Recap of Supernatural
Season 1, Episode 9:
Home
Oh, you boys grew up handsome. [to Dean] And you were one goofy-looking kid, too.
Dean: All right. I've been cruisin' some websites and I think I found some candidates for our next gig. A fishing trawler found off the coast of Cali, its crew vanished. And, uh, we got some cattle mutilations in west Texas. Hey! Am I boring you with this hunting-evil stuff?
Sam: No, I'm listening. Keep going.
Dean: And here, a Sacramento man shot himself in the head. Three times. Any of these things blowin' up your skirt, pal?
Written by Eric Kripke.
Directed by Ken Girotti.
Airdate: November 15, 2005.
Sam has a vision of their old home in Lawrence, Kansas
, and Sam and Dean return to find restless spirits are haunting their childhood home.
Sam has a nightmare about something attacking an innocent family in the Winchester's old family home in Lawrence, Kansas. They investigate and enlist the help of a psychic medium and friend of their father, Missouri Mosely, to defeat what turns out to be a poltergeist. When Sam's premonition starts to come true and the brothers are unable to defeat the poltergeist, the ghost of their mother Mary appears and sacrifices herself to save her sons. Once the brothers leave town, it's revealed that their father John was there the whole time, keeping an eye on Sam and Dean with Missouri's help.
Body count:
For this episode = 2 ghosts. This is the first episode of the series where no humans die.For the series so far = At least 113 humans; 7 ghosts; 1 shapeshifter; 1 wendigo.
Tropes appearing in this episode:
- Awful Truth: Missouri tells her clients what they want to hear instead of the truth.Missouri: All right, there. Don’t you worry 'bout a thing. Your wife is crazy about you. [The man thanks her and she closes the door behind him] Whew. Poor bastard. His woman is cold-bangin' the gardener.Dean: Why didn't you tell him?Missouri: People don't come here for the truth. They come for good news.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Dean tries to bluff his way into the house, but is interrupted when Sam opts for honesty instead.
- Big Bad: The unnamed poltergeist haunting the old Winchester home.
- Complexity Addiction: Dean initially attempts to treat the return to their old house as another case, to the point of starting to introduce himself by one of his various aliases, but Sam simply introduces himself and Dean to Jenny by their real names and explains that they used to live in that house, prompting Jenny to agree to let them in.
- Continuity Nod: We again hear John Winchester's voicemail, first heard in "Phantom Traveler" (S01, E04), when Dean calls his father after they return to Lawrence.John's voicemail: This is John Winchester. I can't be reached. If this is an emergency, call my son Dean. 866-907-3235. He can help.
- Cymbal-Banging Monkey: One laughs while the plumber gets his arm chopped up in the garbage disposal.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The scary, burning apparition in Sairie's closet is Mary Winchester's benevolent spirit.
- Deader than Dead: Mary Winchester.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Implied by John Winchester in the last scene.
- Dirty Mind-Reading: Implied with Missouri's powers.
- Disappeared Dad:Dean: Dad? I know I've left you messages before. I don't even know if you get 'em. But I'm with Sam. And we're in Lawrence. And there's somethin' in our old house. I don't know if it's the thing that killed Mom or not, but...I don't know what to do. So, whatever you're doin', if you could get here. Please. I need your help, Dad.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Sam.
- Electromagnetic Ghosts: Flickering lights and EMF.Missouri Moseley: That an EMF?Dean: Yeah.Missouri Moseley: Amateur.
- Everybody Lives: Well, the ghost of Mary Winchester was already dead...
- Everything Is Trying to Kill You
- Evil Tainted the Place: What came out of Mary Winchester's wound when Azazel sliced her stomach was a poltergeist, and Mary cancelled it out.
- Eye of Newt: Missouri uses Angelica Root, Van Van oil, crossroad dirt, a few other odds and ends.
- Fortune Teller:Dean: Don't know? You're supposed to be a psychic, right?Missouri Moseley: Boy, you see me sawin' some bony tramp in half? You think I'm a magician? I may be able to read thoughts and sense energies in a room, but I can't just pull facts out of thin air.
- Guardian Entity: Mary Winchester.
- Hand in the Hole: The sink repair scene.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Mary sacrifices herself to save her children.
- Magical Negro: Missouri.
- Meaningful Echo: "Take your brother outside as fast as you can."
- Poltergeist: The evil, invisible spirit in the house. It mangled Joe the plumber's hand inside a garbage disposal, trapped Richie inside a refrigerator with juice, trapped Jenny in her own bedroom, and used household objects as weapons to attack Missouri, Sam and Dean.
- Sassy Black Woman: Missouri. Her bullying Dean is one of the high points of the episode.Missouri Moseley: Boy, you put your foot on my coffee table, I'm gonna whack you with a spoon.Dean: I didn't do anything.Missouri Moseley: Well, you were thinking about it.
- Shout-Out:
- Dean references The Shining:Dean: First you tell me that you've got the Shining, and then you tell me that I've gotta go back home?
- The plumber is named Joe, which may be a reference to The Beyond, which included a character named Joe the Plumber.
- Dean compares Missouri to the psychic in Poltergeist.Dean: Missouri did her whole Zelda Rubenstein thing, the house should be clean, it should be over.
- Dean references The Shining:
- Sinister Scraping Sound: The scratching noises, which Jenny thinks are from rats.
- Sniff Sniff Nom: Dean tastes the herbs and other substances that Missouri had combined to cleanse the house.
- The Reveal: John is still alive and watching his children.
- Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: Sairie believes there is something in her closet. Her mother assures Sairie there is nothing there, but it turns out Sairie is correct.
- Wham Episode
- Wreathed in Flames: Mary Winchester right before she manifested into her human self.
