Episodes 01

“In My Time of Dying”

The Winchesters are taken to a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee following a car wreck caused by one of the demon Azazel’s henchmen. Sam and his father John (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) sustain minor injuries while Dean is in a coma. He has an out-of-body experience, and is approached by a Reaper (Lindsey McKeon) who tries to take his soul. She reveals that if he refuses to move on, he will one day become a vengeful spirit. John contacts Azazel (Fredric Lehne) and offers to exchange Dean’s life for his own life, his immortal soul, and the mystical Colt—a gun capable of killing anything. Dean is saved, and after making peace with his sons, John dies.

Episodes 02

“Everybody Loves a Clown”

After cremating their father’s body, Sam and Dean refuse to discuss his death. Instead, they head back to work and track an old message on John’s phone to Harvelle’s Roadhouse, a bar frequented by hunters. There they meet Ellen Harvelle (Samantha Ferris), an old friend of John’s, and her daughter Jo (Alona Tal). Ash (Chad Lindberg), attempts to analyze John’s research on Azazel with his computer and the brothers investigate the murders of visitors to a traveling carnival, currently near Medford, Wisconsin. They discover that a Rakshasa—a demon of Hindu mythology—has been taking the form of a clown and tricking children into inviting it into their homes so that it can eat their parents. When not feeding, it takes the form of a blind knife thrower at the carnival. The brothers kill it with a brass pipe. Dean later takes out his anger at his father’s death on the Impala, one of his most prized possessions.

Episodes 03

“Bloodlust”

Having repaired the Impala, the brothers investigate a series of decapitations and cattle mutilations in Red Lodge, Montana, and find that the last victim was a vampire. They encounter a vampire hunter Gordon Walker (Sterling K. Brown), who Ellen warns is dangerous. Sam is captured by a group of vampires, and their leader, Lenore (Amber Benson), reveals that they have reformed, feeding only on cattle. After being released unharmed, Sam tries to convince his brother that the vampires should be left alone. When they arrive at the vampire’s hideout, they find that Gordon has captured Lenore. They try to convince Gordon not to kill her, but he cuts Sam’s arm to tempt the vampire. When Lenore resists the temptation, the brothers overpower him. As Dean ties Gordon up, Sam takes Lenore to safety. Dean later admits to Sam that he was wrong about the vampires.

Episodes 04

“Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”

As Sam buries their father’s dog tags at their mother’s grave, Dean notices dead plants at the nearby grave of a recently deceased young woman named Angela Mason (Tamara Feldman). They discover that the woman’s cheating boyfriend was murdered the previous night. Sam and Dean dig up her grave and find the coffin empty. They deduce that her close friend Neil (Christopher Jacot), who was secretly in love with her, resurrected her as a zombie. Having killed her boyfriend, her next target is her roommate, with whom her boyfriend had been cheating. Sam and Dean save the woman and lure the zombie back to the graveyard to kill it with a silver stake. Dean apologizes to Sam for his recent behavior and reveals he has had trouble coping with his guilt over their father’s death.

Episodes 05

“Simon Said”

Sam has a vision of a man committing a murder-suicide. Ash helps the brothers track down Andy Gallagher (Gabriel Tigerman), whose mother was killed in the same manner as their own mother—dying in a nursery fire. They go to Guthrie, Oklahoma, and Sam is able to stop the murder, although the man still ends up killing himself. The brothers locate Andy and learn that he has mind-control abilities and believe he forced the man to commit suicide. Sam has another vision of a woman’s suicide, and it comes to pass while they are talking to Andy, exonerating him. After learning that Andy was adopted and that the woman who killed herself is his biological mother, they conduct research and discover that Andy has a twin brother named Ansen (Elias Toufexis) that he never knew about. Ansen has been using the same ability out of anger to kill those connected to the adoption that separated them. He targets Andy’s ex-girlfriend, and the Winchesters rush to save her. However, Andy ends up killing his twin to save Dean, making Sam realize that every child connected to Azazel becomes a killer. They return to the Roadhouse and Ash reveals that Ansen’s adoptive mother did not die when he was an infant, meaning not every psychic child follows a traceable pattern.

Episodes 06

“No Exit”

Ellen will not allow Jo to investigate mysterious disappearances of blonde women in an apartment building. Sam and Dean take the case and go to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Jo follows them to help. They find ectoplasm in the latest victim’s apartment and realize that a ghost is behind the kidnappings. Jo’s research shows that America’s first serial killer, H. H. Holmes (Stephen Aberle), was executed and buried on the location where the apartment building was later built. Jo is captured by the spirit, and the brothers find the ghost’s lair in the sewer system under the building. They free Jo and another kidnapped woman, then trap the spirit within a ring of salt. When Jo is reunited with her mother, an angry Ellen reveals that Jo’s father died while on a hunt with John Winchester.

Episodes 07

“The Usual Suspects”

The brothers investigate the murders of a lawyer and his wife in Baltimore, Maryland. They are arrested, but Sam manages to escape. A detective, Diana Ballard (Linda Blair), sees an apparition of a murdered woman and helps Sam discover that the woman is a missing heroin dealer who was working as a police informant. To put the spirit to rest, they must burn her body, and the woman appears and leads them to it, hidden within a wall. A necklace on the body points to Diana’s partner, Det. Pete Sheridan (Jason Gedrick), as the woman’s murderer. Sam realizes that the woman’s spirit was actually a death omen warning Diana. Pete takes Dean from the police station and drives him into the woods to kill him. Sam and Diana track them and Pete admits to killing the woman after convincing her to sell heroin that he had stolen, and later killed the lawyer who laundered the money and his wife who knew about the situation. The spirit returns and distracts him long enough for Diana to kill him, then disappears.

Episodes 08

“Crossroad Blues”

Sam and Dean investigate a suicide and believe a black dog may be involved. They discover that the man worked at a bar ten years earlier but became successful in architecture. They realize that the dog was a hellhound sent to collect his soul because the man agreed to a demonic pact to gain his talent. The demon also made deals with other people, so the brothers track down one of them, learning that he gave up his soul to cure his wife of cancer. As Sam stays behind to protect the man from the hellhound, Dean summons the demon at a crossroads and tricks it into stepping into a devil’s trap. Dean starts an exorcism and, in exchange for her freedom, the demon releases the man from his deal. Before she leaves, she taunts Dean about his father’s deal, revealing that John is suffering in Hell.

Episodes 09

“Croatoan”

Sam has a premonition of Dean killing a defenseless man, in which the brothers investigate in Rivergrove, Oregon. Sam notices “CROATOAN” carved into a pole, reminding him of the lost colony of Roanoke. They find that all forms of communication have been shut down and extremely violent townspeople are blocking the roads out. A doctor finds that the blood of the violent people has been infected by a virus containing sulfur, leading Sam to believe Croatoan refers to a demonic plague. Moments later, all of the infected people have suddenly vanished, leaving the town deserted, so the brothers leave the town. Sam has his blood tested and discovers that he was not infected.

Episodes 10

“Hunted”

Dean reveals that before their father died, he told him that he has to save Sam if he can, or else kill him. Sam goes to the Roadhouse to try to find more psychic children like himself. Ash’s search finds a young man named Scott Carey, but he was murdered a month earlier. Sam heads to Lafayette, Indiana to investigate, and is followed by a young woman named Ava Wilson (Katharine Isabelle). Like Sam, she has premonitions and foresaw Scott’s death. She has also been having visions of Sam being killed in an explosion. The two steal Scott’s file from a psychiatrist and learn that he spoke to Azazel and was told about an army of psychic children being used in an upcoming war. The vampire hunter, Gordon Walker, learned about Azazel’s plans and tries to kill Sam. Dean stops him but is captured by Gordon. Sam remembers Ava’s vision and avoids explosive traps. He saves Dean, and police arrest Gordon due to an ‘anonymous call’ made by Sam. The brothers later go to check on Ava back in her hometown of Peoria, Illinois, but find her fiancé dead, with sulfur on the windowsill pointing to a demonic abduction.

Episodes 11

“Playthings”

The brothers investigate deaths at the Pierpont Inn in Cornwall, Connecticut. It is owned by Susan Thompson (Annie Wersching), a single mother who plans to sell it. Living there with her are her mother, Rose (Brenda McDonald), and her daughter, Tyler (Matreya Fedor), who has an imaginary friend named Maggie (Conchita Campbell). The brothers discover that Rose has been practicing hoodoo, but recently suffered from a stroke. Maggie is the ghost of Rose’s sister, Margaret, who drowned as a child in the inn’s pool. Maggie had been kept at bay by Rose’s practice of hoodoo, but has returned since Rose’s stroke. Maggie does not want the family to move away, so she tries to drown Tyler so that she can have a friend forever. To save Tyler, Rose gives her own life, taking Tyler’s place as Maggie’s eternal playmate.

Episodes 12

“Nightshifter”

Sam and Dean investigate a series of robbery-suicides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that involve employees stealing from their employers and then killing themselves. A former security guard named Ron Reznick (Chris Gauthier) believes the culprit is a “mandroid”—half man, half machine, but the brothers realize that a shapeshifter is responsible. The brothers predict that the next incident will occur at a bank so they pose as security workers to infiltrate the building. Ron arrives at the bank and takes everyone hostage. When they discover the shapeshifter’s identity, it runs and Ron gives chase, but is then killed by a police sniper. A hostage then has a heart attack, and Dean takes him to an ambulance outside the bank. Dean is identified, and FBI Agent Victor Henriksen (Charles Malik Whitfield) comes to the location. Henriksen reveals that he has been tracking Dean since an incident in St. Louis the previous year when another shapeshifter framed Dean for attempted murder. Sam and Dean track the shapeshifter and Dean kills it.

Episodes 13

“Houses of the Holy”

The brothers investigate murders in Providence, Rhode Island, in which the culprits claim to have been ordered to do so by an angel. They find that the victims were a killer and a pedophile, and that both attended the same church. Sam and Dean learn that a priest had been shot to death outside the church. Sam is visited by the angel, who orders him to kill an evil man. While Dean tracks the angel’s target to make sure that the man does not do anything bad, Sam summons the spirit of the priest (David Monahan). The spirit believes himself to be an angel, but another priest (Denis Arndt) at the church convinces him otherwise and puts his soul to rest using the Last Rites. Dean prevents the man from attacking a woman and then chases after him in his car. During the pursuit, the man almost crashes into a truck, and a metal pipe on the truck falls and impales him, which Dean believes may have been God’s doing.

Episodes 14

“Born Under a Bad Sign”

Dean finds Sam, who has been missing for a week, covered in blood and with no memory of what has happened. Security footage depicts Sam murdering a hunter. Sam tries to force Dean to kill him before he hurts someone else. When Dean refuses, Sam knocks him unconscious and leaves. He then finds Jo at her job in Duluth, Minnesota, and begins to sadistically play mind games with her, but Dean arrives before he can physically hurt her. Sam again tries to convince Dean to shoot him, but Dean throws holy water on him, revealing a case of demonic possession. Sam shoots Dean and flees to the South Dakota home of fellow hunter Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver). Bobby tricks Sam into drinking holy water and ties him up under a devil’s trap. Dean joins Bobby and tries to exorcise the demon, and Bobby learns that the demon used a binding ritual to bind itself to Sam’s body. As the demon frees itself and attacks Dean, it reveals that it is the same demon that formerly resided within Meg Masters, wanting revenge for exorcising it. Bobby slashes the binding mark on Sam with a hot iron poker, and the demon is forced to flee.

Episodes 15

“Tall Tales”

Sam and Dean’s investigation of urban legends coming to life on a college campus in Springfield, Ohio, stalls and they ask Bobby for help. Bobby figures out that a Pagan trickster—a demigod capable of manipulating reality—is responsible and is pitting Sam and Dean against each other with the various pranks they thought the other was committing. They confront the janitor (Richard Speight Jr.) of the building near where the manifestations had occurred, who reveals that he is the trickster. The hunters attack him and Dean apparently kills him, but it is later revealed that the trickster faked his death.

Episodes 16

“Roadkill”

As Molly McNamara (Tricia Helfer) and her husband David McNamara drive along a highway, a man suddenly appears in the road. They crash in an attempt to avoid him, and Molly later wakes up alone in the car. The man reappears and chases after her, but Molly flags down a car driven by the Winchesters. She tries to show them the wreck, but the car has disappeared. While driving to the police, they are again confronted by the man, but Dean drives through him, causing the ghost to dissipate. The brothers reveal that the spirit was Jonah Greeley (Winston Rekert), who died on that roadway fifteen years earlier and now kills drivers on the anniversary of his death. The trio locates Greeley’s home, digs up his corpse, and burns the body. The Winchesters explain to Molly that she died in the same car accident that killed Greeley but was reliving the same night since her death fifteen years prior. She accepts the truth and moves on.

Episodes 17

“Heart”

The brothers investigate werewolf attacks in San Francisco, California, and meet Madison (Emmanuelle Vaugier), the secretary of the latest victim. After speaking to her, they suspect that her ex-boyfriend Kurt is the werewolf. Dean searches for him while Sam protects Madison. Madison transforms into a werewolf and sneaks out; she attempts to kill Kurt, but Dean arrives to find Kurt dead and chases Madison away. The next day, the brothers deduce that she had been infected during an apparent mugging the previous month. According to werewolf lore, a werewolf will return to normal if his or her “sire” dies. Dean is able to kill the sire, who is revealed to be Madison’s neighbor. When she does not change the next night, they believe the curse has been lifted. Sam and Madison have sex the following night, but she transforms once again and flees. Not wanting to live as a monster and with no known cure, Madison convinces a distraught Sam to kill her.

Episodes 18

“Hollywood Babylon”

When a stagehand is killed by a spirit on the set of a horror film, Sam and Dean head to Los Angeles to investigate. They speak with the actress that witnessed the phenomena, whom Dean is a personal fan of and later had sex with. They then learn that it was only a publicity stunt, but a studio executive (Gary Cole) soon dies at the hands of a ghostly woman—a young actress who committed suicide in the 1930s after being seduced and then fired by a studio executive. Though the brothers salt and burn her remains, another producer is killed. Sam then notices that the Latin used in the film’s script is an actual summoning ritual. The writer, Martin Flagg (Michael B. Silver), tells them that the rituals are from the original script written by production assistant Walter Dixon (Benjamin Ratner). They confront Walter, who admits that he has been summoning spirits to get revenge against the people he believes ruined his script. He destroys the talisman used in the rituals, but the now free spirits kill him for what he did.

Episodes 19

“Folsom Prison Blues”

Following a tip from their father’s marine buddy, Deacon, Sam, and Dean deliberately get themselves arrested in Arkansas to investigate murders in a recently reopened cell block. FBI Agent Henriksen arrives and attempts to extradite them. Their public defender, Mara Daniels (Bridget Ann White), believes that they may have been falsely accused of many crimes, but says that they can only stall extradition for a week. The spirit of a nurse attacks Dean in the infirmary, and she kills another prisoner. Research reveals that it is Nurse Glockner, who used to kill infirmary patients and was later killed in a riot. She kills anyone who has committed a crime, regardless of how minor it is. Dean convinces Mara to locate where Glockner was buried, and the brothers decide to follow their escape plan. After getting into a fight with one another, they are taken away by a guard (Garwin Sanford)—Deacon, who helps them escape. The brothers dig up Glockner’s body and then salt and burn her remains.

Episodes 20

“What Is and What Should Never Be”

Dean is attacked by a djinn, and finds himself in a world in which his mother had never been killed by Azazel. He and Sam were not brought up as hunters, and thus are no longer close. Dean enjoys his new life but a ghostly young woman seems to be haunting him. When he realizes that all the people that he and Sam had saved as hunters are now dead, he decides that he must give up his newfound happiness to save them. Though Sam does not believe him, he accompanies his brother to the djinn’s lair. There Dean discovers that the young woman he has been seeing is a victim of the creature. Noticing that she is alive but hallucinating —a way for the djinn to keep its victims captive while it feeds off their blood —Dean realizes that he, too, is within an illusory world. Dean kills himself in the dream, waking himself in the real world where Sam rescues him. Sam and Dean battle the djinn and Dean kills it. They discover the other victim is still alive and take her to the hospital where she is expected to recover.

Episodes 21

“All Hell Breaks Loose (Part 1)”

Sam is abducted by Azazel and taken to an abandoned town. Also placed there are Azazel’s other psychic children—Andy Gallagher and Ava Wilson, as well as newcomers Lily (Jessica Harmon) and Jake Talley (Aldis Hodge). Dean and Bobby head to the Roadhouse discover it burned to the ground with the body of Ash buried in the wreckage. Andy uses his mind-control abilities to send Dean his location telepathically. Sam is visited in a dream by Azazel, who explains that he has brought them together so they could fight to the death, with the sole survivor becoming the leader of his army of demons. Ava uses a new demon-controlling ability and forces an Acheri demon to kill Lily and Andy. She reveals to Sam that she has been in the town since she went missing, killing off other psychic children that Azazel has sent there. She sets the Acheri demon on him, but Jake uses his superhuman strength to break her neck, causing the demon to flee. Jake attacks Sam as Azazel but Sam knocks him unconscious. As Sam is distracted by an arriving Dean and Bobby, Jake regains consciousness and fatally stabs him.

Episodes 22

“All Hell Breaks Loose (Part 2)”

Dean, devastated by Sam’s death, sells his soul to a Crossroads Demon (Ona Grauer) in exchange for Sam’s resurrection and is given only one year before collection is due. Ellen arrives at Bobby’s home and gives them a map of Wyoming that Ash had left in the Roadhouse’s safe. Research reveals that Samuel Colt—creator of the Colt gun—created a giant devil’s trap using railway lines. At the trap’s center is an old cowboy cemetery, which Azazel forces Jake to go to. The hunters are there to meet him, but Jake uses the Colt as a key to open a mausoleum. Sam then shoots Jake. As the mausoleum doors open, they realize that it is a Devil’s Gate —a doorway to Hell. A rush of demons escape and break the iron railway lines of the devil’s trap, allowing Azazel to enter. As Ellen and Bobby try to close the gateway, Sam and Dean take the Colt to confront Azazel. The demon surprises them and takes the gun. Azazel prepares to kill them, but the spirit of John Winchester grabs him. This distraction allows Dean to take back the Colt and fatally shoot the demon in the heart. As Bobby and Ellen close the gates, John’s spirit moves on. Sam also promises to find a way to save Dean after he admits to him about his deal.