RECAP

Synopsis

Dean discovers that Samuel Colt may have what they need to defeat Eve. Since Colt lived in the 19th century, the brothers ask Castiel to send them back in time to learn what they need.

Full Recap

Sunrise, Wyoming: March 5, 1861

The townspeople watch as two men step out into the middle of the street. One of them is Dean. The two men draw and fire.

48 Hours and 150 Years Earlier

Dean, Sam, and Bobby search the Campbell compound and find a hidden chamber with books on arcane lore. They look for ways to kill Eve and find a reference to the ashes of the phoenix. Finally they find a reference to Colt’s gun using the phoenix ashes in 1861 at Sunrise, Wyoming, to destroy a monster… in Samuel Colt’s own journal. Dean figures they can go back in time and calls upon Castiel. Another angel, Rachel, arrives on Castiel’s behalf and explains that he is busy. She isn’t impressed with the urgency and accuses them of only calling Castiel when they need him. Rachel starts ranting at them, but Castiel arrives and tells her to leave. Once she leaves, Castiel explains that Rachel is his lieutenant, and committed to the cause.

The Winchesters explain what they need and Dean goes on a supply run. Castiel warns that they only have 24 hours, and the further he sends them back, the harder it is to retrieve them. Dean arrives with Western clothing and insists that they’ll have to wear it. Sam objects, noting that his brother is obsessed with Western movies, but reluctantly agree. Castiel then sends them to 1861 and then tells Bobby to pray for him in 24 hours and he’ll return.

Sam sets the timer on his watch and they head into town to find a saloon. They arrive to see the townsfolk hanging Elias Finch, a man who murdered his wife. The judge, Tye Mortimer, passes sentence and Elias tells them that they’ll all burn for killing him. Unimpressed, the executioner pulls the lever and hangs Elias. Afterward, the brothers approach the sheriff, Xxx, and claim to be lawmen. Xxx has no idea where Colt is, and tells them to talk to the saloon keeper, Elkins. At the saloon, they talk to Elkins, who says that Colt is busy at the site where they know the Devil’s Trap will be built, 20 miles away. A prostitute, Darla, hits on Sam, but Judge Mortimer arrives and interrupts them to take Darla on their “date.”

While Sam and Dean drink, Mortimer gets into bed with Darla. She looks up in horror and screams, and runs to the door, while Finch grabs the judge’s chest and incinerates him. The Winchesters hear the scream and run upstairs, and find nothing but ash. The sheriff arrives to investigate, noting that the killer left footprints. Darla says that she saw Elias, and the sheriff figures that the rope didn’t kill him. He gathers a posse and asks Sam and Dean to come with them. They readily agree, and then go to corpse. They discover that he has broken out of his grave, and they wonder if Finch is the phoenix they’re looking for. Dean suggests that Sam find Colt and get the gun so they can use it to kill Finch. Sam reluctantly mounts up and gallops away.

The sheriff is preparing to leave when his horse starts bucking. Finch emerges from the shadows and the sheriff shoots him without effect. He begs for Finch’s forgiveness, but Finch grabs him and reduces him to ash.

Rachel summons Castiel to a warehouse and asks if what she’s been hearing about his secret is true. He insists that he has to defeat Raphael, but Rachel warns him that he’s turning into something different. Castiel says that he doesn’t have a choice and Rachel attacks him with an angel-killing knife. He manages to stab and kill her, and then clutches at the wound she inflicted on him. He gets back to Bobby’s house and inscribes a rune on the refrigerator in his own blood before collapsing.

Dean returns to the saloon the next morning and learns that the sheriff is dead. Elkins picks up the sheriff’s badge and pins it on Dean.

Two demons track down Colt in his cabin, and he tells them that he’s too old to be looking for any trouble. They want him to open the Devil’s Gate and Col tells them to walk away. When they refuse, he draws and kills them.

Dean goes to the room of the deputy and asks why he wasn’t at the posse. The deputy is packing to leave and Dean points out that Finch said the deputy would be his third victim. He wants the deputy as bait.

Sam arrives at Colt’s cabin and explains to the gunsmith that he’s a hunter from the year 2011. Colt asks for proof and readily accepts Sam’s cell phone as proof, but isn’t impressed. Sam shows him his journal from the future and explains that he’ll shoot a phoenix in three hours. Colt warns that he’s retired, and Sam says that he’s a hero in 2011 and they need to kill the phoenix to use the ashes to kill Eve. When it’s clear Colt won’t come with him, Sam asks for the gun, and Colt tells him he lost it in a game of poker. Sam knows that he’s lying, having seen the demon footprints and smelled the sulphur. However, Colt warns that it’s a curse and won’t turn it over.

With an hour remaining, Castiel wakes up and claims that Rachel betrayed him to Raphael. He explains that the rune is a warding symbol against angels, and that he’ll soon heal. However, Castiel tells Bobby that in his weakened condition, he can’t bring Sam and Dean back. When Bobby asks what he can use to power himself up, Castiel explains that he can touch Bobby’s soul and use the energy to bring the brothers back. However, it’s a delicate procedure and if he doesn’t do it just right, Bobby will explode. Bobby agrees.

Dean takes the deputy to the jail and locks him up. As it draws close to noon, Dean asks the deputy why Finch wants personal revenge. Finch comes in and Dean invites him to break open the cell. When Finch hesitates, Dean figures that the iron in the bars repels him and tosses him an iron nail to confirm that he is vulnerable to it. Finch tells Dean that he was married to a human woman and didn’t bother anyone. The deputy raped his wife, shoot him, and then shot the wife. The sheriff put him in iron shackles, allowing them to hang him. Dean demands the truth from the deputy, who doesn’t say anything. Finch asks if Dean is willing to die to protect the man, and Dean says that he has no choice but to kill Finch. Finch grabs a gun and shoots the deputy, and Dean leaps out the window.

On the street, Finch hunts down Dean, who hides in an alleyway. Sam arrives and explains that Colt wouldn’t come, but gave him the gun. He gives it to Dean.

With two minutes left, Castiel prepares to touch Bobby’s soul.

Dean goes out onto the street and calls Finch out. They open fire, and Dean shoots and kills Finch, who explodes into ashes. Dean and Sam run to grab the ashes… just as Castiel pulls them back to the present. Castiel is in no condition to send them back. There’s a knock on the door and a delivery man arrives with a package. He says that someone left a package for Sam with a note saying it there today. It’s from Samuel Colt. Sam takes it and opens it with the others. Inside is Sam’s cell phone and a bottle of the phoenix ashes. Dean figures that now they can take the fight to Eve.

GUEST STARS

	Misha Collins	…	Castiel
	Jim Beaver	…	Bobby Singer
	Sam Hennings	…	Samuel Colt
	Matthew John Armstrong	…	Elias Finch / Phoenix
	Scott Hylands	…	Judge Tye Mortimer
	Dean Wray	…	Sheriff
	Sonya Salomaa	…	Rachel
	Gordon Michael Woolvett	…	Deputy
	April Telek	…	Darla
	Frank C. Turner	…	Elkins
	Jim Shield	…	Demon Cowboy #1
	Stephen Bradley Jones	…	Demon Cowboy #2 (as Steve Bradley)
	Howard Siegel	…	Old Man at Hanging

IMAGE GALLERY

Episode Stills

Episode Screen Captures

Behind the Scenes

TRAILER/CLIPS

Promo – Clip – Preview

MUSIC

“Reprise” by Federale
(plays during the opening title card)

“Hero” by Federale
(plays at various points in the episode)

“The Hanging” by Federale
(plays during the showdown between Elias and Dean)

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QUOTES

Castiel: Um, about your plan. You’ll only have 24 hours.
Sam: Wait, what? Why?
Castiel: Well, the answer to your question can best be expressed as a series of partial differential equations.
Bobby: Yeah, aim lower.
Castiel: The further back I send you, the harder it becomes to retrieve you. 24 hours is all I can risk. If I don’t pull you home within that time, you’ll be lost to me.

Dean: Think we’ll have time to hit on saloon girls? I’m kidding. Come on.

Elkins: Darla’s my best girl.
Darla: Try me. You want a kiss?
Dean: S-so much more germier than I pictured.

Dean: I’ll stay here, hook up with the posse. ‘Cause you know me — I’m a posse magnet. I mean, I love posse. Make that into a t-shirt.

Sam: You Samuel Colt? My name is Sam Winchester. I’m — I’m a hunter from the year 2011.
Colt: Prove it.
[Sam shows Colt his Blackberry]
Colt: All right.
Sam: A-all right? That’s — uh, that’s it?
Colt: Well, when you’ve done this job as long as I have… a giant from the future with some magic brick doesn’t exactly give you the vapors.

Castiel: The human soul — it’s pure… energy. If I can siphon some of that off, I-I might be able to bring Sam and Dean back.
Bobby: And the catch is…?
Castiel: Doing this is like…putting your hand in a nuclear reactor. I have to do it very gingerly.
Bobby: Or…?
Castiel: Or you’ll explode.
Bobby: Well. Keep both hands on the wheel. Let’s do this.

Elais: You want to call me ‘monster,’ fine. But all we did was go into town. I go into the bank for five minutes. I come out, she’s gone. And then I heard her scream. This… man had her pinned in the alley. I go to stop him, he pulls his gun, shoots me, then her. She died in my arms. ‘Course, I don’t die. The shots brought the Sheriff. Next thing I know, I’m in iron. That’s why I want him just where he is — trapped, scared. I saved the best for last.
Dean: Is that true?
Elias: So tell me — are you really willing to die to protect this piece of filth?
Dean: Honestly, I could care less about him. He’s a dick and a coward.

TRIVIA

“Frontierland,” the name of the episode, is also the name of one of the themed lands at Disneyland, which is a Disney version of the 19th century Old West. It features the rides Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The original title of the episode was “Gallows Pole,” which is a song based on an old folk song about a woman trying to buy her freedom from the executioner. Versions Dean would like are by Leadbelly and most famously by Led Zeppelin.

 
The opening titles are different from normal and are an homage to the 1960s Western series Bonanza, see its opening titles here. See the title card entry for other Supernatural episodes with unique credits.

 
Much of the music in the episode is inspired by the work of Ennio Morricone in Leone’s Dollars trilogy. See here for examples. The music played over during the credits is somewhat similar to Ennio Morricone’s “The Ecstasy of Gold,” a piece he wrote for the Clint Eastwood movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Watch the scene here. “The Musical Pocket Watch” theme which is similar to what plays once the boys return home empty-handed.

A Western episode has been discussed in relation to Supernatural for years. Jensen has often talked about the Western genre being his favorite and that he’d love to appear in a Western movies (Source). After this episode Jensen said “I sent a picture to my father [from this episode], and he wrote back, ‘You’ve been rehearsing this scene since you were six.’”
At Comic-Con 2008, both Jensen and Jared said they’d love to do a Western episode, and Jensen pointed out that the show already is a modern version of a Western, with Sam and Dean as cowboys. Jared mentioned that he couldn’t see the boys in spurs and cowboy hats. “Assless chaps?” Kripke asked. “Yes, please,” Jensen responded. Video of the panel. At the beginning of season four, Jensen again said in an interview he’d like to see a Western episode.

Dean: Wow. All right, well, what are we looking for?
Bobby: Anything that’ll put a run in the Octomom’s stockings. Pick a row.

A reference to Nadya Suleman, dubbed “Octomom” in the media after giving birth to octuplets.

Bobby: Bingo. Either of you jokers ever heard anything about a phoenix?
Dean: River, Joaquin or the giant flaming bird?

Dean is referring to actors and brothers, Joaquin Phoenix and the late River Phoenix, as well as the mythological bird of fire and symbol of rebirth, the phoenix.

Dean: I know where we can find one: March 5th, 1861, Sunrise, Wyoming. We’ll Star Trek IV this, bitch.
Bobby: I only watch Deep Space Nine.
Dean: It’s like I don’t even know you guys anymore. Star Trek IV. Save the whales.

The plot of Star Trek IV: The Voyage home involves the crew of the Enterprise going back in time to 1986 to find some humpback whales that they need to communicate with an alien probe.
Bobby must’ve at least seen the second Star Trek movie, because in 6.16 …And Then There Were None, he got Dean’s reference to the Khan Worm.
Jim Beaver’s late wife Cecily Adams portrayed the Ferengi Ishka on Deep Space Nine. The reference in the script was originally to Star Trek: The Next Generation, but Jim asked for it to be changed: “It was coincidence in the first draft when it was Next Generation, but deliberate when I asked to change it to Deep Space Nine.

Dean: We got a guy who can swing it. Castiel. The, uh, fate of the world is in the balance. So, come on down here. Come on, Cas, I Dream of Jeannie your ass down here pronto. Please.

In the classic ’60s comedy I Dream of Jeannie the genie, called Jeannie, had to appear when her master, Major Nelson, summoned her.

Rachel: I’m sure your issue’s very important. But Castiel is currently commanding an army, so —
Dean: So we get stuck with Miss Monneypenny.

In the James Bond novels and movies, Jane Moneypenny is the secretary to M, Bond’s boss.

Sam: You can recite every Clint Eastwood movie ever made, line for line.
Bobby: Even the monkey movies?
Sam: Yeah. Especially the monkey movies.
Dean: His name is Clyde. At least wear the damn shirt.

The “monkey movies” refer to an under appreciated part of Eastwood’s filmography which is part of the human/animal buddy genre of movies. He made two of these movies, the 1978 Every Which Way but Loose and the 1980 sequel Any Which Way You Can, which featured Eastwood with an orangutan sidekick called Clyde.

Castiel: Now, is it — is it customary to wear a blanket?
Dean: It’s a serape. And, yes. It’s, uh… Never mind. Let’s just go.

The serape is a traditional Mexican Poncho. It was worn by the iconic character “the Man with No Name” that Eastwood played in Sergio Leone’s movies.

Dean: Hey, we should try the Saloon first, uh, see what we get from the locals.
Sam: Sure. Whatever, Sundance.

Sam is teasingly referring to Dean as ‘Sundance’ in reference to the Sundance Kid who was a member of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch. Their story was immortalized in the classic 60’s bromantic Western.
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, where Sundance was played by Robert Redford.
It’s worth noting that the real Sundance was called Harry Longabuagh, and he gained his nickname from the town in which he was first imprisoned – Sundance, Wyoming. This episode is set in Sunrise, Wyoming.

The scene of Sam stepping in horse manure may be a shout out to Back to the Future Part III, where Marty McFly also accidentally steps in horse manure. This episode also parallels Back to the Future III in that it centers around traveling back in time to the Old West. Marty uses Clint Eastwood as a name, just like Dean, and also wears an Eastwood-esque serape.

 
The woman who hits on Dean at the bar has a sore on her lip, a symptom of oral herpes or syphilis.

 
Sam: Guess it’s good to be judge.

A possible reference to the much-repeated catchphrase “It’s good to be the king,” from Mel Brooks’s History of the World Part I.

Dean: Marshall Eastwood. Clint Eastwood. This here is, uh, Walker. He’s a Texas Ranger.

Clint Eastwood came to fame through his role in Sergio Lenone’s 1960’s Dollars trilogy – A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Eastwood went onto make other Westerns, as well as the hard-assed Dirty Harry cop movies.
In 1992 Eastwood returned to the Western, directing and producing Unforgiven, the tale of a retired gunfighter reluctantly returning for one last job. Often referred to as a noir Western due to its dark tone and unsentimental take on the genre, it won four Academy Awards. 6.13 Unforgiven, where Sam is drawn back to face his violent soulless past, is named for this film.
Marty McFly also takes on the alias of Clint Eastwood in the third installment of the Back to the Future series, in which he travels back in time to 1885.
Walker, Texas Ranger was a 1990s action series starring Chuck Norris as a Texas Ranger named Cordell Walker, who believes in the code of the Old West and is a martial arts expert.

Dean: Candygram for Mongo!

This is a quote from Blazing Saddles. Mongo was a character played by Alex Karras in the movie.

Dean: Missed you at the posse this morning. I was a one-man wolfpack, thanks to you. What’s going on here?

A reference to The Hangover. You can watch Alan’s wolfpack speech here.

Samuel Colt is shown to be left-handed. This was rather unusual at the time because sinistrality was looked down upon and left-handed children were often re-educated to use their right hand instead.

 
Samuel Colt: You go put on a few more miles, then come back and we’ll talk.
Sam: Trust me, I’ve got plenty of mileage.

This may be an indirect reference to a famous line from Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones says “It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage.”

Bobby: Cas, you — you look like you went 12 rounds with Truckasaurus. What happened?

“Truckasaurus is a car destroying robot dinosaur Simpsons parody of [1]

Bobby: Well, good…’Cause we got less than an hour before you pick up the kids at Frontierland.

As mentioned above, Frontierland refers to the 19th Wild West themed land at Disneyland. Bobby saying it is, of course, a nod to the episode’s title.

Castiel: Are you sure?
Bobby: Well, we can’t just strand those idjits in Deadwood can we?

Deadwood was a TV series in which Jim Beaver played a prospector called Ellsworth.

Dean: Yippie Ki Yay, motherf…

“Yippie Ki Yay, motherfuckers” is a catchphrase of Bruce Willis’ John McClane in the Die Hard movies. Here’s a compilation video of him saying it.

Bobby: I’m still kicking, Annie Oakley. Be back good as new in… a decade or two.

Annie Oakley was a sharp- and trick shooter from Ohio, who lived from 1860 until 1926. She started shooting and hunting at the age of 8 to support her family and later became internationally known for her talent, performing for royalty and touring with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.

The end of the episode, where Sam receives a package from Samuel Colt, is a direct reference to the end of Back to The Future Part II. At the end of the movie, a courier from Western Union arrives minutes after Doc Brown has disappeared in the DeLorean after being struck by lightening. The courier gives Marty a letter, sent 70 years ago, with instructions for it to be delivered at that exact day and time. It is from Doc, who has been trapped in 1885 after the lightning strike caused the DeLorean to malfunction. It is also possibly an homage to Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, in which a witch receives a package from her ancestor several centuries after her death.

 
This episode was shot before, and originally planned to air before 6.17 My Heart Will Go On but the order was switched due to the amount of post-production worked required on this episode. This explains why Sam and Dean are unconcerned about the ramifications of traveling back in time following the events with the Titanic.

 
This is the seventh episode ever in which the Impala is not seen. The other episodes are 2.07 The Usual Suspects, 2.18 Hollywood Babylon, 4.12 Criss Angel Is a Douchebag, 4.17 It’s a Terrible Life, 4.22 Lucifer Rising and 5.18 Point of No Return.

 
The bag of gold jewelry the boys take back in time is the loot they took from the dragons in 6.12 Like a Virgin.

 
The name of the Saloon owner is Elkins, and he is said to know Samuel Colt. He may be an ancestor of hunter Daniel Elkins, who is the owner of the Colt when it first appears in 1973 in 4.03 In the Beginning. In this podcast director Guy Norman Bee describes a scene in the director’s cut that was removed for time. Dean and Sam are walking from the sheriff’s office to the saloon and while Dean removes his bolo tie they discuss the name Elkins and wonder if he is a relative of the hunter their Dad knew.

 
The uniform of the courier who delivers Samuel Colt’s package to Sam in 2011 has the same name and logo as the postal service in Sunrise, WY in 1860: Western Courier, with a courier riding a horse.
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