Previously: RACIST TRUCK. It was awkward.
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Nightmare
Sara: A man pulls into his garage and cuts the car off. He starts to gather his stuff to get out, but looks confused when the garage door starts closing behind him. As he’s turned around, staring at the garage door, the keys crank the car again and the automatic doors lock. (My dad brags about his manual locks all the time. Guess he wouldn’t be in this situation, now would he?) (K: My dad’s the same but with his refusal to get automatic garage doors. “If the power goes out, *I* can still leave!” Okay, Dad. Whatever.) Doomed To Die tries to turn the ignition off, but the keys are stuck and he starts to panic as the car and garage start to fill up with smoke.
Kirsti: Like, INSTANTLY.
Sara: Instead of immediately trying to break the window, he continues panicking and yells for help. Bro, you should probably not be yelling and breathing more of that gas into your lungs. By the time he tries to kick out the window, the gas has done its damage and Doomed To Die does, indeed, die.
Sam wakes up in the Motel of the Week, apparently knowing that this whole dream was a premonition. He urges Dean to wake the fuck up so they can go try to save Doomed To Die (D2D). On the drive there, Sam, posing as a cop, calls in the license plate of D2D and says he needs an address for the guy. It’s a good thing these visions provide such specific clues, like license plate numbers!
K: And can we talk about the fact that Sam remembers the entire licence plate?! If it were me, I’d be all “Uhhhh, it started with a letter? And then there were some numbers???”
Sara: Girl, I don’t even know my own license plate number, so YES. Dean tries to tell Sam that it’s probably just a regular old nightmare, but Sam knows that this is real. Now that he’s confirmed a street address in Michigan, he urges Dean to drive faster so they can get there in time. Also, congratulations to Dean for saying the title of the episode already!
When they pull up to the scene of the accident, D2D is already in a body bag. Womp womp. Too bad those premonitions can’t show up a little earlier, eh? The boys ask one of the neighbors standing outside what’s going on, and she tells them it’s a suicide. He always seemed normal, but she guesses that you can’t always know what’s going on behind closed doors. Closed demonic garage doors, to be specific.
Sam mopes away and wonders why he would be having these premonitions if he wasn’t able to get there in time to do anything. Maybe the Powers That Be don’t understand time zone differences? Sam wonders what killed him, and Dean says that maybe it was just a suicide and not anything… SUPERNATURAL. (Shots for title of the show in the show.) (K: META SHOTS!! Man, I can’t wait until Chuck turns up…) Sam doesn’t agree, though, because he knows that he’s on a show called Supernatural. Also because he saw it very clearly in his nightmare.
Dean says they can come back in the morning to check out the house and question the family, but Sam is pretty sure a grieving family isn’t going to want to talk to two random hot guys the morning after their father/husband committed suicide. IDK, it’s worked in the past, right? It’s okay, though, because Dean has a plan.
Cut to the next morning when the boys show up to the houses dressed like priests. This is definitely going on the Reasons You Aren’t Allowed In Heaven list in Jesus’ big book. Sam agrees, saying that this has to be a whole new low for them.
K: Especially as Dean introduces them as Father Simmons and Father Frehley. Any KISS fans in the house?!?!
Sara: I’m really glad you’re here to identify the meaning behind their code names, because I know nothing about rock music.
D2D’s brother invites them inside (not super kindly), where they are introduced to D2D’s now widowed wife, MOTHERFUCKING ZELDA FROM SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH. I love this show for bringing me so many recognizable guest stars. Please tell me the guest stars stay this awesome all throughout the series. I mean, I always liked Hilda better but Zelda will do!
Zelda apologizes for Bro-in-Law’s rudeness; he’s just really torn up about his bro’s suicide. Dean continues to earn his first class ticket to Hell by telling Zelda that they’re happy to be there to help since we’re all God’s children and stuffing finger foods in his mouth every time she turns around. Though, to be fair, those mini sausages are freaking delicious and I’m pretty sure even Jesus wouldn’t be able to resist them if he was there.
K: This is a total sidebar because the way Dean always stuffs food into his mouth like he’s a squirrel getting ready for winter gives me a lot of feels. Because I read this whole long-winded head canon on Tumblr once about how it’s because growing up, he never knew where his next meal was going to come from. He made sure Sam had plenty to eat, because that’s what big brothers do, and he went without. So when there was a ton of food around, he took advantage of the situation. </sidebar of random feels>
Sara: That… is so depressing and sad. WOMP.
Dean asks Zelda if her husband had a history of depression, but she says that she never noticed any signs of it. She feels terrible that her son is the one who found his body, because CHILDHOOD TRAUMA ALERT. Max, the son, is looking pale and creepy, sitting in a corner by his chair. Okay, okay, so his dad just died and he has every right to be sitting over there by himself, but still. Kid has a creepy face.
K: SO FREAKING CREEPY OMG.
Sara: While Sam goes to talk to Max, the son, Dean nonchalantly asks if she’s experienced any weird things since moving into the house: weird leaks, strange noises, losing arms to garbage disposals. But nope, the house has been perfect.
Sam talks to Max in the Creepy Corner about finding his dad’s body. Max recently moved back in with his parents to save money for college, and one night, heard the car running in the garage. When he went downstairs to check on it, he found his dad, dead in the car. He doesn’t know why he would have killed himself. Sam shares that he also knows what it’s like to lose a parent.
Upstairs, Dean is snooping around, using his ghost detector thingy to test for signs of paranormal activity but doesn’t get anything.
K: Legit. Also, the gag reel for this scene is hilarious because Jensen had to clean half a dozen prop guns about a millionty times because Jared kept screwing up.
Sara: Sam falls to the floor, and the vision begins: Bro-In-Law gets home from work and opens a beer in the kitchen. Behind him, the window of the apartment opens up on its own. Instead of GETTING THE FUCK OUT like I would do, he just closes and locks the window and goes back to unpacking his groceries. When his back is to the window again, the lock mysteriously unlocks and the window opens again. Bro-In-Law tries to lower it again, but it seems to be stuck. He sticks his head out the window, upside down, to look up, and YOU’RE ABOUT TO GET A THAT’S WHAT HAPPENS, DUDE. This tag was specifically designed for your stupid ass. Traumateers, if your window ever mysteriously raises two times in a row like this, don’t stick your damn head out the window. #SnarkSquadAdviceSavesLives
K: I think this dude deserves a Darwin Award, I really do. Survival of the fittest was created explicitly for people like Bro-In-Law.
Sara: +1. Bro-In-Law isn’t listening to my advice, though, and as his head is sticking out, he gets guillotined and I can only assume that his decapitated head bounces alllllll the way down the fire escape and to the street below. Can you imagine that falling at your feet as you’re coming home from a long night at work? Talk about a bad day.
Sam snaps back from his premonition and tells Dean that it’s going to happen again. On the way there, Sam tells Dean his fears about his visions. It was bad enough when they were just nightmares, but now they’re happening during the day, too. He can’t figure out what’s so important about this family that’s causing all the premonitions. He tells Dean to be honest and tell him it doesn’t freak him out. Dean says it doesn’t freak him out. (It obviously freaks him out.)
When they pull up to Bro-In-Law’s house, he’s on his way in with his groceries. The boys call out to him, and he says, “What are you guys, missionaries? Leave me alone!” LOL. They try to tell him he’s in danger, and he’s all, WHATEVER, GO AWAY about it. I don’t even feel sorry for you now, man. I don’t care who the fuck it was that came running at me, telling me I was in danger, I would drop my shit and take off in the other direction. I’m all about self-preservation, y’all.
The boys take the fire escape stairs all the way up to Bro-In-Law’s apartment, but by the time they get there, it’s already done, apparently, because there is all sorts of blood all over that guillotine window. Dean tells Sam to wipe their fingerprints down outside, as he, without gloves, opens the window to go inside and check things out. Sense: This makes none.
K: SERIOUSLY. Also, why the hell don’t they just wear gloves everywhere they go to save all the effort of wiping down like six floors worth of fire escape??
Sara: Two seconds later, we cut to the boys walking back to the car and Dean helpfully telling us that there was nothing in the house that he could find. Guillotine Window and Demonic Garage Door must be in cahoots. Dean says it’s possible that there’s a curse on the family, and Sam laughs that he guesses they have something in common, since they both have cursed families. Dean says their family isn’t cursed; it just has some dark spots.
K: The continuation of that conversation is so sibling-tastic: Sam: “Our dark spots are pretty dark…” Dean: “…..YOU’RE pretty dark…” It reminds me a lot of my little brother’s comeback to everything: “So’s your face!”
Sara: The boys decide that they need to figure out what’s going on before something happens to Max next.
Over at D2D’s house, the boys are dressed as priests again as they talk to Max. He shares that his dad and Bro-In-Law used to be really close. Like literally close, because they lived next door to each other. You couldn’t pay me enough to live next door to my brother. They ask if anything weird ever happened in that other house, but Max says no, everything was normal and happy there. He looks like he’s recovering from the flu or something. Seriously, dude looks like complete shit.
K: I think he stole Faith’s coma make up, to be honest…
Sara: When the boys get back to the Bromobile, they discuss that Max is probably lying because he sounded shady as fuck when he said everything in the house was normal and happy. I think that was partly the coma makeup making him seem shady, but sure. The boys head to his old house and find a man across the street, working on his yard. He remembers the family, and remembers Bro-In-Law living next door, too.
He wants to know if Max is okay, and Sam wonders what he means. Apparently, Max’s dad and brother-in-law were beating the crap out of him regularly, as his stepmom stood by and watched it all happen without saying anything. Friendly Overinformative Neighbor shares that he called the cops multiple times but nothing was ever done about it. Ahhh, government. The boys ask him about the stepmom thing, and he fills them in that Zelda is Max’s stepmom, and his actual mom died earlier, maybe in a car crash or something.
K: It’s not a real Snark Squad post without super shitty parenting!!
Sara: Sam’s premonition headache politely waits until Friendly Overinformative Neighbor is finished with his story to strike up again. Dean leads him away, and Sam snaps into a vision.
K: When this episode aired, my eyeball trauma and I had to hide in another room until this scene was over. Because NOPE TIMES INFINITY.
Sara: After the Not Commercial Break, the boys are in the Bromobile, heading to Max’s house. He explains that Max is Matilda-ing these deaths, and Dean is completely freaked out. Sam thinks that he was sent these visions because he’s similar to Max but Dean doesn’t see how. Sam says they both have psychic abilities, and Dean interrupts to say that Max is a psycho killer and is nothing like Sam. Sam doesn’t see it that way. With what he’s been through, the beatings and the negligent parenting, it’s not crazy to want revenge. Dean thinks that this isn’t different than any other hunt, because nothing makes murder okay. Dean lives in a world of black and white, y’all. He’s like, NOPE, LET’S KILL HIM, which is funny because that’s usually my first instinct when watching television. Especially if you have Olivia Pope’s team to handle it.
K: It’s interesting that Dean basically dehumanises Max the minute he finds out about the telekinesis. “Looks human, but it has a freaky side that made it kill people, so NOPE. IT’S KILLING TIME.”
Sara: It’s especially interesting considering that Sam has very similar abilities to Max, but Dean obviously doesn’t consider these two guys the same at all. Sam makes Dean promise that he’ll follow his lead and he agrees, but still tucks a gun into the back of his pants. The boys bust in the door right before Max telepathically picks up the knife. Zelda is like, “PRIESTS?” because she’s dumb. Sam asks to speak to Max outside, and although he’s suspicious, he agrees. On the way out the door, though, he catches a glimpse of Dean’s gun and freaks. He telepathically slams the doors and blinds shut before pulling the gun away from Dean and into his own hand.
Zelda tries to ask what he’s doing, but he telepathically slams her into a kitchen counter, knocking her out. He not-telepathically holds the gun up to the boys as Sam tries to calm him down. He tells him about the visions he’s seen and that he was drawn here to help him. He asks Max to let Dean take Zelda upstairs so they can talk. Dean isn’t cool with this idea, because he doesn’t want to leave his brother alone with The Crazy, but Sam insists.
Once Zelda and Dean are upstairs, Sam tells him that he can’t begin to understand what he went through when he was a kid, but that he needs to stop. Max is like, SKKKRT, when I was a kid? Uh, no. And then he shows him a huge ass bruise on his side, because apparently his dad was STILL beating him up. Max should really have gone to the other side of the country for college.
K: Or, you know, RUN THE FUCK AWAY FROM HOME????
Sara: Sam still thinks that Max should leave Zelda alone since she didn’t actually abuse him, but Max and I both agree that she’s as much to blame for letting it happen and not doing anything. I mean, not necessarily saying I would stab her in the eye with a knife, but I feel you and your special brand of crazy, Max.
Max says that when he first found out about his ability, it made him feel strong instead of being the weak little beat up boy. Sam wants to know why he didn’t just leave, and Max says that he couldn’t stand the idea of knowing they were still out there. His dad hated him and blamed him for his mom’s death his whole life. Sam wants to know why he would blame him for that, and Max fills him in: His mother died in his nursery in some insane fire, burned up while pinned to the ceiling. Sam’s throat works overtime as we cut to a Not Commercial Break.
K: Okay, John Winchester is still the shittiest parent of ever, but Max’s dad is pretty far up there too. At least John didn’t blame Sam for Mary’s death on account of, you know, HE WAS A FREAKING BABY…
Sara: After the Not Break, Sam emotionally fills Max in on how they’re kind of blood brothers because his mom died the same way. He assumes his premonitions had to have something to do with them being connected somehow. He asks if Max’s abilities started six or seven months ago (around the same time Sam’s started), and Max confirms that they did. Sam wants Max to talk with him and his brother, to figure out what their purpose is, but he has to let Zelda go to do it. Max is like, Yeah, no. Fuck that. He telepathically throws Sam into a closet and puts a desk in front of the door so he can’t escape.
Upstairs, Max walks in to a room, finding Zelda and Dean. He takes the gun out and aims it at Zelda. Dean, ever the hero, tells Max that if he wants to kill her, he’ll have to go through him first. Max says, “Okay,” and shoots Dean right in the head.
LUCKILY FOR US, IT WAS JUST A QUICK PREMONITION. Whew! Close call! Sam snaps back from his vision and telepathically throws the desk out of the way and busts through the closet door. SAM IS A TELEPATH, YOU GUYS. SO COOL! He throws open the door to the bedroom just in time to hear Dean being a hero and tells Max to stop because killing Zelda isn’t the solution and won’t fix anything. Max agrees, and turns the gun on himself, committing suicide. Oof. If the cops don’t think Zelda looks suspicious as fuck right now.
K: Lucky she’s got that bleeding head wound and those two witnesses to back up her story!
Sara: Later, the cops are at the house and Zelda is telling them the story, without the telepathy stuff, of course. She breaks down crying because she’s lost everyone, and the cop is like, Umm…. that’s my cue to leave. On their way out to the Bromobile, Sam shares that he feels terrible, like he could have done something to help save Max. Dean reassures him that there was nothing they could have done. Sam says that they’re lucky they have Papa Winchester, and Dean is surprised because he never thought he’d hear him say that. I suppose a psychopathic, physically and verbally abusive father will make anyone look like Father of the Year. Sam thinks they turned out okay, all things considered. That’s like saying, “Well, my mom kept us alive, so… points for her?”
Back at the Motel of the Week, Sam wonders if maybe the Fire Demon from the pilot didn’t want their mom and Jessica and Max’s mom, but wanted the babies: him and Max. They both have special abilities, so he wonders if the demon didn’t want to take them for some reason. Dean figures if that’s what it wanted, it would have just taken them. Sam also shares that he telepathically moved that desk. Dean tries to get him to bend a spoon, but Sam is like, Dude, that’s not how it works.
Sam wants to know why Dean isn’t worried that he’s going to turn out like Max, and Dean replies that he’s got something Max never had.
Sara: As they walk out the door, Dean very seriously says that he knows where they have to go now, because of Sam’s premonitions: Vegas. Rock out.
It’s so exciting to feel like we’re getting somewhere on the Big Story of the season with the Fire Demon! But man, it really feels like Sam was gypped when we see what Max got out of the deal. Telepathy totally trumps premonition headaches.
K: Just you wait, Sara Snow. Just you wait.
Next time: Hillbillies and guns on Supernatural S01 E1 -, The Benders.
I'm a 30-something with three kids who spends an embarrassing amount of time watching teen television dramas. There's a whole lot of Internet out there, and I plan on reading all of it before I die.
I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.
