Episode Report Card Tippi Blevins: A- | 144 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT This Hardy Boy is a Marked Man
By Tippi Blevins | Season 9 | Episode 11 | Aired on 01.21.2014
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Dean has come to a dead end in his search for Gadreel when Crowley shows up to invite him on a hunting trip. A weapon called the First Blade is the only thing that can kill Abaddon, and Crowley has reason to believe that John "Father of the Year" Winchester knew something about it. Naturally, Dean is loath to go anywhere with Crowley, but he's kind of a glutton for punishment, so why not? Their search takes them to one of John's old storage lockers, which doesn't it seem like the Winchesters should have emptied those out ages ago? They're full of useful crap! Although they don't find the First Blade there, they do find a file that points them to one of John's old hunting partners.
That would be a lady named Tara, who looks like she could bench Dean with one well-muscled arm. Tara spent years looking for this weapon without luck, because she lacked one particular ingredient to perform the locator spell. Luckily, Crowley just happens to have the kraken squeezings that she needs, and she's soon able to point them to someplace in Missouri that's conveniently within driving distance. Also, she and John totally did it.
Meanwhile, back at the bunker, Castiel has been trying to work up a little locator spell of his own. In order to find Gadreel, he needs to extract a bit of the grace the angel left behind in Sam. So maybe the reason Gadreel didn't want to leave was that he knew he wouldn't get his rental deposit back, leaving all that goo behind. Anyway, the spell is unsuccessful, but the extraction process gives Sam and Castiel time to talk about sandwiches and molecules, and what it means to be human and to feel feelings. Castiel is hoping that Sam will call Dean for help, but it doesn't happen.
Dean and Crowley get to Missouri and find out that the guy who has this First Blade is Cain, of "Cain and Abel" fame. He became a demon after he killed his brother, made all those Knights of Hell for Lucifer, then later killed all of them except Abaddon. Something happened in the 1800s and he just decided to retire from everything except raising bees and growing a beard. He refuses to give the weapon away, even on loan. It's only after a horde of demons arrives and Dean kicks all their asses that Cain admits he feels the Winchester is a kindred soul. Dean is a bit offended by this at first, seeing as how Cain killed his little brother and basically invented murder. But Cain explains that he killed Abel to keep him from being taken by Lucifer -- that he sacrificed himself to save his brother. Twist! He tells Dean that he fell in love and got married once upon a time, only to accidentally kill his wife after she was possessed by Abaddon. He swore to her then that he would never kill again. He also tells Dean that the weapon is deep in the ocean somewhere, and it can't be used without the accompanying mark. Yes, that would be the mark of Cain, which you may know from such books of the Bible as Genesis. He then passes this mark on to Dean, asking only that Dean return to kill him when he's done with Abaddon.
So, how about that? Another biblical brothers storyline for Supernatural. Is another half-brother going to pop up to usurp Dean's role at the last moment? John and Tara did have that fling, after all... Kidding! Kidding. Totally kidding. The show wouldn't do that again, would it? Would it? Stay tuned for the full recap.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!THEN! The show introduced us to a Knight of Hell named Abaddon, and she looked amazing from the crown of her red, red hair to the tips of her even redder nails, even after she was burnt to a crisp. The also introduced us to the nth iteration of Winchester angst, this time the result of Dean letting some weirdo angel squat inside Sam like he was a dilapidated row house in the bad part of town. That angel pretended to be a good guy named Ezekiel, when he was actually a sucky loser named Gadreel. To prove he was loyal to Metatron, Gadreel killed Kevin Tran, then absconded with Sam's lanky bod. Crowley agreed to help evict squatter Gadreel in exchange for his own freedom, and a hot oil massage. Dean granted him the freedom part, but he was so distraught over the whole fiasco that he decided to hit the road all by his lonesome.
This brings us to Jasper Springs, Mississippi in 1863, according to the helpful chyron. A man in a Confederate soldier's uniform rides on horseback through windy, sepia-toned woods. Mournful violin music plays. The soldier stops outside a small cabin and ties his horse to a hitching post. Inside, two more soldiers warm their hands by the fireplace. Hearing the horse outside, one of them grabs his gun and stands at attention. "He's coming!" shouts the first soldier as he pushes his way inside. Everybody looks nervous. "Stand your ground, no matter what happens," he says. "The knight must be protected!"
The whole cabin begins to tremble, and the wind outside picks up. The curtains flap even though the windows are closed. That's how you know it's one of them there special winds. The soldiers look terrified. Their eyes go black. The door doesn't even open, and suddenly there's a man with a beard and a head of beautifully wavy hair standing there. He picks the soldier nearest him and grabs him under the jaw, lifting him off his feet like a doll. Intense red light explodes out of the demonic soldier's eyes and mouth. The intruder snaps his neck, then tosses him aside. The other soldiers shoot, to no effect. Were they not informed of their enemy's hardiness? Because they seemed a little surprised when he advances on them, completely unharmed. To save some money on the special effects budget, we witness the other soldiers' deaths from outside the cabin, as a spilling of red light through the windows. Two horses see this going on and they're just like, "Whatever."
We pick back up inside the cabin as the handsome intruder picks his way over the dead bodies of his fallen enemies. From the inside of his leather duster, he pulls out the jawbone of an animal that's been fashioned into a knife. He approaches an interior door and then, with one boot-clad foot, kicks it open to reveal...