Episode Report Card 123 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT The Hardy Boys and the Wayward Werewolf
By Tippi Blevins | Season 9 | Episode 12 | Aired on 01.28.2014
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Sam heads for Wisconsin after finding out that his old hunting buddy Garth is in the hospital. When he arrives, he finds Dean already there, and they grudgingly agree to tolerate each other for the time being. Garth was hit by a car after fleeing from a local farm, where he was dining on cow innards. Well, it seems that Garth has been busy these last few months. He accidentally became a werewolf, got married, became part of a church choir... What, what? Let's revisit the most shocking part of this: Garth found someone to marry him.
That would be a nice lady named Bess, who found him after he was bitten by a werewolf and fell in love with him. She's a wolf, too, as is her whole family. Their whole church is frequented by werewolves – although they prefer "lycanthropes" – and is presided over by Bess's father, Reverend Jim. Garth insists they're all good people, but Dean is practically foaming at the mouth to kill them all. Sam advocates patience, so Dean pops in to have dinner with Garth and his new in-laws and just check everything out.
Meanwhile, Sam runs afoul of the local sheriff, who – you guessed it – is also a werewolf. He's part of an old-school faction of the church that takes its cues from Norse mythology. Their role model is Fenris the wolf, and they plan to exterminate all humankind. Honestly, not much is made of this rather high-concept-sounding plot, and it's revealed kind of late in the episode. It turns out that everybody but the reverend and his daughter are evil. They decide to kill Garth and his bride, then pin the blame on Sam. Luckily, Dean tracks them down and saves the day before any of the good guys get offed. For some reason, nobody really makes much of a fuss about Garth being so organ-crazed that he'll almost get himself killed trying to sate his hunger.
In the end, Dean goes back on his decision to work alone, and comes crawling back to Sam for forgiveness. It's not that easy, though, and Sam still doesn't trust Dean. He blames Dean for the Gadreel fiasco, which is legit, but also says Dean manipulated him into quitting the trials, which is... less legit. Sam says he's willing to work with Dean, but isn't ready to be brothers again. Because Dean is a glutton for punishment, he leaps at the chance instead of keeping to his solitary path. Stay tuned for the full recap.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!THEN! Sam found out that Dean tricked him into letting an angel possess him and he was like, "That's not how consent works, writers!" The angel used Sam's bod to kill Kevin Tran while Dean watched and cried helplessly. Dean felt pretty guilty about this, so he decided to hunt down the murderous angel – all by himself, so that nobody else would get murdered because of him. Everybody rolled their eyes because it's clear the show is determined to keep these dangerously codependent brothers in each other's sick orbits, so there was no way their separation would last long. During his brief, action-packed solo adventure, Dean met the Father of Murder and received the "mark of Cain." It seemed very promising and made many people look forward to what might happen next. Unfortunately, the show isn't great with forward momentum, so we're going to revisit Garth this week. Remember Garth? He was a hunting buddy of the Winchesters, who had somehow managed not to die despite himself. He disappeared while "protecting" Kevin Tran, never to be heard from again. Until...
...NOW! It's a foggy night in Grantsburg, Wisconsin that looks just like the foggy nights we've seen everywhere from Texas to Montana, and everywhere in between. Cowbells jangle in the distance, followed by sounds of bovine distress. "Oh, moo! Moo! Moo is me!" A farmer darts out of his house to investigate, shotgun at the ready. He spies a shadowy figure in a trucker cap running away from his cows. The farmer chases this possible cow fucker through the woods, shooting but missing his target. The miscreant runs and runs, darting past branches, jumping over fences. He emerges onto an unlit country road, where he is promptly hit by the one car driving by that night. As the camera pans down to his unconscious form, we see that it's Garth. Why couldn't you have stayed missing, Garth? Why?!
Some time later, Sam arrives at Grantsburg Memorial Hospital. The town has 1,300 people, but that's apparently enough to sustain a big, fancy hospital. In the guise of an FBI agent, he approaches the front desk and says, "I'm looking for a John Doe that was admitted here a few days ago." He describes his quarry as looking like Ichabod Crane, clearly not referring to the version on Fox. "I know just who you mean," says the lady behind the desk, adding, "Sure is a popular guy!" Sam gives her a quizzical look, but doesn't ask what she means, because that would ruin the surprise when...