the wiring is not done right as lights flicker around her. When someone promises to come up now to check on things, she hangs up. Spotting black goo on the table, and then it drips on her shoulder, Katie gets up and walks over to an open light switch where the black goo is oozing out of. She sees an eyeball and screams.

Packing up outside the Roadhouse, Sam and Dean joke a bit before the fight between Ellen and Jo catches their attention and they head inside. Jo claims Ellen cannot keep her from hunting, while Ellen tosses out the idea for Jo to go back to school. Jo was a freak with a knife collection at school, refusing to go back. While Ellen is distracted, Jo brings her case to the boys to find out what they think. Young blond women have vanished over a long period of time, which is a possible hunt. Ellen refuses to allow Jo to leave because she does not want to lose her too. The boys grab Jo's case and head off to Philadelphia.

Sam picks the lock, and both boys slide inside to investigate. Sam feels bad, snaking Jo's case, but Dean does not think Jo could work a case. They find the black ectoplasm, signifying a majorly pissed off spirit. They exit, but upon hearing voices they dive into an alcove to hide. Dean recognizes Jo's voice, and they come out to find out what is up. Jo claims Dean is her boyfriend, while Sam is his friend, and she rents the apartment with a wad of cash.

Once in the apartment, Dean and Jo argue over Jo's presence. Jo got Ash to lay a trail to throw her mother off, but Ellen does not believe it and calls Dean. After having a short heated fight, Dean lies to Ellen, promising when he sees Jo he will call Ellen. Jo is happy to have won.

The three of them start to work the case, and decide to split up to search for a cursed object with a spirit tied to it. Dean drags Jo off with him - non-negotiable - as Jo's thinking the spirit will come after her and they can get it. Dean is giving her a ton of crap, not believing the amateurs can do this job. He tells her to go back for the good things, a mom who worries over her and wants something better. A hand starts through the gate, as Jo's EMF goes off. Dean rejoins her, noting the smell but not placing it. They pull the grating off, and Dean finds a chunk of blond hair and scalp hidden in the wall.

Another blond woman, Teresa Ellis, enters her apartment going through her mail. Black goo drops on one advertisement for a class; she throws it away. Looking up, there at first is nothing but then a crack starts across the ceiling. She heads over to the phone when the crack follows her. No dial tone, so she starts to run out. The door will not let her out, and hands come out of the grate to grab her ankles. She is thrown to the floor, screaming and crying, before being pulled back.

The next morning Dean wakes up awkwardly on the LazyBoy. Sam has gone to get coffee. Jo didn’t sleep on the bed; she has just been going over everything. Dean hands Jo a bigger knife than the one she has been twirling around. She hands him her knife; it belonged to her father. He apologizes before taking back his knife. They exchange stories about their dads. When John took Dean shooting for the first time, he bulls-eye every one of them; John smiled at Dean. Jo lost her dad while she was still in pigtails, but she remembers him coming home from a hunt, sweeping Jo up into his arms while she breathed in that old leather jacket of his. Mom started smiling again, and they were all a family again. Jo wants to do the job as a way to be close to her dad. Sam bursts in with the bad news - cops outside. Another girl disappeared.

Dean comes back into the apartment, with the news of cracks all over the plaster, walls, and ceiling with ectoplasm. Jo picks up a photo, thinking they are looking in the wrong place. Next door was a prison years ago. Jo calls Ash for information, threatening him to not tell her mom. The prison was Moyamensing prison, executing people by hanging them in the empty field next door - where the apartment building was built. Ash sent them 157 names of people who were executed at the prison. While Sam is scrolling down names, he finds Herman Webster Mudgett, which was H. H. Holmes' real name. Dean and Sam explain to Jo he was listed as "multi-murderer", the first serial killer. He confessed to 27 murders, although some thought it was closer to over 100. His favorite victim of choice was pretty petite blondes, where he would use chloroform to kill them. Dean realizes that was the smell he smelled last night. Holmes had human remains, bone fragments, and long locks of bloody blonde hair. Jo figures to salt and burn him, but his body was buried in a couple of tons of concrete to keep others from mutilating his corpse, since he used to. Since Holmes built Murder Castle in Chicago, using it as a death factory with trap doors, acid vats, quicklime pits with secret chambers inside the walls suffocating or starving them. Jo realizes with horror Teresa could still be alive inside the walls, being tortured. New plan - smash walls to get in to search.

Dean and Jo are together, squeezing between crawl spaces inside the building walls, with flashlights and EMF detector. Jo hangs up her cell phone, after checking with Sam, who did not have any news either. Dean gets to an area that is too narrow for him, but rather than listening to Dean, Jo continues and they separate. Dean and Jo continue to talk through cell phones, so he can track where she goes. Black goo starts pouring out of the wall in front of Jo, who screams. Dean races to her last known location before smashing a hole through the wall to find only her cell.

Sam crosses paths with Dean as they head back to their apartment, and Dean is furious that he was not with Jo because the ghost grabbed her. Sam assures Dean they will find her, they just need to think. While Sam pours over the layouts, Ellen calls Dean and tells him that he lied to her. She wants to talk to Jo, but Dean regretfully tells her that the ghost grabbed her. Ellen is horrified, and promises to be on the first plane out, before she hangs up. Dean is beating himself up as he asks Sam if he has anything yet. Sam figures they did not look at the basement torture chamber yet.This building does not have a basement, but it does have a old sewer system that has not been used. The boys grab their gear and head out.

Jo wakes up from being drugged, and looks around her small prison she is lying in. She sobs in terror for a few moments, as she sees the long bloody gouges above her - testament to another girl trying to escape. After collecting herself, she scoots over to small slit in her prison, which gives her a view of a larger, round chamber. She calls out, and eventually another female voice answers her. Jo asks if she is Teresa, which she answers with relief. Jo tells her she is here to rescue her, and her friends are looking for her. Teresa is frantic that he is going to kill them, but Jo hushes Teresa as they hear footsteps approaching. Heavy breathing from the scared girls, before the spirit's hand bursts through Jo's window slit and grabs her head. She screams as it yanks a chunk of hair and disappears.

Sam with a metal detector, and Dean with a shovel, is searching the streets, turning into an empty field, before Sam locates a sewer manhole cover. Dean digs to find the manhole cover before they both quickly dig with their hands to uncover it. Once it is pulled open, Sam follows Dean down.

Jo is kicking in her cell, before stopping in exhaustion. The ghost whispers she is pretty; she tells him to go to Hell. He reaches in to fondle her. At first she turns away in disgust, but then she stabs him with her knife. He flees, screaming, as Jo yells taunts after him.

Dean, then Sam, crawl along through the narrow sewer tunnels, searching.

Teresa and Jo wonder where 'he' is, when he grabs Jo's mouth to shush her. Jo struggles. Dean calls out before firing, sending the ghost away. Dean calls to Jo, and finds her in her cell. Sam searches the other cells before finding Teresa. The boys pry open the cells, pulling the girls out. Jo just wants to leave, but Dean's plan is to use her as bait.

Later Jo is sitting alone in the center or the chamber, with her arms wrapped around her knees, waiting. The ghost appears behind Jo, slowly moving closer. Dean calls out; Jo dives forward into safety as the boys fire their guns. A bag of salt falls down, blocking the only exit. The ghost turns around in a circle, gibbering in horror as he realizes he is trapped in the chamber. The grate slams shut, sealing him in.

Sam and Jo are standing in the field, next to the sewer entrance, talking. Sam wonders if Jo thought the job was glamorous, and she agrees, except for the pee-your-pants-terror. However, they saved Teresa. She wonders what would happen if the salt washes away, and Sam informs her they were waiting. A cement truck shows up, with Dean driving it. Sam directs him into position, and the boys pour cement down into the sewer. That should keep him down there.

It is dark, and Dean is driving the Impala with Ellen in the front seat and Sam and Jo in the back. It is awkward, as Dean first tries to make small talk and then listen to music, both of which is shot down by Ellen. It was a long drive back to the Roadhouse.

Back at the Roadhouse Ellen drags Jo in, with Dean trying to apologize and say how proud her dad would be. Ellen is furious, and demands that the boys leave. Jo and Ellen fight about the job, until Jo realizes Ellen is not telling her something about John.

Outside, Jo slams the door as she storms out. Dean runs after he, asking what is wrong. She first rebuffs him, before telling him that John screwed up and got her dad killed. That was why John never brought them around or told his boys about the Harvelles, because John felt guilty. She begs Dean to leave, before she heads off across a field. Dean, stunned, just looks down.