Until the silence is broken by a frantic looking blond woman, running through the hallway at top speed, locking herself in her bedroom and barricading herself inside. Feeling safe, she approaches the bed…only to be grabbed from underneath, clawing at the floorboards to save herself, ultimately in vain. As she’s dragged under, the nightstand falls to reveal a picture of…her and JOHN WINCHESTER?! WTFOMGBBQ?! That was a nice shocker if ever there was one.

 

Cut to the boys, Sam brushing his teeth while leaning against the front of the Impala while Dean sleeps in the front seat. Once Dean wakes up — hungry, of course — the boys bicker a little bit, showing off the tension that’s been present between them for some time. Eventually a cell phone rings…John’s phone. Awesomely, I thought, it’s the same exact model phone they used the last time it rang. Yay for little bits of continuity! On the phone is a young man — Adam Milligan — asking for John, stating that John is his father, which gives us a nice OMGWTF moment. Again.

 

We then find the boys in Windom, Minnesota. While Sam has been looking over his file on Adam Milligan and believes that the boy is genuine, Dean is hardly convinced. Upon arriving at the diner they’re to meet Adam, Dean replaces Adam’s water with holy water (in case he’s a demon) and his silverware with ACTUAL silver (in case he’s a shapeshifter). While Dean prepares all this, Sam pulls out John’s journal and explains about a case John took in 1990 in Minnesota, which was about nine months before Adam was born. Also…the two sheets following that entry were torn out. This eyebrow-raising moment doesn’t phase Dean much until Sam starts discussing John’s…ahem…possible extracurricular activities. While Dean is squicked (I love that word) by talk of “Dad Sex,” Sam laments on his dad, “Maybe he slipped one past the goalie.” Classic stuff.

 

Finally, Adam shows up, and he looks like a perfectly normal kid. While Dean points his beloved colt at him under the table, ready for Adam to be revealed as a shapeshifter or demon, neither happen, leaving both Sam and Dean bemused and confused. Sam doesn’t reveal to Adam who they are at first, Adam thinking John was a mechanic. Adam tells his story of how he never saw John for years until he made his mom — an ER nurse who saw to John’s wounds back in the day, apparently — call him.

 

Upon meeting Adam, John apparently acted QUITE unlike the John we’ve come to know, love and somewhat fear. Well, at least I do. 😉 Anyway, John taught Adam how to play pool, work on cars, and hell, even took Adam to baseball games. This last point was very contentious for Dean, and deservedly so, one would think.  In the Milligan house, they find lots of pictures of John with Kate and Adam Milligan, going fishing and camping and such, surprising both Sam and Dean.

 

Sam eventually finds out that in 1990, there were several grave robberies. John was apparently there to stop whatever it was that did it then, but now it’s happening again, with both dead and live people disappearing. Both Kate Milligan and a local bartender, Joe Barton, are missing. As they’re about to leave, however, Dean notices claw marks on the floor. Upon removing the mattress, they see a vent underneath the bed. Dean — through losing at Rock Paper Scissors — is chosen to go down into the vent. In a very few tense moments, Dean eventually comes upon what look like bloody human remains, with some blonde hair to boot. Again, eeewwww.

 

Some time passes, apparently, as we find Sam and Dean at their seedy hotel room — is there any other type on this show? — arming for bear. Adam barges in on them, demanding to know what’s going on. Sam, despite Dean’s objections, begins to explain to Adam what they really are. While Sam explains who they are, Dean is getting angrier by the moment. Eventually Dean leaves to investigate further, so Sam begins to train Adam in the use of firearms.

 

Meanwhile, Dean investigates one of the crypts that has been robbed. In an interesting exchange, the crypt keeper — for lack of a better term — asks Dean, “Have you thought about where you might like to spend eternity?” Dean replies, solemnly, “All the damned time,” which is a fantastic line that simply shows how far the character has come over the years, in my opinion. Dean then finds embalming fluid, which means the corpses weren’t just taken, but ripped apart. Again, EW.

 

We then find Dean at the local bar, where the bartender gives him a free beer for being a “fed.” Ah, if only she knew…anyway, she winds up being Lisa Barton, wife of the missing Joe Barton. In talking with her, we find that Joe was involved in the same grave robbing case back in 1990 that John was, only Joe was a deputy at the time. This shows that the missing people are indeed connected.

 

Back at the hotel, Adam asks Sam how John died, and he tells him the truth. Great, Sam, you spend half the season LYING and then pick NOW to tell the truth? You insensitive bastard. Suddenly, the lights go out and noise is heard in the vents. Sam and Adam escape the room, only to have Sam nearly dragged under Adam’s truck by an unseen force. Only after Dean arrives can both Adam and Dean pull Sam to safety.

 

We then find the boys — all three of them now — returning to the Milligan home so Adam can get his things. Surprisingly, Sam wants to use Adam as bait to lure…whatever it is…out so they can kill it. While Dean balks at this, surprisingly, Adam is accepting of it. It’s interesting to see how Sam has now taken to this revenge idea, as it seems to be making him harder…not darker, necessarily, just harder. After Sam gives Adam some shooting practice, we find him telling Adam stories about their lives.

 

And here’s one of the most interesting bits of the entire episode. Adam thinks Sam and Dean have an awesome job. Sam flatly states, “Being a hunter isn’t a job, Adam. It’s life.” Sam then explains what one must give up to be a hunter, such as girlfriends, school, friends, etc. Dean takes Sam aside and marvels at Sam giving the exact same speech John gave him before he left for college. Sam, now, apparently things John did right by them, and they should include Adam in their crusade. Dean, however, feels that John was protecting Adam and giving him the chance of a normal life that the two of them never had. Dean then takes off to do more investigating, leaving Sam and Adam alone.

 

Dean returns to a crypt to find a secret entrance into an underground lair. This was a very tense scene, made even moreso by AMAZING music cues that just added to the overall tension. Once in the lower layer of the crypt, someone seals him in, trapping Dean inside. At least he’s not sealed in with a demon this time, right? 😉

 

We find Sam and Adam salting the windows and doors, boarding them all up to keep anything from getting in that way so they can cover the vent. Surprisingly, they hear noise, and discover it’s Kate Milligan, Adam’s Mom. Sam is convinced that Kate isn’t human, while Adam is convinced, so a confused moment occurs, and when Sam is about to shoot he
r, Adam takes the gun…and then knocks Sam out?! WTF? I’ll admit I certainly didn’t see that coming.

 

Back at the crypt, Dean finds the bodies of both Kate AND Adam Milligan. Well, that explains the whole Adam-Bashing-Sam-On-The-Noggin thing. While Dean tries to escape, we return to the Milligan home to find Sam tied up — about which I’m sure fanfic is already being written — and confronted with the “Milligans.” We come to find out that they’re both ghouls, and that they can take the shape of their last victims, as well as acquire their memories. They’re out for revenge apparently, their father having been killed by John and Joe 19 years prior.

 

Then they begin to…sniff Sam — about which I’m sure fanfic is already being written 😉 — and notice his blood is different. That doesn’t stop them from CUTTING INTO HIM AND LETTING HIS BLOOD DRIP INTO PRETTY BOWLS. AGAIN, EW. Thankfully, Dean breaks out and barges into save him. After dispatching the “Kate” ghoul, Dean and the “Adam” ghoul fight it out WHILE SAM CONTINUES TO BLEED OUT. ACK! Thankfully, Dean bashes in the head of the ghoul and kills it, saving Sam and wiping up his wounds.

 

That scene was FREAKING TENSE. I was worried Sam was going to bleed out enough to lose consciousness and require serious medical attention, but thankfully it wasn’t so. It did make me wonder, though. Since he lost so much blood, is he going to have huge cravings to feed upon Ruby? I hope they touch on that, but we’ll see.

 

Anyway, we finally find Sam and Dean giving Adam a proper hunter’s funeral by lighting his body ablaze, Dean stating that Adam is in a better place.

Now, here comes probably the most interesting exchange in the entire episode. Dean begins to say how he understands why Sam and John fought so much…because they’re essentially the same person (this is why they showed Sam and John moments in the “Then” preview, see?). While Dean worshipped John — listened to his music, dressed like him, etc — he says to Sam, “You are more like him than I will ever be.”

 

Sam, looking somewhat rueful, replies, “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

 

Dean, looking troubled, staring at the burning body of the brother he never really got to know, says simply, “You take it any way you want.”

 

 

This episode, honestly, left me feeling uncomfortable, and that’s a GOOD thing. I have no IDEA where the relationship with the brothers is going. I have no CLUE where the season is heading, and I have no idea how ANY of this will be resolved, if at all. And you know what? I LOVE IT. With only three episodes left in the season, it’ll be interesting to see where they take it from here, but I, for one, do not expect kittens and rainbows in the end.

 

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