Supernatural Recap: 4.03 In the Beginning

Supernatural 4.03 In The Beginning Images.

4.03 In the Beginning
Original Air Date: 02 October 2008

As Sam sneaks out of the motel to go to work with Ruby, Dean sleeps restlessly. He wakes from his violent images to find Castiel on the side of the bed. Castiel tells him that he has to stop it, and touches his forehead. Dean finds himself on a bench, in a strange town. His cellphone can’t find a signal. So, he heads into Jaybird’s Diner, across the street.

A stranger next to him in the diner tells Dean he’s in Jaybird’s Diner in Lawrence, KS. The guy jokes that Dean’s cellphone would only work on

Dean: Can you, uh, tell me where I can get reception on this thing?
Stranger: USS Enterprise.
Dean: [to retro-looking server] Thanks. Nice threads. You know Sonny and Cher broke up, right?
Stranger: Sonny and Cher broke up?

Dean looks around and realizes he’s in 1973. The stranger turns out to be John Winchester.

Castiel tells Dean that angels can bend time –time being fluid. He reiterates that Dean has to stop it, then disappears.

We then see John looking to buy a VW Bus. Dean, sitting on the 67 Impala, tells him that’s not the one he wants. John is receptive to Dean’s encouragement to look at the Impala, but says he promised someone that he’d get the van.

John: John Winchester. And thanks.
Dean: Dean Van Halen.

John takes the Impala. Dean follows him, in a yellow Pinto, to where John picks up Mary, and heads to a restaurant. While Dean is watching through the window,

Dean: Sammy, wherever you are, Mom is a babe. I’m going to Hell… again.

Mary excuses herself from John, then sneaks up on Dean, roughs him up, and asks why he’s following them. Dean notices her charm bracelet, covered with crosses and occult charms –protective occult charms. “Are you a hunter?”

After John takes her home, Mary meets Dean and introduces him to her parents, Samuel and Deanna Campbell. Samuel says he doesn’t trust other hunters, but Deanna invites Dean to dinner. To Mary, Dean curiously notes his granparents’ names “Samuel and Deanna?”

Samuel’s working a hunting “job” at the Whitshire farm, where Tom Whitshire got caught in his combine. This is curious because his crops were dead. Samuel and Mary go to investigate. Mary excuses herself to talk to a boy leaning against a tree. Samuel, dressed as a priest, goes to the front door. The door opens to reveal Beth Whitshire and her guest, Dean dressed as a priest.

Charlie, the boy at the tree, tells Mary and Dean that his dad would drink and beat his mother. A stranger came, about a week ago, asked if he wanted the beatings to stop. [Charlie's "beatings to stop" line is confusing in execution.] Next thing he knows, his father’s dead. The stranger said he would be back in ten years, and would want something then. He says he had pale yellow eyes. [Dunh-dunh-duuuuuuuunnnnh!]

Samuel is not convinced when Dean tells him that he knows who the yellow eyed demon is, and that he can kill him with the Colt that Daniel Elkins has in Colorado. Dean pulls out John’s notebook, and looks through his journal of killings from 1973, with plans to track down the demon.

Mary tells Dean that she knows John’s going to propose. She says John is sweet and kind. She is willing to run away from home to be with him and away from hunting. She wants to be safe, and have a family, and hates the idea of raising her children up “into this life”. Dean pleads with Mary not to get out of bed on November 2, 1983, no matter what she hears or sees.

Dean is heading to Colorado, when Castiel shows up in his passenger seat. He tells Dean that he needs to do it alone, without Sam. He also says Sam isn’t looking for him. [Foreshadowing.] He asks Dean if he cares that all the people he saves will die if he alters the future, and his family never becomes hunters. Dean insists that he cares, but this is his family.

Elkins finds Dean stealing the Colt from his safe. Dean convinces Elkins to let him leave with the pistol.

Samuel tells Mary that Dean was going to head the demon off at Liddy Walsh’s house. Concerned, since Liddy is one of her friends, they go to help. Azazel is already at Liddy’s house, promising to save someone, whose cancer had metasthasized. She’s about to make the deal, when Mary and Samuel show up. They fight Azazel, who tells Mary that he likes her for her spunk. Dean shows up with the Colt, and the demon leaves the man’s body, heading into a wall vent.

As Dean and Mary talk outside, Samuel comes out of the house last. Back at the Cambell’s, Dean tells Samuel that he’s Mary’s son. Samuel says he believes Dean, asks how he’s going to find the demon, and if he has the Colt. He asks to see it, but Dean is hesitant. “Samuel” reveals that he’s possessed by Azazel, and telepathically pins Dean and his chair to the back wall. They have words, and Dean says he’s going to kill Azazel. Azazel asks, if he’s Mary’s son, is he one his psychic kids, or does he have a sibling. He tells Dean that he needs them for his plan, and feeds them his own blood. He says he’ll cover his tracks well. Dean tells Azazel that he, himself, kills him in the future. Azazel tells him he can’t save his grandfather, then plunges a knife into his stomach. Azazel hears Deanna in the dining room, catches her, and snaps her neck. He exits, and Dean makes chase.

Azazel –as Samuel- finds John getting ready to propose to Mary in the Impala. He snapps John’s neck, and tells Mary that he’s also killed her parents. He offers to bring John back, and give her the picket fence life she wants. When he mentions the 10-year payment plan, he promises that, as long as he’s not interrupted, no one gets hurt.

Dean catches up to see Mary kissing Azazel –still in Samuel’s body. As Dean draws the Colt on him, the demon black clouds it out, leaving Samuel’s body lying on the ground.

Castiel shows up. Dean awakes in the hotel. He tells Castiel that he didn’t change any of it. Castiel said he couldn’t have stopped it. He sent him back for the truth, so he knows everything that “they” do. He says they know what Azazel did to Sam, but not why. Azazel has covered his tracks, so they don’t know what his end-game is.

Castiel tells Dean where Sam is, and that he’s headed down a dangerous path. He needs to stop it, or “we will.”

• Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester
• Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester
• Genevieve Cortese as Ruby (Kristy)
• Misha Collins as Castiel
• Matt Cohen as Young John Winchester
• Amy Gumenick as Young Mary Winchester
• Allison Hossack as Deanna Campbell
• Mitch Pileggi as Samuel Campbell

Tags: 4.02, 4.03, 4x02, episode, in the beginning, John Winchester, kristie, kristy, Mary Winchester, recap, review, supernatural