Supernatural season 9, episode 7 “Bad Boys” aired tonight, featuring a look into a previously unknown time in Dean’s past. Check out our recap below.
So what happened in Supernatural season 9, episode 7 “Bad Boys”?
Present day
- The episode opens with a typical gruesome death as a man is impaled by a broken down tractor that powered up all on its own.
- Men of Letters bunker: “D-Dog” Dean gets a call from Sonny, the overseer of a boys’ home/farm that Dean was sent to when he tried to steal food after losing money John had left behind in a card game.
- Sam had been told a different story so is suitably confused — as is the audience, since not only was John on a rugaru hunt when the brothers only learned about rugarus in season 4, but it also seems unlikely Dean would ever gamble with money needed to look after Sam.
- The brothers head to Sonny’s Home for Boys where they meet Ruth, one of the farm’s managers. Sonny tells Sam and Dean that he’s been noticing classic signs of a haunting. It’s been a while since we’ve had a straight up ghost hunt, so count us in.
- In the house, Sam finds Dean’s bed, recognizable by the sigils carved into the frame. He then runs into Ruth, who tells him about a murder that happened on the farm. The murderer died in prison the year before, making him the most likely suspect for our vengeful spirit.
- Meanwhile, Dean sweeps the barn where the most recent death occurred with his EMF meter (boy have we missed old school Supernatural). He eventually runs into a boy, Timmy. Dean, as always, is great with kids; Timmy tells him that he was in the barn when the accident happened, and it got very cold before the tractor started on its own.
- Sam and Dean waste no time in digging up the deceased murderer’s grave and salting-and-burning him. Of course, we’re only 15 minutes into the episode at this point, so that was too easy. And yep, the next day the spirit drowns Ruth in the bathtub.
- On their way out of town — because the Winchesters were uncharacteristically sloppy and didn’t confirm that their salt-and-burn solved the problem — the brothers stop at a diner where Dean knew the waitress, Robin. She says she doesn’t remember him, though, and Dean quickly flees, much to Sam’s confusion.
- When Sonny calls about Ruth’s death, the brothers head back to the farm. While Sam and Sonny go to look through employee records, Dean stops a couple of bigger kids from picking on Timmy. He tells Timmy that he just needs to stand up to the bullies, which can’t end well.
- When the boys who picked on Timmy later do yard work, the lawn mower jams (we know where this is going). Timmy watches from the house as the boys find Ruth’s missing rosary beads stuck in the blades. As they try to pull the beads out, the mower turns on.
- Sam has been going through Timmy’s file and thinks that they’re looking at a case of ghost possession. Dean goes looking for Timmy but finds Robin. She remembers Dean after all, to the surprise of no one.
- Sam heads for the barn where he finds a child’s drawings of a car accident and a fire. It turns out that Timmy and his mother were in a car crash. While Timmy got out, the car blew up with his mother still in it. But she returned to Timmy as a protective spirit.
- When Dean tries to get Robin to leave, the spirit seals the house. Sam arrives just in time for the spirit to lock the door behind him as well. Timmy appears and says he can’t control his mother. The brothers quickly realize Timmy himself is her anchor.
- After the spirit attempts to hurt Robin and immobilizes Sam and Dean, Dean convinces Timmy that he needs to let his mother go. Timmy tells his mother that she has to go and he will be okay. This allows his mother to move on with some very cool special effects.
- After bidding farewell to Robin and Sonny, Sam tells Dean that he realizes how good the farm had been for him. Dean insists that he couldn’t wait to leave. Sam thanks Dean for always being there and having his back, but Dean cuts off the chick flick moment and the brothers drive off.
Flashbacks
- When Dean was 16, he apparently looked nothing like Brock Kelly, who played Dean in season 4’s “After School Special,” when Dean was 18. Anyway, after Dean was caught trying to steal food, John told the cops to let Dean rot for losing the food money. Because the show insists on throwing postmortem shade at John Winchester at every opportunity.
- After Dean has been at Sonny’s for a month, Sonny takes Dean to dinner at a diner. Sonny got the charges against Dean dropped. Meanwhile Dean has been making good grades and even made the wrestling team. Sonny asks about the markings on Dean’s bed; Dean gets defensive about the family business, so Sonny tells him about being in a gang, which got him thrown in jail. Dean also meets Robin for the first time.
- Robin comes by the house. Dean confesses that he doesn’t really like his life with his dad, but he’s gotten used to it. Wait, is this teenage Dean or teenage Sam?
- Dean then admits that he wants to either be a rock star or work with cars — a desire for a normal life that seems to disregard teenage Dean’s well-established hero worship of his father and love of hunting as well as his later frustration at Sam’s desire for a normal life.
- Robin gives Dean his first kiss, and they have a whirlwind romance over the next month. But the night Dean is supposed to take Robin to a school dance, John arrives to pick Dean up for a job. Sonny offers to fight for Dean to stay, but Dean looks out the window and sees Sam in the front seat so decides to go — possibly the first recognizable Dean moment of the flashbacks. Dean thanks Sonny for all he did and that’s that.
