"Demons I get. People are crazy."

After the seasonal arc heaviness of the last episode, we are back to solid standalone material this week. There is not even a hint of a suggestion that either of the boys is making any attempt to find out more about Sam's strange powers, which surface so randomly and then vanish once more, without his having any control over them. In Nightmare, a lot of questions were raised about Sam, his abilities, and others like him, but they have no answers to those rather disturbing questions. And, rather than invest all – or even any – of their time and effort trying to find out more, they both seem to be dealing with the whole situation by pretending it doesn't exist. Business as normal.

Hibbing, Minnesota. A young boy sits huddled up in bed enjoying a scary movie when a bizarre screeching, whining sound disturbs him. He looks out of the window in time to see a man in the parking lot outside get dragged under a car and disappear.

Cut to – the same young boy and his mother answering police questions about the disappearance of this man, one Mr Jenkins. Except…the camera pans down and lo! It is our boys, Dean and Sam, all done up in fancy dress as police officers, hats and all. I love it when they dress up to play a role.

The boy, Evan, nervously tells his story, for apparently the nth time, under the disapproving eye of his deeply sceptical mother, who is convinced he imagined the whole thing.

MRS MCKAY: "Tell the officers what you were watching on TV."
EVAN: "Godzilla versus Mothra."
DEAN: "That's my favorite Godzilla movie. It's so much better than the original, huh?"
EVAN: "Totally."
DEAN: "Yeah. [He nods at Sam] He likes the remake."
EVAN: "Yuck!"

LOL. Sam shoots Dean a disapproving look, but hey – he's got Evan bang on side now. More confident now he has an ally, Evan goes on to explain that he didn't see the 'monster' that took Mr Jenkins away, but he heard the noise it made – a scary-sounding, whining growl.

Later, in a bar someplace in town and back in plain clothes, Sam and Dean discuss this potential new gig. Sam sits at a table sifting through the paperwork as they talk, while Dean demonstrates his ability to multitask by playing darts throughout the conversation. The gist is that they can't tell yet if this is their kind of gig or not – the details are hazy. But, since John has marked the area in his journal as a possible hunting ground for a phantom attacker, and the county has more missing persons per capita than anywhere else in the state, it's worth checking into.

They can't really do much more until morning, though, so Dean is all for hanging around at the bar and having another round, but Sam spoilsports by insisting they should find a motel and make an early start the next day. Dean grumbles, but doesn't actually argue the point, Sam laughs at his disgruntlement, and then Dean heads into the men's room while Sam goes on out to the car.

And, since it is made clear that they haven't yet checked into any motels, I'm now wondering exactly when and where they changed into and out of their police outfits!

Outside, Sam is a trifle worried to hear strange noises, and bends to peer under a nearby car, placing John's journal down on the hood of the Impala to do so…but it's just a cat. A bad tempered cat, but just a cat. Sam jumps out of his skin when it hisses at him, and then laughs at himself. Reassured, and therefore dropping his guard, he straightens back up, doesn't retrieve the journal, and wanders around to the passenger side door. But as he walks, the camera angle drops to show just his feet, seen from beneath a neighbouring car….

Moments later, Dean exits the bar and likewise heads for the Impala, pausing en route to notice the cat, now placidly washing itself on a nearby car. He stops dead when he sees the journal, abandoned on the hood of the Impala with Sam nowhere in sight. Instantly on the alert, he opens the car door to have a look inside. Sam's not there. Dean very quietly starts to freak out. Just when he thought it was safe to let his little brother out of his sight for two minutes. And – don't they ever lock that car? With all the weaponry and fake IDs they keep in it, you'd think they'd be paranoid about keeping it securely locked!

With no sign of Sam anywhere, and since they are in town to investigate a potential supernatural gig involving mysterious disappearances, Dean becomes very worried very quickly. Shouting loudly for Sam, panic mounting, he searches the car park, asks other bar patrons if they've seen anything, notices a traffic camera nearby – but he doesn't find Sam.

Cut to – a very shiny looking Impala parked outside the local Sheriff's department, next morning. Someone's found time to wash the car! Inside, it seems Dean is going through official channels – albeit via fake ID – to investigate Sam's disappearance. And I think it's safe to assume that Dean did not make it to any motel last night, but has instead spent the entire night out searching for any leads he could find, only to come up blank. Therefore, he's had to resort to asking the police for help. Since the ID he's using to gain Deputy Kathleen's cooperation gives the name of Gregory Washington, and he gives Sam's real name as the missing persons, he can't actually come out and admit that Sam is his brother, so instead opts for the closest other possible relationship he can come up with.

DEAN: "It's my cousin. We were havin' a few last night at this bar down by the highway. And I haven't seen him since."
KATHLEEN: "Does your cousin have a drinking problem?"
DEAN: "Sam? Two beers and he's doin' karaoke. No, he wasn't drunk. He was taken."

LOL at the idea of a drunken Sam singing karaoke: they should totally make that into an actual episode! Kathleen looks up Sam Winchester on her police computer to see if he's turned up in any current field reports, and here Dean's false identity and non-admission of their true sibling relationship turn out to be crucially important. Sam's name comes up on the police database, all right, but so does Dean's as a related link – announcing to the world his death in St Louis earlier that year as a multiple homicide suspect.

Yup, allowing that shapeshifter to be identified as Dean was a really bad move. And it was so unnecessary – surely they could have planted fake ID on it and removed anything that could be traced back to Dean. Yeah, the fake ID would have been picked up on, but it would have added a confusion factor and, with no reason for that corpse to be connected to Dean Winchester, it could have gone on record as an unidentified John Doe. Surely. But the death date does now gives us a definitive date for episode six, Skin.

Let us take full note of the records of both boys as they appear on Kathleen's screen.

Samuel Winchester, born May 2, 1983, Lawrence, Kansas; height 6'4", weight 180-190 lbs, brown hair, brown eyes.

Yeah, that all sounds reasonable enough. Born 2 May – Jessica died on 2 November, let us remember, six months to the day following his birthday. And Mary Winchester also died on 2 November, 22 years earlier….

Dean Winchester, born January 24, 1979, Lawrence, Kansas; died March 7, 2006, St Louis, Missouri; height 6'4", weight 175 lbs, brown hair, green eyes.

Um: 6'4"? I don't think so. Maybe if he was standing on a box…. And he's an Aquarius, like me.

Out of the two brothers, you'd think Dean would be the one the police had a really accurate physical description of, since they had the shapeshifter's body to examine, and all. Plus, that photofit picture should be attached to his file, at the very least. And also, surely any search engine worth it's salt would bring up more than two links when asked to search on a name like 'Winchester, Sam'? Search engines usually come back with all kinds of potential matches, from the relevant to the supremely irrelevant.

Love the way Dean quickly looks away from the screen when his own details come up, like if he doesn't see it maybe Kathleen won't, either. This is the kind of situation where Dean struggles – he bluffs just fine when playing it strictly professional and lying through his teeth pretending to be an officer, but once you get into the arena of half-truths and diplomacy, that's when he finds the act harder to maintain. Nervous, he tries to laugh it off.

KATHLEEN: "Samuel Winchester. So, you know that his brother, Dean Winchester, died in St. Louis. And, uh, was suspected of murder."
DEAN [awkward]: "Yeah, Dean. Kind of the black sheep of the family. Handsome, though."

Kathleen is so businesslike. I like her. As her computer search comes up blank, Dean raises the lead he actually came here to explore and that he's been carefully building up to for the entire conversation thus far – that traffic camera he saw near the bar.

DEAN: "I'm thinking the camera picked up whatever took him. [beat, as he realises what he said and how it sounds] Or, whoever."
KATHLEEN: "Well, I have access to the traffic cam footage down at the county works department, but – well, anyhow, let's do this the right way. Why don't you fill out a missing persons report and sit tight over here?"

Oh, the look Dean gets in his eyes at that, being forced to go through these long-winded official processes when all he wants to do is get out there and find Sam, not sit around relying on someone else to investigate for him.

DEAN: "Officer, look, uh, he's family. I kind of…I kind of look out for the kid. You gotta let me go with you."
KATHLEEN: "I'm sorry, I can't do that."
DEAN: "Well, tell me something. Your county has its fair share of missing persons. Any of 'em come back?"
Kathleen drops her eyes, and that reaction tells Dean everything he needs to know, and cranks his anxiety up another notch.
DEAN: "Sam's my responsibility. And he's comin' back. I'm bringin' him back."

Sam's my responsibility. He can't say it much clearer than that. Sam's all grown up now, a man in his own right, and they work together as a team, but ultimately Dean still sees his little brother as his responsibility. That fact has been apparent for most of the season, of course, and is one of Dean's driving personality traits, but this is the first time he's actually come out and said it so explicitly.

Elsewhere, Sam wakes up to find himself in a cage. He reacts pretty much how you'd expect to this rather alarming awakening: startled and fearful. And he's been stripped of his usual many layers! Coats and jackets all gone, he's down to just a thin little t-shirt. He's also way too tall for the cage – can't stand anywhere near upright. He grips the bars and shakes them fiercely, but the cage seems pretty solid. Noticing another cage nearby, with a man lying motionless in it, he looks around worriedly.

Cut to – Dean sitting fretfully on a park bench someplace. Evidently he and Kathleen have come to some kind of compromise wherein she let him come with her to pick up the camera footage but then made him wait outside. She appears with a handful of printouts, and calls him 'Greg'. That's the name she knows him by, the name on his fake ID; theirs is a temporary professional relationship based on smoke and mirrors.

Kathleen, all briskly efficient still, points out to Dean a particular van caught on camera at about the time that Sam disappeared, which has caught her attention because the van is in poor condition and yet has new license plates. Probably stolen, Dean assumes, and Kathleen is equally willing to leap to the conclusion that whoever is driving it must be involved. This seems a pretty big conclusion to jump to based on one photograph of an elderly van with dodgy plates, but it's the only lead they've got.

Another rusty old van drives past making an appalling screeching noise and, hearing it, Dean comes to a profound realisation, recognising the sound that young Evan described. "I'll be damned."

Elsewhere, securely trapped in his cage, Sam is dealing with his imprisonment in impressively pro-active fashion – gripping the bars above him and using that leverage to kick the door of the cage, over and over, very loudly. It doesn't budge, being a very sturdy door. But at least he's trying. We've seen a few times in recent episodes that when things go wrong and Dean is around, Sam can automatically default to expecting his brother to keep him grounded and come up with a solution, so it's good to see him keeping himself so calm and focused now he finds himself all alone and in danger.

And all the noise he's making succeeds in rousing his fellow prisoner, Mr Alvin Jenkins, in the neighbouring cage. Sam, who has been in hair-raising situations way more often than he likes to remember and therefore knows the benefit of not panicking, switches straight to caretaker mode and asks if he's okay. Jenkins, who, we should remember, has been missing for about a week now if what Mrs McKay said earlier is to be trusted, is in no mood for reassurances from a fellow prisoner. "Does it look like I'm okay?" he snaps, scowling at Sam for asking such a ridiculous question.

Jenkins has no idea where they are, beyond the fact that it 'smells like the country'. He's not that bright, is very defensive and hostile, and determinedly pessimistic, and yet I can't help liking him for all that. He's amusing. He keeps on grouching, especially when Sam says that he'd been looking for him.

JENKINS: "Well, no offence, but this is a piss-poor rescue."
SAM: "Well, my brother's out there right now, too. He's lookin' for us. So –"
JENKINS: "So, he's not gonna find us. We're in the middle of nowhere. Waiting for them to come back and do God-knows-what to us."
SAM: "What are they? Have you seen them?"
JENKINS: "What are you talking about?"
SAM: "Whatever's got us, what'd they look like?"

Imprisoned in a man-made cage in a big old barn, and yet he still so easily assumes that he's been captured by something he can call 'what'. Surely, after everything they've seen, the boys should already be well aware that humans are just as capable of evil. Jenkins is utterly bemused by Sam's line of questioning – he already knows damn well they've been captured by a who, not a what, and has no concept that any kind of what even exists.

Then two hooded figures enter the barn, unlock Jenkins' cage using a key to an electronic locking device, thrust a tray of bread and water at him, and then depart, securely locking up after them. And Sam, who hasn't been given any food or water, suddenly comes to the same realisation that Dean did on hearing that engine. And expresses his surprise with the exact same wording, because the brothers do tend to do that, even if they aren't together at the time, and it just demonstrates that for all their differences they also have their similarities. "I'll be damned. They're just people."

Jenkins is scathing about this, not knowing what Sam knows about things that aren't people. Sam keeps questioning him, trying to learn as much as he can about their situation, brushing off Jenkins' more basic fears, and still attempting to find a way out of his cage. Like I said: nicely pro-active. There's a length of pipe hanging from the wall above him, and he snakes his arms out through the bars to grab and pull at it. He doesn't know what it is or what it connects to, but it's potentially useful, and that's better than nothing. Better than sitting there doing nothing.

Dean and Kathleen, meanwhile, are now out driving around continuing the search for Sam. Kathleen certainly seems to be putting a lot of time and effort into this one missing person's case and is working well with Dean, who of course she thinks is a fellow officer, both of them totally focused on the case. There's nothing quite like inter-agency cooperation, and it's nice to see Dean interacting on a professional level with a woman, not even a hint of his usual flirtation in his manner. Under normal circumstances, flirting comes as automatically to him as breathing, but fear for Sam's safety has driven all that to one side. Finding Sam is the only thing he can think about right now.

It is now dark, which means an entire day's worth of investigating has already taken place before they got this far. Apparently, they've investigated other traffic cameras to find out where that rusty truck might have gone, and have narrowed the search down to this one stretch of road. However, finding it still won't be easy, as Kathleen explains that a lot of the backwoods properties in the area have their own private roads – it could have pulled off anywhere.

At this point, Kathleen notices a new message coming in on her nifty little in-car computer and takes her eyes off the road to have a look. She does not like what she reads, and pulls the car over, much to Dean's surprise.

KATHLEEN: "So, Gregory."
DEAN: "Yeah?"
KATHLEEN: "I ran your badge number. It's routine when we're working a case with state police. For accounting purposes and what have you."
DEAN: "Mmhmm."
KATHLEEN: "And, uh, they just got back to me. It says here your badge was stolen. And there's a picture of you."

The picture is of a heavy-set African-American man. Busted! Dismayed, Dean automatically tries to bluff his way out of it, before his brain has had time to catch up and come up with a better plan. "I lost some weight. And I got that Michael Jackson skin disease…"

Kathleen is having none of it. He's gone from trusted fellow officer to potentially dangerous felon in two seconds flat. She's all 'step out of the car, please', and Dean starts to panic. He needs her help if he's going to find Sam – he needs to not be arrested if he's going to find Sam. And he has to find Sam.

DEAN: "Look, look, look. If you wanna arrest me, that's fine. I'll cooperate, I swear. But, first, please – let me find Sam."
KATHLEEN: "I don't even know who you are. Or if this Sam person is missing."
DEAN [desperate]: "Look into my eyes and tell me if I'm lying about this."
KATHLEEN: "Identity theft? You're impersonating an officer."
DEAN: "Look, here's the thing. When we were young, I pretty much pulled him from a fire. And ever since then, I've felt responsible for him. Like it's my job to keep him safe. I'm just afraid if we don't find him fast…. Please. He's my family."

Oh, Dean. That moment all those years ago when John placed baby Sam into four-year-old Dean's arms, handing him the responsibility for saving his brother's life, really was an immensely important formative moment in his life, reinforced by everything that's happened to their family since. He's been trying so hard not to panic since Sam went missing, channelling all that desperate energy into staying calm and searching methodically, only to run into this brick wall that could mean all the difference between life and death for his brother if he isn't allowed to continue his search…

Kathleen looks conflicted. She knows her job, knows her duty – tells him that she has no choice: she has to take him in. But his words and sincerity and the desperation in his eyes have got to her and, as her eyes fall on a photograph tucked into her visor of herself with a young man, she amends that to add, "After we find Sam Winchester."

Dean looks a tad confused at this turnaround, but he's not going to argue.

Back in his cage, Sam is still hauling determinedly on that length of piping, despite Jenkins' disparagement.

JENKINS: "What's your name, again?"
SAM: "It's Sam."
JENKINS: "Why don't you give it up, Sammy, there's no way out."
SAM: "Don't…call me…Sammy!"

Heh. Sam's pretty much given up correcting Dean when he calls him 'Sammy' by now, but that doesn't mean he'll accept it from anyone else! But his gradual tolerance of the childhood nickname is kind of significant, demonstrating the development of the brothers' relationship. Wanting to be Sam, not Sammy, ties in with his determination to establish himself as grown-up, independent and self-reliant – no longer little Sammy, the baby of the family who has to be protected and shielded. We've seen glimpses of how badly Sam clashes with his dad, mostly over John's autocratic attitude, and we've also seen him clashing with his brother over the fact that Dean gives John the blind obedience he demands. Sam, unable to operate in this way, demands more, wants to be respected on his own terms, as an adult. In his mind, 'Sammy' is a child needing protection and kept out of the loop, while 'Sam' is the independent adult he wants to be recognised as.

But, over the course of the season so far, the brothers have been establishing a strong working partnership. Yes, Dean still sees himself as responsible for them both, and always will – 'you're the oldest' and 'your responsibility' might as well be tattooed onto his heart and brain, it's so deeply ingrained, and it'll still be like that if he makes it to 90 – and yes, Dean does still take the lead on most cases, and in most cases Sam expects him to without question. But they work as a team of equal partners. They've each saved the other's life numerous times. They discuss all aspects of the cases they work on and make decisions together, sharing their ideas and suppositions. In the working relationship he's established with his brother, Sam's pretty much got the respect and equality that he wanted. And, therefore, 'Sammy' becomes acceptable once more as a term of affection rather than a reminder of junior status.

Frustration with Jenkins using the nickname, though, gives him the burst of extra strength he needs to finally haul that piping off the wall. This has absolutely no effect whatsoever, beyond dropping a small metal bracket into Sam's cage that had previously been securing the piping to the wall.

JENKINS: "Well, thank God, a bracket. Now we've got 'em, huh?"

LOL. I really do enjoy Jenkins' sarcasm and cynicism a lot more than I probably should.

Jenkins' cage unexpectedly opens at this point. Delighted, he assumes that Sam's tugging on that pipe must have caused a short in the system, and therefore makes a hasty break for freedom, assuring Sam that he'll send help for him and ignoring Sam's pleas for caution. Because Sam, in direct contrast, immediately assumes that something is seriously wrong and that it could be a trap. He's experienced enough with unpleasant situations to be prepared for the worst.

And Sam is right. Out in the deserted yard outside, Jenkins finds a knife, assumes it's his lucky day, and continues on into the woods. There he is easy prey for the men in camouflage gear lying in wait for him, with trip wires set up and spears in hand. Whooping and laughing like a pair of hyenas, they take him down with ease. Jenkins dies a gory death, and Sam, still trapped in his cage, can only sit there listening to his screams.

Next morning, outside the sheriff's department, coffees in hand, Dean and Kathleen are preparing to set off for another day's hard searching for Sam. I guess Kathleen must have insisted they give up for the night and resume the search in daylight, but very much doubt that Dean got much sleep.

DEAN: "Look, I don't mean to press my luck…"
KATHLEEN: "Your luck is so pressed."
DEAN: "Right. I was wondering – why are you helping me out, anyway? Why don't you just lock me up?"
Kathleen hesitates, but recognises the sincerity behind the question. Answering is not easy for her, though.
KATHLEEN: "My brother, Riley, disappeared three years ago. A lot like Sam. We searched for him, but – nothing. [beat] I know what it's like to feel responsible for someone, and for them…. Come on. Let's keep at it."

Common ground. This is why Kathleen has devoted so much time and effort to this one missing person's case and this is why she is choosing to overlook Dean's misdemeanours, at least until Sam is found – because she can empathise with the position he's in, and sees in his desperate need to find Sam an echo of her own failure to find Riley. Recognising this, Dean is sympathetic. The connection between them is no longer based on lies and illusion, but on an intangible and yet somehow more solid emotional resonance, although the shape of that connection remains unchanged: a working relationship for the duration of this one case. Thereafter all bets are off. And she still doesn't know his real name – she can't ask about that, because it ties into the stolen identity she is choosing to disregard until Sam is found. From what we see on screen, Kathleen never does find out who Dean really is.

They head out once more and resume their search of the area where they believe the suspect van pulled off onto a private road. However, there don't seem to be all that many turn-offs along this stretch of road. When they finally find one, and pull over to investigate, Kathleen insists that Dean remain with the car while she checks it out on foot.

KATHLEEN: "You're a civilian. And a felon, I think. I'm not taking you with me."
DEAN: "You're not goin' without me."

Clash of jurisdictions. Dean doesn't consider himself a civilian and is used to operating on a pretty free reign, recognising no authority other than his father and assuming full responsibility for any case he works. He also doesn't trust outsiders to be able to look after themselves in the kinds of situations he generally encounters – not even a trained and experienced officer. Plus, he's worried sick about Sam, and can't just sit back and let someone else handle things for him. But Kathleen, for her part, also considers herself to be the one in charge of the investigation. She's a police officer, a deputy, with all that entails. This is her case, and she's working it, only allowing him to tag along because she sympathises with his situation due to her own experience.

It's probably his intense anxiety about Sam, and maybe lack of sleep, that clouds Dean's judgement enough that he falls for Kathleen's little ruse as she pretends to agree with him, offers to shake on it, and –

Snap. He's cuffed to the car. Nice one, Kathleen. Frustrated and disbelieving, Dean protests that she'll need his help, but Kathleen briskly assures him that she'll manage and strides away, leaving him standing there. He rattles the cuffs in frustration. "I gotta start carrying paperclips!"

Kathleen walks through the rain along a long, muddy road, to a dilapidated old property. The truck from the traffic camera footage is parked outside. She knocks on the door, and a young girl called Missy answers it. Kathleen is shocked at the state of the girl – absolutely filthy, hunched over, clad in a hideous, old-fashioned dress. The word 'in-bred' comes to mind. Not tremendously cooperative, Missy informs Kathleen that her mother is dead, shakes her head when asked about her father, and then takes the photograph of Sam Kathleen offers her and studies it. It's kind of a glossy, professional picture for Dean to have produced – a promotional shot, in fact! You'd think they could have found a more casual snapshot to use. Missy then glances up past Kathleen and smiles nastily. "That's gonna hurt."

Kathleen half-turns – just in time for Pa Bender to whack her in the face with a shovel. Yup, that'll hurt, all right. Pa Bender, every bit as filthy as his daughter, sends Missy off to fetch her brothers, and she shuffles away obediently, still studying the photograph of Sam.

Back at the car, by the side of the road, the disgruntled Dean casts around for anything that can help him get free of the handcuffs, and spots the aerial on the car. It's just out of reach, though. As he strains to reach it, he hears the whining, growling sound of a rusty engine start up somewhere not too far away. He strains harder, just about pulling himself in half in his effort to reach the aerial. It's great fun to watch. The van comes closer, parks up at a gate nearby, and the Bender brothers, Jared and Lee – every bit as filthy as their father and sister – continue on foot. Dean finally manages to unscrew the aerial and uses it to pick the lock of the handcuffs. He just barely makes it out of sight in time.

Stripped of her jacket, Kathleen wakes up in the cage previously occupied by the unfortunate Jenkins. "Are you all right?" a quiet voice asks. She looks across, and there's Sam, now sitting tamely in his own cage, since all escape attempts have failed, waiting for her to wake up. Still a little woozy, she confirms with him that he is indeed Sam Winchester, and then tells him his 'cousin' is looking for him.

Sam lets out an enormous sigh of relief, easily recognising the word 'cousin' as code for 'Dean'. He's been trapped in that cage for two nights now – and you have to hope they've at least given him water, if not food, in that time – and all attempts at breaking out of it have failed, but Dean is looking for him, so everything will be okay. He can let his brother take responsibility for getting him out of his predicament, since he hasn't managed it himself. He asks where Dean is, and Kathleen groans with dismay as she remembers cuffing him to her car. Sam sighs, disappointed.

Just then, the door of the barn opens, and a pair of jean-clad legs enters. It clearly isn't a Bender; the jeans and boots are way too clean for that. It's Dean, in all his bow-legged glory, and hey – are those new jeans? They look less frayed than the ones he usually wears.

Sam and Kathleen both react with fear and suspicion to this intruder, even though they should be able to see clearly who it is. The layout of the barn is kind of puzzling. Then, finally, Dean and Sam see each other. Dean rushes to the cage, immediately asking "are you hurt?" and you can practically see the weight dropping off his shoulders that he can see for himself that the answer is 'no'; Sam laughs with relief that big brother has come to the rescue.

KATHLEEN: "How did you get out of the cuffs?"
DEAN: "Oh, I know a trick or two."

The boys then proceed to ignore Kathleen completely as they discuss the situation while Dean prowls around the barn trying to work out how to get Sam and Kathleen out of there – the locks are electronic, not pickable, and the cage door is clearly one of those that even Dean won't be able to kick in.

DEAN: "Have you seen 'em?"
SAM: "Yeah. Dude, they're just people."
DEAN: "And they jumped you? Must be getting' a little rusty there, kiddo. What do they want?"
SAM: "I don't know. They let Jenkins go, but that was some sort of trap. It doesn't make any sense to me."
DEAN: "Well, that's the point. You know, with our usual playmates, there's rules, there's patterns. But with people, they're just crazy."

Kathleen just looks bemused at this turn in the conversation, no clue what they are talking about. Sam questions some more about the layout of the place, and Dean says that he saw a lot of cars hidden out back on his way in. He surmises that when the Benders take someone, they also take their car. In which case – why didn't they take the Impala when they took Sam? It's not as if the doors were locked…

Kathleen asks Dean if he saw a black Mustang out there, about ten years old, and her face falls when he says that he did – the death of a last, desperate hope. It was her brother's car. Understanding this and sympathising deeply, Dean tells her he's sorry, and now it's Sam's turn to look bemused, with no clue what they are talking about. Dean switches straight back to business. The central control box for the locks takes a key, which is nowhere in sight, so he's going to have to go and look for it if he's going to get them out of there. Sam cautions him to be careful, and he heads on out once more.

Dean sneaks into the basement of the Bender house and starts poking around. It's all very creepy, in a cannibalistic hillbilly kind of way. There are jars containing what look like pickled human remains, and photographs of various Benders crowing over the bodies of their human victims – including a picture of the now-dead Jenkins. Dean is suitably disgusted.

DEAN: "I'll say it again: demons I get; people are crazy."

I love Dean's habit of talking to himself when he's alone. There's nothing useful in the basement, so he cautiously heads upstairs into the house proper. Jaunty music plays as he creeps through the hallway trying not to draw the attention of the residents. He's not quite as careful as he could be – so busy looking one way that his head brushes a mobile of human bones just hanging there in plain view behind him. I guess the Benders don't get many visitors to worry about displaying their gruesome trophies so openly. Dean quickly grabs and stills it before anyone hears the noise, and then looks more creeped out than ever when he realises he's holding a human jaw and hipbone.

With an old-fashioned gramophone merrily playing behind him, Pa Bender is hard at work butchering something in the kitchen using saw and cleaver. Since the kitchen and living room seem to be more or less open plan, Dean has to be very careful and wary sneaking into the room behind him in search of that key that he has to find if he's going to get Sam and Kathleen out of the cages. He finds a large stick with a spike in the end, and grips that in case the alarm is raised – better armed than not, in these circumstances – and proceeds with extreme caution.

He puts the stick down again when he sees a case of keys, and goes to quietly lift out the most likely of the bunch…but then allows himself to be distracted by a jar full of human teeth. Only for a moment, but it's long enough. A floorboard creaks behind him. He stiffens, hand going back to the stick, spins around… It's the girl, Missy. She backs off, looking wary. Seeing her bedraggled, ragamuffin appearance, Dean automatically assumes that she's harmless and scared, which is his second mistake in as many minutes, and tries to reassure her.

DEAN: "Shh. It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you."
MISSY: "I know."

Showing her true colours, the girl produces a knife and hurls it at him, neatly pinning his coat to the wall behind, and yells loudly for her daddy.

Jared and Lee appear on either side of Dean, and fight commences. Two against one and on their turf, Dean gets flung around quite a bit, smashing into walls and furniture – well, this is Dean, after all; he always gets tossed into walls – but he comes up fighting and pretty much holds his own, fending them both off…. But then Pa Bender comes up behind him while his attention is focused on the other two combatants, and takes him out with one thwack to the back of the head with a heavy skillet. Dean goes down in a heap…

…and wakes up tied securely to a chair, blood dripping down his face, with all four Benders sitting around watching him menacingly. This is not good. And they've taken his coat off him, as well. The removal of coats is clearly a big part of their MO.

LEE: "Come on. Let us hunt him."
JARED: "Yeah, this one's a fighter. Sure would be fun to hunt."
Pa laughs.
DEAN: "Oh, you gotta be kiddin' me. That's what this is about? You yahoos hunt people?"

It all makes sense now, in a really gruesome kind of way. Pa Bender leans in close, and when Dean pulls back slightly you can't tell if it's because he's disgusted with what the man is, or the foul smell of those yellow teeth and general filth.

"You ever killed before?" Pa asks, and the question gives Dean a moment's pause. He answers cagily, since the kind of things he hunts and kills are not the kind of things he can really talk about openly even in less hostile circumstances than this.

DEAN: "Well, that depends on what you mean."
PA: "I've hunted all my life. Just like my father, his before him. I've hunted deer and bear – I even got a cougar once. But the best hunt is human. Oh, there's nothin' like it. Holdin' their life in your hands. Seein' the fear in their eyes just before they go dark. Makes you feel powerful alive."

Such a fascinating contrast between the two families, both raised to hunt: the one taking out fellow humans purely for their own amusement, the other hunting evil for the protection of the innocent. As one who has dedicated his life to protecting others from the unseen evils of the world, Dean's expression has gone from shocked disgust to a fierce glare of deep revulsion. "You're a sick puppy."

Pa defends himself, insisting that they provide a weapon, give their victims a fighting chance…yeah, Jenkins really had a chance. He also says they're careful to only take one or two a year so as not to draw too much attention. But that makes no sense. Surely, if they only take one or two a year, they'd spread them out. Jenkins and Sam were taken within a week of each other.

PA: "So, what, you with that pretty cop? Are you a cop?"
DEAN: "If I tell you, you promise not to make me into an ashtray?"

Pa gets angry, and Lee comes over and smacks Dean hard in the face. Yeah, taunting the homicidal psychopaths probably not such a good move. But Dean, straining at his bonds, keeps snarking angrily at them. It's the only way he has of expressing his fury with the situation and their behaviour right now. Annoyed, and growing impatient, Pa tells him the only reason he hasn't let his sons kill Dean already is that there's something he needs to know – will there be more cops coming looking for him and Kathleen?

DEAN: "Oh, eat me. No, no, no, wait, wait – you actually might."

The other son, Jared, abruptly grabs Dean's head, blood trickling from his noise now, and grips him tightly by hair and chin, while Pa Bender starts waving a red hot poker in his face, and it suddenly feels like a very, very dangerous situation for Dean to be in – even more so than was already evident. The whole scene is nicely unpleasant.

PA: "You think this is funny? You brought this down on my family. All right, you wanna play games? We'll play some games. Looks like we're gonna have a hunt tonight after all, boys. [to Dean] And you get to pick the animal. The boy or the cop?"

Dean is just about frantic with the impossibility of making that choice. "Okay, wait, wait. Look, nobody's comin' for me, all right? It's just us."

Pa insists that if Dean doesn't choose, he will, and drives home his point by pressing the red-hot tip of that poker against Dean's shoulder, burning right through his shirt. Dean gasps and curses at the pain, but then falls silent as that red-hot poker is suddenly waved very close – too close – to his eye.

PA: "Next time, I'll take an eye."
DEAN [desperate]: "All right, the guy, the guy! Take the guy!"

Pa sends Lee to go do it, taking a key from around his neck – an important detail. Pa having that key on him the whole time means it wouldn't have mattered how carefully Dean searched that house, wouldn't have mattered if he'd managed to get in and out without being seen, he still wouldn't have found it. Direct confrontation was inevitable, and he was alone and unarmed against the four of them on their territory. There was never going to be any easy solution. Pa then adds for Lee not to let Sam out, but to shoot him in the cage. It takes a moment for the words to sink in, but then appalled disbelief rises up in Dean's eyes and voice.

DEAN: "What? I thought you said you were gonna hunt him. You were gonna give him a chance."

That was why Dean chose Sam to be hunted, not Kathleen – he trusted his brother's ability to escape and evade these madmen if he could just get out of that cage. Out of the cage, Sam would have a chance, even if he was being hunted…

Pa then shouts after Lee to shoot Kathleen, too. "Better clean this mess up before any more cops come runnin' out here."

Dean is frantic with horror, and powerless to do anything about it.

Out in the barn, Kathleen and Sam are both instantly on the alert as Lee comes in and unlocks Sam's cage. Trapped in that cage, not even able to stand up straight, Sam has nothing with which to defend himself – except that little metal bracket he pulled loose from the wall earlier. Lee takes aim, Sam throws the bracket at him – and knocks his aim off. The shot goes wild. Yay for Sam's quick thinking saving his own life.

Back in the house, Dean hears the shot and despairs, terrified that they've just killed his brother. He bellows his wrath at the Benders. "You hurt my brother, I'll kill you, I swear. I'll kill you all. I will kill you all!"

In the barn, Sam is now out of the cage and struggling with Lee. Being well trained in the fighting arts, despite his attempt to put it all behind him for so long, he manages to overpower the other man, knocking him out and taking the gun from him. This is the advantage of only taking on one unsuspecting opponent at a time, rather than being rushed by the whole clan. He tries to cock the gun, presumably as a threat rather than to actually shoot his opponent, but it jams, so he curses and tosses it aside.

Realising that something is wrong, Pa and Jared head on out to the barn to investigate, leaving Missy to watch Dean. She might only be 13, but she's got a knife and isn't afraid to use it, and Dean is very securely tied to that chair. Furious, and terrified for Sam, he grimaces his rage and frustration as Missy happily waves her little knife in his face.

Rifles in hand, Pa and Jared enter the barn, where they find Lee slumped in one of the cages, the other cage empty, and the fuses pulled so they can't turn the lights on. They start to search the barn; Sam and Kathleen try to hide. The searching and hiding goes on for a few minutes. Pa spots Sam, who has to run and roll to avoid being shot, and after a brief struggle Jared gets the draw on Kathleen. Rushing toward them just in the nick of time, Sam shouts to distract him and he whirls around and fires, but Sam ducks, and the shot hits Pa, chasing along behind him, in the shoulder. Pa goes down and Jared is, understandably, distracted by this, which gives Sam the momentary advantage he needs. He again proves himself to be nicely adept at the violence when roused, wresting the gun from the other man and knocking him out with a few well-placed blows. Again, the advantage of only taking on one at a time. And, whoa: minus his usual many layers and clad only in his jeans and t-shirt, Sam is all broad chest and shoulders, and it's very appealing.

Sam drags Jared into a cage, and locks the doors of both, since he now has the key. Why he doesn't drag the injured Pa into one as well, I don't know, since that would be the easiest and safest method of containment. Instead, Kathleen holds Pa at gunpoint, telling Sam to go on ahead, and he looks at her, concerned. She insists that he goes ahead, and he has to know that leaving her alone with the man who killed her brother is just asking for trouble, practically giving a licence to exact revenge. But then, Sam can understand the desire for revenge only too well – and he's presumably a little worried about his own brother, who hasn't reappeared since going off in search of the key to the cages. So he goes, leaving Kathleen alone with Pa Bender and a loaded rifle.

PA: "You hurt my family, I'm gonna bleed you, bitch."
KATHLEEN: "You killed my brother."
PA: "Your brother? [He laughs cruelly.] Now I see."
KATHLEEN: "Just tell me why."
PA [smiling nastily]: "Because it's fun."

He cackles with evil laughter. Kathleen stares him, horrified, and her grief and anger get the better of her and she fires. It's understandable, given what she's been through and what that man has done, but it's still murder. And Sam has a share in the responsibility for that, whether he realises it or not. He left her alone with the man.

Outside, Sam and Dean exit the Bender house, Dean holding his arm awkwardly, what with having that nasty burn on the shoulder and all, and we only get a tiny glimpse in passing, but it does look nasty. And I feel like we've missed a scene somewhere. What happened inside the house? Presumably Sam had to tackle young Missy and release Dean – or was Dean already managing to get free himself somehow? We aren't told. We also aren't shown the relief of the brothers on finding one another alive and relatively well still – Dean, at least, could be forgiven for despairing and believing Sam to be dead, after hearing the gunshots, and Sam had to have realised that something had happened to Dean. But all that is skipped, and we cut straight to the aftermath.

Kathleen stumbles out of the barn, looking like a woman in shock.

KATHLEEN: "Where's the girl?"
DEAN: "Locked her in a closet. What about the dad?"
KATHLEEN: "Shot. Trying to escape."

And all three of them know that isn't true, but none of them are going to say so.

Later, they've all found their missing coats and put them on. I guess it must be chilly. Dean has got his on over the top of that burn, so it either isn't as bad as it looked, or he's being macho and ignoring the pain of a heavy coat pressing on a fresh burn because a) he doesn't want Sam fussing and b) it's cold enough to need the coat, regardless. He's still holding his arm awkwardly, though, and is grumbling to Sam about the car being at the police station when Kathleen comes up, her police radio in hand.

KATHLEEN: "So, state police and the FBI are gonna be here within the hour. They're gonna want to talk to you. I suggest that you're both long gone by then."
DEAN: "Thanks. Hey, listen, I don't mean to press our luck, but we're kind of in the middle of nowhere. Think we could catch a ride?"
KATHLEEN: "Start walking. Duck if you see a squad car."

Kinda harsh, maybe, but necessarily so. Battered and bruised both guys might be – Dean rather more obviously so than Sam, but Sam has spent two nights locked in a cage – but they'd have a much harder time getting away once official reinforcements appeared on scene with their questions and officiousness. And Dean has been operating under a false identity and stolen police badge, and is on police record as a dead serial killer, so…

Sam thanks her and starts walking, as suggested, but Dean hesitates. "Listen, uh…. I'm sorry about your brother."

Kathleen is genuinely touched, and gets teary. "Thank you. It was really hard not knowing what happened to him. I thought it would be easier once I knew the truth…but it isn't really."

Aww. I like Kathleen, and really feel for her there. Goodbyes said, Sam and Dean start walking. It's raining again, and the road is long and muddy.

DEAN: "Never do that again."
SAM: "Do what?"
DEAN: "Go missin' like that."
SAM [amused]: "You were worried about me."

No, Sam: why would your brother be worried about you when you vanish into thin air in a county whose unnaturally high disappearance rate you came here to investigate?

Eh, Sam just likes to press Dean's buttons and watch his brother squirm with trying not to say the touchy-feely stuff out loud.

DEAN: "All I'm sayin' is, you vanish like that again, I'm not lookin' for ya."
SAM: "Sure, you won't."
DEAN: "I'm not."
SAM [laughing]: "So, you got sidelined by a thirteen-year-old girl, huh?"
DEAN: "Oh, shut up."
SAM: "Just sayin', gettin' rusty there, kiddo."
DEAN [chuckling]: "Shut up."

Fade out on relieved boys laughing together as they slowly walk along that damp, muddy road back toward civilisation.


October 2006

Back to top

Home