Damaged Goods Recap

Before Dean leaves, he hugs Sam and says “Take care, Sammy”, before walking out. Sam seems confused, but doesn't say anything.Later, we see Mary at Donna’s cabin. She’s on her cell phone talking to Sam. Apparently, Bobby has left the cabin for a few days to give both of them some time alone. During their discussion, Sam explains that Dean is heading her way, but behaving strangely – including the hug, which was odd. Mary assures Sam that she’ll look after Dean. While Sam is talking on the phone, he’s walking through the bunker. He comes to a book storage room and notices that some books and other items are missing.

DEAN:
In Hibbing, Dean and Sheriff Donna Hanscom enjoy hamburgers together. Donna tells Dean that Jody and the girls are doing well, and although her breakup with Doug was difficult, she’s doing okay. When Donna tries to ask Dean how he’s doing, he deflects the question. Donna reveals that she knows he was recently possessed (due to phone calls from Sam) and she also knows that Dean has Michael trapped in his mind. Dean refuses to reveal anything else going on with him, insisting that he’ll be alright. When they stand up to leave, they hug. From both their facial expressions, it’s clear that Dean is saying a long-term “goodbye” with his hug, and Donna is confused because she doesn’t understand what’s behind the hug. Donna looks worried as Dean walks away.

Later, Dean arrives at Donna’s cabin where Mary is staying. He finds Mary in the back of the cabin shooting pumpkins for target practice. They greet one another and Dean says he’d like to stay for a few days. Mary offers him the sofa, tells him that Bobby is gone for a few days, and suggests that they invite Sam. Dean discourages that and says he doesn’t want Sam there. Mary is confused, but relents. When Dean asks Mary to make a dish that he remembers from childhood (called Winchester surprise), he convinces Mary to go to the store and get the ingredients for the dish.

Once Mary is gone, Dean unpacks his tools in the shed and begins building something. As Dean is working, we see him stagger momentarily as if he has a severe headache. While this is happening, we see Michael screaming and hammering at the mental door in Dean's head. After a moment, Dean regains himself and starts building something from metal.

MARY:
We see Mary leaving the market carrying bags and loading them into her truck. A store clerk helps her with the bags and comments that he’s not used to her buying food – only pumpkins and whiskey. Mary dismisses his observation, saying she has family visiting. She finishes loading her truck and leaves.

After Mary is gone, Nick pulls into the store parking lot in a beat up van. He sees the same clerk and asks him where he can find Mary Winchester. The clerk refuses to tell him, and pretends he doesn’t know who Mary is. Nick doesn’t believe the clerk, but drives off. As soon as Nick is gone, the clerk takes out his cell phone and makes a call.

Later that night, Nick is driving through town when Donna pulls him over. According to Donna, the van Nick is driving was reported stolen. Donna also knows that Nick is looking for Mary Winchester, and she notices the knife on the front seat of Nick’s car. Nick seems to have explanations for everything, but Donna doesn’t believe any of them. Donna handcuffs Nick for being in a stolen vehicle. She uses a mobile fingerprint scanner to take his thumb print and within seconds she knows his identity and where he’s from. Unfortunately, Nick uses a paper clip to free himself from the handcuffs, gets free, and overpowers Donna. He tasers her, rendering her unconscious, and drives off, leaving her unconscious in her vehicle.

DEAN:
When Mary returns with the groceries, Dean is leaving the shed. As Dean helps Mary unload, she asks why he was in the shed. He lies, telling her he was just looking around the place. When the get inside the cabin, Mary is pleasantly surprised to see that Dean has set the table for dinner. Despite Mary’s concern and Dean’s cagey behavior, they make dinner.While Dean is cooking, Mary ducks away to call Sam. She confesses that something is off with Dean, but she doesn’t know what. Sam wants to come up immediately, telling Mary that he has noticed some things missing from the bunker. Mary asks Sam to give her more time to figure out what’s going on. Sam says okay, but after they end their phone call we see that Sam is already in a car and heading to Hibbing.

While Dean and Mary eat dinner, Dean recounts an amusing story from his childhood with Sam and John. Mary laments how much of their lives she missed, but Dean assures her that her being alive now and in their lives means the world to him and Sam. Mary tries to get Dean to talk about what he’s going through, but he refuses to talk about it.

Later that night, while Dean is asleep on the sofa, Mary sneaks out of the cabin and to the shed to see what he’s been working on. She finds some books and diagrams and is shocked, but we (the viewer) can’t tell what she has discovered. Mary rushes from the shed, but Nick meets her outside before she can make it back to the cabin.

Back inside the cabin, Dean is awakened by the ringing of his cell phone. It’s Donna telling him what happened with Nick and warning him that Nick is after Mary.

Dean rushes outside to look for Mary and is met by Sam. Dean tells his brother that Mary is missing.

MARY:
Nick questions Mary inside his van. They’re parked in a remote location. Mary’s hands are tied in front of her, but she appears unharmed otherwise. Nick tells Mary that the demons keep track of her and her sons because they’re such a problem, so that’s how he knew she was in Hibbing. He also says that while Donna was unconscious, he read emails from her cell phone to get the address for the cabin.

When Mary demands to know what Nick wants, he recounts a hunt that Mary worked. Apparently, two demons had killed a group of girl scouts, but Mary was able to save one of the girls. Nick reminds Mary that she chased one of the demons away, but she faced off against the other one – a demon named Abraxas. Nick tells Mary that Abraxas murdered his family, and he wants to know what happened to the demon. Mary tells Nick that Abraxas is dead, but Nick doesn’t believe her. Apparently, the demon Nick interrogated told him that Mary trapped Abraxas in a box. After some persuasion, Mary admits that she fought with Abraxas, but he was beating her, so she locked him inside an Enochian puzzle box. Nick wants the box, so Mary reluctantly agrees to take him to it.

Later, Nick and Mary arrive at a self-storage facility.

DEAN, SAM, and DONNA:
Back at the cabin, Donna tells Dean and Sam that she has an alert on Nick’s tags. As the group gears up to search for Mary, Sam apologizes for allowing Nick to leave and remain on the loose. He says he didn’t know Nick was killing people. Dean seems cross, but doesn’t say much. As the group is talking, Donna gets a report that a traffic camera caught Nick’s van pulling into a self-storage storage facility in Grand Rapids. The group rushes to the site.

In the car, Dean reprimands Sam for letting Nick leave the bunker. Sam replies that he was showing compassion—that Nick was very traumatized after being Lucifer’s vessel for so long, and if things had happened differently, that misfortune may have fallen to Sam. Sam also adds that they don’t give up on people, but Dean retorts that sometimes people are beyond saving (implying that he’s talking about himself and not just about Nick).

MARY and NICK:
At the self-storage facility, Mary tries to stall as much as possible, but Nick forces her to unlock the unit and he eventually finds the puzzle box in one of her warded storage lockers. However, he can’t figure out how to open it, and Mary won’t tell him how. As this is happening, Mary reminds Nick that even if he gets the demon out, the demon will need a meat suit; Mary has an anti-possession tattoo and she tells Nick that he can’t be host, either. In response, Nick kidnaps the clerk at the storage facility and ties him to a chair inside a devil’s trap. In frustration, Nick uses a power drill to open the puzzle box. As he does this, demon smoke erupts from the box and possesses the clerk.

As soon as Abraxas arrives, Nick tells Abraxas who he is and begins questioning him about why he killed his family. Abraxas says he’ll tell Nick the truth if Nick agrees to kill Mary; Abraxas is angry with Mary for locking him up. Nick prepares to kill Mary and a fight breaks out. During the struggle, Dean, Sam, and Donna burst in with guns drawn and get Nick away from Mary.

Sam asks Nick why he’s doing this, and Nick says he’s doing what he must do. He lunges for the angel blade he dropped during the struggle and uses the blade to break the devil’s trap and free Abraxas. Abraxas flings everyone into the air and then onto the floor. While everyone is recovering, Abraxas tells Nick that Lucifer ordered him to murder his family. He says there was nothing special about Nick, but Lucifer planned the whole thing to get him to say yes. Before Abraxas can harm anyone, Nick kills him with the angel blade. Then, before Nick can do anything, Donna shoots him in the leg to subdue him, and Mary knocks him unconscious.

Moments later, the group is outside and Donna is putting Nick into the police car. Before they leave, Sam asks Nick why he did what he did. Nick replies that he needed to get revenge for his family, and that Sam would’ve done the same thing. Sam apologizes for not being able to help Nick, but Nick replies that he’s not broken, so there was nothing for Sam to fix. Sam replies that he doesn’t pity Nick, but he does pity all the people he hurt and killed.

While Sam is talking to Nick, Mary and Dean are next to the Impala talking. Mary tells Dean that she knows what he was building in the shed, and if he doesn’t tell Sam what’s going on, she will.

EPILOGUE:

Later (possibly the next morning), Dean and Sam are in the shed at Donna’s cabin, and Dean is showing Sam what he built. The structure looks like a large, metal casket with Enochian sigils on it. Dean calls it a malak box – it’s intended to hold anything, including an archangel. When Sam says he knows what it is, but that they’re impossible to build, Dean recounts some of his discussion with Billie and tells Sam that she gave him instructions.Dean’s plan is to dump the box into the ocean, where he and Michael will be trapped for eternity. Sam balks at the idea, but Dean reminds him that the mental door holding Michael right now is getting weaker, and if the archangel is freed, he’ll destroy the world. Dean doesn’t think they have another choice. He says he’s grateful to Sam, Cas, and Jack for trying, but he can’t be saved.

Sam admonishes Dean for planning to kill himself without saying goodbye to him. Dean says that he couldn’t tell Sam because he’s the only person who could’ve talked him out of the idea. Dean asks Sam to help him. Sam reluctantly agrees.