| ADDED BY Spnfanforever
The episode opens with Sam regaining consciousness in a motel room after Dean beat him up at the end of the previous episode, when he found out that Sam had allowed him to be turned into a vampire (see ‘Live Free or Twihard’). Sam is tied to a chair. Dean is looking on while Cas starts asking Sam questions to try and find out what is wrong with him. When Cas asks him how much he sleeps and Sam says he doesn’t, Dean angrily asks him if he didn’t think something was off with that, and Sam says he did, he just didn’t tell Dean about it. Cas asks Sam how he feels, and when Sam says he doesn’t know, Cas takes his belt off, which worries Sam, and then Cas asks him to bite down on it. He plunges his hand and arm into Sam’s midsection, which glows red around the entry point, along with Sam’s neck, and the pain is excruciating for Sam. When Cas has finished examining Sam he says he can’t find anything, and when Dean asks him if that’s good, he says no, it’s not; Sam has no soul…
Dean asks Cas if he’s still really Sam without his soul and Cas equivocates, saying that it’s an interesting philosophical question; he then asks him where Sam’s soul is and Cas says he thinks it must still be in The Cage with Lucifer and Michael. Dean says they’ll just have to get it back – after all Cas rescued his soul (Season 4, ‘Lazarus Rising’) but Cas says it’s not possible because Sam’s soul is much more well-guarded than Dean’s soul was. While they are discussing this Sam asks Dean to set him free and apologizes to Dean, saying he’s sorry and it won’t happen again but Dean’s not prepared to let Sam go. Meanwhile Sam has managed to free himself from the ropes he was tied up with and he tells Dean he’s not going to be kept imprisoned anywhere and they might as well work together to find his soul. Dean reluctantly agrees – he doesn’t have much choice – but he says he’s going to keep an eye on Sam all the time – he doesn’t trust him at all. Dean asks Cas who would have the power to resurrect Sam, and he says he doesn’t know; then Cas asks Sam if he has any memory of his resurrection, but all Sam remembers is waking up in a field. He does say he has one clue though…
The scene changes to Dean and Sam driving to the Campbell’s place, where Dean’s and Sam’s grandfather, Samuel, and their cousins are holed up… They go in and find that a lot of hunters are there, all cleaning and preparing their weapons, but they don’t know why. Christian, their cousin, hugs Sam but he only gives Dean a nod and a grimace – they don’t like each other at all; Dean asks him abruptly where ‘The Man’ is, and they go to find him…
Dean opens the door to Samuel’s office. Samuel is sitting at his desk and he puts something he’s been looking at away in the drawer. Dean asks him to recount his resurrection for the benefit of their ‘wingman’ – Cas. Samuel says he woke up on Elton Ridge and doesn’t know anything else. Dean asks Cas to check if Samuel has his soul, and his shouts of pain are heard by Christian, who bursts in with his gun, ready to shoot, and sees Samuel recovering. Dean explains it as ‘angel cavity search’ (– funny!) Samuel tells Christian to leave them alone, which he does…
Cas says Samuel’s soul is intact and he, Samuel, then figures out that there’s a problem with Sam, who tells him that part of him was ‘left behind’ when he was resurrected. Samuel doesn’t look all that surprised, and when Sam asks him if he knew about it, he says no, but he does think something is wrong with him: ‘you’re a helluva hunter, Sam, but the truth is, sometimes you scare me’. Cas says he has to leave to go back to Heaven because of the civil war there and Dean asks him to find something to help Sam, which he promises to do.
Dean asks Samuel what all the hunters are doing there but he doesn’t really want to say; however Sam guesses that he’s found the Alpha Vampire and Samuel admits it. When Sam asks his grandfather why he didn’t call him, Samuel doesn’t answer and Dean realizes that he’s the problem. He says that Samuel didn’t call Sam because of him, that he doesn’t trust him, which Samuel denies, but he still doesn’t want Dean along on the hunt because he says he doesn’t know him like he knows Sam. Dean says he trusts Samuel and will do whatever he wants. Samuel is skeptical at Dean’s sudden submission but Dean says he has to be along on the hunt for ‘Big Daddy Bloodsucker’ and Samuel reluctantly agrees…
Dean and Sam leave the building and Dean says he doesn’t trust Samuel – ‘dude’s hidin’ somethin’’ he says – and Sam is surprised that he’s saying this about family, which is normally sacred to Dean. Dean says Sam would know that too if he wasn’t ‘Robo-Sam’ and anyway, he’s the only lead they’ve got and they should stay close. They go back in and Dean picks the lock on the door of Samuel’s office. He’s just gone in and is ready to start snooping around when Christian catches up with him… after exchanging insults Dean says my favorite line in the episode: ‘You’re tryin’ to tell me you’re a bigger knob than you’ve been lettin’ on?’ to Christian. It ends with Dean throwing Christian against the wall for insulting Lisa and he subtly threatens Dean, saying it will be dangerous when they’re hunting and accidents can happen, but Dean says ‘Don’t worry, Man, I’ve got your back’, leaving Christian fuming, and he walks off…
The scene changes to the hunters leaving for the hunt. It’s not long after sunrise when they arrive at the Alpha Vamp’s lair and Samuel says Dean and Gwen are to remain behind to pick off any stragglers. Dean isn’t happy, neither is Gwen, who says, ‘I’m left behind with the reject?’ but they stay and the other hunters leave. When they’re alone Gwen apologizes to Dean for the comment and they’re OK, but then they hear a noise and a vampire attacks Gwen. Dean gets him off her but the vamp then throws Dean to the floor and Gwen steps in to take his head off. They hear gunfire and Dean runs off to see what’s happening, leaving Gwen behind…
Dean goes up to the gate and sees the same weathervane he saw when he was under the influence of the Alpha Vamp, when he was a vampire himself; he knows this is his lair… He goes in and sees hunters and decapitated vampires on the ground, and then he sees Samuel leading the Alpha Vamp out, with Sam close by. The Vamp is under a blanket, with a bottle, presumably of dead man’s blood, as an intravenous feed being injected into him. Sam looks where Dean was, but Dean has already gone…
He gets back to Gwen just before Samuel and the remaining hunters arrive. She covers for him leaving and says they ‘just chopped up a runner, no big deal’ when Samuel asks her what happened. Dean asks to see the Alpha Vamp ‘to pay his last respects’ but Samuel says he’s already on the pyre, which Dean knows isn’t true!
Dean drives off with Sam, and asks him if anything out of the ordinary went on, which Sam denies. Dean then pulls the Impala off the road and gets out, slamming the door in his anger. He tells Sam he saw him walk the Alpha Vamp out, and Sam says he wasn’t supposed to see that. Samuel is grilling the monsters for info and Sam says he told Samuel not to involve Dean because he’d ‘mess things up’ – he’d kill first and ask questions later… Dean says that whatever Samuel is doing is really shady and they can’t trust him, that family doesn’t mean the same thing to him as it does to him and Sam. He tells Sam that he has no instinct and he is seriously messed up, and no-one’s forcing Sam work with him but if he wants to then he, Dean, is in charge – he drives the bus – because Sam can’t tell what’s important and what isn’t. Dean tells Sam he has a choice – to stay with him or go and work with Samuel, and see how that goes…
The scene changes to Sam walking into Samuel’s office while he is packing up his weapons, ready to leave. Sam says he has split with Dean because they don’t see eye to eye anymore and he wants to get more involved with Samuel’s business – the interrogations, everything – as Samuel and his cousins are his only family now. Samuel says until Sam’s soul is returned he just has to keep on doing what he’s always done… Sam leaves the building and wanders outside. He goes into Samuel’s van and finds one of his phones and he does something to it…
The scene switches back to Dean, waiting in the Impala. Sam suddenly appears and gets in. Dean says, ‘Hey!’ and Sam half-smiles and says Dean didn’t think he’d show up, to which Dean replies, ‘I figured 60-40’. Sam says Samuel didn’t take the bait so he turned on the GPS on one of Samuel’s phones so they could track him…
The scene changes to Samuel and Christian, who have just arrived outside a large building, maybe a warehouse, in the van. They go in, and Dean and Sam are behind them, but hidden, in the Impala. Dean picks the lock and he and Sam go in after them. They see Christian coming out of a room into the corridor they are in and quickly duck into an office to avoid being seen, although Christian does seem to sense something outside the office, but he moves on…
They continue on and Dean hears Samuel’s voice from another room. He pulls the door back a little and they see the Alpha Vamp securely chained to a chair inside a cage. He has nails through his feet and hands and they are hooked up to an electricity supply. He also has ‘dead man’s blood’ hooked up into him. Samuel is asking him where ‘it’ is and he tortures the Vampire by turning on the electricity but the Alpha just shrugs it off and won’t say anything. Samuel is frustrated anfd leaves by another exit, and we see the Alpha extend a fingernail into a talon and start to cut through one of his wrist straps… The Boys start to follow Samuel but then the Alpha says why don’t they come in…
Dean and Sam enter and the Alpha recognizes Dean as he was ‘his child’ once – referring to when Dean was (briefly) a vampire – and he taunts Dean asking him if he enjoyed it. Dean counters by pulling the switch on the electricity supply and the Alpha says disdainfully, ‘when your kind was huddled around the fire, I was the thing in the dark!’ He offers to tell them what they want to know and when Sam asks why, he says that soon he’ll be ‘ankle-deep in your blood, sucking the marrow from your bones!’ Sam asks him if he’s the first of his kind and the Alpha agrees, but when he asks who made him, the Alpha replies, ‘Well, we all have our mothers, even me!’ but he won’t explain any more. He tells Dean that the increase in vamps is because they’re going to War…He continues to work on the wrist strap, unseen…
Sam asks why Samuel brought him here – what does he want to find out – and the Alpha recognizes that Sam has no soul – he’s ‘cold’ and ‘empty’… He starts talking about where souls go after people die – ‘up’ or ‘down’ – and then explains that Purgatory is the place where the souls of monsters go. He says that Samuel wants to know where Purgatory is, and when Dean asks why does he care about this, he says that Samuel doesn’t, it’s the person who’s telling him what to do. Dean speculates who this could be but then they hear a gun being cocked and they turn to see Samuel, Christian and another hunter in the doorway…
The Boys are taken into the corridor by Samuel and Christian, leaving the other hunter to stay with the Alpha, and they are disarmed. Dean says Samuel is stupid, ‘keeping Jaws in a fishbowl’ and whatever he’s doing, whatever he’s hiding, he’s going to get everyone around him killed. There’s a scuffle and Dean disarms Samuel while Sam has hold of Christian, but Gwen appears with a shotgun and The Boys are captured again…
Meanwhile the Alpha is talking to the other hunter, who approaches the cage and uses the electricity on him, but suddenly the Alpha breaks the worn-down strap and escapes the cage, then kills the hunter guarding him. The others hear the screams and Samuel lets The Boys have their weapons back and they go in. Samuel wants to dose the Alpha up with ‘dead man’s blood’ again and put him back in the cage, but Dean says no, they have to kill it before it kills them. Samuel reluctantly agrees and they split up, Dean with Gwen and Sam with Samuel and Christian, and they start to search…
Christian is behind Sam and Samuel, and he starts to wonder if the Alpha’s escaped when he suddenly appears behind him and breaks his neck. Samuel shoots him, with no effect, and the Alpha throws him against the wall; then he grabs Sam and holds him by his throat and says he has ‘big plans’ for Sam – he’ll be the ‘perfect animal’ and he prepares to bite him… Suddenly Christian is up – his eyes are black – and he stabs a syringe of ‘dead man’s blood’ in the Alpha’s neck. Dean and Gwen enter the room just as two more demons appear and they and the demon, Christian, are holding the struggling vampire; then they all vanish. They all hear the sound of clapping and Crowley appears on the upstairs level…
Samuel demands that Crowley should give Christian back. He thinks he’s just had a demon crammed into him now but Crowley says he had him possessed ages ago – this probably explains his enmity towards Dean – to ‘keep an eye on his investments’. Dean says, ‘wait, you two know each other?’ and Crowley says he has a ‘business arrangement’ with Samuel. Sam says ‘you’re Crowley’s b*tch’, which Samuel denies but Crowley confirms. He tells them that Samuel is collecting Alphas and monsters for him. Sam asks Crowley why he’s interested in Purgatory and he says he wants to ‘develop’ it as it is ‘under-utilized and Hell-adjacent’ but he won’t explain further. He tells them they have all been working for him because of their family loyalty, because they’ve been doing what their grandfather told them to do. Dean says that stops now but Crowley says that they have to keep working for him if they want Sam’s soul back. Sam says he’s bluffing but Crowley says that he brought Sam back – and Samuel confirms that Crowley did bring them both back. Dean thinks Crowley’s lying. He says Crowley’s only a ‘punk-ass crossroads demon’ and that Cas said it takes big Mojo to do that, but Crowley says he’s now the ‘King of Hell’ and has the Mojo. He says that if they don’t work for him he’ll shove Sam back in the Cage with Lucifer and Michael… He reiterates he wants creatures ‘high on the food chain’ and disappears…
Samuel tells Gwen it’s time to leave. Gwen is unhappy that Samuel is working for a demon but she goes to get the van. Dean asks Samuel why he’s working for Crowley – ‘What’d he offer you, girls, money… hair?’ (- funny!) but Samuel won’t say. Dean stands in his way and Samuel says Dean and Sam are his family, he won’t do anything to them but they either have to stand aside or put a bullet in him. Sam gets his gun out, saying ‘he sold us out’, but Dean stops him and says ‘Let it go!’ He won’t look at Samuel when he leaves but his expression of hurt and betrayal says it all…
Dean doesn’t want to work for a demon, no matter what the incentive is but Sam says they don’t have any choice at the moment if they want to get his soul back… As soon as they find another way to get his soul they’ll track Crowley down and give him what’s coming to him… He asks Dean if he’s with him...
And fade out…
Editor’s Note:
I think this is a pivotal episode in Season 6 as it is here we find out what is actually wrong with Sam. It also sets the scene for much of what happens next and provides clues to future plot lines in the season… I love this episode. |
