Supernatural: In the Beginning (Episode 403)

Mommy's a BAMF!Dear Show,

Let’s have babies.

Epic amounts of love,
Gemma

Holy Mary mother of Dean you guys, this episode was amazing.  I have never actually wanted to procreate with a television program before, but now all bets are off.  If you aren’t ready for a committed relationship you might want to get out now, because after this you will be this show’s bitch and you will like it.

THEN: So, way back in the day, the Yellow-Eyed Demon did some shit.  This includes feeding baby Sammy demon blood, killing Mary, killing Jess, and basically making the Winchesters’ lives a giant clusterfuck.  Mary, apparently, knew the demon before all of this happened.  More recently, Sam has been using his powers secretly and Dean has been touched by an angel.  Get it got it good?

NOW:  It’s the middle of the night, and Sam and Dean are holed up in a motel room.  While Dean sleeps, Sam sneaks out of the room.  He turns the corner and gets into a car, being driven by none other than Ruby the Friendly Demon.  “Ready?” she asks, and Sam confirms before they drive off.  Say goodbye to Sam everyone, because that’s the last of him you’re going to see in this episode! (Apparently Jared had some film work to do for his movie Friday the 13th, which is why he was barely in this episode.  Don’t worry; it actually works out really well.)

Back in the room, Dean is dreaming of Hell.  That sucks.  He jerks awake and finds Castiel sitting on the bed next to him.  Dean asks what he wants, and Castiel tells him that “[he] has to stop it.”  Dean has no idea what he’s talking about, but instead of explaining himself, Castiel touches Dean’s forehead.  The next thing he knows, Dean is laying on a bench in the middle of some town, being awoken by a cop.  He takes out his cell phone, but there’s no signal.  He gets up and heads to a diner across the street.  Inside, he meets a very, very attractive man who lets him know that he’s in Laurence, Kansas.  Shocked, Dean asks the man where he can get cell phone reception, to which the man responds “the U.S.S. Enterprise.”  Hee!  Secret Star Trek fan!  The guy orders Dean a coffee—because in alternate reality episodes everyone always thinks Dean is drunk—and the man who serves him the coffee is dressed in hippie attire.  “You know Sonny and Cher broke up, right?” Dean quips.  “Sonny and Cher broke up?” the man next to him asks, genuinely troubled.  HEE!  Secret Sonny and Cher fan!  Dean looks around and notices that everyone in the diner is dressed in ‘70s garb.  He glances at the paper the man is reading, and sees that the date is Aril 30, 1973.  As he absorbs this information, a man walks into the diner calling out John Winchester’s name. The man sitting next to him responds, and Dean realizes that this whole time he has been talking with a younger version of his father.

WINGS.  TITLE.

John is walking down the street, and Dean is following him.  When Dean follows John around a corner, he bumps into Castiel.  The angel informs Dean that he is really, truly in the past, and reiterates that Dean “has to stop it.”  Instead of specifying, Castiel disappears, and Dean is understandably pissed.

At a used car lot, John is about to purchase…a Volkswagen van?  Oh, no no no no.  This will not do at all.  Dean agrees, and says that John should buy a certain ’67 Impala instead.  John asks if he knows about cars, and Dean assures him that his dad taught him well.  Aww.  John’s a bit wary of Dean at first, but once he gets a look at the Impala he’s just dazzled.  She has that effect on people.  And how awesome is it that Dean is the one who picked out the Metallicar?  They are an OTP if ever there was one.  As John practically molests the Impala, Dean tries to find out if he’s noticed any signs of the supernatural, like cold spots or sulfuric residue.  John’s significantly creeped out, but he heads Dean’s advice and buys the Metallicar nonetheless.  For the win!

John pulls up in front of a house in his new car, and Dean follows in a car that he must have stolen.  A young blonde woman runs up to John, asking what happened to the van he was going to buy.  And it’s none other than Mary Campbell, soon to be known as Mary Winchester!  Man, the casting department gets an A+ for this episode, because Young Mary and Young John look frighteningly similar to their older incarnations.  The lovebirds go to dinner, and Dean watches them from outside.  Horndog that he is, Dean briefly muses about how hot his mother is, before realizing that “[he’s] going to Hell…again.”  Hee.  Dean, you should be used to incestuous sexual tension by now.  Inside the diner, John worries that Mary’s father doesn’t approve of him, but Mary assures that she loves him no matter what.  Mary excuses herself for a moment, and John takes an engagement ring out of his pocket.  I sincerely hope that he doesn’t plan on proposing to her in a diner, because that’s just lame.  While Dean continues to look at his father, Mary sneaks up behind him.  “Why are you following us?” she asks, and then proceeds to kick the shit out of him.  She’s got some moves!  Dean finally manages to pin her up again a wall, and notices that she’s wearing a bracelet with multiple protective charms.  “Are you a hunter?” he asks, and her silence is all the answer he needs.

A while later, John drops Mary off at her house.  As soon as he drives away, she meets up with Dean, who manages to talk her into introducing him to her family.  In another big win for the casting department, her father Samuel is played by the fabulous Mitch Pileggi.  He quizzes Dean on how to kill vampires, and is generally very curmudgeonly even after Dean passes his test.  Luckily, his fantastically fantastical wife Deanna tells him to cut the shit and invites Dean for dinner.  So to recap, Sam and Dean are named after a married couple.  Seems appropriate somehow.  Dean explains his stalker-like behavior by saying that he thought something was after John, and Mary’s parent’s scoff at the thought that John would have anything to do with the supernatural.  Samuel, apparently, disproves of him because he is just a civilian, but Mary makes it clear that she has no interest in dating other hunters.  They talk about Samuel’s latest case, a suspicious death at Whitshire Farm.  They suspect demons, but they don’t want Dean’s help with the hunt.

The next day, Samuel and Mary arrive at Whitshire Farm to investigate.  Mary clearly doesn’t want to be there, but begrudgingly goes to talk to a young man at her father’s insistence.  Samuel, who is dressed as a priest, goes to the main house.  He goes to knock on the door, but it opens and—

*thud*

Phew.  Sorry about that, folks, but Dean just opened the door in a priest uniform.  NNGHH.  Special Hell is booking my first class ticket as we speak.  Anyway, Samuel rolls with this unforeseen complication, and Dean informs him that the widow doesn’t know anything of value.  He leaves Samuel to talk with the woman and goes over to Mary and the young man, whose name is Charlie.  Charlie, who has an inexplicable southern accent, tells Dean that a stranger offered to stop his father from beating his mother.  He didn’t ask for anything specific in return, but mentioned something about coming back in ten years.  Dean immediately deduces that Charlie sold his soul without even realizing it.  When asked what the stranger looked like, Charlie remembers that the man appeared to have yellow eyes.  Dun dun DUN.

Back at the Campbell’s house, Dean is freaking the fuck out.  Samuel and Deanna tell him not to jump to conclusions, but Dean insists that they have to kill the YED right away.  But first he has to get the Colt, which is still with Daniel Elkins in Colorado.  Y’all remember him, right?  He’s the vampire hunter that had the gun all the way back in season 1.  The Campbells are still hesitant about acting, so Dean breaks out John’s handy dandy journal.  Apparently John kept a list of everyone he thought ever came in contact with the YED, including the owners of Whitshire Farm.  Pretending that John was clairvoyant, Dean insists that the demon is going to meet with someone named Liddy Walsh the next night.  Having armed them with this information, Dean plans to head to Colorado for the gun.

Before he leaves, Dean says goodbye to Mary.  He tells her that he “likes that John kid,” and that he thinks the two of them were meant to be.  On a whim, he asks what John is like, and Mary tells him that John is “everything a hunter isn’t.”  If she only knew.  She also tells him that John is going to propose to her, and that she’s desperate to get out of the hunting business.  “You know the worst thing I can think of?” she asks Dean.  “The very worst thing?  Is for my children to be raised into this like I was.”  Knowing that Mary’s greatest fear became a reality, Dean dissolves into tears.  As if that isn’t heartbreaking enough, he makes her promise not to get out of bed on November 2, 1983, no matter what she hears.  She agrees, Dean walks away, and half of the viewing audience tries in vain not to burst into tears.  Emmys, please take notice.

On the way to Colorado, Castiel appears in the passenger seat of Dean’s stolen car.  Dean asks why Castiel didn’t bring Sam along, but the angel insists that Dean had to do this on his own.  Dean wants to know if stopping the demon now will ensure a normal life for his family.  Castiel doesn’t say yes or no, but mentions that, if Dean does stop his mom’s death, all the people he and his family saved will die.  Though Dean is horrified by this thought, he says that he can’t let his parents die all over again.  Castiel vanishes, and Dean drives on.

In Daniel Elkins’s cabin, Dean finds the Colt in an old safe.  Before he can get away, Elkins (looking much younger and healthier than the last time we saw him) pulls a rifle on him.  Even though he’s got a shotgun pointed at him, Dean refuses to give up the Colt, saying that he needs it to save his family.  He tells Elkins that he’ll have to kill him if he wants to stop him, but that if he lets him go he’ll give the gun back in a few days.  Because he is evidently made of awesome, Elkins lets Dean go, and now I feel a little bad about him getting eviscerated by vampires and whatnot.

At the Campell’s house, Samuel and Mary are cleaning their guns.  Mary asks where Dean planned to go, and Samuel mentions Liddy Walsh.  Bad move, since Liddy is actually a friend of Mary’s, and she insists on helping Dean with the hunt.  Over at Liddy’s, a doctor is telling Liddy that a loved one’s cancer has metastasized.  She’s very distraught, but he offers her a cure.  In ten years, he says, he’ll come to her, and he’ll take something that she won’t miss.  She’s very confused, and suddenly the doctor’s eyes turn bright yellow.  Samuel burst into the room and shoots the doctor, but of course this has no effect.  The YED pins Samuel against a wall, but Mary attacks him with a knife before he can do anything.  Mary is made of win, y’all.  The YED thinks so too, but he still attacks her.  Dean rushes in with the Colt and tells the demon to let Mary go.  As he’s not exactly thrilled to see the Colt, the YED exits the body he was possessing.

While Mary waits in the car, Dean tells Samuel that Mary’s life depends on killing the YED immediately.  Having revealed this information, Dean is forced to reveal his true identity.  He thinks that the YED has now caught Mary’s scent, and that if they let the demon get away he won’t be able to stop her death.  While this conversation is going on, Mary leaves the car and runs to meet John.  She begs him to take her away, and he agrees.  Back in Liddy’s house, Samuel shocks himself by admitting that he believes Dean.  He asks to see the Colt, but Dean won’t give it up.  “Nothing personal,” he says.  Samuel disagrees, and his eyes flash yellow as he telekinetically throws Dean against a wall.

And see, this is where a few things become apparent.  First, the YED is fucking awesome.  He’s smarmy and merciless and pretty much the perfect villain for this show.  I never even realized how much I missed him.  Second, Mitch Pileggi is a fantastic actor.  It’s amazing how closely he matches Fredric Lehne’s portrayal of the YED while still making the role his own.

“So I kill your mommy, huh?” the YED asks casually as he saunters over to Dean.  Getting all up in Dean’s personal space, he asks if he’s “one of [his] psychic kids.”  To check, he leans in and sniffs Dean’s neck, and Dean looks like he wants to vomit.  Having determined that Dean is not one of his, the YED realized that Dean has a sibling.  Dean figures out that the YED wasn’t making deals for people’s souls, but for their children.  The YED explains that he’s been finding strong parents to make bargains with, and that Mary is his favorite so far.  Perhaps that’s why Sam was his favorite psychic kid.  He needs to make the deals because he can’t enter a house without being invited.  And in a bought of classic villainous monologuing, he reveals that he gives the kids powers by dripping his blood into their mouths, which “makes them big and strong.”  Well that explains a lot.  Dean asks what he’s preparing the kids for, but the YED refuses to reveal his endgame to Dean “or those angels sitting on [his] shoulder.”  Dean insists that doesn’t care what the YED chooses to hide, and snarls that, no matter what the YED does, he’ll kill him in the end.  The YED doesn’t believe him, and out of spite, he sticks a knife into Samuel’s gut.  Deanna, who had snuck into the house and was trying to reach the Colt, screams when he does this.  The YED goes after her and snaps her neck before Dean can detach himself from the wall. By the time Dean does get free, Deanna is dead and the YED is gone.

Mary and John are sitting in the Impala, parked near a body of water.  John starts to propose, but Mary stops him, saying that there are things about her that he doesn’t know.  He doesn’t care, though, and tells her that he will always love her as he presents her with the ring.  Just then, the YED throws open Mary’s door and roughly drags her out of the car, pretending to be her father.  John tries to intercede, but the YED snaps his neck.  Um, that could be a problem.  Mary falls to the ground and cradles his body, horrified.  The YED chooses this moment to reveal his true identity, and that he has killed her parents as well.  Using her devastation to his advantage, the YED offers to make a deal with her and bring John back to life as his end of the bargain.  “My parents too?” she asks, but he says that they’re bartering for John’s life only.  She wants to know what he wants in return, but he gives the same vague story that he’s given everyone else.  “As long as I’m not interrupted, no one gets hurt,” he assures her.  Having just lost her entire world in one night, Mary can’t refuse.  Dean arrives just in time to see her finalize the deal, and the YED flees before he can kill him.  As John comes back to life, Castiel appears and takes Dean back to the present.

Dean wakes up back in bed, and it appears no time has passed since he left.  He laments the fact that he couldn’t stop any of it, but Castiel tells him that there was no way he could have done anything.  “Destiny can’t be changed, Dean,” he says stoically.  Dean doesn’t understand why Castiel would send him back if he couldn’t fix anything, and the angels says that it was the only way he would understand the truth.  Dean finally notices that Sam is not in the room, and realizes that the YED’s endgame revolves around his brother.  Castiel tells him where Sam is, and Dean gets ready to go after him. Before he can leave, Castiel informs him that Sam is “heading down a dangerous road.  So stop it, or we will.”  Dean’s expression turns murderous at this threat against his brother, and the screen fades into the three most heinous words in the English language: To Be Continued.

Next week: Flesh-eating monsters and brotherly arguing!  Does it get any better?