In the morning Calliope wakes up to see that Dean was gone, and he was now laying back on the couch. He must have gone back there before Sam would wake up not wanting Sam to know that he had stayed in Calliope's bed. She gets up and starts to get dressed when Sam comes back into the motel.
"Go for a run?" she asks him.
"Breakfast" he says as he holds up a tray of coffee's and a take out bag.
"Thanks" she says as Dean then stirs awake.
"Mmm is that a greasy breakfast I smell" he says as he gets up. Just then Sam's cell starts to ring and he goes to answer it stepping away from the two of them.
"You could have stayed in my bed" Calliope says to Dean.
"I know, I just I thought I'd go back to the couch, so Sam didn't know" he tells her.
"It shouldn't matter about Sam, Dean, its okay that you came to bed." She tells him as they both start to eat some breakfast.
"Hey, we've got another murder" Sam comes back over and tells them.
"Great" Dean says.
"Fun, back to the monkey suit" Calliope sighs.
Calliope, Dean and Sam show up at the restaurant and enter, "Agents, thanks for coming" the officer says to them.
"What are these two crapshoots doing here?" Dean says when they see Harry and Ed in the restaurant.
"I figured it wouldn't hurt to go a little Medium, you know?" he says and the three of them look at the officer not impressed. "Uh... two counties over, folks were combing the place for a poor little dead boy back in August. Cops let a psychic do her thing. Shish, bang, boom.... Found a body a day later. " he explains.
"Ah, excuse me" Dean says walking away.
"Was there any security-cam footage?" Calliope then asks the officer.
"Uh, yeah, uh.." he starts to walk away, and Calliope nods at Sam to follow while she heads over to Dean, and starts to look around.
"Hey!" Dean says slapping Ed on the back side.
"Ah!" he shouts as they both get off the counter and see Dean.
"I thought I told you to beat it" Dean tells him.
"Oh, well, what are you gonna do? You gonna out me, 'agent'?" Harry says making quotation marks when he says agent.
"Okay, that's enough" Calliope steps in, "playing paparazzi at a crime scene, that is just depictable, and who does it really help besides yourselves?" she says to the men.
"The bloggers, Calliope, the believers." Harry says poking Dean, who gets pissed, "Everyone who needs just a little proof to know that Thinman is out there." He goes on to say.
"Wait, so you're saying there's a lot of folks online that are pretty die-hard about this thing?" Dean asks.
"Oh yeah" Ed says.
"Uh-huh" Dean then says, "You throw the right Tibetan symbol into the mix, you dumbasses ever thing the Thinman comes to like as a Tulpa?" Dean asks.
"Because thousands of people can agree that Thinman is any one thing?" Ed says to Dean, "the lore changes blog to blog. He's not a Tulpa" he goes on to say.
"Okay, all right. All right. Right here, right now , cut the crap. Do either of you actually know what Thinman is?" Dean then asks.
"No. We just play supernaturalists on TV." Ed says a little sarcastically.
"We have no idea what we're doing" Harry then sarcasitacally remarks.
"No" Ed says as they both then laugh.
"Of course we do" Harry says looking at Ed.
"Thinman is part man, part tree" Ed says looking into the camera Harry had.
"Some people believe that he emerged form the nightmare of an autistic boy whose goldfish came.." Harry starts to say into the camera.
"You two have absolutely no idea what Thinman is do you" Calliope says rolling her eyes and looking at Dean.
"Fellas, ma'am, you want to see this" the deputy then says. Harry and Ed, start to head over and Dean shoves them back as him and Calliope walk over.
"All right, check it out" Sam says to Dean and Calliope, and the deputy presses a button to show them the security footage. The watch as the 'Thinman' goes from the parking lot to inside the restaurant, and kills Trey the managers.
"Whoa" both Ed and Harry say together.
"So how does he jump from the parking lot to the diner?" Calliope asks.
"The doors were locked?" Dean asks.
"The footage shows Trey locked them 10 minutes before" the deputy tells him.
"Locked, not locked, it doesn't matter." Harry says as he raises the camera to film and Dean pushes it down, "Everyone knows the Thinman can teleport." He adds.
"I didn't even get a blip on my EMF." Ed says and Sam takes the EMF reader.
"So, maybe it's not a ghost." Dean says.
"You Feds believers now?" the deputy remarks.
"Okay, uh.... We're gonna go" Ed then says.
"Yep" Harry adds.
"Good work, Deputy, Agent" Ed says.
"Let's go, let's go, man" Harry says quickly to Ed as they make a break for the exit.
"Wait for me" Ed calls out to Harry as they leave.
"Let's see it again?" Dean asks as Harry and Ed grab their stuff and leave the diner.
Later that evening, the three of them sit at the table eating take out, and drinking beers, "Just grasping at straws here, but when I think, 'teleport', I think 'Crossroads Demon'" Sam says to them.
"Mmm, a demon that likes to stab and watch YouTube. Why not?" Dean remarks taking a sip of beer.
"Oh, by the way, speaking of which" Sam says looking at his computer, "the video of, uh, Trey getting knifed." He presses a button bringing the video up, "It's already online. It has, like, 2,000 views" he tells them.
"Almost like someone wants people to watch the Thinman in action" Calliope says taking a sip of her beer.
"It's cause people will watch, cause people are sick" Dean says looking at her.
"And when did 'viral' go from that baby chimp falling out of a tree to Killer Candid Camera?" Sam asks.
Suddenly Dean smiles as he thinks about something, "You know what video would have gone viral, if we still had it?" he looks at Sam, "When we were five and you got dressed up as Batman and you jumped off the shed cause you though you could fly" he says to him.
"After you jumped first" Sam tells him.
"Hey, I was nine, and I was dressed up like Superman, okay? Everybody knows that Batman can't fly" Dean says.
"Well, I didn't know that. I broke my arm" Sam says.
"I know you did. Man, I drove you to the ER on my handlebars" Dean says as they reminisce.
"Aww that would have been the cutest thing to see" Calliope says smiling at the brothers.
"Good times" Dean says taking a drink of his beer.
Sam takes a moment, "Yeah, they were" he says softly. Just then there is a knock on their motel door, and they all look at one another. Dean gets up to answer but the door opens and Ed walks in.
"Come on in" Dean remarks as he closes the door.
Ed looks at Sam and Calliope, out of breath, "I got to tell you guys something important, and then the case is yours." He says as Dean looks at them too.
Ed sits down on the edge of the bed, as Sam, Calliope and Dean stand there looking down at him, "All right, either you bleed Ghostfacers red or you don't. If Spruce wanted to start a start-up and Maggie's heart was in the roller derby, who am I to stop them? But Harry, I couldn't let him give in to his girl. I mean, she called the Ghostfacers stupid. Stupid! Can you believe that?" Ed says and Dean starts to look annoyed, "I don't care how much money her daddy's hedge fund has. I just couldn't watch Harry become a corporate stooge" Ed goes on to say.
"Okay, this all sounds like sad times at Bitchmont High. What does this have to do with the case?" Dean asks.
"Harry was gonna leave, so I needed to give him a reason to stay." Ed says and they look at him urging him to continue, "I... I made up Thinman" he stammers.
Dean, Calliope and Sam all share a pissed off look "So, you're saying that this crap is actually crap?" Dean asks.
"One old photo of a butler, a lot of photoshop later, and I posted on one of those horror forums under 'anonymous'" Ed tells them.
"And it blew up" Sam says.
"Yeah. I only faked one case for us, and then we're packing up to go home, when somebody posted a sighting of Thinman, so we went after it, and that's how the Thinman became a crowdsourced legend." Ed says to them, and the three hunters don't know what to really say. "Look, we were at the front of it. It felt like something. It was so awesome to have a following, and Harry, he was just. He was so into it." Ed says.
"Ed, you need to tell him" Calliope says to him.
"You don't get it. We were the Thinman guys. Without the Thinman, we're just guys.... Just... we're just puffs" Ed says.
"What?" the three of them say to Ed confused.
Ed sighs, "If I tell Harry, he's gonna leave the Ghostfacers." He says.
"Listen, if you don't tell him, he's gonna leave anyway. Trust me here. Secrets ruin relationships." Sam says to him and Dean slightly looks at Sam.
"Okay, well, I'll just tell him when the time is right." Ed says.
"Time's right now, chief" Dean says.
"Well, he's..... he's not here. Uh, he's out in the woods, searching for Thinman." Ed explains.
"Seriously Ed, Thinman or watcher this thing is has already killed two people and now your friend Harry is out in those woods alone. You know what boys you are right, these guys are idiots" Calliope remarks putting her hands in the air, exasperated.
"Well actually, it's more like 'wood', cause I dropped him off by some trees behind the grocery store" Ed says standing up, and they all look at one another. "Guys, come on. He's gonna be fine." He says as Dean, Calliope and Sam all grab their jackets and head for the door. "Guys" Ed calls out to them.
The four of them get into the Impala and head for where Ed had dropped Harry off, when Dean hits the breaks. They see Harry in front of the car, and they all step out, as they see him holding his stomach, and blood on his hands, as he stares at them and almost passes out. Dean and Sam rush over to catch him before he can fall and Ed just stands there staring at his friend. Sam gets some gauze, and bandages, and he helps cover up Harry's wound. "Too tight?" Sam asks as Harry winces in pain.
"Nope, no, I'm good. I'm good" Harry tells him.
"yeah? All right" Sam says.
"I'm good. I think I'm gonna have to staple it when we get back to the motel" he says to Sam. "We were right, Ed! Thinman's real" he says excitedly to Ed.
"Yeah" Ed says.
"Some fresh tire tracks back over there. I took some photos" Dean says as he comes back over from checking the woods out.
"What for?" Harry asks.
"Because that car might belong to whoever knifed you" Sam explains to him.
"Well, whoever cut me was Thinman, and Thinman doesn't drive" Harry says laughing as Dean, Calliope and Sam all look at him. "It was Thinman, jackass!" he says as Dean looks over at Ed. "I mean, I shouldn't have to connect the dots for you guys. I figured you know, you're all intelligent, maybe" Harry goes on to say as now Sam and Calliope stare down Ed.
"Um, Harry..." Ed starts to say.
"What?" Harry asks him, and then sees the look on Ed's face.
They take Harry and Ed back to the motel so Ed can tell Harry the truth about the Thinman. Dean and Calliope head off to see what they could find on the tire tracks. One they get what they want they head back to the motel, knocking on the door, they step inside to see Sam talking to Harry, "Hey, uh... got a beat on those tire threads if you want to.." Dean says to Sam. Sam nods at him, as he then looks over at Harry who nods letting Sam know he can go.
"So what's up?" Sam asks when the three of them are in the all.
"The tires can only be for one kind of car, it's a 1989 Geo Metro." Calliope tells him.
"Town this small, there's only one registered here. Deputy says it belongs to a guy named Roger who works night security down at the mill on the north side of town" Dean tells him.
"So, this thing teleported, but it had a job and a car. What are we dealing with?" Sam asks.
"Well, let's go find out" Calliope smiles at them, as they leave the motel.
Dean pulls the car up to the mill, where they see the deputy already parked there waiting for them. The three of them step out of the car, "I thought we said my partners and I would take care of this" Dean says to him.
"Look, guys, my boss is AWOL. We don't have a warrant. My ass is on the line if this thing goes sideways" the deputy says to them.
"All right, just stay back." Dean tells him. Sam, Calliope and Dean walk up to the entrance to the mill, and Sam takes out his lock picking tools. Calliope and Dean both hold out their guns cocking them, as Sam goes to pick the lock, the door swings. As the three of them go to enter the mill, they are suddenly tased from behind and they go down.
Dean, Sam and Calliope are all handcuffed to chairs as they see the deputy setting up a camera and turning on a spotlight. "So, you're Thinman, huh?" Dean says as the deputy continues to sing to himself. "That would make sense if it didn't look like you just ate a fat camp" Dean goes on to say as the deputy then pulls down a forest back drop and keeps singing. "Oh, God, Sam, Callie, make him stop" Dean says getting annoyed.
"Hey, so, what's the deal? What are you, Norwood? You a demon? I mean, how did you teleport back at the diner?" Sam asks.
"Team effort" he tells Sam as they hear footsteps. They watch as 'Thinman' comes into the room, and he then pulls off the mask, and they see that it's some boy.
"Well, then there was no teleporting. Just a couple of douchebags redoing Scream" Calliope remarks.
"Wait, I know who you are. You're the busboy from the diner. So, what, you just wanted to kill your boss?" Sam asks.
"Trey was a dick" he laughs.
"So what about Casey? What did she ever do to you?" Calliope asks him.
"She wouldn't go out with me, so I set her up with someone else." He says, "My knife" he then laughs as does the deputy.
"Good one, Rog" the deputy says.
Dean then spots a body, "I see the sheriff didn't make it out of town." Dean says and Calliope and Sam both look to see the sheriff's body.
"Well, he really should have given me the time off I asked for" Norwood tells them.
"So, you killed him?" Sam asks.
"I didn't kill anyone" he says to Sam, "Roger did" he says looking at Roger, "He's the psycho. I'm the visionary. I don't blame you for underestimating me. Everybody does. Fancy Fed, coming in here, treating me like a paper monkey from the get-go. But I was Thinman the whole time. Do you have any idea how good that felt?" Norwood says getting up close to Dean.
"No, sicko, I can't say that I do." Dean remarks.
"Yeah, pretty boy doesn't know what it's like to feel invisible. To grow up in a town of 300 people and nobody sees you" Roger comes over saying.
"They didn't see us" Norwood adds. Dean looks over at Sam, and he nods at Dean to keep them talking as he tries to pick the handcuffs.
"So, how did you two meet? Wackjob.com?" Dean jokes.
"No" Norwood laughs, "Just a couple of schmoes in an empty bar. We hit it off. Turns out me and Rog we're both total conspiracy theory junkies. And then we found Thinman, and bam, we blew up all over the message boards." He goes on to explain.
"So what is all this then? Just some sort of twisted cosplay?" Calliope asks.
"Cosreal. You know , blogging was fun, but..." Roger says.
"But, let me guess, you wanted something more" Sam remarks.
"You realize what you two jackasses are doing doesn't make you Thinman" Dean says to them. "It makes you copycat killers" he adds.
"It makes me Thinman" Roger says to him. "And you're not telling anyone I'm not. Cause you'll be too dead to talk." He says getting close to Dean.
"Showtime" Norwood then says.
"You three are lucky ducks. You're the stars of our best video yet. And when it goes viral" Roger says as he goes to stand behind Dean. "Everyone will know Thinman's real" he says this as he put son the mask.
"And... action" Norwood says to Roger.
"No! No! Wait, please don't!" Calliope cries out as they then hear banging. Roger and Norwood stop what they are doing and put duct tape on Calliope, Dean and Sam's mouth as they go to check out the sound. Once the idiots are gone, Sam manages to unlock the cuffs on himself, before unlocking Calliopes and Deans.
The three of them quickly hide when they hear Norwood's voice, and they spot him and Roger coming back with Ed and Harry. They jump out attacking both men, as Sam and Calliope attack Norwood, Dean struggles with Roger. Calliope and Sam knock Norwood to the ground as they look over at Dean, who has Roger's hand that is hold the knife in his, and he starts to force Roger to stab himself. Dean then lets Roger go as he falls to the ground the knife in his stomach.
Norwood then aims a gun at Calliope and Sam, "No, no wait" Ed steps in front of them saying. "No, look. Look at me. This is all my fault. Okay? It's all my fault" Ed tells him.
"I got enough bullets for the three of you" he says to them when suddenly he is shot. Looking over they see Harry holding the gun, shocked at what he just did. Dean steps over and places his hand on Harry's taking the gun from him .
Outside at the car, Dean and Calliope are packing stuff up in the trunk as Sam comes over, "So, are we good in there?" he asks his brother.
"Yeah" Dean replies, "With the Thinman footage and the way we set the bodies, there should be enough breadcrumbs to make it look like those two psychos offed each other." Dean tells him.
"They were just people, man. They weren't demons. They weren't monsters. They...They were just friggin people." Sam says.
"Yeah, well, like I said, people are sick." Dean says as they just finish up, as they look over at Ed and Harry who are talking. They could tell that Ed was trying to convince Harry to stick with him and it wasn't going so well.
"Ed, there's a lot of things I can forgive, but this isn't one of them" they hear Harry saying to him.
"So, what does this mean about us?" Ed asks him.
"It means... 'it's complicated'." Harry tells him as he walks away coming toward the three of them. They try to look away and pretend that they hadn't hear, as Dean closes the trunk.
"Can I get a ride from you guys?" Harry asks them.
Dean looks at Sam and Calliope for a moment, "Yeah, sure" Dean tells him and the four of them get into the car. Dean then drives away, as Ed watches his best friend leave him.
"Harry, you okay?" Dean asks after some time had passed on the road.
"Yeah" Harry replies. "I mean, no. You roll with a guy so many years, you start to think he's always gonna be next to you. Like, when you're old and you're drinking on the porch, he'll be in that other rocking chair. And then something happens, and you realize that other chair has gone empty." Harry says this to them and Sam and Dean realize his words are little close to their situation. "You know what I mean?" Harry then asks, and no one says a word.