After averting yet another apocalypse and sustaining heavy personal losses, the Winchesters try to get back to normal by taking a case involving the murder of one girl and the disappearance of another.
The boys struggle to find meaning from a life of manipulation and embrace their newfound free will. Before the main case, Dean provides some comic relief by tricking Sam into eating real bacon and proclaims himself the Meat Man (Sam: “It doesn’t mean what you think it means.”).
They head to a town suffering from cattle mutilations, followed by the brutal murder of one girl and the disappearance of another. Here they encounter high school drama, exasperated teachers, and type-A helicopter parents before discovering a vampire fang in the remains of the murdered girl.
But why would a vampire mutilate the body? Perhaps to hide the true purpose of her death.
Their first suspect is the new head of the cheerleading team, but despite her political maneuverings and fake grief, she can’t be the vampire because her braces would prevent her from “fanging out.”
The next step – which you would think should be their first step – is to check the security footage from the parking lot. They witness the kidnapping of the second girl by a masked assailant, followed a few minutes later by a car leaving the premises.
They track the license plate to the owner, the husband of the ruthless helicopter mom and father of a Yale-bound son. The missing girl is in the basement, being slowly bled to death. Sam saves her while Dean guards the father, who has basically given himself up.
But it’s not the dad who is the vampire, its the son Billy, and his parents are willing to take the fall for him. Billy is a good kid and he never wanted any of this, least of all the kidnapped girl. Despite his parents’ desperate attempt to save him, he gives himself up to Sam and Dean, who take him to the woods for execution.
Sam and Dean seem to run on opposite cycles – whenever Dean has lost hope, Sam is there with a positive outlook to pull him through – but now that Dean has rediscovered his purpose, its Sam that’s having a hard time.
Dean says that they owe it to anyone who ever gave a damn about them to put one foot in front of the other. But Sam is battling some heavy depression. Now that they’re free is when he feels the most burden, haunted by the people they’ve lost.
Meanwhile, Chuck has been weakened by the Equalizer bullet – which also connects him to Sam in some way but unbeknownst to either of them – and has been rejected by his sister Amara (Emily Swallow) when he seeks her help. He visits his ex-girlfriend Becky (Emily Perkins) for guidance, who begrudgingly lets him in and helps life coach him.
She inspires him to start writing again, but when his first attempt lacks real stakes and drama, he writes a version that is dark and terrible. He makes Becky and her family disappear – not dead, just away – and gets back to writing.
Something sinister is coming for the Winchesters, particularly for Sam, and it’s implied that Sam’s depression is a product of Chuck’s grand plan. The Winchesters are still just toys for God to play with.
Supernatural airs Thursdays at 8/7c on the CW.