RECAP

Sam lies dead on a mattress as Dean watches over him. Bobby arrives with food but Dean isn’t interested. Dean refuses to bury Sam and no longer wants to hunt demons. He tells Bobby to get out

Jake is hiding out in the woods when he hears a whooshing demon and the Yellow-Eyed Demon confronts him and tells him that Jake has “won,” and he has a job for him. Jake reluctantly gives in.

Dean laments over Sam’s body about how he messed up protecting Sam. Finally he drives to a crossroads and prepares a demon-summoning ritual. The demon he dealt with earlier appears and he asks for Sam back and ten years in return for his soul. The demon isn’t impressed even when he goes down to five years. She still refuses until he offers her anything she wants. She relents and brings back Sam and gives him one year. Dean agrees and Sam wakes up, alive.

Dean returns to find Sam alive and with no memory of what happened. Dean doesn’t mention Sam died. Sam explains what happened but doesn’t mention what the Yellow-Eyed Demon told him. Dean finally tells Sam that the Roadhouse was destroyed as a result of what Ash found, and Sam insists they go meet with Bobby, who is finishing Ash’s work. They meet with Bobby, who is astonished at Sam’s recovery. Bobby has found an area in Wyoming where the demons are surrounding a particular spot. Bobby gets Dean alone and finds out about the one-year deal. Bobby isn’t thrilled but they’re interrupted when Ellen arrives, alive and well.

Bobby tests her with holy water and she passes. Ellen explains that she stepped out for pretzels, got a call from Ash, and returned to find the Roadhouse in ashes. There was a hidden safe in the basement and she reveals the map Ash hid there, a map of Wyoming. Bobby figures the marks on it show abandoned frontier churches built by Samuel Colt, who built the demon-killing Colt. There are private railway lines connecting the five churches, making a giant devil’s trap a hundred square miles large. They figure the demons are trying to penetrate the barrier to get what Colt tried to protect. Bobby warns that no demon could get through, but Sam knows who could.

Jake arrives at the rail lines where the Yellow-Eyed Demon tells him to open a crypt at the center of the devil’s trap. He gives Jake the Colt after telling him it can be used to kill him. Jake aims the gun but the Yellow-Eyed Demon first taunts him then promises him that he and his family will be set for life if he does what is needed. Once the crypt is open, Jake can lead the army of demons with his family protected and treated as royalty. Jake considers it… and relents. He goes to the cemetery at the center, where Dean, Sam, Bobby, and Ellen are waiting for him. Jake says how he killed Sam and Sam realizes what Dean did. Jake just chuckles then tells Ellen to put the gun to her head. She does so under Jake’s newly developed mind control. The guys drop their guns long enough for Jake to get to the vault and open it using the Colt as a key, before Sam shoots him. Sam then moves in and ruthlessly disposes of Jake.

Everyone looks on as the vault opens on its own. Dean grabs the gun and they all duck for cover as massive occult energies shoot forth out of the vault.

Ellen reveals that the gate is a portal to Hell as demonic forces spew out. Dean realizes the Colt is loaded but the Yellow-Eyed Demon takes it from him and sends it flying while the others try to close the gate. Sam comes after him but the Yellow-Eyed Demon holds him back and holds Dean down. He then explains that now he has Sam back, and suggests that what came back isn’t 100% Sam. The Demon thanks him and then prepares to kill him, but John appears out of the gate and fights with the Demon. Dean’s had enough time to grab the Colt and shoot the Yellow-Eyed Demon, destroying it once and for all. Bobby and Ellen close the gate and John smiles his approval at his sons before dissipating.

Sam wonders what’s left for them while Dean tells the Demon’s corpse that they killed him for their mother’s sake. Sam wonders about what Jake said and wants to know what Dean did. Dean puts him off but finally admits he has one year. Sam insists he’d do the same for Dean and he’ll get him out of it. They figure 100-200 demons got out through the gate and Bobby warns the war has just begun. Dean put the Colt in the trunk and announces, “We got work to do.”

GUEST STARS

Recurring Role: Samantha Ferris (Ellen Harvelle)

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (John Winchester)

Jim Beaver (Bobby Singer)

Guest Star:

Kaare Anderson

Ona Grauer (Female Demon)

Fredric Lehne (The Yellow-Eyed Demon)

Aldis Hodge (Jake)

IMAGE GALLERY

Episode Stills

Episode Screen Captures

TRAILER/CLIPS

Promo

MUSIC

“Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas
“Don’t Look Back” by Boston

QUOTES

Yellow-Eyed Demon: If you’re gonna open that crypt for me, you’re gonna need a key. (pulls out the Colt)
Jake: A gun?
Yellow-Eyed Demon: Oh, this isn’t just any gun, Jake. This is the only gun in the whole universe that can shoot me dead.
Jake: Is that so?
Yellow-Eyed Demon: Yep. Here, take it. (Jake aims the gun at the Yellow-Eyed Demon) Oh my. I’m shocked at this unforeseen turn of events.

Dean: (to Sam’s body) When you were little, couldn’t have been more than five, you just started asking questions. How come we didn’t have a mom. Why did we always have to move around. Where’s Dad. I remember I begged you. ‘Quit asking, Sammy. You don’t want to know.’ I just wanted you to be a kid. Just for a little while longer. Always tried to protect you. Keep you safe. Dad didn’t even have to tell me. It’s just always my responsibility, you know? It’s like I had one job. I had one job, and I screwed it up. I blew it, and for that, I’m sorry. I guess that’s what I do. I let down the people I love. Y’know, I let Dad down, and now I guess I’m just supposed to let you down, too. How can I? How am I supposed to live with that? What am I supposed to do? Sammy? What am I supposed to do?

Female Demon: Then no deal.
Dean: Fine.
Female Demon: Fine. Make sure you bury Sam before he starts stinking up the joint.

Dean: Stop, Sam, stop! Damn it. ‘Kay, you almost died in there. What would I have… can’t you just take care of yourself for a little bit? Huh, just a little bit?
Sam: I’m sorry, no.

Dean: Dad brought me back, Bobby, I’m not even supposed to be here. At least this way something good can come out of it, y’know, it’s like my life can mean something.
Bobby: What? And it didn’t before? Have you got that low an opinion of yourself? Are you that screwed in the head?

Yellow-Eyed Demon: I have a genius in my hands.

TRIVIA

• During the opening scene, if you look closely, Sam appears to be breathing, even though he is supposedly “dead”.
• It is odd that the pentagram in the Devil’s Gate is turned upright (direction for protection) when the Gate is opened, but when it is closed, the pentagram is upside down (meaning the exact opposite of an upright pentagram).
• Why didn’t the Yellow-Eyed Demon just ask Jake to simply destroy a small portion of the railroad lines? It would have broken the pentagram, and permitted him to cross it himself–and allowed him to not have to entrust the colt to Jake.
• When the Yellow-Eyed Demon is talking to Dean you can notice some big light rings, it is like projectors that were used to illuminate the scene.
• It is the second time the song Carry on My Wayward Son by Kansas is used in the show. It was first used in “Salvation” (season 1 episode 21) over the opening sequence showing what previously happened during the first season. The song is used again in the opening sequence of this episode showing what previously happened during the first two seasons.
• This episode was nominated for a 2008 Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing in Television: Short Form – Sound Effects and Foley.
• Dean said “We’ve got work to do” as he closed the trunk of the Impala. Sam said the same thing as he shut the Impala’s trunk at the end of the pilot episode. Not to mention that, in the pilot episode, Sam was standing on the left and Dean was standing on the right (and Sam was the one who dropped the gun into the trunk and closed it); in the season finale of this season, the brothers were standing on opposite sides and Dean was the one who dropped the gun into the trunk and closed it.

ALLUSIONS

• Yellow-Eyed Demon: Well congratulations, Jake. You’re it. You’re the last man standing, the American Idol.
  This is an allusion to the popular American singing TV show, American Idol, first released in 2002. In this show, thousands of people from all over the country come to audition for one spot as the American Idol. Millions of people vote to keep their favorite singer in the running for the title.

Forum