Dream A Little Dream Of Me is the 10th episode of Season 3. It premiered on February 7th, 2008.
Summary
Bobby is poisoned with a dream potion and lapses into a deadly coma, so Sam and Dean take the potion themselves to enter the dream and save him, but to do so they all must confront their own personal nightmares.
Synopsis
Bobby is looking around in an old house, when a woman jumps out and attacks him. Suddenly the scene cuts to a maid entering a motel room, unable to wake a sleeping Bobby.
Sam is in a bar drinking alone and Dean enters, wondering why he’s drinking whiskey at two in the afternoon. Sam admits he’s upset about being unable to save Dean, because Dean doesn't want to be saved. He asks Dean how he could care so little about himself. Dean gets a call on his phone before answering.
At the hospital, Bobby is in a coma and the doctor tells them he doesn't know what’s causing it or how to treat it. Sam and Dean check Bobby’s motel room and find his research clippings in the closet, along with an article about a doctor who died by going to sleep and not waking up. Sam stays behind to research while Dean goes to the doctor’s office. Dean eventually finds a young man who was part of the sleep study, and he offers Dean a beer. Dean drinks it. The man has a condition where he couldn't dream, and the study allowed him to dream by drinking a tea made of "African Dream Root".
Back in Bobby’s hospital room, Sam tells Dean about African dream root, which allows people to enter other people's dreams. They surmise someone killed the doctor this way and is going after Bobby. Bobby screams in his dream, hiding in a closet from whomever's after him. Dean suggests to Sam that they take the dream root and get inside Bobby’s dream to save him. Sam points out it is hard to come by, so Dean suggests contacting Bela.
Dream Sam is on the computer, and hears a knock at the door. Bela comes in, wearing a beige trench coat, and takes off the coat, revealing lingerie underneath. She kisses Sam and they land on the bed in a heat of passion, just before Dean shouts to Sam to wake up. Sam wakes up rattled, especially when Dean mentions Bela. There’s a knock at the door and Bela enters for real, freaking out Sam more. She gives Dean the African dream root, claiming she’s doing this for Bobby because he saved her life in Flagstaff. Dean kicks her out.
Sam makes two glasses of tea, and puts some of Bobby’s hair in them so they can enter his dream. They drink, and find they are in a version of Bobby’s house. Sam goes outside, and enters a bright technicolored world full of flowers and birds singing. The door slams behind him, separating him from Dean. Dean searches the house and finds Bobby in the closet. He tells Bobby this is a dream, but Bobby doesn't believe him when a woman approaches them, with stab marks all over her, scaring Bobby. Bobby tells Dean that the woman is Bobby's wife.
The woman confronts Bobby over why he stabbed her, and Bobby claims she was possessed, and he didn't know how to save her back then. Dean pulls him away. Outside, Sam gets whacked with a baseball bat, and sees the man from the dream study, who’s angry to find Sam there. Inside Dean convinces Bobby to take control of the dream and the woman disappears, and they all wake up a split second before Sam gets his head bashed in.
At the hospital, Dean asks Bobby about his wife. Bobby confesses that everyone gets into hunting somehow, and thanks Dean for saving him. Sam says he can’t find the man in the dream. Bobby explains that his name is Jeremy Frost, and he wasn't able to dream because his dad bashed his head in with a baseball bat which resulted in Charcot-Wilbrand Syndrome; " basically, an inability to dream. Jeremy was able to get into Bobby's dream by offering him a beer, which he drank, leaving his DNA available for Jeremy to use in the African Dream Root tea. Dean admits he drank a beer too, so now Jeremy can come after him. Bobby tells him to coffee up, because he can’t go to sleep.
Two days later a very irritated Dean drives the Impala, yelling at Bobby over the phone because they can’t find Jeremy. Dean pulls over and decides he’s going to sleep, ready to take Jeremy on. Sam pulls out some of Dean’s hair, insisting on going too. Dean doesn't like the idea of Sam digging around in his head, but Sam won’t listen. They both wake up in the Impala, and step outside to see Lisa on a blanket with a picnic basket, telling Dean they have to pick up Ben soon and that she loves him, before disappearing. Dean denies ever having that dream to Sam. Sam spots Jeremy in the woods and they go after him, but Dean falls behind and finds himself alone in a long hallway.
Sam looks for Dean in the woods, while Dean enters the motel room and sees someone at the desk, turning the light off an on. A dream version of him turns around, and Dean gets it, this is a dark part of his own subconscious. Dream Dean tells real Dean how worthless he feels and how he hates what he sees in the mirror. Dean tries to take control of the dream by snapping his fingers, but nothing happens. Dream Dean slams the door and locks it, holds a shotgun and tells Dean they need to talk. Sam wakes up in the Impala to find Jeremy next to him. He hits Sam with the bat, and Sam falls out of the car and tries to crawl away. Jeremy comes after him, and Sam is suddenly tied to stakes in the ground. Jeremy says he gets stronger with each dream, and Sam and Dean aren't waking up.
Dream Dean berates real Dean, telling him he’s got nothing but Sam, everything he owns was his dad’s, his dad thought he was a good soldier and nothing else, and doted on Sam while not caring whether Dean lived or died. Dean fights back in a rage, calling his father an "obsessed bastard" who couldn't protect his family, who let his wife die, and who wasn't there for Sam. Dean doesn't deserve what his dad put on him, and he doesn't deserve to go to hell. He grabs the shotgun and shoots Dream Dean, symbolically killing the self-loathing part of himself. It then transforms into a black-eyed demon version of Dean, a manifestation of Dean's fear of his impending death and transformation in to a demon in Hell because of the deal he made with the crossroads demon. "This is what you're going to become," it taunts.
Sam takes an intense beating from Jeremy. Jeremy tells Sam that there’s nothing Jeremy can’t do because of the dream root, and Sam reminds Jeremy that he took the dream root, too. Jeremy’s father appears, and Jeremy is frozen in fear, giving Sam the chance to deliver two sharp whacks to the head with the baseball bat, killing Jeremy. Sam and Dean wake up in the Impala.
Back at the motel, Bobby asks Sam if his ability to enter Jeremy's dream had anything to do with his psychic stuff. Sam says no, but he’s not certain. Dean says he can’t find Bela, and Bobby admits that all he did was give her a good deal on an amulet in Flagstaff. Dean checks the safe and finds that Bela stole the Colt. While packing up to hunt down Bela, Dean asks Sam what he saw in the dream. Sam only saw Jeremy, and Dean lies, saying nothing happened with him because he was looking for Sam. They get into the car, and Dean admits to Sam he doesn't want to die and doesn't want to go to Hell. Sam promises they’ll find a way to save him.
There is a final flash to Dean's dream with the demon version of himself, repeating to Dean that he’s going to die and that’s what he’s going to become, then snapping his fingers to end the dream.
Featured Supernatural Being
Dream Characters
- G. Michael Gray as Jeremy Frost
- Cindy Sampson as Lisa Braeden
- Myriam Sirois as Maya Sanders
- Elizabeth Marleau as Karen Singer
- Adrian Formosa as Jeremy's Father
Continuity
- Bobby's killing of his wife when she was possessed would be referenced in later episodes, particularly when she was momentarily resurrected in the season five episode, "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid."
- Tragically, Dean does in fact become a demon in the final moments of the Season 9 finale.
Featured Music
"Long Train Runnin'" by The Doobie Brothers
"Dream A Little Dream Of Me" by Mama Cass Elliot
Trivia
- This episode was named after the Oz-episode with the same name. This is, however, not the first time Supernatural-episodes have been named after episodes of other tv-series, as well as song names.
Quotes
Sam: "One problem though, we're fresh out of African Dream Root. So unless you know someone who can score some..."
Dean: "Crap."
Sam: "What?"
Dean: "Bela."
Sam: "Bela? Crap. Huh. You're actually suggesting we ask her for a favor?"
Dean: "I feel dirty just thinking about it, but yeah."
('Sam 'waking up smiling and drooling after having a sex dream about Bela)
Dean: SAM! Wake up!..... Dude you were out and making some serious happy noises. Who were you dreaming about?
Sam: What? No one. Nothing.
Dean: Come on, you can tell me... Angelina Jolie?
Sam: No.
Dean: (Looks away a second) Brad Pitt?
Sam: No!