"Death visions? Dude, that sucks."

Today's recap revolves around Sam's visions and his encounter with fellow psychic Max Miller, and we are also reminded of that secret John whispered into Dean's ear before he died, a secret Dean has been keeping from Sam ever since.

"The Demon said he had plans for me, and the children like me…" Viewers instantly take the hint regarding what is to come in this episode.

Now.

At 12.20pm on a bright afternoon, a kindly middle-aged doctor strolls down the street, greeting and greeted by various passers by. His cellphone rings, and he answers it jovially, only for his face to go blank almost at once as he listens. We start seeing flashes of this same man wielding a hefty shotgun as he mildly agrees to whatever is being said on the phone. A bus bearing the logo 'blue ridge' passes by as the man hangs up, smiles, and continues strolling along. Entering a nearby store, he greets gun salesman Dennis by name, asking to look at a gun. Dennis laughs out loud – this is clearly a preposterous notion. The good doctor is perfectly serious, however, so Dennis lets him hold the shotgun he indicates, bemusedly offering to take him out on his next family turkey hunting expedition.

"You know guns make me nervous," Doc laughs, fingering a cartridge and then loading it into the gun. Dennis instantly becomes alarmed, protesting that loading a weapon on the premises is illegal. Nearby shoppers begin to share Dennis' concern. The Doc cheerfully assures them all that it is all going to be okay, shoots him, and then presses the gun against his own chin. The camera pans up to a bizarrely incongruous sink bowl mounted above him on the wall, as blood splatters across it…

Flash!

And we flash to…Sammy, grimacing in pain, post-vision. He splashes water onto his face from an unbelievably grime-encrusted sink in what I can only presume is a public toilet someplace, left handed, since the right is now encased in a cast after his encounter with zombie Angela last episode.

Dean briskly bursts in to see what's taking so long, and is instantly concerned at finding his brother doubled-up over in pain.

Titles.

A Nebraska radio station plays as the Impala speeds along a deserted road by night. It's another very pretty external shot, before we cut to the inside of the car to follow the conversation taking place therein. For the second episode in a row, Dean is trying to talk Sam out of going where he wants to go, while simultaneously driving him there. He struggles to say no to Sam, but he'll argue to the point of arrival. They are going to Ellen's Roadhouse – so, that radio announcement pretty much confirms a Nebraska location for the Roadhouse, then – because Sam believes Ash can help him pinpoint his premonition. Why they haven't simply replaced their late, lamented laptop in order to track down this information themselves I don't know. Sam is in his usual post-vision state of highly wired and single-minded intensity, while Dean is prickly and concerned.

SAM: "It could have some connection with the Demon. My visions always do."
DEAN: "That's my point. There's gonna be hunters there. I don't know if going in and announcing that you're some supernatural freak with a demonic connection's the best thing, okay?"

Ouch. Talk about a Freudian slip. Dean has always been determinedly matter-of-fact about Sam's visions, refusing to admit to any kind of concern about what they might mean because reassuring Sam was more important. But Dean hasn't really been himself all season so far, although he's on much more of an even keel in this episode than the last, having finally got some of the issues he's dealing with off his chest and out in the open, even if he is still a million miles from actually dealing with those issues.

Sam looks hurt. He's more accustomed to reassurance than honesty from Dean on this particular subject. "So I'm a freak now?"

Slight pause as Dean realises what he said and then backpeddles at speed, offering Sam a reassuring smile and slap on the knee. "You've always been a freak," he teases.

Sam is unconvinced as they speed on their way.

Harvelle's Roadhouse. They still haven't explained that name. It's open, and Ellen's daughter Jo is merrily hustling a customer out of his hard earned cash at the games machines. She's evidently an excellent shot with a toy gun, at least, and her name fills the entire high score board. I guess she doesn't have much else to do with her time, out there in the middle of nowhere.

Bar patrons eye the Winchester boys with some suspicion as they enter. I really hope we aren't supposed to believe that every patron of this bar is a 'hunter' of some kind, because that would be lame and undermine the importance of what the boys do, having that many of them out there. Jo is rather happier to see them, or to see Dean, anyway, and he greets her with friendly good humour while the pre-occupied Sam launches straight into a request to see Ash. "In his back room," says Jo, bemused. "And I'm fine…"

Sam's already gone. Dean awkwardly excuses his brother and follows in his wake, leaving a disappointed Jo wondering what she has to do to get some attention from that man. And it's amusing simply because it's usually Sam apologising for Dean's manners or lack thereof, rather than the other way around.

If Ash has a room at the bar, I guess that answers my question from a couple of episodes ago. He does live there, so maybe Ellen and Jo really do keep him as a pet. The sign on his door declares that 'Dr. Badass is in'. Sam raps on the door calling, "Ash!" There is no reply. Catching up, Dean tries a different tack, thumping on the door while shouting, "Hey, Doctor Badass."

Ash opens up at once. Naked. The boys avert their eyes with immense haste and expressions of disgust, and try their hardest to keep them averted during the conversation that follows, which is amusing. Ash wonders what they want. Sam says they need his help.

ASH: "Well, then. Guess I need my pants."

Heh.

Cut to: a quiet corner of the bar, sometime later. Now dressed and at his laptop, Ash has got a match for the Blue Ridge logo Sam saw in his vision. It's a bus company in Guthrie, Oklahoma. Why Sam wasn't able to research that himself, I don't know. Single-minded as ever, Sam asks Ash to check Guthrie for any demonic signs or omens.

ASH: "You think the Demon's there?"
SAM: "Yeah, maybe."
ASH: "Why would you think that?"

Lurking nearby, Dean wearily tells him to just check it, and Ash obligingly complies without further question. This, though, is why Dean didn't want to come here: for fear of arousing suspicions, for fear of too many questions like that, questions that will be hard to answer. The last thing they want – or rather, that Dean wants, since Sam isn't in the right headspace to even notice never mind care right now – is for the hunting fraternity that they've so recently discovered is rather larger than they'd previously realised to turn against Sam if they find out the truth.

There are no demonic signs in Guthrie, Oklahoma, Ash reports after a moment or two's study of his screen. If there were, you'd have hoped that the rig he set up to monitor demonic signs would have already been triggered, surely. If he's as good as his word, that is. If demonic signs start showing up without that rig going off, it'll be a sure sign that Ash is all talk and not enough substance.

SAM: "All right, try something else for me. Search Guthrie for a house fire. It would be 1983, and the fire's origin would be a baby's nursery, the night of the kid's six month birthday."

Ash turns and looks at him incredulously, and Dean starts to get nervous, glancing around to see if anyone else is listening. Jo is, wiping down the bar, and the hunters' grapevine has already been established in previous episodes. Ash protests against such a weird request and asks why the hell he'd look for something like that. Poker face in place, Sam simply places a beer bottle in front of him, and tells him that's why. Ash gives up the questioning and says to give him 15 minutes. Anything for a free beer.

Where did Sam get this thing about bribing people to do his will? It's not a technique Dean ever employs, although I can imagine John doing it. But if it was a John thing, you'd expect Dean to have picked it up too, Dean being such a dedicated disciple to his father, rather than being so protective of his hard-hustled cash.

Sam's request to Ash is very specific, and based on his experience with Max, one presumes, the only other 'chosen child' he's met as of yet. But those two cases, Sam and Max, really can't be considered a representative sample in any way, shape or form. Two points make a line, not a pattern, to paraphrase a conversation from AtS. Even taking the nursery fire as too big of a coincidence to overlook, Sam has no way of knowing if every child The Demon is interested in was born in the same year as him, with a second wave born this year, if little Rosie from Salvation is anything to go by. We were never told that Max was the same age as Sam, although you could argue that Sam is likely to have looked up that detail. Actually, thinking about the second wave, since John did his little vanishing act as soon as he started to see more nursery fire cases, or so we've been led to understand, and that was last year continuing into this, surely that's evidence that the special children are not all born in the same year as each other. It's way confusing to think about.

Cut to: later, still at the roadhouse. Jo presses buttons on the jukebox, selecting new music. Now sitting alone at the bar nursing a beer while he waits, Dean looks horrified when he hears the song that starts to play, almost as if her taste in music strikes him as a personal insult.

DEAN: "REO Speedway?"
JO: "Damn right, REO. Kevin Cronin sings it from the heart."
DEAN: "He sings it from the hair. There's a difference."

Abandoning the debate, Jo glances over her shoulder to check that her mother isn't listening, and then completely fails to lower her voice to ask about the profile they've got Ash looking for, which kind of defeats the object if she's trying to be covert. Anyway, she comments that she knows Dean and Sam's mother died the same way, in a fire in Sam's nursery. Dean becomes uncomfortable. He really doesn't like that these virtual strangers know so much about his family, and this line of questioning is exactly why he didn't want to come here for help with this.

"Look, Jo, it's kind of a family thing." He smilingly attempts to brush aside her interest without being too rude, but she won't let it drop, insisting that she could help. How, I don't know, but Dean doesn't pursue that line of inquiry. "I'm sure you could, but we gotta handle this one ourselves. Besides, if I ran off with you, I think your mother might kill me."

Hee. Behind Jo, Ellen now pricks up her ears, realising that she's being talked about. Dean gives her a smile and a nod, Ellen's attention meaning that he's now safe from any further attempts by Jo to pursue that particular offer.

JO: "You're afraid of my mother?"
DEAN: "I think so."

Hee. Jo is amused enough to abandon her attempt at offering help, pleased that he's flirting back a little bit now without recognising it as a deliberate tactic to throw her off the scent. Then Sam interrupts to announce that they have a match and it's to go. Dean doesn't hesitate – although he does stop to say goodbye, which is more than Sam does – and Jo is again left standing there all disappointed, wondering just what she has to do to get that man's undivided attention.

Cut to: the Impala. At the wheel, Dean is singing out loud that REO Speedway ballad Jo had playing in the bar, and…for all his mocking, he knows all the words! And he can hold both a tune and a note, oh yes, oh my, although it's a nice touch that he's singing Dean-style rather than with Jensen Ackles' own rather fine singing voice. Sam's face is a picture.

SAM: "You're kidding, right?"

Suddenly realising just what he's singing, Dean abruptly stops, mutters about hearing the song somewhere and having it stuck in his head, and changes the subject, post haste. Hee. It seems Jo – or, her music, anyway – might be starting to get under his skin just a tiny bit, after all. But I can't shake the feeling that Jo is going to get her fingers burned with this one if she pursues it.

Sam runs through the information Ash has managed to dig up for him on one Andrew Gallagher, who was born in 1983, like Sam, and who lost his mother in a nursery fire exactly six months later, also like Sam. Dean asks why he even knew to look for this guy, and Sam reminds him that every premonition he's had has either been about the Demon itself or about the other kids the Demon visited, like Max Miller. That's not true, actually. The premonition about their old house in Lawrence had nothing whatsoever to do with The Demon beyond that it had once visited evil upon that house, 22 years earlier. Dean remembers Max as a 'pasty little psycho', which is an amusing description because it's so true, and writes him off as such. But Sam stresses his point, that Max had been killing, and Sam had visions about it – and now it could be happening all over again with this Gallagher guy.

Since he has no answers or reassurance to offer regarding Sam's visions or the meaning behind them, Dean is quick to return to the more practical side of all this, asking how they find this Gallagher guy. Not easily, is the answer. There is no current address listed, no record of employment, and he still owes money on all his bills. Dean asks about collection agency flags, but there are none listed. Evidently none of Andrew Gallagher's creditors are chasing him for the money he owes them, which is an oddity. The best Sam can find as a place to start is a work address for his last place of employment, about a year ago.

Cut to: a café someplace in Guthrie. A waitress by the name of Tracey pours black coffees for the boys – only half-filling the cups, in true TV fashion, which is not what I'd call getting my money's worth – while informing them that they won't get anything out of her former colleague, Andy Gallagher, because no one ever does. She's assuming, it seems, that they are debt collectors.

The camera then pans back to show us that the boys are wearing their black suits again, the ones acquired in Phantom Traveler way back at the start of season one, but Sam has mix-matched his with a yellow tie instead of the black one usually worn with this suit so as not to look quite so funereal and formal. These details are important…

Dean smoothly lies that they are, in fact, not debt collectors but lawyers representing a dead aunt of Andy's, trying to find him in order to inform him of the inheritance she has left him. Relaxing, Tracey now admits to having been a friend of Andy's at one time, although she doesn't see much of him any more. Her colleague Webber interrupts at this stage to wax lyrical about what a great guy Andy is, how he can get you into anything, got him a backstage pass at Aerosmith once…

Tracey sends Webber packing back to work, and tells the boys to try Orchard Street if they want to find Andy. "Just look for a van with a barbarian queen painted on the side… She's riding a polar bear. It's kinda hard to miss."

And so it proves.

"I'm sorry, I'm starting to like this dude," says Dean, artily reflected in the side mirror of his car for this shot. "That van is sweet."

Got to love how impressed Dean is with Andy's van. It's exactly the kind of thing that would appeal to him.

Sam is not amused, which is predictable, and Dean is instantly concerned by just how glum his brother is, asking what's wrong. "Sam, you look like you're sucking on a lemon," he points out when Sam tries to brush it off. "What's going on?"

Unlike Dean, Sam tends not to need much prompting to spill his woes, which speaks volumes about a childhood spent bringing all his troubles to his big brother. As much as John loved his sons he was never what you'd call emotionally available for them. Confiding in Dean is second nature for Sam; Dean never had anyone to turn to like that, which is why he tries to deal with everything by himself. Sam's current fears revolve around the fact that this is the second guy they've come across that was visited by the Demon in their infancy, like Sam, and both have been killers.

Dean effortlessly glides into denial mode on hearing this, pointing out that they don't yet know what Andrew Gallagher is or isn't and that he could be innocent, which is a valid argument. Sam angrily insists that his visions haven't been wrong yet. Maybe not, but his interpretation of them can be, since he rarely gets all that much to go on and has to either guess or slowly piece together the rest, and he really hasn't gathered that much evidence about this one as of yet. Dean asks what his point is.

SAM: "My point is – I'm one of them."
DEAN: "No, you're not."

Ah. Denial, thy name is Dean. If sheer, determined belief could make it true, Sam would have nothing to fear whatsoever. For all that just two episodes ago Dean stated categorically his hatred for all things supernatural, he has never placed Sam in that category, and refuses to believe that his little brother could ever be in any way evil. He believes implicitly in Sam's innate goodness.

SAM: "The Demon said he had plans for me and children like me."
DEAN: "Yeah?"
SAM: "Yeah, maybe this is his plan. Maybe we're all a bunch of psychic freaks. Maybe we're all supposed to be –"
DEAN: "What, killers?"
SAM: "Yeah."

And here I have to refer back to my earlier point about two instances really not being a representative sample from which to draw any conclusions whatsoever. Sam is making an enormous leap here based on just one example, Max Miller, since there is as yet no evidence linking Andy Gallagher to the death in Sam's vision and Sam himself has never demonstrated any psycho-killer tendencies. Dean agrees with me.

DEAN: "So the Demon wants you out there killing with your minds, is that it? Give me a break. You're not a murderer, Sam. You don't have it in your bones."
SAM: "No? Last I checked I kill all kinds of things."
DEAN: "Well, those things are asking for it. There's a difference."

Again, Dean has a point. Ridding the world of vengeful spirits and the like hardly comes under the same heading as Max Miller's cold blooded murder or attempted murder of his entire family. Besides, the kill count for season one clearly shows us that when it comes down to it Sam is almost never the one who actually does the killing of the vengeful spirits and creatures the brothers encounter. But just at the moment Sam isn't thinking clearly enough to reason all that out, he's too worried about what his premonitions and The Demon's interest in him might mean.

Having made his point, and hopefully set Sam's mind at ease once more, if only a little bit, Dean turns to look out of the car window again, and he looks tired and worried now that Sam can't see it. Dean knows something Sam doesn't, and is determined not to share that secret. Almost certainly wishes he didn't know himself. Viewers would quite like to share the secret with him, though.

Action stations are reached when Andy Gallagher himself exits a house nearby looking vastly pleased with himself – a busty blonde waving farewell from a window upstairs, much to the disbelief of both boys – and strolls along the street toward his van. He pauses to chat to a random passer by, who happily hands over a cup of fresh coffee, and then a little further along stops to say hello to none other than the good doctor from Sam's vision. Sam instantly goes from action stations to full red alert, and exits the car to follow the doctor, while Dean sticks with Andy.

Andy gets into his van and drives off. Dean and the Impala give chase, but sit right on his tail, which is a dead giveaway. I thought Dean knew better than that. Heck, I know better than that! They haven't gone too far before Andy stops the van and gets out. Since Dean is right behind him, he has no choice but to stop also, and nervously hides his gun, quick, as Andy wanders over to talk to him.

Andy waxes lyrical about the Impala, seriously impressed with the car, and Dean willingly expresses his vast pride in it, having just rebuilt her with his own two hands. "Can't let a car like this one go."

Always love how damn proud Dean is of his car and his own workmanship.

ANDY: "Hey, can I have it?"
DEAN: "Sure, man."

And he says it so happily, too, as if nothing would give him greater pleasure than giving his car away.

Dean jumps out of the Impala, smiling happily. Andy jumps in and drives away, and Dean is left standing in the middle of the road wondering what the hell just happened. And…it's horrible to see. Dean loves that car so much, and the guy just uses his mojo to take it from him, just like that. It's the perfect visual example for the audience of what Andy can do, though, our knowledge of what the car means to Dean giving the scene a powerful impact. That's how easily Andy can do his thing.

Meanwhile back in the centre of town, Sam watches anxiously as the doctor takes a call on his cellphone. A Blue Ridge bus drives by. This is it – this is the scene from Sam's vision, and he has to act fast if he's going to stop it playing out as foreseen. There are two lives at stake here. Scooting across the road right in front of the bus, Sam reaches the store before the doctor, and sees gun salesman Dennis inside, casually reading a magazine without a care in the world, blissfully unaware that his life is about to be ended. The doctor is on his way.

Sam thinks fast and pulls the alarm. No one pays it all that much attention, which is just typical, but the doctor, reaching the door, frowns in bemusement and doesn't go in. Crisis successfully averted, Sam has no sooner registered relief at this success than he sees the Impala driving past. Andy is at the wheel, talking on his cellphone. Sam's jaw drops in sheer, appalled disbelief.

Down the road, the doctor takes another call on his cellphone.

Sam gets straight onto his own phone and anxiously calls Dean, shouting loudly at him that Andy has the Impala. Dean is equally agitated.

DEAN: "I know! He just sorta asked me for it and then I let him take it!"
SAM: "You what?"
DEAN: "He full on Obi-Wan'd me. It's mind control, man."

Sam is still processing this when he turns and sees the doctor walk right under a bus. A shoe goes flying.

A short time later, paramedics covers the doctor's body. He never stood a chance. He's surprisingly intact, though, given the force of the impact.

Sam sits nearby, the picture of abject misery. Dean has rejoined him and has a comforting hand resting on his back as the camera pans around to them. For the past few episodes, Dean's personal space has been about a mile wide, and Sam hasn't dared get too close to him, but, in the wake of his little breakdown last episode – which is not directly referenced at all in this one, although the subtle emotional continuity is evident throughout – all that has gone. Dean's near-crippling issues regarding John's death are now out in the open, and Sam understands why he needs his space and privacy regarding them, is no longer pushing him the way he has been for the past few episodes. That fact alone makes their relationship a little easier than it has been. And with Sam's issues now surging to the forefront of both their attention once more, Dean has glided effortlessly back into the role of hands-on, caring, supportive older brother, and it's probably deeply reassuring for him to be able to do so, to be needed to do so. It's the role he's most comfortable in, having been fulfilling it his entire life. Sam's neediness in this episode gives Dean renewed focus, which is what he's been lacking since John's death. And Sam is also a lot more comfortable with the roles this way around, status quo re-established with Dean's strength holding them both together, rather than Sam having to shoulder that burden any longer. He found it a heavy load to try to bear over the last few episodes.

"I kept him out of the gun store," Sam murmurs, distraught. "I thought he was okay. I thought he was past it. I should have stayed with him…"

Yet again he has failed to save the victim he saw in his premonition – he doesn't have the best success rate, it has to be said – and that failure is devastating for him. He saw the man's death, in painful detail, and prevented it from playing out as foreseen…only to be blindsided when it happened another way. Poor Sam. He's so broken up over this.

Elsewhere, Andy makes his way into Tracey's café, also looking the picture of misery. He completely ignores Webber's cheerful greeting – in the background, Webber is dismayed at being so invisible to him – instead making a beeline for Tracey, seeking comfort from her about Doctor Jennings' death.

At last, the good doctor has a name, albeit rather late in the day since he's already dead now.

Still in the background, Webber eyes Andy and Tracey moodily as Tracey sympathises over the doctor's demise, and then remembers to inform Andy of the two guys who were there looking for him earlier…

Finally tearing themselves away from the crime scene, since there's nothing they can actually do there, Dean and Sam wander around a corner…and find the Impala. Dean is beside himself with relief at finding his beloved car intact, with the keys left in it, even. It seems a joyride was all Andy wanted from it, and left it here for its rightful owner to find – or, you know, any other passing car thief – an effective and relatively harmless way of ridding himself of the unknown guy who was so blatantly following him.

DEAN: "Thank God. [to the car] I'm sorry, baby, I'll never leave you again."

Heh. He never talked to the car before rebuilding it with his own hands! He talks to himself, he talks to the car…Dean has so many more entertaining little personality quirks than Sam does, as adorable as Sam is in his own way.

Sam is still very bitter about his failure to save the doctor. The brothers discuss what they know. It seems that Andy has to use verbal commands to work his mojo, which, Sam realises, ties in with the doctor's cellphone call moments before his death – a call that Sam absolutely did not see him take – hypothesising that Andy must have called him.

Dean isn't so sure, though, wondering if Andy is really their guy, and viewers have to concur that Andy's known actions really aren't tying in with Sam's gloomy belief in his evilness. Sam is amazed and protests. "You had OJ convicted before he got out of his white Bronco, and you have doubts about this?"

"He just doesn't seem like the stone cold killer type," Dean insists, based on his one, brief conversation with Andy in which he was mind controlled into handing over his beloved car. Dean has got pretty strong instincts for his job, we've already seen that many a time. But he also wants very much to find evidence that not all the children like Sam are killers, which gives him a vested interest in proving Andy's innocence. Sam, on the other hand, is much more pessimistically inclined to believe the worst, because that's what he fears the most.

Sam abandons the debate in favour of wondering how they are going to track the guy down. "Not a problem," says Dean, once again coming up with a solution where Sam in his nervous frenzy is drawing a blank.

Andy's van being far from inconspicuous, they find it with ease, and Dean jimmies the back door so they can take a look inside. Therein, the brothers find a fully tricked out love nest. Sam is not impressed; Dean is. "This is magnificent, that's what this is. Not exactly a serial killer's lair, though."

What Sam does find impressive is the reading material scattered around the van: Hegel, Kant and Wittgenstein…it's pretty heavy stuff for a supposed bum like Andy.

"And Moby Dick's bong." LOL Dean seizes on Andy's opium pipe with gleeful amusement. Andy is turning out to be quite the enigma.

Cut to: the Impala, parked in an alleyway close enough to Andy's van to keep an eye on it, while also hopefully being concealed from plain view, watching out for his return. Sam is reading; Dean is eating. And talking with his mouth full, which is another thing we see him do time and again, another of those tiny little personality quirks that make him who he is, such a solidly grounded and believable character.

DEAN: "One day, I'd like to just sit down and eat something that I didn't have to microwave at a Minimart."

Ah, the drawbacks of life on the road. Sam, though, is less interested in his stomach and more interested in puzzling out this case, unable to uncover any motive for Andy to take out the doctor.

"If it is Andy." Dean continues to play devil's advocate on that point.

SAM: "The doctor was mind controlled in front of a bus. Andy just happens to have the power of mind control. You do the math."
DEAN: "I just don't think they guy's got it in him, that's all."

Sam protests that Dean has no way of knowing that, and can't understand why Dean is so insistent on defending the guy.

"Because you're not right about this," Dean counters.

Sunk in his fatalistic gloom, Sam can't see that the reason Dean is so determined to prove Andy innocent is Sam himself. But before they can argue the point any further, Andy appears at the car, composure very much rattled. "You think I haven't seen you two? Why are you following me?"

Sam instantly starts to reel off the lawyer-and-inheritance spiel that worked on Tracey earlier, but Andy snarls to tell the truth, his voice doing the echoey thing that worked on Dean earlier when he asked for the car. Sam smilingly laughs the command off, but Dean promptly obeys. In painful detail.

DEAN: "We hunt demons."
ANDY: "What?"
SAM: "Dean!"
DEAN: "Demons, and spirits: things your worst nightmares wouldn't even touch. Sam, here, he's my brother –"
SAM: "Dean, shut up!"
DEAN: "I'm trying! He's psychic. Kind of like you. Well, not really like you. But, see, he thinks you're a murderer, and he's afraid that he's gonna become one himself, 'cause you're all part of something that's terrible. And I hope to hell that he's wrong, but I'm starting to get a little scared that he might be right."

Sam is appalled, and Andy can't quite take all this in, so settles for another echoey command – to leave him alone. Dean is vastly relieved, and just about collapses in his seat, clutching his head. Being mind controlled is not fun. Andy stalks away, and Sam jumps out of the Impala to give chase.

Backing away, Andy nervously repeats his order for Sam to leave him alone, get back in his car and drive away, but nothing happens. Looming over him looking absolutely enormous Sam mildly points out that it doesn't seem to work on him, and Andy gets afraid. The fact that Sam is about twice his size and using every inch of his height instead of slouching and trying to make himself small as he so often does probably contributes to this.

Seeing Dean getting out of the car and moving their way, Sam waves a hand for him to stay back as he continues to press his point, that Andy can make people do things just by telling them what to think. Andy stutters a protest, but Sam pushes harder. It started about a year ago, after he turned 22, little stuff at first, but then he got better at controlling it. And Andy stops looking afraid and becomes amazed at this stranger knowing his secret in such detail, understanding him.

Andy asks how Sam knows all this, and Sam launches into pretty much the same spiel that he gave Max Miller last season, but rather more confidently, since he knows a little more now, and is better prepared for the confrontation. "You see, we're connected, you and me."

Andy's amazement has worn off now and he has become afraid again, unable to take this in and demanding to be left alone. But Sam still believes that Andy is the killer, and confronts him about it, furious. Andy is genuinely shocked at the accusation, and at this point Sam begins to lose the ability to argue coherently because he's being struck by another vision. He tries, gamely, to continue his interrogation, but the vision wins.

In Sam's vision, a woman is filling her car at a gas station. But after receiving a call on her cellphone, she turns on the cigarette lighter, showers in fuel, and then sets light to herself, much to the horror of a nearby garage attendant, unable to prevent the tragedy occurring. It's pretty horrific stuff.

Flash! Back to Sam. Dean catches him before he can fall, since Sam in pain wins hands down over maintaining a wary distance from the mind-controlling potential killer alongside him. That vision was a real doozy, way more debilitating than the one Sam had in Salvation. He remained functional after that one; here, he can't even stand. The Nightmare visions were pretty intense and painful, too, so maybe the Salvation one was an anomaly. Or maybe Sam manages to be a lot more stoic when Dean isn't around to take care of him. Or maybe in Salvation we just didn't get to see the bit where Sam collapsed on the pavement and random passers by either ignored him completely or fluttered around offering ineffectual aid until he recovered and blew them off.

"I didn't do anything to him!" insists a panicky Andy as Dean lowers Sam to the ground and tries to find out what he saw. Dean recognises a vision when he sees one by now. Catching his breath once more, Sam describes what he saw, that a woman is going to set fire to herself, and the very confused Andy queries his use of the future tense there.

"Shut up!" Dean issues a command of his own in such an authoritative voice that Andy instantly obeys. Hee. No mind control necessary there. Sam is now glaring at Andy as if he were poison, remembering that in his premonition the woman's suicide was triggered by a call on her cell. As Dean helps him back to his feet, he rationalises that if they keep an eye on Andy, he can't hurt her.

Thoroughly bamboozled, Andy again protests his innocence, Sam angrily disbelieves him, and then fire trucks go zooming past, sirens blaring. Dean hurries off to check it out, while Sam stays to keep an eye on Andy, who still has no clue what is going on.

At the gas station, fire crews are still dousing down what remains of the unfortunate suicide-by-cellphone-compulsion woman as Dean hovers anxiously nearby and phones Sam with the update.

DEAN: "What's up with your visions, man. This wasn't even a head start."
SAM: "I don't know, all right? I can't control 'em, I don't know what the hell's going on."

He had plenty of warning for Doctor Jennings – enough time to take a detour to the Roadhouse in order to pinpoint the location, time to spend tracking Andy down – and it still wasn't enough. This time, the vision and death were just about simultaneous. No time to prevent it at all. Sam can't control it and doesn't know what it means, beyond that it scares him, every time. And every death he can't prevent hurts, like a blow to the stomach.

Dean points out that they were with Andy when this happened, which confirms that it wasn't him calling these people and compelling them to kill themselves. There's something else going on here, something other than Andy and his abilities.

SAM: "That doesn't make any sense."
DEAN: "What else is new?"

Heh. So true. Dean wraps up the call by deciding to hang around at the scene a little longer and see what information he can dig up, while Sam sticks with Andy.

Cut to: Sam and Andy, still sitting in that alleyway waiting for Dean to get back, talking. Sam has been filling Andy in on his own experiences, psychic ability-wise. Andy disbelieves that visions of people about to die are possible, and Sam snorts and points to what Andy himself can do as evidence that the seemingly impossible isn't always so impossible. He had a similar conversation with Max Miller last season. Andy takes the point.

ANDY: "Death visions? Dude, that sucks."

That's pretty much what Sam has always thought, so he doesn't argue. Regaining his confidence now, Andy tells Sam that when he got his mind thing, he felt of it as a gift. "It was like I won the Lotto."

Max Miller said much the same thing, but Max was a sociopath who used his 'gift' to kill the people who had hurt him. Andy, from what we've seen, is far more laid-back and well-balanced, simply using his abilities to get debt collectors off his back, charm girls into bed – which could be extremely sinister, except that the girl we saw him leaving seemed perfectly happy, and we'll see later just what a sinister take on this particular scenario plays out like – con passers by out of cups of coffee, and to persuade the owners of desirable cars to let him take said cars out for a spin. Sam pretty much makes this point, unable to comprehend why Andy isn't doing more with his 'gift'.

SAM: "But you still live in a van. I don't get it, I mean, you could have anything you ever wanted."
ANDY: "I got everything I need."

I like Andy. He's an intelligent yet simple soul, perfectly at ease with his life and who he is. Sam, who expends so much effort worrying about and planning for the future, is bemused at this easy-going attitude, and returns to what for him is the salient point. "So you're really not a killer, huh?"

Andy laughs out loud with relief that this strange and intimidating guy has finally grasped that fact. "That's what I've been trying to tell you."

Sam shares his relief, magnified by months of worry. "That's good. Means there's hope for both of us."

Dean arrives back to inform them that the victim was one Holly Beckett, aged 41, single. Andy has never heard of her. Dean continues that he has already called Ash, who provided a little more information: Holly Beckett gave birth back in 1983 when she was 18 years old, same day Andy was born, and gave her child up for adoption.

That's the value of Ash, I suppose – calling him for info like that allows them to move things along rapidly, instead of having to take time to research the background details for themselves.

Andy was adopted, he mildly admits, taking that fact so much for granted that it wouldn't have occurred to him that it might be relevant. He never met his birth parents. It was his adoptive mother who died in the nursery fire when he was six months old. So the blood relationship is not relevant to that little ritual of the Demon's, then. It's about something else, possibly something as simple as attempting to destabilise a nurturing environment, possibly something else entirely. Interesting.

Already having one hell of a day, Andy is floored by the suggestion that the freshly deceased Holly Beckett might have been his birth mother. Dean can't confirm either way, since the records are hard copy only and sealed up at the county record office.

This is not a problem, of course, because they have Andy. He effortlessly and very mildly works his mind control mojo on the clerk at the record office, sending him off to get himself a coffee while they work. Second Star Wars reference of the episode here, too, as Andy ushers the clerk out of his office. "These aren't the druids you're looking for." LOL

"Awesome." Dean is well impressed, no doubt thinking of the many scams they've pulled trying to gain access to these kinds of records, and how much smoother they would have gone with access to abilities like Andy's.

Sam takes his research crown back from Ash, very quickly finding the record they're after. It's true, he gently tells Andy – Holly Beckett was his birth mother.

Andy has no idea how to react to that. She was his mother, but he never knew her, and now she's dead. "Does anyone have a vicodin?" he plaintively asks.

Doctor Jennings was Holly Beckett's doctor, Sam continues, and oversaw the adoption, which means that Andy was connected to both of them. Seeing where this is leading, and struggling to deal with this explosion of new information, Andy weakly repeats his protest that he didn't kill them. Dean reassures him that they believe him, and Sam is now also on side, and agrees. Because Sam has also found the most vital piece of information yet: Holly Beckett gave birth to twins.

Later. Andy, by now unravelling fast, sitting with his arms over his head, attempting to come to terms with the latest shock news about his past. "I have. An evil. Twin," he incredulously tells himself, as if saying it out loud might help him believe it. His delivery is perfect. I like Andy. I hope we see him again.

Sam, as is usual when his visions wind him up, is 100% focused on the information he's working on. Information might help him to make sense of it all, if he can just learn enough…

Dean, who generally takes a more measured approach in contrast to Sam's blinkered single-mindedness, asks Andy how he's holding up. Andy asks what his brother's name is, which is both sad and touching. He's 23 years old, just gained and lost a mother, and doesn't know his brother's name. His life was perfect, he had everything he needed, and now it's all imploded on him.

Andy's twin is called Anson Weems, Sam tells him, but the name means nothing to Andy. Worse, although a family 'up-state' adopted Anson Weems, he now has a local address. Like Holly Beckett, he's been close to Andy all this time without Andy knowing it.

Dean, meanwhile, is at the fax machine, where more information regarding Anson Weems, including a photograph, is coming through as they speak. Dean studies it, and shows Sam, startled and a little shocked at seeing a face he recognises, and turns to Andy to show him this new piece of information, the latest in a long line of nasty shocks for poor Andy today.

DEAN: "Hate to kick you while you're freaked…"

Tracey's café, closing time. Webber wants to talk to Tracey about Andy, about their relationship. He's seen them together, and it seems like there's still something there, he thinks. He's jealous and it shows – but what is he jealous of? That Andy is close to Tracey? Or that Tracey is close to Andy? He was crushed when Andy failed to notice his greeting earlier, we remember…

"Come on, Trace," he insists. "Tell the truth." His words echo just slightly, making that command ring out, just like Andy when he deploys his mind control. Webber is a lot more than he seems.

The Impala, speeding along. Dean's at the wheel, with Sam studying research papers in the passenger seat alongside him, business as usual thus far…and Andy sitting in the back, hanging over the front seats, wide-eyed with awe and wonder as he tells them what little he knows about Webber. The brother he never knew he had.

Webber showed up about eight months ago, Andy bemusedly explains, acting like he was Andy's best friend in the world. "Kinda weird, like – trying too hard, you know."

Webber knew the secret, and Andy didn't, wanted into Andy's life, but Andy didn't know why. Dean wonders why all the secrecy, why Webber changed his name and didn't just come out and tell the truth, but before anyone can debate that little mystery, Sam is struck by his third vision of the episode. Andy peers at him, curious, while Dean shoots alarmed little glances Sam's way while simultaneously having to keep an eye on his driving.

This is the point at which I start to imagine what might happen if Sam were struck by one of these visions while he was the one driving. Because it does happen. Sam driving, I mean, although, admittedly, not yet this season. Dean just rebuilt that car with his own two hands, making it even more completely his than it was to begin with, and it was already his pride and joy. Mind control joyrides aside, he's not about to let anyone else behind the wheel just yet, even Sam.

Vision number three sees Tracey, clad only in a skimpy little petticoat, tearfully stepping out of a car and onto the wall of a dam. And, damn, that's high. That's really high. Sobbing with fear, she steps off, and begins to plummet from that immense height.

Flash back to Sam, in the Impala, in pain. Giving up with the verbal expressions of concern and alarm, Dean stops the car and sprints around to the passenger door to catch his brother before he can tumble out onto the ground. Sam's visions are extremely debilitating in this episode, and he is more reliant on Dean's strength to help him through them than ever.

The dam. Webber's car pulls up, with Webber himself at the wheel and a tearful Tracey sitting beside him begging to be allowed to go home. He commands her to stop crying, and she has no option but to obey. Mind control. He can make her do anything he wants, against her will. And he intends to.

WEBBER: "I take my ladies here. They like it. Well, I mean, I like it. So, of course, they do, too."

And that line tells us everything we need to know about Webber. Where Andy is secure in and of himself, needing nothing more than he has to be content with his life, Webber is deeply insecure, and no amount of need-fulfilment can make him content. Webber waxes lyrical about Andy, calling him a genius, going to be a great man some day.

Possibly – but only if he wants to be, I suspect. Andy doesn't seem all that ambitious just at this point in his life.

Webber continues that Andy is his family, not Tracey's. He doesn't want to share, and the emotional connection Andy clearly has to his one-time squeeze is too much of a threat, which means that Tracey has to be eliminated.

That is one warped mind. It makes you wonder what happened to him to make him this way.

Meanwhile, the Impala pulls up somewhere nearby, but not so close as to be noticed. It's dark and misty – perfect conditions for a showdown.

SAM: "Dean, you should stay back."
DEAN: "No argument here. Had my head screwed with enough for one day."

The lessons of Nightmare have been learned, and they've moved on a long way from where they were that day. Then, Dean failed to think through the full implications of Max's abilities, and was deeply unwilling to leave Sam alone with the murderous psychic. Here, he recognises his own vulnerability to Webber's abilities, and trusts Sam to be able to handle the situation alone, without question. The forward momentum of their partnership is maintained.

Andy, on the other hand, insists that he's going with Sam. Not because of Webber, this murderous evil twin he never knew he had, but because of Tracey. She might not be his girlfriend any more, officially, but she is special to him. It's a complicated relationship that Webber fails to understand. All he sees is that it is a relationship that stands between him and his long-lost brother, who he wants all to himself.

In Webber's car, he is enjoying watching as Tracey unbuttons her dress, still tearful but unable now to cry her protest. While she undresses, he explains to her what is going to happen next. When they are done, he tells her, she is going to go up to the edge of the dam. She will believe that she can fly, and she will step off the edge. His voice is very gentle, and Tracey tries to cry, but can't. He's ordered her not to. She is completely aware of what is happening to her, but just as completely unable to escape or disobey in any way. It's creepy as hell, the most disturbing scene of the episode, easily.

The car window smashes, breaking the spell, and Sam waves his gun at Webber's head, ordering him out of the car. This is usually Dean's role, but Dean can't come near, this time. Sam can be a badass too, though, when he really needs to be.

While Andy rushes to Tracey, holding and soothing her, Webber tries his mind control mojo on Sam, and receives a bit of a shock when, instead of obeying, Sam smacks him in the face and hauls him out of the car. Sam holds his gun to Webber's head, while Andy tapes his mouth shut.

Andy needs verbal commands to work his mojo. So they believe they are safe now, and Andy's anger boils over. This evil twin that he never knew he had tried to assault, tried to murder, his beloved friend. He lashes out, Sam is forced to restrain him, and Webber no longer has their attention. He fixes his eyes on Tracey. There is a sizeable branch just lying there in the middle of the road. She picks it up, and smacks Sam with it. He goes down in a heap. Second episode in a row Sam's been taken down by a woman. And our first sign that Webber does not need to use verbal commands. He is even more dangerous than anyone had realised.

Tracey sobs, and Andy, panicking, orders her to stop – mind controls her to stop. Horror floods through her eyes as she drops the branch, realising what he's just done. This is a moment they can never go back from. Andy returns his attention to Webber. Sam's down and Dean can't come near, so all of a sudden Andy is the one bearing all the responsibility of taking down his murderous brother. His twin. In another life they might have been as close as Sam and Dean, but fate took them down a different road.

Webber rips the tape off his mouth and spits blood from his split lip onto the road. Andy is aghast as he realises the implications of what his brother just did – mind controlled Tracey without a word spoken. Webber confirms it – all it takes is practice. Andy never bothered to practice to that degree, because what he could already do was enough for him. He had everything he needed and was content with it; Webber wanted more.

WEBBER: "Sometimes the headache's worth it."

Confirmation that Sam isn't the only one whose 'gift' comes complete with painful headaches. Max Miller never looked comfortable while exercising his 'gift' also, we remember, although this was never confirmed verbally. But Sam still differs from every other 'child like him' that he's encountered as yet. He can't control his ability; they can, to a greater or lesser extent depending on how much they desire such control. Webber, like Max, has honed his to a fine degree because he craved that control over his own life and destiny; the more laid-back Andy has never felt the need to go to such lengths. So maybe Sam's lack of control over his 'gift' is as simple as the fact that he's never tried to control it, never wanted to.

Andy's temper boils over again at this point, but Webber has the upper hand – he can control Tracey without having to speak the words, and Andy turns in horror to see his friend standing right on the edge of the wall, staring down into oblivion far below. It is very high. Andy backs off. "Please don't hurt her."

Webber starts to talk, apologising and asking his brother not to be mad at him, admitting that it's all wrong. "It's just…Tracey? She's trying to come between us."

"You're insane," Andy splutters, appalled. He's not wrong there. Andy is having one hell of a day. His birth mother died and his long-lost twin is a homicidal maniac.

Webber tries to talk Andy around to his way of thinking, that everyone else is garbage, so easily pushed, they can make them do whatever they want. He's drunk on the power of his abilities, and Andy is horrified.

ANDY: "Are you really this stupid? You learn that you've got a twin, you call them up, you go out for a drink – you don't start killing people!"

Sam, meanwhile, on the ground behind them, starts to wake up at this point.

WEBBER: "I wanted to tell you for so long, bro. But he didn't let me. He said I had to wait until the time was –"
ANDY: "Who?"
WEBBER: "The man with the yellow eyes."

Sam heard that, woke up just in time. There's only one man with yellow eyes that he knows of, although he could be wearing any one of a thousand different faces. But Andy has no idea what his brother is talking about.

WEBBER: "He came to me, in my dream. He said I was special. He told me he's got big plans for me. Wait till you see what's in store, Andy, for both of us. He's the one that told me I had a brother, a twin."

Sam is not the only one the Demon has spoken to in person. How many more of these gifted children are out there, and how many of them have been paid such close personal attention? Was it the nightly visits from The Demon in his dreams that drove Webber insane? Or was that already a work in progress even before the inspirational dreaming? That The Demon is approaching some of the children in this way is a chilling thought, though, given the effect it has had on Webber.

Meanwhile, some way off in the distance, rather than sitting around twiddling his thumbs while all this goes down, and presumably having seen Sam getting whacked, Dean is moving into position with a marksman's rifle in his hands, putting plan B into effect. Dean has taken human life before, and doesn't take it lightly – definitely not – but knows that some lengths must be taken to protect others. To protect Sam. Shooting Webber he would see as a necessary evil if it came to it, if Andy can't talk him down, if Sam can't recover to resolve the situation – if Webber gets any more out of hand than he already is. Webber is very powerful, and very dangerous, increasingly out of control, and a threat to just about anyone he encounters.

Up on the dam, Andy asks Webber the very big question – why. Why did he kill their mother? Why kill the doctor? Why?

"Because they split us up! They ruined our lives, Andy," Webber yells. He found out he had a twin and fixated on him, has convinced himself that life would have been perfect if only they had stayed together, grown up together, if they hadn't been split up. What happened in Webber's life to make him like this, beyond that close personal attention paid him by the Demon?

How carefully does the Demon select those children it pays the closest attention to? Would it have pursued Sam more or less had John not been so hot on it's tail?

Off in the distance, Dean is in position, and peers along the sights, preparing to take action if action needs to be taken. But up on the dam, Webber stops, senses him somehow, knows what he's doing, and turns around to face him, away in the distance. We've seen Sam demonstrate a burst of telekinesis one time only, so already know it's possible for these 'special children' to display more than one psychic ability when under duress. Just how much power is inside them, just waiting to be tapped into? Webber doesn't need to use verbal commands on his victims. And apparently he isn't restricted by distance, either. He really is appallingly dangerous.

"I see you," Webber quietly says, and Dean lowers his gun, puzzled. "Bye-bye."

Mind control, at a distance. Dean calmly puts the gun to his own chin….

A shot rings out. Webber jerks, and collapses. Tracey spins around. Andy is holding the gun, looking pretty much broken, hands shaking as he realises what he's just done, what he was forced to do. He shot his newly discovered brother to prevent him taking the life of another. And to think, just this morning he was completely at peace with his life, secure and happy with who he was.

Morning. Paramedics wheel Webber's body away, while Andy calmly assures three police officers that they saw him shoot himself. In the back. Um…yeah, okay.

"Look at him, he's getting better at it," Sam notes, sitting on the ground nearby while a paramedic finishes examining his head. Which, incidentally, is not where Tracey hit him – she smacked him in the small of the back, not the head. But anyway. Dean is lounging attractively against the wall alongside him, let us also note.

Turning away from the police, Andy wanders over to the boys, passing Tracey as he does so, as she sits huddled in a blanket being seen to by paramedics. She averts her eyes, won't even look at him. Andy is dismayed.

"I never used my mind thing on her before," he tells the boys, sadly. He wouldn't use it on someone he cared about, is the implication. "Before last night. She's scared of me now."

Sam looks sympathetic; he can relate to that. Since he and Dean need to make a move now, he gives Andy his phone number to call in case of need. Now personally, I think he should also make sure to get Andy's number so he can make reciprocal contact if need be, or keep in touch to see how things are going. Or at least spend a little more time with him now, talking things through, before leaving. Would a couple of hours to grab a coffee and process what's happened really hurt? They could be the start of a support group for one another! But, whatever. The boys walk away.

Andy, disbelieving, calls after them. "What am I supposed to do now?" That's a very valid question. What does he do now, all alone with what he knows?

Dean has a very simple answer for him. "You be good, Andy. Or we'll be back."

Except that's not actually all that useful of an answer to Andy. But, again, whatever. The episode needs wrapping up. And the boys have got too many issues of their own to babysit. They need to move on, Andy's life is here, he's well adjusted enough that they feel they can trust him not to misuse his abilities, and that'll have to be good enough. Their job is to hunt evil, not police the non-evil psychic. They head back to the Impala. But Sam is still troubled about the outcome of this case.

SAM: "Looks like I was right."
DEAN: "About what?"
SAM: "Andy. He's a killer after all."

Sam really is an Eeyore about all this, determined to believe the worst, because it's what he's most afraid of and he doesn't dare let himself hope. Dean, ever the optimist, counters that Andy is a hero, that he saved Tracey's life, and saved Dean's own life. Credit where it's due, and all.

SAM: "Bottom line: last night he wasted somebody."
DEAN: "Yeah, but he's not a foaming at the mouth psycho. He was just…he was pushed into that."

Dean can understand it; he's been in that position himself. He shot and killed a demon-possessed man because it was either that or watch him kill Sam. The readiness with which he killed troubled him, and no doubt still does, but not the reason why he did it. Sometimes desperate times call for desperate means, and that's how Dean is approaching this situation, and Andy. For once, Dean is the one choosing to believe in good rather than evil, while Sam sees only the negative.

SAM: "Webber was pushed too, in his own way. Max Miller was pushed. Hell, I was pushed, by Jessica's death."
DEAN: "What's your point, Sam?"
SAM: "Right circumstances, everyone's capable of murder. Everyone."

He's got a point there – just about anyone can be pushed over the edge by dire enough circumstances. And the children the Demon is interested in have abilities that make them doubly dangerous in those circumstances. Except for Sam and his visions, which he has no control over, either for good or ill. If that one burst of telekinesis had developed into anything more, though, he might be able to use it in much the same way that Max did. But being forced to kill someone before they can kill someone else really isn't the same thing as being a cold-blooded psycho-killer, however much Sam is refusing to let himself see that distinction just at the moment, too wrapped up in his own fears.

SAM: "You know, maybe that's what the Demon's doing: pushing us, finding ways to break us."
DEAN: "Sam, we don't know what the Demon wants, okay? Quit worrying about it."

And we're back to denial, again. Don't expend energy worrying about what you don't know, Dean is saying. Except that Dean does know something that Sam doesn't, and is very lucky he managed not to spill that secret back when Andy forced him to tell the truth. He said enough as it was.

SAM: "You know, I heard you before, Dean, when Andy made you tell the truth. You're just as scared of this as I am."

But Dean is never going to admit to being scared, not about this. Reassuring Sam is too important, and openly joining him in his fears would be counter-productive, simply giving him another reason to fret.

DEAN: "That was mind control! That was like being rufied, man, that doesn't count."
SAM: "What?"
DEAN: "No. I'm calling due over."
SAM: "What are you? Seven?"
DEAN: "Doesn't matter. We've just got to keep doing what we're doing, find that evil son of a bitch, and kill it."

When in doubt, deny – and focus on the purely practical. That's pretty much Dean's philosophy of life. Sam doesn't look entirely convinced, but agrees, and is at least successfully distracted from the worst of his brooding. Dean's phone rings, which pretty much ends the conversation. It's Ellen, and apparently she wants to see them, although we aren't told on what pretext. So, they head back on over there. They've got nothing better to do, I suppose.

Cut to: Harvelle's Roadhouse. It's day, so the bar is closed. Jo is puttering around clearing up and whatever, but Ellen sends her down to 'pull up another case of beer', neatly removing her from the room so that Ellen can talk to the boys. Jo protests, but obeys. I'm getting the sense with Jo that she's lived her entire life in this little bar in the middle of nowhere, on the edges of this demon-hunting life, and knows just enough to crave more – she sees hunters coming in and out of the roadhouse with exotic stories, and it's fascinating. But she isn't really a part of it, just lives on the fringes. And Ellen wants to keep her there.

ELLEN: "So, you want to tell me about this last hunt of yours?"
DEAN: "No. Not really. [beat, realising that was rude] No offence, just kind of a family thing."

This last hunt cut far too close to home for comfort, far too close to home for Dean to be willing to let any other hunters in on it. He fears their reaction to Sam.

Not any more, Ellen insists, pulling out a stack of papers she's got from Ash – information he pulled up for them to help with this case. It's told Ellen enough to be concerned. Dean eyes her, warily; Ellen studies the boys, stern, and points out the similarity between Andrew Gallagher's tragic family history and theirs. "You think it was the Demon both times, don't you? You think it went after Gallagher's family?"

Sam admits that yes, they do, ignoring Dean's warning.

ELLEN: "Why?"
DEAN: "None of your business."
ELLEN: "You mind your tongue with me, boy."

I like Ellen, I do. Dean can be rude at times, prickly as a hedgehog where any threat – or perceived threat – to his family is concerned, and very unwilling to trust any outsiders at all. He's been wary of her right from the start. She's motherly, maternal, and matronly, and all kinds of other things along those lines that Dean always responds badly to because he's lacked them all his life, and remembers just enough about his own mother to resent a maternal attitude being directed toward him by anyone else. Having said that, though, I'm not so keen on Ellen's belief that she has a right to stick her nose into the boys' business. They really don't know her well enough to know if she can be trusted with their deepest secrets.

ELLEN: "This isn't just your war, this is war. Something big and bad's coming and it's coming fast, and their side holds all the cards. Now, at best all we got is us, together. No secrets or half-truths here."

It's probably a safe bet that she tried the same line on John, once upon a time, and he cut her dead, determined to keep this battle all to himself. It was his revenge. But things are different now. John is gone, and the sheer, overwhelming scale of this is slowly starting to become apparent. The boys could use all the help they can get, whether Dean likes it or not. And he really doesn't. But Sam starts to talk.

SAM: "There are people out there. Like Andy Gallagher. Like me. And, um, we all have some kind of ability."
ELLEN: "Ability?"
SAM: "Yeah. Psychic ability."

Dean almost groans out loud. The last thing he wanted was for anyone else in the hunting fraternity to know that about Sam. But Sam trusts Ellen instinctively, responding to her maternal warmth and strength just as much as Dean reacts against it.

SAM: "Me, I have, um…I have visions. Premonitions. I don't know, it's different for everybody."

While Sam talks, Ellen – face set like stone in a very worried expression – keeps glancing at Dean to see his reaction. Dean is very unhappy that Sam is telling her all this, and it shows.

SAM: "The Demon said he had plans for people like us."
ELLEN: "What kind of plans?"
SAM: "We don't really know for sure."
ELLEN: "These people out there, these psychics – they dangerous?"

For all her apparently well-intentioned concern for the boys, this is exactly the kind of reaction Dean was dreading: instantly seeing these psychics as a threat, something to be guarded against, possibly hunted down and eliminated if need be. This was why he didn't want anyone to know about Sam – he doesn't want Sam to be seen as a threat of any kind. Sam is one of those psychic children, too, and Sam is his responsibility, his to protect.

DEAN: "No. Not all of them."
SAM: "But some are. Some are very dangerous."

I love those reactions, so typical of the boys – Dean so determined to protect Sam at all costs, denying anything that could give Ellen a negative impression of his brother, while Sam takes a more honest and open line, willing to trust this virtual stranger.

ELLEN: "Okay, how many are we looking at?"
DEAN: "We've been able to track a clear pattern so far. They've all had house fires on the night of the kid's six month birthday –"
SAM: "That's not true."

That's news to Dean, and he reacts with alarm as Sam explains the newest information of all. Sam did some checking on Webber – or Anson Weems – and there was no house fire. The pattern has been broken. And that means there is no way to track them all down, no way of finding out how many of them are really out there. I like, though, that The Demon's behaviour isn't so easily predictable – it fits with what we've seen of it so far.

Jo has returned to the bar just in time to hear that last, lugging a crate of beer. Ellen tells her to break out the whisky instead, as they all absorb the implications of this news. They mytharc plot thickens and only time will tell where it is going to lead.


November 2006

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