Supernatural season 9, episode 8 “Rock and a Hard Place” aired tonight. Check out our recap below.
So what happened in Supernatural season 9, episode 8 “Rock and a Hard Place”?
- Outside a diner in South Dakota, a waitress locks up. She hears noises on her way to her car and trips. The keys slide under her car. Spooked, she crawls under her car as well. But the car is lifted up, there’s a flash of blue fire-like light, and the girl is taken.
- In the Men of Letters bunker, Dean finds Sam asleep at the kitchen table. He wakes his brother up, but Sam keeps yawning. He’s not sick, he says; he just feels like his battery can’t recharge. Dean is saved from replying when the always flawless Sheriff Jody Mills calls with a case.
- The boys head to South Dakota, where Jody tells them that the four people who have gone missing were all members of the same church. She reveals that she’s started going to church since her Crowley scare, which takes the brothers off-guard. After talking with a homeless man who witnessed Honor, the latest victim, being abducted, the Winchesters head to church.
- There Sam and Dean discover all four victims belonged to a chastity group. Suspecting a dragon targeting virgins, Sam and Dean volunteer to join the group. With a signature, with their real names once again, they become born-again virgins.
- At a meeting of the chastity group, Sam says that he wants to reclaim his virginity because he’s had a bad track record with sex — both an understatement and a running joke in fandom. When asked the same question, Dean goes on a monologue about how awesome sex is until a visibly uncomfortable Sam stops him.
- After the meeting, Dean is certain he recognizes Suzy, the group’s leader. They talk and she offers to share some books on chastity with him back at her place. Dean is sure that’s a euphemism, so he leaves with her. Meanwhile, Sam talks to Tammy, another woman in the group, who dishes on what kind of girl Honor is — the kind who brings Oreos to a bake sale. Definitely Hell material.
- Back at the motel, Sam meets Jody, who has news: all of the missing victims had sex, meaning the monster of the week isn’t after virgins after all. Strike dragons from the list.
- At Suzy’s, Dean’s hoping to hook up but Suzy asks him to pray with her for her missing friends. She then loads Dean down with the promised books. While she’s in the bathroom, Dean discovers she was a star of Casa Erotica. Dean’s star struck and really wants to get lucky now. And does he ever.
- Meanwhile, Sam’s calls keep going to voicemail. He’s frustrated and Jody calls him out on looking sick. They have a heart-to-heart about Jody finding comfort at church and Sam and Dean finding comfort in each other. Sam and Jody’s relationship is just fantastic. More please?
- Elsewhere, Honor wakes up in what looks like a fallout shelter. After groping around in the dark, she finds a lamp and illuminates the other missing people. The pastor is taken in a burst of blue not-quite-fire light, and his screams are heard moments later.
- After going too long without Dean picking up his calls, Sam realizes that Dean and Suzy hooked up after all. He and Jody go looking for them, but they’re too late; Dean and Suzy are taken, landing in the fallout shelter as well.
- Sam and Jody do some detective work and research. Jody makes the connection to Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth whose followers were virgins. Those who did not remain chaste were buried alive. Her sacred fire also represented purity. Ding ding ding, we have a winner.
- Back in the shelter, Dean manages to call Sam. The call drops, but not before Sam hears a train whistle in the background. With that, Sam and Jody triangulate the sound to a farm. To kill Vesta, though, they need a stake dipped in virgin blood, so they head back to the church. Jody, queen of our hearts, punches Tammy and wipes some blood from her nose for their weapon.
- Sam and Jody head to the farm. Sam finds the door to the shelter but is thrown aside. Vesta — alias Bonnie from the church — grabs Jody. Jody snarks while Vesta plans to sacrifice her. Sam stops Vesta from killing Jody, but Jody still takes a stake to the chest.
- In a scene almost directly out of season 6’s “You Can’t Handle the Truth,” the goddess tries and fails to take Sam out. She says that Sam is all “duct tape and safety pins inside” and shouldn’t be alive. However, it’s enough of a distraction for Jody, who pulled the stake out of her chest like a boss, to stab Vesta. Dean gets the door to the shelter open just as the action ends, of course.
- Back at the motel, Jody, with her arm in a sling, bids the boys farewell. Come back soon, lovely lady. Once Jody’s gone, Sam tells Dean that he thinks something is really wrong with him. At least he still has his soul this time, so Dean doesn’t need to beat him unconscious like their last goddess encounter. Dean tries to deflect, saying Vesta felt the effects of the trials, but Sam thinks that maybe the problem is just him.
- Dean, though, won’t let Sam put that on himself. He’s about to tell Sam the truth — finally — when Ezekiel surfaces to stop him. Dean is sick of lying to Sam, but Ezekiel says this doesn’t have to last much longer. When Sam resurfaces, Dean just tells him that they’ll deal with whatever comes and to have a little faith.
