Supernatural Rewatch: The Season 2 Finale That Left Me Reeling – All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1

I still remember how shaken I was by this episode. It was Season 2, the show was on the verge of being cancelled constantly. We didn’t know for sure what its future was, and that made the ending of this episode unbearable as Sam died in his brother’s arms. I remember just sitting on the floor and sobbing, and then being unable to stop thinking about it all week as we waited for Part 2, the season finale. It wasn’t the first time the Show ripped my heart out, but it was the first time I couldn’t shake it off with a reminder that this was a television show and not real life, that Jared Padalecki was out there living his best life in spite of just having watched Sam Winchester die, and everything would be fine. It didn’t feel that way.

And that is damn good story telling.

This is a Sera Gamble penned and Kim Manners directed episode, which should tell you alot about how incredible it is. The THEN reminds us of the Winchesters’ tragic history, Mary burning on the ceiling setting her boys off on this dangerous road they’re still traveling. The Yellow Eyed demon and the special children that were chosen for something still unknown – Andy, Ava. The warning that there’s something big brewing, enough to frighten a scary man like Gordon. Bobby’s warning that a storm is comin’ and Sam and Dean are smack in the middle of it.

Sam’s scared, wondering if maybe this is the YED’s plan, that they’re all…

Dean: What? Killers? Give me a break!

Refusing to believe that about his little brother.  They find sulfur at Ava’s house, know that the demon has been there.

Sam: You can’t run from this — and you can’t protect me.

That, right there, is Dean’s worst nightmare.

Dean: Damn it Sam, this whole thing is spinning out of control!

NOW

The impala pulls up to a café in the middle of nowhere, an example of the brilliant location scouting of Russ Hamilton and set dec of Jerry Wanek and the amazing collaboration that Supernatural was. Most of this episode’s outdoor scenes (which is most of it) are filmed on dark rainy nights, puddles and mud on the ground and raindrops glistening on Baby’s sleek black metal. It sticks in the boys’ hair, on Bobby’s battered cap. It’s beautiful, but it adds to the sense of tragedy that’s coming, and Kim Manners takes advantage of every moment of it.

Sam goes inside the diner and Dean reminds him not to forget the extra onions. It’s a few glorious moments of the brothers being brothers, Sam arguing that he’s the one who will have to ride in the car with Dean’s extra onions and Dean grinning smugly.

Dean: Hey, see if they’ve got any pie – bring me some pie!

He settles back in the seat, murmuring what will become a Supernatural-ism – “I love me some pie”

Sam scoffs as he goes inside. A few of the simple pleasures that the brothers enjoy on those long drives, a random cafe in the middle of nowhere that might have some home-baked pie. An opportunity to annoy your brother by eating lots of onions on your burger, or an opportunity to bitch at him if he does.

Supernatural excels at setting you up with a feel-good scene, all warm and cozy, and then suddenly turning everything ominous and dark in a heartbeat. There’s static on the radio suddenly, the rainy night now seeming dangerous – and when Dean looks up at the diner, he can’t see anyone inside now.

FUCK.

Dean leaps out of the car and runs inside, the sense of urgency immediate. He finds a customer dead at his table, head down in a pool of blood. Dead guys behind the counter.

Dean: Sam! Sam?

You can see the panic in Dean’s eyes as he realizes Sam is nowhere to be found. This is bad. This is bad.

He finds sulfur on the door sill at the back door, Dean murmuring the realization, gun drawn, his face desperate as he calls for Sam out the back door, then runs out the front.

Dean: Sammy! Sam!

It’s the first time Dean will desperately call his brother’s name in this episode, but oh, is it not the last.

He walks around the outside calling desperately for his brother, but there’s no sign of Sam, it’s like he disappeared.

Dean: SAMMMMM!

It’s an eerie preview of how Dean will scream his brother’s name at the end, as he loses him for good.

Crap, I’ve got myself all emotional again already.

I’m sure there was a commercial when I was watching this the first time, and then we cut to Sam waking up, on the muddy ground, in an amazing upside down shot that is pure Kim Manners’ genius. The camera slowly spins around, making us a part of Sam’s disorientation.

He’s confused, suddenly in an old West type town that looks abandoned.  There’s no cell reception, which wasn’t that weird in 2007 believe it or not.

Sam: Where the hell am I?

The large wheel of a windmill spins slowly as we get the title card.

SUPERNATURAL

Me in 2023: Ahhhhhh, my Show…

The lonely little cafe was built by Wanek and his team, but most of the episode was filmed in the Vancouver location ‘Bordertown’, which is why it looks so amazing and real. It isn’t real, but it totally does exist.

Sam tries the doors, walking by an abandoned cobbler’s store, a general store. He hears a door creaking and picks up a big piece of wood to defend himself – and almost brains Andy, who comes around the corner and ducks.

Sam: Andy???

Neither of them know what they’re doing there and Andy is freaking out.

Sam: Andy look, calm down…

Andy: I can’t calm down! I just woke up in freaking Frontierland!

I love Gabe Tigerman, and he is the perfect person to play Andy. Also I swear he hasn’t changed a bit as I’m writing this in freaking 2023!

Andy says he doesn’t remember much after his fourth bong load (which is saying something considering the size of his bong that Sam and Dean admired), except there was this really intense smell, like…

Sam: Like sulfur? Dean…

Sam murmurs his brother’s name, remembering where they were before he woke up in this weird town. Andy asks if his brother is there, and Sam admits he doesn’t know where Dean is.

Sam: I don’t know if he’s…

The brothers do not do well when they’re separated, just saying.

Suddenly they hear a woman screaming and find her locked in a storage room. Sam breaks the padlock and finds to his astonishment that it’s Ava, who claims she just woke up in there a half hour ago.

Sam breaks the news to her that it’s been five months as Ava worries about her fiancé Brady (a common name for hapless Supernatural characters who have something to do with the demon). You have to give Ava all the points for acting, she really pulls it off. (Kudos to Katharine Isabelle!)

They find Jake (played by the wonderful Aldis Hodge) and Lily (Jessica Harmon), equally confused since they went to sleep the night before in Afghanistan and San Diego respectively.

Sam: Let me take a wild guess, you two are both 23? We all are. And we all have abilities….

They admit that they do, Sam and Ava having visions, Andy able to put thoughts into people’s heads to make them do stuff.

Andy: But don’t worry, I don’t think it works on you guys. Oh but get this, I’ve been practicing – this one guy I know, total dick, right? I used it on him. Gay porn, all hours of the day. You should have seen the look on his face.

The looks on the others’ faces say it all (it was 2007 but that feels homophobic as hell). I can imagine Lily isn’t amused even a little, since she shares that her ability is when she touches people, their hearts stop (and we later find out that she touched her girlfriend by accident. Ouch).

Sam answers the question of “who brought us all here” with a sigh, and “it’s a… a demon.”

Meanwhile, a frantic Dean has enlisted Bobby’s help – which was an awesome thing they could do in the early seasons – finding no demonic signs or omens. Dean is frustrated, desperate to find Sam.

Dean: How are we supposed to look for Sam??

(Also poor Jim Beaver is wet as hell, and Dean looks ridiculously hot with little droplets of rain on his hair and the tip of his nose, just saying)

Ash calls and also doesn’t have anything on Sam, but says he did find something, and asks Dean to come to the roadhouse. I was so happy to see Chad Lindberg back in this episode (until the next scene….).  This episode is filled with some of my favorite people – Chad and Gabe and Jim (and Jared and Jensen) all wrote chapters for Family Don’t End With Blood or There’ll Be Peace When You Are Done and had such emotional things to say about their time on Supernatural. But I digress…

Let’s admire Jerry Wanek’s iconic set dec for a moment… so creepy! I love this screencap also because some of my favorite things that I now own from the Supernatural set are those salt and pepper shakers. They’re on our dining room table right now. (Yes, I insist that we actually use them, much to the family’s eye rolling). They were good enough for the roadhouse (and many other Supernatural episodes), after all.

Dean: Come on, I don’t have time for this!

Ash: Make time, okay? Because this…what’s going on? Not only does this almost definitely help you find your brother, this is – it’s huge. So get here, now.

Once again, I have to note that wet Jensen Ackles is a look. A good look.

We see Ash look at his rather distinctive watch, and Dean and Bobby head to the Roadhouse.

Back in the western town, Sam has a tough time convincing the rest of the ‘special kids’ that it is a demon and that they should stick together. Jake thinks he’s better off away from any “whack jobs” and tries to leave. All the shots in the Bordertown set are gorgeous; thunder cracks as Jake walks down the deserted street.

He sees what looks like a young girl in an abandoned school house and goes in to help her.

Everyone: Noooooo Jake, look at her!

The scene is filmed desaturated, almost black and white, and the chalk board creaks as the girl starts to write on it. She looks scarier and scarier, an ominous giggle as she writes “I will not kill” on the chalk board and then advances on Jake with nails that have turned into lethal claws.

Sometimes I forget just how scary Supernatural was! Just in time, Sam bursts in and hits her with an iron poker – she smokes out of the building.

Sam: Just so you know? That was a demon.

Sam explains it was an Acheri demon, while the rest of them struggle to believe it. He notices an old bell and figures out where they are – Cold Oak, South Dakota. Apparently the town was so haunted that all its inhabitants ran away.

Ava: Swell. Good to know we’re somewhere so historical.

Lily doesn’t want any part of the rest of them, saying she has nothing in common with them, and then telling them with a sob that she accidentally touched her girlfriend.

They are all stunned. There’s so much empathy on Sam’s face, it just makes me love him even more. What amazing characters this show created – it’s so tragic, watching this episode now, knowing everything Sam Winchester will face. And yet, somehow, he never loses that trademark empathy.

Sam: I’ve lost people, too. I have a brother out there right now who could be dead for all I know. We’re all in bad shape. But I’m telling you, the best way out of this is to stick together.

They go looking for weapons – salt, iron, silver – as Lily sneaks off.

Dean and Bobby drive to the Roadhouse, and in what was a shocking scene when I saw this episode live, find the Roadhouse burned to the ground.

The Roadhouse was controversial at the time – some fans loved it as a sort of ‘home base’ for the boys, others hated it for the same reason, not wanting anything to interfere with the “on the road” feel of the Show and the endless string of motels the brothers stayed at. I agreed with that, but I still was shocked when it burnt down – and especially horrified that Ash was killed. Part of that is loving Chad Lindberg a lot, but I also loved Ash as a character and thought he could have stayed on and been helpful. After all, he apparently was smart enough to have figured all this out, but never got a chance to explain to Dean.

It’s a macabre scene, a reminder that Supernatural really was a little 42 minute horror show every week, as Dean and Bobby sift through the wreckage and burnt bodies.

They don’t find Ellen or Ash, but then Dean finds a distinctive watch on one of the burnt corpses.

Dean: Aww Ash, damn it.

Me: Nooooooo!

Back in Cold Oak, Lily tries to get away through the woods, hearing that ominous giggling from behind the trees. Uh oh.

Sam’s with Ava at the time, who suddenly holds her head, saying she’s a little dizzy but insisting it’s not a freaky vision thing, just needing a sandwich.

More of that ominous giggling and they run outside, to find Lily dead and strung up on the windmill.

Again, a reminder that Supernatural – especially in its early seasons – really was a dark dark show. I was shocked at the time, and appropriately horrified.

Ava does a great job of playing shocked and scared and wanting to leave, which we find out eventually was just that – playing a role.

Sam is desperate to reach Dean, thinking about how much he’d be able to help them, and wishing he had a working phone. Andy offers to try reaching out to Dean with his mind.

Andy: I’ve never tried it long distance before, but do you have anything of Dean’s on you? Something he touched?

Sam pulls out a receipt with a D. Hassselhoff signature on it.

Sam (scrubbing at the back of his neck): Yeah, that’s Dean’s signature. It’s…uhh…hard to explain.

Cut to Dean and Bobby, Dean’s desperation just growing with no clue how to find his brother.

Dean: What the hell did Ash know? Now how the hell are we gonna find Sam??

Bobby reassures him that they will, when suddenly Dean grabs his head like he’s in pain, doubling over.

He gets a flash of the distinctive bell in Cold Oak, then it’s gone.

At first he thinks it’s a headache due to the stress of not knowing where Sam is, which makes perfect sense because this is Dean Winchester we’re talking about, but Bobby is skeptical, asking if he gets headaches like that often or could it be something like a vision?

Dean: What, like what Sam gets? No! Come on, I’m not some psychic.

The vision reappears and this time Dean half collapses against the Impala – he can see Sam this time.

Bobby, who was already a father figure to the brothers, comforts him, hand protectively on the back of his neck.

Dean: Whew, that was about as fun as getting kicked in the jewels.

He tells Bobby he saw a big bell with some kind of engraving on it, and Bobby asks if it’s an engraving like an oak tree and knows exactly where Sam is because Bobby is brilliant like that.

Cold Oak.

Kim Manners and Serge Ladouceur give us such breathtakingly gorgeous close ups of  Sam and Dean in this episode, seriously. Wow.

Back in Cold Oak, Sam realizes that Jake’s ability is super strength, though Jake downplays it.

Jake: I’m not Superman or anything, it’s no big deal.

He saved someone in Afghanistan, pulling a flipped vehicle off him, then realized he could bench press 800 pounds but never told anyone, since it was too crazy.

Sam: Yeah, crazy’s relative.

Jake and Sam, heartbreakingly, get along well at first, Jake praising the job Sam is doing keeping everyone calm while being freaked to hell himself.

Jake: I know the look.

Sam ponders, then opens up a little to Jake.

Sam: You wanna know the truth? I got this brother, right? And he’s always telling me how he’s gonna watch out for me, how everything’s gonna be okay. You know, kinda like I’ve been telling them.

Me: Oh, my heart…

Talk about heartbreaking. A), Sam has learned so much from Dean, and now he repeats it here – just like he no doubt does eventually while raising Dean Jr.  And b), that’s exactly how Dean will reassure him, as Sam dies in his arms.

Oh god, now I’ve made myself tear up already. This is a hard episode to rewatch, knowing what’s coming.

When Sam expresses doubt that he actually believes they’ll be okay this time, Jake says it doesn’t matter if they believe it, only if the rest of them do. Which Dean counts on also as Sam clings to him, believing him even as Dean himself knows that Sam will not be okay.

Ava is not okay at all (or she pretends not to be), especially when Sam gives her the bad news that her fiancé didn’t make it. Poor Sam, holding her as she cries like the good guy he is.

The YED appears to Sam in a dream that night, and Fred Lehne makes the YED the most charismatic demon you can imagine. It’s impossible not to be amused by him even as he’s saying and doing terrible things.

Sam: I’m gonna tear you to shreds, I swear to…

YED: (laughing) When you wake up, tiger, you give it your best shot.

Sam: Where’s my brother?

I love the Winchesters and their single minded devotion to one another, when it’s Sam who’s the most in danger here.

The YED assures him that Sam’s the one he’s rooting for.

YED: Welcome to the Miss America pageant. Why do you think you’re here? This is a competition. Only one of you crazy kids is gonna make it out of here alive.

The YED says he’ll have his army soon and he just needs one soldier for the coming war, that he’s looking for the best and brightest of their generation.

YED: Sam… Sammy… you’re my favorite.

Sam: You ruined my life, you killed everyone I love!

YED: The cost of doing business, I’m afraid.

Sam is remarkably unafraid, inviting the YED to do his worst. Look at our brave boy! (Sam Fucking Winchester, seriously).

The YED says he had to kill Jessica because Sam was all set to marry her, become a tax laywer with two kids and a beer gut in a little McMansion in the suburbs. Mary, however, was just bad luck, he says. She walked in on them, wrong place, wrong time.

That doesn’t smoothly make sense with what we find out later, since Mary already would have expected him in some way, but at the time it’s just a big delightful mystery.

The YED shows Sam the past, a “high def instant replay”.

Sam, horrified, has to watch as his young parents worry about him as a baby in a crib, Sam trying desperately to warn his mother about what he knows is about to happen to no avail. He watches even more horrified as the YED drips his blood into the baby’s mouth – his mouth.

And then Mary rushes in, says “It’s you!”.

Sam: She knew you…

He also realizes, and it shapes the way he feels about himself from that moment on, that he has demon blood in him. The horror of that shows on his face, Padalecki doing an amazing job of showing us how damaging that knowledge is to Sam.

The YED cuts the replay off as Mary starts to slide up the wall to the ceiling, but I can imagine the damage has certainly been done. Poor Sam.

He wakes up to find out that Ava has gone missing.

There’s another beautiful scene in Bordertown, rain and fog blanketing the town, thunder crackling, as they spread out to search for Ava. Poor Andy (who was so happy to have found some bags of salt) is the one who finds her first, only trying to help her.

Ava breaks the salt line on the windowsill, puts her hands around her head, and a cloud of black smoke comes in, becoming the Acheri demon girl. She attacks poor Andy and guts him as Ava watches without any sense of alarm.

Only after Andy is dead does she let out a (fake) scream.

She tries to fool Sam with an implausible story of Andy being the one who broke the salt line, but Sam is too smart for that, knowing Andy wouldn’t have.

Ava: You don’t think that I…

Sam: I’ll tell you what I think. Five months. You’re the only one with all that time you can’t account for. And that headache you got? It was right when the demon got Lily.

In some A+ acting by Katharine Isabelle, Ava finally drops the act and laughs, admitting she’s been there a long time, killing off the other special children who come.

Ava: I’m the undefeated heavyweight champ. Had you going though, didn’t I?

Sam: Oh my God!

Ava: Don’t think God has much to do with this, Sam.

She tells Sam he has no idea what they can do, that he should just open up to it too.  She puts her hands on her head and says she’s sorry, the black smoke coming back to the window, but Jake appears and grabs her and breaks her neck and the smoke retreats.

Now it’s just Sam and Jake.

Bobby and Dean get to Cold Oak just as Jake turns on Sam, saying that only one of them is getting out of there, and the tension and sense of urgency ramps up to a billion as we all watched, not knowing what was going to happen – but having a very very very bad feeling.

Sam tries to talk Jake into ignoring the YED and teaming up to kill him together, but Jake doesn’t trust him. In a show of trust, Sam lays down his knife on the ground.

Jake does the same, and Sam looks relieved, when Jake suddenly punches him with his super strength, sending him flying.

A brutal fight ensues – which, if you were watching live, had a commercial break in the middle of it that made me scream a protest at the time.

Sam eventually holds his own and gets Jake to the ground. He raises the iron bar Jake was using, thinking about killing him, but then puts it down.

{Why Sam, why? Why not at least take it and that goddamned knife with you? Or tie Jake up? Do something! You know you can’t trust him!]

At that moment, Sam hears Dean calling for him, and calls his brother’s name, relieved – overjoyed. His big brother is here to save him, like always.

That’s what makes what happens next so fucking heartbreaking.

Sam staggers toward Dean, who’s heading towards him, when Jake gets up behind Sam and picks up the knife that Sam left behind.

Dean starts to run, calling out a warning.

Dean: Sam! Look out!

But Jake stabs Sam in the back, twisting the knife brutally, as me and every single viewer gasped, hands over mouth, horrified. Sam falls to his knees on the ground, his face a grimace of pain as he sways there.

Dean’s roar of protest echoes through the deserted town.

Dean runs faster than any human ever, I think, sliding to his knees in front of Sam and grabbing onto him, holding him up as Sam sways, bleeding out.

Dean: NO! Sam!

Sam’s head falls onto Dean’s shoulder, but Dean hauls him up, trying to be sure Sam is looking at him so he can reassure him – and himself.

Dean: Whoa whoa whoa, Sam… Sam, hey! Hey hey, come here, let me look at you.

(Oh, the pain now, of reading this and knowing Dean will say those same words to Sam thirteen years later, as it’s Dean who’s dying. Damn it, Show, my heart!)

Dean’s instincts kick in, his sense that something is terribly wrong. He reaches around to Sam’s back and feels how much blood is there, looks at his hand coated in his brother’s blood. Ackles is so damn good, you can see every thought in Dean’s head as he processes just how much there is, what that has to mean.

(Just as Sam will do in the series finale, with the same dawning horror as he stares at his bloody hand, knowing it’s too late).

Sam is flagging, eyes almost rolling back as Dean holds onto him by his jacket, supporting him.

Jay Gruska’s hauntingly beautiful ‘Americana’ starts to play – the Brothers Theme that we know so well, underlining just how pivotal a scene this is, just how emotional it’s going to be. When I say I bristle when this song is used when it’s not quite earned, a scene like this is why. THIS, right here, is what this powerful music was made for.

Dean: Hey, look at me, it’s not even that bad, it’s not even that bad, all right? Sammy? Sam!

Sam can’t keep steady, only Dean keeping him upright. God, Padalecki did such an amazing job here – you 100% believe he’s fading, trying to hold on but the life bleeding away. It’s so heartbreaking to watch, and you can see Dean’s heart break as he does.

Dean does what he always does, what Sam has counted on all his life. Big brother there to make it all okay. It’s what he needs to believe, and Dean will make sure that he knows it, that he leaves this world unafraid and knowing he’s loved.

Dean:  Sammy, Sam, hey, listen to me, we’re gonna patch you up, okay? You’ll be good as new. Huh? Huh? I’m gonna take care of you, I’m gonna take care of you, I’ve got you. That’s my job, right? Watch out for my pain in the ass little brother?

Dean forces a smile as he says those words, makes sure Sam hears them even as he’s fading away. He touches Sam tenderly, strokes his face as Sam’s eyes slide shut, his body slumping forward into Dean.

(Just as Dean’s body will slump forward into Sam that day in the barn).

Even though he knows, Dean can’t let Sam go, fights for every last second of his little brother’s existence, his eyes laser focused on Sam, searching for the life there.

Dean: Sam? Sam! Sam! Sammy!

Dean stares into Sam’s face as he watches his little brother’s life slip away. He knows, and his whole world is rocked with the knowledge that he’s lost his brother.

Ackles lets us see those last moments of desperate hope, and Dean’s absolute soul-destroying anguish as he has to let go of it, let that realization sink in.

Dean: No. No no no no no no no no, oh god, oh god.

Dean’s crying now, tears running down his cheeks as he pulls Sam to him, no longer needing to keep that eye contact. He rocks Sam in his arms, comforting him to the last moment, and then he cries out, his voice wrecked with his own unbearable pain.

Dean: SAMMMMMM!

Dean buries his face in Sam’s shoulder, clutching the back of his jacket as they kneel together in the mud.

One last time, he screams out his brother’s name – a plea, a protest, an expression of his love and unbearable pain.

The camera pulls up to show us these brothers we’ve come to love so much, broken.

Kim Manners was so good at that, at framing a shot and taking us to different perspectives so we can really see it, and really feel it.

Dean holds Sam, anguished, hand clutching at Sam’s hair to hold him there. He turns his face into his little brother and cries.

And then we got the dreaded TO BE CONTINUED on our screens.

I remember sitting there sobbing, rocking myself just like Dean was rocking Sam, glad that I was the only one home. It was the days before there were a lot of spoilers, before people were on twitter telling us what was going to happen, before Supernatural had any media coverage at all. I was dumbfounded, absolutely heartbroken.

Jensen and Jared acted the hell out of that scene. Jared made me believe 100% that Sam was slipping away, conveying the shock, the pain, the inevitability of it. Jensen made me feel every ounce of Dean’s agony – the initial denial, the horrified realization, the big brother instincts kicking in to comfort Sam, to lie to him, to make him feel safe and loved until his very last moment of life. And only then, the unbearable pain in his voice as he calls out for his brother, who he knows is gone.

This Show, damn it.

Watching this episode when it aired live, thinking back on it now, I guess prepared me for the series finale. It was what I expected – heartbreaking, absolutely excruciating, but that pain was because of the depth of  love, both the brothers’ deep love for each other and my deep love for both of them. That made it worth it, and the emotions that knocked me to my knees were earned. Genuine.

I will never ever love another show like I love this one – and this episode is a perfect example of why. It’s also a perfect illustration of what Supernatural always was. It’s a tragedy. It’s a horror show. It’s a love story – as Jensen Ackles said recently fifteen years after this episode aired, it’s a love story between two brothers. It’s all of those things, and it never ever promised a happy ending.

And yet, ultimately, we got one.

Thanks, Show, I hate it. And I love it.

Caps by spndeangirl/raloria

Gifs by popsugar, jarpalecki

– Lynn

You can read about what made Supernatural

so special from its actors’ perspectives in

Family Don’t End With Blood and There’ll

Be Peace When You Are Done, with chapters

by Jared, Jensen, Misha and many more.

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