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1.15 – The Benders

Details

1.15 – The Benders

DETAILS

Writers: John Shiban
Director: Peter Ellis
First aired: Tuesday February 14, 2006

Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) head to Minnesota where a young boy (guest star Ryan Drescher) witnesses a man vanish into thin air. Upon searching for clues, Sam is abducted by what he assumes is a supernatural being, and Dean is left to search frantically for his brother. However, both are stunned when they realize the kidnappers are human, and using the captives as human prey for a twisted hunting expedition.

The episode was written by John Shiban and directed by Peter Ellis.

Recap

RECAP

Mystery of the week
A little boy is watching monster movies late at night when he hears a noise. He sees a man out in the parking lot. The man stoops down to look under a car – and is dragged under it, screaming.

Information gathering
The guys pose as state troopers to get the boy’s story. He said he heard a strange noise – like a monster! The guys retreat to a seedy bar to talk things out. It may be a standard kidnapping, but Papa Winchester marked the area in his Big Book ‘o Spookiness – there are local legends about dark figures that come out of the night and snatch people, and this county has the highest number of missing persons of anywhere in the state. The guys decide to check it out. Sam wants to go rest up for an invigorating day of monster hunting, but Dean is less eager to go. Sam goes out to the parking lot alone. A little while later, Dean comes out of the bar, but can’t find Sam. He’s disappeared.

The search
Still posing as a state trooper, Dean goes to the local cops looking for help in finding Sam. Can he get the footage from the traffic cam outside the bar? Kathleen, the deputy, agrees to get it for him, after some wrangling. She finds footage of a rusty old camper truck. A nearby rustmobile makes old-car noises, and Dean has his monster. Now they’ve just got to find them. Sam wakes up in a cage with an electronic lock. He tries to batter his way out. The guy in the next cage is Jenkins, the man who disappeared. Sam wants to know what grabbed them. Just then, the monsters come in, and Sam is shocked to see they’re just people. They leave. Suddenly, Jenkins’ cage springs open. He decides to make a run for it and get help, despite Sam’s fears that something’s wrong. He finds a knife outside and take off running – until he’s blindsided by a hillbilly with a spear. He tries to keep running, but he’s eventually brought down – they’re hunting him for sport.

Revelations
Dean and Kathleen are searching the back roads for the pickup when Kathleen finds out Dean isn’t who he says he is. She’s prepared to take him back to the station and arrest him for identity theft, but Dean makes a heartfelt plea to find Sam first. Kathleen give in – her brother disappeared three years ago, never to be found, so she knows what Dean’s going through. They find a turnoff from the road. Dean wants to go with Kathleen to search, but she’s not having any of it – she cuffs him to the car. She goes to a decrepit house at the end of the road, where a dirty, scared-looking girl named Missy answers the door. Kathleen tries to talk to her, but she gets whacked from behind with a shovel. Dean hears someone coming down the road, and managed to pick the lock on the cuffs. He hides before the demented hillbillies see him.

Cage match
Kathleen wakes up in the cage next to Sam. She tells him Dean is looking for him, to Sam’s obvious relief. Dean appears and tries to break them out, but the electronic locking mechanism is triggered by a key. He goes to the house to look for it. PapaCreepy is hacking something up in the kitchen. Dean searches for the key, but he’s surprised by Missy. He pledges to help her, but she attempts to stab him and calls for reinforcements. Dean fights the Brothers Creepy, but is brought down from behind by Papa Creepy.

He wakes tied to a chair, where Papa Creepy tells him of the joyful tradition of hunting humans. It’s fun when you give them a fighting chance! He sends one of his sons down to shoot Dean and Kathleen in their cages. But Sam and Kathleen manage to jump him when he gets downstairs, so the two remaining men going looking for them, leaving Missy to guard Dean. Sam and Kathleen hide out in the barn and eventually get the jump on the murderous thugs. Sam leaves Kathleen guarding Papa Creepy and goes to rescue Dean. Why did you do it? Kathleen asks Papa Creepy. Because it’s fun! he replies. Wrong answer. He’s shot “trying to escape.” Kathleen tells them the state police and FBI area coming, so they should get going.

Dean tells Sam never to go missing again – next time he won’t look for him. Sam is touched that Dean was worried about him, but he’s even more amused that Dean got blindsided by a 13-year-old girl.

Guest Stars

GUEST STARS


John Dennis Johnston
as Pa Bender
imdb.com | gallery


Jessica Steen
as Sue Ann Grange
imdb.com | gallery


Jon Cuthbert
as Alvin Jenkins
imdb.com | gallery


Ken Kirzinger
as Jared Bender
imdb.com | gallery


Alexia Fast
as Missy Bender
imdb.com | gallery



Sadie Lawrence
as Mrs. McKay
imdb.com | gallery


Ryan Drescher

as Evan MacKay
imdb.com | gallery

Shawn Reis
as Lee Bender
imdb.com | gallery


Sandra Steier
Unknow
imdb.com | gallery


 

 

 

 

 

Gallery

IMAGE GALLERY

 

Official Episode Stills:

Full Episode Stills Gallery  

 

Episode Screen Caps:

Full Episode Screen Caps Gallery

Videos

TRAILER/CLIPS

Official Trailer

Music

MUSIC

Rocky Mountain Way” by Joe Walsh

Quotes

QUOTES 

Deputy Kathleen: And it just got back to me. Says here your badge was stolen. And there is a picture of you.
(shows him a picture of a large black man)
Dean: I lost some weight and I got that Michael Jackson skin disease…

Dean: Oh, you gotta be kiddin’ me. That’s what this is about? You yahoos hunt people?
Pa: But the best hunt is human. Oh, there’s nothin’ like it. Holdin’ their life in your hands. Seein’ the fear in their eyes just before they go dark. Makes you feel powerful alive.
Dean: You’re a sick puppy.

Kathleen: (about Sam) Does your cousin have a drinking problem?
Dean: Two beers and he’s doing karaoke.

Dean: Don’t ever do that again.
Sam: Do what?
Dean: Go missing like that.
Sam: You were worried about me!
Dean: I’m just saying, you vanish like that again and I’m not looking for you.
Sam: Sure you are.
Dean: No I’m not.

Dean: (talking about Sam) When we were young, I pretty much pulled him from a fire. And ever since then I’ve felt responsible for him, like it’s my job to keep him safe.

Deputy Kathleen: So you know his brother Dean Winchester died in St. Louis and was suspected of murder?
Dean: Yeah, Dean, kinda the black sheep of the family. Handsome, though.

Sam: So you got sidelined by a 13-year old girl?
Dean: Shut up.
Sam: I’m just saying, getting a little rusty there aren’t you, kiddo?
Dean: Shut up!

Deputy Kathleen: Your, uh… your cousin’s looking for you.
Sam: Thank god. Where is he?
Deputy Kathleen: I, uh… I cuffed him to my car

(trying to get out of handcuffs)
Dean: I gotta start carrying paperclips.

Pa Bender: So what, you with that pretty cop? Are you a cop?
Dean: If I tell you, will you promise not to make me into an ashtray?

Pa Bender: Tell me, any other cops gonna come lookin’ for you?
Dean: Oh, eat me! No, no, no…wait, wait. You actually might.

Sam: I was looking for you.
Jenkins: Oh yeah?
Sam: Yeah.
Jenkins: Well, no offense, but this is a piss-poor rescue.

Pa Bender: We never been that sloppy.
Dean: Yeah, well… don’t sell yourself short – you’re plenty sloppy

Pa Bender: Only reason I don’t let my boys take you right here and now is there’s something I need to know.
Dean: How about “It’s not nice to marry your sister”?

(looking at pictures of the family’s victims)
Dean: I’ll say it again. Demons I get, people are crazy!

Trivia

TRIVIA 

At 11:30 when Sam asks Alvin Jenkins where they are, the tip of the boom-mic is visible in the shot. At the top center, just to the right of the Alvin’s head.

In spite of the height mistake, the database lists Dean as being born January 24, 1979, died on March 6, 2006, and has brown hair and green eyes.

When Dean is handcuffed to the police car, we see him picking the lock of the cuff around his wrist, in the next shot when the Bender Boys come around the car, the handcuffs are gone. This would mean Dean had time to pick his own cuff, and the one attached to the door handle.

Sam’s record ID on the database search is DF-23094, but Dean’s also shows up as that. It is impossible for them both to have the same ID number.

When the Benders are talking to Dean, who is tied up to the chair, Lee is standing behind Pa, and he places his hands on his shoulders. In the next shot they are off. In the next, we see him placing them on Pa’s shoulders again. The last shot, they are on them like they had been there the whole time. They keep moving.

This is the first episode in the series where the villains are humans and they act on their own without the help of the supernatural.

This episode is the first which doesn’t feature a teaser at the beginning of the episode. Instead, it shows the “22 years ago” recap and then goes straight into the titles. All other episodes have a short teaser of the current story before the titles. 

ALLUSIONS

The Benders
Though their methods and motives for killing are different, the Benders in this episode share their name with another killer family. The “Bloody Benders” were a family of serial killers from Kansas, killing an estimated 21 people between 1872 and 1873.

Jenkins: They’re just a bunch of psycho hillbilly rednecks… lookin’ for love in all the wrong places.
Referring to the song “Looking for Love” from the album of the same name by country singer Johnny Lee.

Kid: Godzilla vs. Mothra.
Dean: That’s my favorite Godzilla! So much better than the original, right? (about Sam) He likes the remake.
Movies in the Godzilla franchise referenced here include Godzilla (1954), Godzilla vs. Mothra (1962), and a remake, possibly the 1984 Godzilla remake, the 1998 American Godzilla, or the 1992 remake of Godzilla vs. Mothra.

Dean: If I tell you, will you promise not to make me into an ashtray?
Real-life serial killer, Ed Gein, was infamous for using human body parts as pieces of furniture or decorations; among these were human skulls that had been turned into ashtrays.

Jenkins: Ned Beatty time, man.
Alluding to the 1972 movie Deliverance starring Ned Beatty along with Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, and Ronny Cox. They play four city men who go canoeing down a river in Georgia and run afoul of vicious mountain men.

Episode Schedule

Thu, Oct 10 15.01 - Back and to the Future - Season Premiere
Thu, Oc 17 15.02 - Raising Hell
Thu, Oct 24 15.03 - The Rupture
Thu, Nov 7 15.04 - Atomic Monsters
Thu, Nov 14 15.05 - Proverbs 17:3
Thu, Nov 21 15.06 - Golden Time
Thu, Dec 05 15.07 - Last Call
Thu, Dec 12 15.08 - Our Father, Who Aren’t In Heaven
Thu, Jan 16 2020 15.09 - The Trap
Thu, Jan 23 2020 15.10 - The Heroes' Journey
Thu, Jan 30 2020 15.11 - The Gamblers
Mon, March 16 2020 15.12 - Galaxy Brain
Mon, March 23 2020 15.13 - Destiny's Child
Thu, Oct 08 2020 15.14 - Last Holiday
Thu, Oct 15 2020 15.15 - Gimme Shelter
Thu, Oct 22 2020 15.16 - Drag Me Away (From You)
Thu, Oct 29 2020 15.17 - Unity
Thu, Nov 05 2020 15.18 - Despair
Thu, Nov 12 2020 15.19 - Inherit the Earth
Thu, Nov 19 2020 15.20 - Carry On - Series Finale

* This Schedule might change as new info come.

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