Supernatural season 10, episode 15, “The Things They Carried,” aired tonight. Read our recap and discuss the episode with fellow fans.
This episode saw the return of some familiar faces: Cole and the Khan worm. One was more welcome than the other.
Not PTSD
We open with Sam doing research on the Mark of Cain but hiding it from Dean. Dean, for his part, has found a case involving an ex-soldier who was murdered; her body was found drained of blood and bone marrow.
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The Winchesters arrive in North Carolina in their FBI duds, but the local police tell them they have a suspect: a former soldier who, after killing his victim, drank gasoline and lit himself on fire. Cheery.
The Winchesters talk to the widow, who tells them that he came back from his tour different. She thought it was PTSD, but he had other weird symptoms, like extremely dry skin and excessive thirst. Like, drinking out of the bathtub thirst. She also tells the brothers that another soldier in her husband’s unit, Kit, came back different.
The brothers talk to Kit’s wife, Jemma. She’s surprised when they know about the excessive thirst and admits Kit’s been out all night. As they’re leaving Jemma’s house, they find Cole leaning on the Impala. Kit was a childhood friend, and Jemma had called him. He wants in, and uses his connection with military intelligence to worm (rimshot) his way into the hunt with the goal of saving Kit.
Victim zero
Cole’s military source finds the mission Kit’s unit was on. They were supposed to rescue a POW in Iraq, but when they got there, the prisoner attacked the soldiers. The footage shows the POW with extremely dry skin and psychosis. He was eventually shot and killed.
Sam then gets an alert that there was an incident at a convenience store — Kit had come in, started drinking all the water, and when the clerk tried to stop him, he cut the man’s throat and began drinking the blood. As the trio is leaving the scene, Cole gets a call from Jemma, who says Kit would go up to his cabin to be alone. The Winchesters try to get Cole to stay behind with Jemma, but Cole heads up to the cabin on his own.
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Cole enters the cabin and finds Kit, but Kit attacks him and spits a worm into his mouth. The Winchesters burst in as another worm comes out of Kit’s mouth. Sam knocks Kit away while Dean stomps on the worm. Kit flees, and Cole says he can feel the worm moving inside him. Gross.
The brothers brief Cole on the Khan worm they came across in season 6 (RIP Rufus) and say that the only ways they know how to kill it are a headshot to the host or electrocution. Cole, understandably, picks electrocution.
Fighting the monster within
Sam heads out to look for Kit while Dean stays with Cole. Electrocution doesn’t work though, and Dean nearly kills Cole in the process. Figuring this worm is some weird cousin of the worm they encountered, the brothers realize the worm’s weakness must be dehydration, considering its hosts’ thirst, so Dean turns the cabin into sweat lodge.
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Meanwhile, Sam gets to Jemma and Kit’s house and arrives just in time to save Jemma from being killed by Kit. They tie Kit up, but he escapes and shuts the power off. He attacks Sam, and Sam struggles to grasp his gun.
In the cabin, Dean and Cole have a heart-to-heart about fighting the monster within. The longer the worm goes thirsty, the more Cole struggles. Eventually, the worm comes out in a disgusting sequence, and Dean stomps on it. He calls Sam to tell him the plan worked, but it was too late. Sam’d had to kill Kit, which visibly eats him up.
Not so happy ending
The episode closes with Sam apologizing to Cole for killing his friend, but Cole says he understands. He’s sad but not angry. He shakes hands with the brothers, says he hopes never to see them again, and drives off to see his family.
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Meanwhile, Dean sees how torn up Sam is, and tells him, “You can do everything right, and sometimes the guy still dies.” Sam watches after him, stricken, as he realizes Dean isn’t just talking about Kit.
Watch a promo for the next episode
